HERALDS OF GOD
ing than that which shines from the empty tomb of Jesus. But I do beseech you to let men see the Easter hope destroying not only the fear of death, but every other fear besides, and very specially the fear of the principalities and powers and wicked forces that corrupt human nature and fill the earth with ruin. I beg you to swing the Resurrection light not only over the dim shadows of the narrow grave, but over the thick darkness of the whole wide world. For the Resurrection was, and is, the sign of God's unshakable determination to make Christ Lord of all. The concentrated might of arrogant iniquity is puny and pathetic and impotent against the power that took Jesus out of the grave, This was the conviction which at the first launched Christianity like a thunderbolt upon the world, and made its ambassadors superbly fearless. This is the certainty which burns undimmed in every truly Christian heart to-day. The power which went into action in the raising again of Jesus will never, through the darkest of dark ages, fail nor be discouraged: one day it will resurrect the world. "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
But there is a further fact which makes the high calling of the preacher of the Resurrection immeasurably thrilling and momentous, and it is this. Christ, being raised from the dead, is an abiding presence for ever; and you, the preachers of the Resurrection, are not only the heralds of a historic event, but also the mediators of a living presence. This is no exaggerated cliché of a nebulous mysticism: it is a strictly accurate,
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