Once upon a time a Persian king was marching westward with a great army
to fight against Greece. In the evening, after the army had encamped for
the night, someone found the king looking over the host of people spread
out before him, and he was in tears. When he was asked the cause of his
sadness, he replied that he had been thinking that one hundred years
from that time not one of all these men in his army would be alive.
That was long before Christ lived, and had risen from the dead on Easter
morning. These people had no Easter. They did not believe in the sort of
everlasting life in which we believe. And even long after the
resurrection of Christ there were many people in Greece and Rome who had
not heard the wonderful news. Here is a letter that someone wrote over a
hundred years after that first Easter to a mother whose son had just
died:
"I was much grieved, and shed as many tears over your son as I did
over my own, and I did everything that was fitting, as so did my
whole family.... But still there is nothing one can do in the face
of such trouble. So I leave you to comfort yourselves. Good-bye."
If these people had known about our Easter they would not have felt so
hopeless and sad. For since Christ has risen from the dead, we know that
all who love Him and try to be like Him shall also rise from the dead,
and be with Him in a life beyond the grave.
He said to His disciples before He was crucified: "In my Father's house
are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will
come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also." When we know this, then to die is not so terrible as it was to
the Persians and Greeks. It is like going to sleep in our home, and
waking up in a place much more beautiful than we had ever dreamed of,
and being with Christ, the Friend of little children, forever. But we
must know Christ in this life if we are to enjoy His friendship in the
next.