If it be all for naught

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Meditation:
    If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
    —1 Corinthians 15:13,14 (NIV)
Quotation:
If it be all for naught, for nothingness
At last, why does God make the world so fair?
Why spill this golden splendor out across
The western hills, and light the silver lamp
Of eve? Why give me eyes to see, and soul
To love so strong and deep? Then, with a pang
This brightness stabs me through, and wakes within
Rebellious voice to cry against all death?
Why set this hunger for eternity
To gnaw my heartstrings through, if death ends all?
If death ends all, then evil must be good,
Wrong must be right, and beauty ugliness.
God is a Judas who betrays His Son,
And with a kiss, damns all the world to hell,—
If Christ rose not again.
    ... Anonymous, Unknown soldier, killed in World War I, included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 205 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:13-17; John 11:25-26; Acts 17:31; Rom. 4:24-25; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Pet. 1:3-5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You vindicate Your creation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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