1. Family Altar - F.W. Herzberger (1922)
   
   
   

April 4.

1. "And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from

   the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks

   rent; and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints

   which slept, arose." Matt. 27, 51. 52.

   Wonderful and mighty signs accompanied the death of our

   Lord. The veil that hung before the Holy of Holies in the Temple

   at Jerusalem was woven four ringers thick and thirty yards long

   and broad. It hid the mercy-seat from all eyes and perpetually

   proclaimed to the Jews: "Your iniquities have separated between

   you and your GocT." It was death for any one to go behind the

   veil. Only on the great Day of Atonement dared the high priest

   to pass behind its forbidding folds with the blood of the sacrificial

   lamb, which he sprinkled against the mercy-seat for the reconcilia-

   tion of his own sins and the sins of the people. This massive

   veil was suddenly rent from top to bottom when our Lord Jesus

   expired on the cross. The true Lamb of God had now died for

   the sins of the world and won for sinners a free and open access

   to the throne of mercy. Nothing can now separate the reconciled

   children of God from their heavenly Father, neither sin, nor tribu-

   lation, nor even death. For we are told that at the death of the

   Savior an earthquake took place, and the graves were opened, and

   many sleeping saints came back to life. Death is now swallowed

   up in victory through the atoning death of the Prince of Life.

   Now we can triumphantly sing: "0 death, where is thy sting?

   0 grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, who giveth

   us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." In these rising

   saints we behold the glorious first-fruits of our Savior's death-

   conquering sacrifice. Now the dry bones begin to stir and revive

   in the quickening breath of the heavenly Eastertide that hence-

   forth should waft over this land of death and corruption from

   Christ's saving cross.

   
   
    Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
   of triumphant gladness;
   God hath brought forth Israel
   into joy from sadness;
   loosed from Pharaoh's bitter yoke
   Jacob's sons and daughters,
   led them with unmoistened foot
   through the Red Sea waters.