To see the human soul take wing… – Sunday, April 18, 1954
In The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron said in the awesome words of a classic couplet:
Oh, God! it is a fearful thing
To see the human soul take wing.
Fearful, yes—but just so surely as we ourselves or our loved ones leave this life, just so surely may we have the assurance of everlasting life—except for which our elaborate observance of Easter would partake somewhat of meaningless motions.
There is only one issue after all at Easter: that the Savior, the Son of God, our Christ and our Redeemer, came forth from the tomb on the third day and redeemed us from death—that the scriptures testify truly—that literally He rose from death to life—that they who knew Him and walked with Him saw what they said they saw.
And to those who have lost loved ones, and to those who face death (which all of us do, sometimes sooner than we suppose), let this day mean what it was meant to mean, with a settled assurance that the Lord God who gave us life did send His Son to redeem us from death—for the little life that here we live (living so long before we really learn to live) would lose much of its meaning except for this assurance of eternal continuance.
So great a work is man, so great a thing the spirit and the mind of man, so cherished are our loved ones, so wonderful the universe, so orderly is all creation, that all point to eternal plan and purpose.
And He who made us in His own image, and sent us into mortality for a glorious purpose, will bring us forth from death to a literal resurrection, and unto everlasting life—as surely as we have seen the seed come forth into full flower as surely as we have seen life come forth by birth.
And with all the evidence there is—the pronouncements of the prophets, the testimony of sacred writ, and with reason itself, with the whispering of the spirit, the certainty of an inborn assurance—we can only commit our course to the certainty of everlasting life and testify of the reality of the resurrection of Him who died for us that we might live; and not for us only but for all others also.
Thus, Easter brings its sweet assurance that our lost loved ones live, and that a loving Father has provided that we may see and know and live again with those we love, always and forever.
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April 18, 1954
Broadcast Number 1,287