Streams in the Desert April 27 Daily Devotional

1 am he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore (Rev. 1:18).
Flowers! Easter lilies! speak to me this morning the same dear old lesson of immortality which you have been speaking to so many
sorrowing souls.
Wise old Book! let me read again in your pages of firm assurance that to die is gain.
Poets! recite to me your verses which repeat in every fine the Gospel of eternal life.
Singers! break forth once more into songs of joy; let me hear again the well-known resurrection psalms.
Tree and blossom and bird and sea and sky and wind whisper sound it
afresh, warble it, echo it let it throb and pulsate through every atom and particle; let the air be filled with it
Let it be told and retold and still retold until hope rises to
conviction, and conviction to certitude of knowledge; unto we, like
Paul, even though going to our death, go with triumphant mien, with assured faith, and with serene and shining face.
O sad-faced mourners, who each day are wending Through churchyard paths of cypress and of yew, Leave for today the low graves you are tending,
And lift your eyes to God's eternal blue!
It is no time for bitterness or sadness; Twine Easter lilies, not pale asphodels;
Let your souls thrill to the caress of gladness, And answer the sweet chime of Easter bells.
If Christ were still within the grave's low prison, A captive of the enemy we dread;
If from that moldering cell He had not risen,
Who then could chide the gloomy tears you shed?
If Christ were dead there would be need to sorrow, But He has risen and vanquished death for aye;
Hush, then you sighs, if only till the morrow,
At Easter give you grief a holiday. --May Riley Smith.
A well-known minister was in his study writing an Easter sermon
when the thought gripped him that his Lord was living. He jumped up excitedly and paced the floor repeating to himself, "Why Christ is
alive, His ashes are warm, He is not the great 'I was,' He is the great 'I am.' " He is not only a fact, but a living fact Glorious
truth of Easter Day!
We believe that out of every grave there blooms an Easter My, and in every tomb there sits an angel. We believe in a risen Lord. Turn not your faces to the past that we may worship only at His grave,
but above and within that we may worship the Christ that lives. And because He lives, we shall live also. --Abbott.