Article April 20, 1957 Issue

"THIS GLAD EASTER MORNING"

ELSIE J. PERRY

At this vernal season when nature awakens from its long winter repose and adorns the earth with bud and blossom, when birds greet the day with joyous songs and the sun mounts higher into the heavens, a sense of renewal takes possession of thought. Springtide calls one forth from the darkness and obscurity of winter's reign into the brightness and warmth of sunlit days. Such resurgence, with all its beauty of unfolding leaf and bud, gladdens the heart. It directs thought to the fadeless and perennial nature of God's universe, of which at present mankind beholds only the symbols, lovely as they may even now appear.

This recurring wonder of nature coincides in the Northern Hemisphere with the commemoration by Christians of the resurrection of their Lord and Saviour and his great triumph over death. Exulting in songs of praise, they revere his mighty achievement and delight in recalling his hallowed life of service to humanity. Not all Christians, however, construe the momentous happening on that first Easter morning as an example which can be followed by all men. They regard it as an isolated instance of God's power in operation for Christ Jesus alone, or they believe that Jesus' sacrificial act was of itself efficacious in redeeming the world from error. Yet Paul averred (I Cor. 15:26), "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," implying that it is possible for all who attain the spiritual altitude of the great Teacher to relinquish the belief in death and to vanquish what is so generally accepted as inevitable.

Jesus did make a great sacrifice, but he claimed no personal merit for his deed. In submitting to this experience, he was fully obedient to his Father's behest, completing the work assigned him by God. His sacrifice, of itself, would have evoked the world's admiration for his unselfishness, patience, and fortitude; but it would have availed little in benefiting humanity unless it had demonstrated to the world the fact that God is the life of man and that the spiritual idea, or expression of God, cannot be destroyed.

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