May 19

Easter Day

Now is Christ risen. 1 Corinthians 15:20.

THIS is the day of days, the royal day, the Lord's day. This is the day on which Christ arose from the dead; the day which brought us salvation. It is a day which has made us greater than we know. It is our day of rest, the true Sabbath. Christ entered into His rest, and so do we. It brings us, in figure, through the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham's bosom. We have had enough of weariness, and dreariness, and listlessness, and sorrow, and remorse. We have had enough of this troublesome world. We have had enough of its noise and din. Noise is its best music. But now there is stillness; and it is a stillness that speaks. We know how strange the feeling is of perfect silence after continued sound. Such is our blessedness now. Calm and serene days have begun; and Christ is heard in them, and His still small voice, because the world speaks not. Let us but put off the world, and we put on Christ. The receding from one is an approach to the other. We have now, for some weeks, been trying, through His grace, to unclothe ourselves of earth by wants and desires. May that unclothing be unto us a clothing upon of things invisible and imperishable! May we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, season after season, year after year, till He takes to Himself, first one, then another, in the order He thinks fit, to be separated from each other for a little while, to be united together for ever, in the kingdom of His Father and our Father, His God and our God!

Jesus Christ is risen to-day, Alleluia!