1946
"Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory." Luke 24:26. Read Luke 24:24-21, Colossians 3:1-4.
Each Easter confirms anew the faith that time and death are not the lords of life. Jesus the Christ brought life and immortality to light, as the life and immortality were one and indivisible. "He lived every day of His life," someone said, "as though He was to live forever." The vanquished tomb was only the final proof that death had no dominion over him. Therefore, in the light of Easter life Christian faith takes on a new dimension. We, too, may begin to live as if we were to live forever, matching our steps with His.
The Easter bells sound a jubilant and assuring music; love and goodness, are right to endure, forever; comfort will outlast sorrow and the healings of God's mercy for pain and loss are sure. There will be time enough, the Easter revelation assures us, to finish what in our souls is now unfinished and find what in our hopes is still unrealized. Partings are not forever and the wages of virtue "are going on and not to die." That was the pattern of His life Who gives us Easter morning. By the grace of God we may make it ours.
PRAYER — O Thou Who through Thy Son hast turned the shadow of death into the morning, we praise Thee for the everlasting hopes that now rise within our hearts and for the Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light. Receive our thanksgiving, reveal Thy presence and kindle our hearts with the spirit of the Risen Christ. In the Name of the Risen Christ. Amen.
—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, April 21, 1946, p. 4.
Showing posts with label eternal-life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eternal-life. Show all posts
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Living the Life of Self-Surrender
1902
There will come to every manly man times in his life when he will see that there is something which is legitimately his, something which he has a right to, something which nobody can blame him if he takes and enjoys to the fullest, and yet something by whose voluntary and uncompelled surrender he can help his fellow man and aid the work of Christ and make the world better.
Then will come that man's trial. If he fails and cannot make the sacrifice, nobody will blame him; he will simply sink into the great multitude of honorable, respectable, self-indulgent people who take the comfortable things which everybody says they are entitled to, and live their easy life without a question.
But if he is of better stuff, and makes the renunciation of comfort for a higher work, then he goes up and stands humbly, but really, with Jesus Christ. He enters into the other range, that other sort of life where Jesus Christ lived. He is perfectly satisfied with that higher life. He does not envy, he does not grudge, the self-indulgent lives which he has left behind. He does not count up what he has lost; he does not ask whether he is happier or less happy than he would have been if he had kept what everybody said he had a right to keep.
It is not a question of happiness with him at all, but gradually, without his seeking it, he finds that the soul of the happiness which he has left behind him is in him still. Like fountains of sweet water in the sea it rises up and keeps him a living soul. He has left the world's pleasures and its privileges only to draw nearer to its necessities, which are its real life. So what he gave he keeps a thousand fold in this present time, and eternity is still before him, in the end everlasting life. — Phillips Brooks.
There will come to every manly man times in his life when he will see that there is something which is legitimately his, something which he has a right to, something which nobody can blame him if he takes and enjoys to the fullest, and yet something by whose voluntary and uncompelled surrender he can help his fellow man and aid the work of Christ and make the world better.
Then will come that man's trial. If he fails and cannot make the sacrifice, nobody will blame him; he will simply sink into the great multitude of honorable, respectable, self-indulgent people who take the comfortable things which everybody says they are entitled to, and live their easy life without a question.
But if he is of better stuff, and makes the renunciation of comfort for a higher work, then he goes up and stands humbly, but really, with Jesus Christ. He enters into the other range, that other sort of life where Jesus Christ lived. He is perfectly satisfied with that higher life. He does not envy, he does not grudge, the self-indulgent lives which he has left behind. He does not count up what he has lost; he does not ask whether he is happier or less happy than he would have been if he had kept what everybody said he had a right to keep.
It is not a question of happiness with him at all, but gradually, without his seeking it, he finds that the soul of the happiness which he has left behind him is in him still. Like fountains of sweet water in the sea it rises up and keeps him a living soul. He has left the world's pleasures and its privileges only to draw nearer to its necessities, which are its real life. So what he gave he keeps a thousand fold in this present time, and eternity is still before him, in the end everlasting life. — Phillips Brooks.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Eternal Life a Present Possession
1905
By Rev. C. A. Dixon
in the Gospel News Pulpit
Immortality Not Eternal Life
The difference between immortality and eternal life is clearly intimated in these scriptures. Immortality means everlasting existence, but eternal life is not eternal existence. Dead things exist. I can imagine a stone existing a million years, but after the million years have passed it will be as dead as it is now. Corpses exist. Men dead in trespasses and in sins on this side the grave exist, and they will exist after death. One does not begin really to live until he has accepted Christ; but he exists.
Let us accept the definition of eternal life which the Lord Jesus himself gave and this will clear away all misunderstanding. Turn to John 17:3: "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." It is as clear as a sunbeam that eternal life is here defined as knowing God through Jesus Christ. To know God is to live; to refuse to know God is to continue to exist in a state of death.
A Present Possession
Eternal life is a present possession, not a future continuity. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Write the little word "hath" in capital letters, for eternal life is in the present tense. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Immortality was imparted when God created man in his own image. Sin brought death which is separation from God, but it did not bring non-existence. Man continued to exist after he had sinned. To say that the words, "perish," "die," "destruction," mean annihilation is to speak unscripturally and unscientifically. Science knows no annihilation, it simply recognizes changes of form and substance. Death does not bring about annihilation of the body. We keep it several days after death and tenderly lay it away beneath the flowers.
Note: The main text of the sermon was Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is just an excerpt of Rev. Dixon's sermon.
—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 21, 1905, p. 9.
By Rev. C. A. Dixon
in the Gospel News Pulpit
Immortality Not Eternal Life
The difference between immortality and eternal life is clearly intimated in these scriptures. Immortality means everlasting existence, but eternal life is not eternal existence. Dead things exist. I can imagine a stone existing a million years, but after the million years have passed it will be as dead as it is now. Corpses exist. Men dead in trespasses and in sins on this side the grave exist, and they will exist after death. One does not begin really to live until he has accepted Christ; but he exists.
Let us accept the definition of eternal life which the Lord Jesus himself gave and this will clear away all misunderstanding. Turn to John 17:3: "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." It is as clear as a sunbeam that eternal life is here defined as knowing God through Jesus Christ. To know God is to live; to refuse to know God is to continue to exist in a state of death.
A Present Possession
Eternal life is a present possession, not a future continuity. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Write the little word "hath" in capital letters, for eternal life is in the present tense. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Immortality was imparted when God created man in his own image. Sin brought death which is separation from God, but it did not bring non-existence. Man continued to exist after he had sinned. To say that the words, "perish," "die," "destruction," mean annihilation is to speak unscripturally and unscientifically. Science knows no annihilation, it simply recognizes changes of form and substance. Death does not bring about annihilation of the body. We keep it several days after death and tenderly lay it away beneath the flowers.
Note: The main text of the sermon was Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is just an excerpt of Rev. Dixon's sermon.
—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 21, 1905, p. 9.
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