THE FAMILY ALTAR - F.W. Herzberger

April 9.

"And he saith to them: Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of

Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here. Be-

    The sorrowing women still believed their beloved Master dead

and in His grave when they went out to His burial-place on Easter

Sunday morning to anoint His body. But what must they see

and hear? The stone is rolled away from Christ's hillside grave.

The place where His body lay is empty. 

    A white-stoled messenger from heaven tells them their Lord is risen from the dead and will meet them in Galilee, as He had said unto them. As He had said unto them. Ah, if the disciples had only remembered and firmly believed the reassuring promises their Lord had given them regarding His resurrection after three days, they would not have been the terrified and despairing little flock they were while their Lord rested in the grave. But they had forgotten His sweet assurances, and proved as comfortless as we generally are when death suddenly claims one of our dear ones. But why should our faith

be so weak and shaken in the presence of death and the grave?

    Is not the Savior, in whom we believe, beyond all doubt the

almighty Son of God and sovereign Lord of life and death? Did

He not prove His divine power over death and corruption when

He awoke Lazarus and other sleepers from the last, long sleep?

And did He not keep and perform every saying of His concerning

His sufferings and atoning death on the cross? Does He not

fulfil before our very eyes, even to-day, all His divine prophecies

regarding His Church, the spread of His Gospel, the signs of the

last days? What, then, can be more sure and convincing than

the infallible Word of our God and Savior? What reason have

we to doubt that He did not with divine power and majesty per-

form His word uttered to the Jews (John 2, 19) : "Destroy this

temple," My body, "and in three days I will raise it up"? Oh,

may God's Holy Spirit confirm and seal in our hearts during these

blessed Easter days the soul-reviving, comforting truth of our

Savior's resurrection from the dead !

Jesus, my Redeemer, lives!

I, too, unto life must waken;

Endless joy my Savior gives;

Shall my courage, then, be shaken?

Shall I fear? or could the Head

Rise and leave His members dead?