awfulness of that presence which always seemed first to inspire fear, then to challenge adoration, it was only for an instant. Whatever were the reasons in the mental attitude or special circumstances of Mary calling for the prohibition, 'Touch Me not,' these reasons did not exist in their case; for they came' without hindrance, 'and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him!' II. The salutation of the risen Saviour to this company. Mary was the first individual who saw Christ; this was the first company. It was an advanced detachment of the Church, going forward to meet her Lord. What was Christ's first word of greeting to His people? Our English New Testament tells us, both in the Old and in the Revised Versions, that He said, 'All hail!' But, literally, His one word was xaipeтe, that is, 'Rejoice!' The Greek word, in its imperative, as here, was afterwards only used three times in all the Bible; 1 it was thus used by Paul in addressing the Thessalonians, 'Rejoice evermore.' It was thus used by him in addressing the Philippians, 'Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice.' It was thus used by Peter, in addressing the Church in general, 'Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when His glory shall 1 1 Thess. v. 16; Phil. iv. 4; 1 Pet. iv. 13. be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.' In each instance, I think, both writer and reader would remember the history and feel the significance of the imperative word 'Rejoice.' To them it was a sacred word; it had in it the echo of the joyful sound which the risen Lord sent flying through all Christian time from that opening moment. It was His first word to the first representatives of His Church, and the keynote of Christianity. The early Christians really seemed to take it as His word of command. When Hebrew traditionalism was binding grievous burdens upon men, and all the rest of the world seemed to be dying of sated self-indulgence, hopeless fatalism, or stoical philosophy-they rejoiced. Never was outward life so trying, never was inward life so full of joy. Joy irradiated the souls of martyrs; joy lived in the catacombs ; 1 joy inspired them because because their thoughts 1 'There the evergreen leaf protests in sculptured silence that the winter of the grave cannot touch the saintly soul; the blossoming branch speaks of vernal suns beyond the snows of this chill world; the Good Shepherd shows from His benign looks that the mortal way, so terrible to nature, had become to those Christians as the meadow path between the grassy slopes and beside the still waters.'-Martineau, Hours of Thought, p. 155. This passage is quoted by Canon Farrar in The Early Days of Christianity. habitually dwelt on the joy-inspiring fact that He who once died for His people now lives for them. Their joy shone like a brilliant, sunlit pinnacle, visible over the vast reaches of time, because under the pinnacle was a solid building, under the building a solid foundation, and the foundation was this solid fact. Like one of them, let each one of us learn to say with all his heart, Christ is in me,-Christ is risen! Christ is mine,--Christ is risen—is at the right hand of God, and all things are under His feet! Christ died for me,-Christ is risen! Christ wrestled with death for me, and for a brief space of time He was in the prison of the grave, as death's captive,-but now, Christ is risen! Christ is the Head, we are the members, -Christ is risen! And because He lives, we shall live also, and where He is in glory, we soon shall be; then shall we know, as they did, that the risen and glorified life of Christ is the foundation of all joy, and no word will seem to us to be such a quickening word in season as Christ's first word spoken to His people after His resurrection-the word 'Rejoice!' It is a word in season to Christians who have sombre fancies about the nature of Christianity. How came such fancies into existence? How did what has been called 'a holy melancholy' come to be an accepted ideal of the Christian religion-an ideal which artists delight to picture and poets to celebrate? Why did even our dear George Herbert sing Not Solomon's sea of glass or world of stone What can there be in the Gospel to cloud our sunshine, to frost our flowers of gladness, or to make a deep moaning in our music? Is it true that there is a prevailing sadness in Christian literature, and that, as Augustus Schlegel says, 'While the poetry of the ancients is the poetry of enjoyment, the poetry of the moderns is that of unsatisfied desire'? If this be true in even the smallest measure in real Christians, why is it? Only because they fail to place due emphasis on, or to feel due interest in, the resurrection of their Lord. It is a word for Christians who are crushed under the sorrows of life; brows burning with care, eyes sad as death, lips quivering with broken sighs, looks as of those who have exhausted all the agony of creation-these ought not to be long seen in the Church of Christ. Through the power of the resurrection, all things, whether joyful or sorrowful, have become new. Sorrow is not yet banished from our life, but by virtue of Christ's life for us even sorrow has a blessed function. Sorrow is here, but sorrow is now only the name of a process which has joy for its result. Though grief may be the soil of grace, gladness is its flower. Through trouble we travel to rest. In this earth, which is only the road to heaven, there are many rough, miry, and stony places, but what can you expect from a road? Think of your Forerunner, and 'Rejoice.' It is a word to inspirit workers. I want you to laugh the laugh, not of the frivolous, but of the happy. Ours is a glad religion, and I want you to be glad. I want you to rejoice for the sake of the world, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of your Saviour, for the sake of your own being; but more especially will I say just now, for the sake of that work of yours which has reference to human good and Divine glory. In grace, as in nature, the rule is that a happy child is a better child than an unhappy one. A soul full of joy sings better, preaches better, prays better, gives better, serves better. Of course, you are most effective in doing what you most delight to do. You may slight a truism like this, but just because, while it is important, it is a truism, you all the more need to have it hammered on to your attention. This is why I say look to your risen Saviour, and rejoice, in order that you may work better. It is a word for Christians who are in trouble at the thought of the grave. You sit in your lamplit room and think mournfully of a certain grave out in the wet night, where sleeps the dust |
