SPRING IS HERE!

Lake County Mail, Issue 13, 20 August 1947, Page 3

SPRING IS HERE!

Once Jesus Christ stood beside a grave and said: “ I am the Resurrection and the Life.” The dead man’s sister thought he, meant something for distant in what is called the Last Day . . but no. Christ used the present tense not the future, “I am,” not “ I will be.?’ To Martha, who did pot understand, it lacked comfort, vand,- we have become so used to associating these words of our Lord’s with funerals that we, like Martha, associate it with the Last Day. , W;hat Christ meant was that Resurrection. and Life were something near at hand, something that might happen now. > August has conic and with it the spring. For so long it lias boon cold and frozen, the ground impossible to dig. no flowers, and the grass does not need cutting, for all seems dead and (-old. '. Then comes the yearly miracle of spring. The sleeping earth wakes to new life, and the old life is raised up, the bulbs which have lain underground for so long begin to shoot up, the buds on the trees begin to break forth. The \vorld Is astir. -The dead are alive again; new life is springing. That is Resurrection —old life revived —and life—new life created. Christ is like that to our souls—Springtime Resurrection and Life. Long ago, at the end of the years wo label E.C.. a heavy dead silence lay on the world. It was winter time of the year —it was also winter time in the souls of men. The old world seemed dead. The old faiths were dead. Once that old world had been a place of happiness, joy, poetry and life, with wonderful art. and wonderful philosophy* But now there was peace ceitainly, but it was the dead calm of a stagnant pooh Tlieii there was the stirring, those who looked forward to the springtime, to the coming of a Saviour, and quietly as spring comes so did Jesus Christ, hut it was the miracle of the Resurrection and the Life. A new world began, new' life sprang up, new hope blossomed forth. Some could not see it for they were blind, blind to all the beauties of. the life of Christ, but many came to see the new life, the new Light springing up. So Christ came'to the world and came to the hearts of men and women. You can read it in .the Gospels. His coining changed men and women of Palestine, pud they took the Light of the Gospel far afield, and brought New Life and Resurrection of Hope to all the world. Fishermen were changed to heroes, sinners to saints. He met a woman by a well and talked with her. His gentle words changed her. The lost good buried by years of evil living, stirred and fought its way up to the light again. New self respect was born. She goes off and tells everybody for she had found Resurrection and Life in Jesus Christ. - Zaecheus the tax-gatherer, after years I of hard and possibly sly business dealings, became a new man. S. Pctei came out boldly for Christ; S. Paul, the persecutor of the Church, became one of the church’s most famous leaders and missionaries. And Jesus Christ still brings Resurrection and Life into the world. Four hundred years ago the world seemed dead,' the church was asleep and content, evil and corrupt. Then a new life sprang up, the old Life of Christ was revived. We call it the Renaiswhich means literally “ rebirth.” Faith'revived,, religion was reborn, the Bible was reopened, a new spirit was abroad. It was God. . God in Jesus Christ, Mossing men with Resurrection and Life. ,

Th.3 message is for us in the prcooO.t day, if we will hear. Yes, It, me ana life and hope for ns. The odd ‘f. aith cpmes to life in us, if wc I«t i% the'new life of Christ can ijpfijsg up in our lives—if we will let it, Christ never forces sun eßtry fcnael*: Are we going to open to

tiie Heavenly Quest, or shut Him out for ever? The choice is there for each of us to mat© —■Resurrection, and Life through Jesus Christ our Lord, OR a soul condemned by its own choice to its own hell—■which is it to be? Philip 0. Williams,