USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Windsor > East Windsor heritage; two hundred years of church and community history, 1752-1952 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE; WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD AND BURIED; HE DESCENDED INTO HELL
Our Lord suffered and died on Calvary's ghastly tree in order to conquer the forces of darkness and to save us from our sins. His life was a worldly failure and humiliation, fraught with inner agonies over the state of men's souls, yet sus- tained by a supernatural joy and the assurance of an ultimate victory, in which we fallen creatures would be able to partake. The cross of Jesus shows us the extent of man's wickedness and the answering extent of God's love; it should lead us to a godly sorrow for our proud self-centeredness, amendment of life, and a desire to share the burden of our Lord's cross. God the Son has entered into battle with the tyrants who oppress us: sin, death, the Devil, law and wrath; He has taken
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into the alembic of his own Person the guilt, alienation, curse and damnation which were really our own just due, and through a mystical union with this Risen Re- deemer we can share His triumph of New Being; so that in a very real sense, spiritual desolation and death are now behind us instead of being in front of us, and through the victory of our Lord's sacrifice, through His resurrection power, we are already in the antechambers of the Kingdom of God.
As for those who lived on this earth before Christ's coming, after His death He descended into the place of departed spirits in the unseen world, sometimes known as Hades or Hell, to preach to them also the glad news of salvation. The good souls who had died before our Lord's coming had been waiting in twilight realms of unfulfillment, waiting for Someone strong enough to break their bonds, to lead the way and blaze the trail up the heights of heaven. No man before Him had ever been perfect and pure enough that he could enter the dark vale of death, there encounter the sinister powers of spiritual evil and triumph mightily over them, pushing through at last to the country of light and glory, which lies on the far side of that valley of the shadow. No man before Him had ever been perfect and pure enough to go directly into the midst of the Godhead itself. This conquest of the Evil One and his demons of darkness was such a fearsome and impossible task that only God Himself could do it. Through the atoning work of Jesus Christ this has been accomplished. All souls have had or will have their chance to learn the meaning of the cross, that it is a symbol not only of what evil does to man, but also of what it does to God. God in Christ suffers more than disbelief and indignity; He suffers infinite desolation, the pangs of rejection, and the void of non-being. Man continually thrusts aside the divine intention, but God does not abandon concern for His wayward creature: our Lord's extravagant goodness will never let us go.
THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD; HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, AND SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY; FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
In a spiritual body, able to assume physical form, Jesus came forth from the tomb, was seen by the eleven Apostles, over five hundred other disciples and later by Saint Paul, showing them by infallible proofs that He was still alive. By this resurrection from the grave He had destroyed death's power over the human race and restored to His followers the gift of everlasting life. After forty days of teach- ing and strengthening His disciples, He ascended into heaven with His human na- ture, glorified body and soul, where He now shares the unity of the Godhead, ever making intercession for us with the Father, representing man in the counsels of eternity, sending us the gift of His Spirit. He shall come again with authority to judge every nation and every individual, to assign irrevocably the rewards and punishments of all, that His creatures may know at last the eternal justice and mercy of God. For this coming we wait, and in the power of its expectation we live. For, according to Holy Scripture, our Lord will appear a second time, not to deal with the believer's sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting and ready. The second coming of Christ will be in great glory, ushering in the fullness of the Kingdom of God and ending this present eon of world history. His first coming was in secret and is known only by faith; His second coming will be open and seen by all. We see now as in a glass darkly, but when Christ comes again to meet us, we shall see him face to face, for we shall be like Him.
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST; THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
Channels through which we receive the revelation of God's incarnation and of His saving help are the Bible, the Church, the prophetic Word of preaching and the sacraments, and the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit of Christ, 'bestowed upon the disciples at Pentecost, is the Lord and Giver of Life, Who is to be worshipped with the Father and the Son, Whose work is to make men holy and guide His Church. He encourages us from within to choose the things of Christ, renounce our sins and continue unceasingly in prayer to God. By His inward guidance, compared in turn with His actions through the com- munity of Christians, all external claims and injunctions are to be judged: this is the inalienable right, duty and freedom of the Christian man. The presence of the
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Holy Spirit in anyone's life is to be known by the evidential fruits of the Spirit, among which are peace, joy, patience, righteousness and compassion.
The Holy Catholic Church is the society of those forgiven sinners everywhere who inwardly acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Where He is pro- claimed and received in faith, there, and there alone, is the true church. This church is more than a company of believers: it is the mystical body of Christ. Its living bond of unity can be maintained only by God's Word and the witness of His Spirit, not by artificial restrictions imposed from without. Its sacraments of Baptism and Holy Com- munion work through the outward forms of water, bread and wine, which are witnesses to an inward and spiritual grace. They are concomitant with the induc- tion into and the sharing in a free fellowship of Christ's chosen followers. These forms point us toward God, Who in the unfathomable depths of His Wisdom has asked us to receive Him thus. The manner in which He is present in Baptism and Holy Communion is known by Himself, and what He chooses to do and be therein, that should be acceptable without demanding a mystery-dispelling explanation thereof. We are baptized into the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and since we go on dying and rising with Him for the rest of our earthly lives, baptism is in that sense something through which we continue to pass. Infant baptism is a testimony to the interpenetration of all life, for in this sacrament the community repents for the child and receives it into the promise of an ongoing fellowship. The sacrament of Holy Communion is a time of remembrance and of special communication with our saving and strengthening God; it is also a com- munion of the saints, that is, a mutuality of the faithful on earth and in heaven who have participated in our common Christian experience. The whole Church- here and beyond-is the Communion of Saints, or family of holy ones.
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS
Since all men seek the fulfillment of their own self-assertive desires, placing themselves, instead of God, at the center of their little worlds; since the divine image in man is thus corrupted by sin and alienated from the Source of its being; since even the best of human ideals, virtues and good works are a tainted, in- separable mixture of good and evil, every man's life varying in thought, word and deed from the perfect pattern of the Master-we, therefore, are all in dire need of true repentance and a turning of our souls from their inward curvature toward the outward reality of God's judging yet forgiving love. "Our Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." When we come to Christ in repentance and faith, confessing our personal transgres- sions, acknowledging and accepting our share in this world's agelong guilt and anguish, which is the inheritance of every descendant of Adam, then Christ receives us as we are, because He has a great hope for us. Through the fire of His love we know ourselves to be imperfect and unworthy, yet accepted and reconciled.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY; AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING. AMEN.
Whether in life or in death, man is a single indivisible being. A disembodied soul, however immortal, would not be the whole person. Thus, when we say that the Christian hope is the seed of eternal life, we base this hope upon God's ability to raise us from death to life, and not upon a supposedly intrinsic quality of im- perishability in man's soul. We believe in the resurrection of the complete per- sonality clothed in a glorified spiritual body; for Christ "by his death hath destroy- ed death, and by his rising to life again hath restored us to everlasting life." Our Lord has promised us: "Because I live, ye shall live also. In my Father's house are many mansions .... I go to prepare a place for you." This is the prom- ise of Him to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given, and He is a gentleman who keeps His word.
Thanks be to this merciful Saviour, we shall share with Him the beatitude of eternity, serving and praising our God with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven. We shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us, and shall lead us unto living fountains of waters. And there shall be no night there; and we shall need no candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God Himself shall stand before us in the full flaming radiance of His glory: and we shall reign with Him for ever and ever through endless mornings of joy.
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