NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
13 
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PROGRESSIVE RESSURRECTION 
TEXT: 
“God, who is rich in mercy. for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us togeth- 
er with Christ,—and hath raised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Fesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeeding 
riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Fesus. 
? 
—Ephesians 2:4-7. 
Easter sermon by Rev. Louis H. Ruge, at Congregational Church, Manchester 
In the joy of this Easter service 
and Easter hope, let there be no un- 
thinking enthusiasm. There are 
those that insist on reasons for the 
faith that is in us; therefore let us 
have a rational basis on which to 
build the thought of the subject. 
In consideration for those that 
demand the up-to-date that I pur- 
posely depart from the order of 
mere homileties and extract but one 
of the great thoughts that my text 
contains,—progressive resurrection 
What a wonderful story is the life 
study of Jesus Christ! 
The world itself contains a won- 
derful story. The tale of its struc- 
tural creation in space,—the form- 
ing and fashioning of it in the 
heavens without hands,—its founda- 
tions laid without seeing a single 
builder about the work, as if you 
should see a great structure erected 
without a soul or a sound attending 
its building,—every detail from the 
foundation to the artistic finish 
flashing into being by unseen work- 
man,—what a dramatic glory to the 
tale! Order appeared out of chaos. 
Isles and continents and mountain 
ranges arose from watery wastes. 
Vast seas sought their level. Vege- 
tation and living creatures came to 
glorify the earth. All this wondrous 
story goes on with an unseen crea- 
tor behind the work. But there is 
no more wondrous story than the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Crea- 
tion tells but the story of man’s 
coming and going, but the gospel 
tells the story of his eternal exist- 
ence. 
The story of the resurrection is 
the story of a resurrected world. 
The time between the crucifixion 
and the resurrection was the dark- 
est in the history of the race. The 
hope of humanity, that ‘‘sat in the 
darkness and shadow of death,’’ had 
received, with Christ, its death 
blow. Henceforth the race could 
produce no greater, sublimer soul. 
Lf he: fails everything fails. For, 
think a moment,—have even the 
Christian ages of a redeemed world 
produced a greater soul? Then 
what was the fate of an unredeemed 
world? Has any vitalizing or re- 
generating flower been born of the 
old order of things since Christ’s 
day? Then what would be man’s 
condition today had the old order 
of things continued as they were 
and getting worse? 
The last gasp of Jesus Christ on 
the cross was the last gasp of a 
world. The fatal plague of sin had 
done its work. From the court of 
kings to the hovel of the slave, from 
philosopher to savage, from temple 
to idolatrous shrine, the world’s life 
was finished. For three days, not 
only the fate of Jesus, but the fate 
of mankind hung in the balanee. 
The world had built its hopes on 
mere philosophy and mental culture. 
It had drifted to its doom on that 
rotten spar and had gone down to 
death. You, who talk mere philoso- 
phy and mental science as_ the 
power of salvation and life, are 
academic and science is not in you. 
You forget that the world talked 
that way throughout untold ages be- 
fore Christ came; until at last they 
stopped talking that way and had 
abandoned themselves to despair 
and death. When you talk philoso- 
phy and science today, be sure that 
it is Jesus Christ’s philosophy and 
science, for that only is the hfe of 
the world. 
There was only one possible hope 
for Jesus Christ to demonstrate his 
divine power by getting up out of 
that tomb. 
Had Christ’s body remained in 
that tomb to perish, there would 
have been no Christianity to preach; 
there would have been no chureh to 
hear: there would have been no 
Paul the apostle of a risen Christ; 
there would have been no hope to 
inspire the world; there never would 
have been a Christian era, nor a 
Christian civilization and a world 
progress. 
The resurrection of Jesus was also 
the resurrection of the race. The 
angel, that rolled the stone from the 
tomb of Jesus, rolled the stone from 
the tomb of a world’s despair and 
death. 
Easter morn built the moral 
structure of the world anew and put 
new foundations under a_ world’s 
faith. 
Haster is a new point of view for 
the world. It gives a new interpre- 
tation to all life’s affairs. It is the 
new solvent of lfe’s mysteries. It 
is the new standard of existence. 
Easter is a new and never-ending 
world-wide program of progress. 
The creative energy of the Almighty 
is now implanted anew in the more 
abundant life of Jesus Christ. 
The vitality of the Christian ages, 
to the great throbbing activities of 
modern times, is the pulse-beat of a 
world’s resurrection. <All the great 
revolutions and progress of the na- 
tions are the result of regenerated 
life. 
Never was the soul of man so 
living and alert as today. The 
resurrection is not over, its glory is 
all around us. It is perpetuated un- 
to every generation in ever inecreas- 
ing power. The miracle is not his- 
toric of the past alone, nor prohetic 
of the future alone, it is a’ present 
fact. Angels this morning are roll- 
ing stones from world tombs, hoary 
with antiquity. Old world empires 
today behold the glory and feel the 
power of a resurrection. Seores of 
statesmen in Japan and China are 
quoted today as declaring that the 
superiority and power and progress 
of the western world must be as- 
eribed to Christianity. 
Progressive politics, progressive 
laws, progressive nations, progres- 
sive thought,—all are mere details 
of the progressive resurrection of 
mankind. Everywhere a_ strange 
pulsation and power quickens the 
race to the farthest corners of the 
earth, until this miracle of a world’s 
progressive resurrection is the won- 
der of all ages. 
And the greatest wonders of 
Christian civilization and progress 
are not yet come, but coming. When 
the life of Christ shall permeate 
every soul on earth, this will be a 
resurrected world. 
If through man’s invention he ean 
produce pure white paper from fil- 
thy rags, I believe Christ will take 
these vile, sinful bodies and loose 
them from the bonds of disease and 
