The Open Grave
By Charles H. Stalker
Message Delivered at Leicester, Easter Sunday Morning, April 20th, 1919
"He is not here, for he is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."
This was the time of the greatest disappointment that ever Came to man. There had been expectation and anticipation, there had been burden and there had been blessing, and after the tension and the strain, they Came to the grave and found it was empty. It was the greatest disappointment they had ever had.
We find that God has a plan and a purpose, and He carries it out. This is the only open grave that everyone has had an interest in There are family graves, and there are graves that a community is interested in, but this grave was of interest to all. There has never been a grave like it, and there never will be. There has never been a grave with which so much is connected.
We must remember that it required the same faith to follow Jesus then as it does now, all His followers expressed the same faith. A great many people think it was child's play to follow Him and hear His messages when He walked on this earth, but it took the same faith then to leave father, mother, sisters, and brothers. There are some who think they had an easy time of it, but it meant just as much sacrifice and faith as it does today. I believe that the strain was intense, especially/ after He was taken from the cross to the grave, an His followers must have felt lonesome. They came early to the grave. It shows how eager they were, and what an interest they had. And when they came, these were the words that they heard, "He is not here, He is risen." "You need not take our word, come and see where the Lord lay." They came expecting a closed grave, they Came expecting the soldiers, the seal, and the stone, and to hear this announcement made was a real disappointment to them. He had told them before, He had warned them, but the words had a different meaning now.
We come to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone of Christianity, and that is the resurrection. Thank God, He is risen, and He lives again.
Now the devil had done his supreme work in the burial of the Son of God. He had placed the stone there, and the seal, and the soldiers, but God raised Him from the dead. After the devil had done his worst, and fixed everything up, God can use His little finger and thwart the plan of the devil and produce Holiness. You cannot smother Holiness, you cannot bury Holiness, it will crawl out on the other side of the grave and sing
"Is not this the land of Beulah,
Where the sun is always bright?"
You can put it in a closed place, but it will come out; you can put a heavy stone upon it, but this movement will go on. Let the people who are looking on see the dust that you cause to fly up in the road as you move on with God.
Now, I can see another thing in this message. They did not receive what they expected, but they got what they needed. They got the message of the resurrection, and that is the message of new life. That is the message that has to be carried to this lost world. When a man or woman is saved from sin and filled with the Holy Ghost, all they have to do is to take this resurrection message to this world. This message brings vitality, reality, and victory. You can take it to the ends of the earth. That is your opportunity and the responsibility is resting upon you at this hour.
They expected a closed grave, but it was open, it is the only open grave there is in the world. Every other grave is covered, and covered by law, but this is open. That is of special significance. If it had been closed, there would have been no hope for humanity, there would have been no comfort in the hour of death, there would have been no message from the Bible, there would have been no sermon for the preacher, and no Holy Ghost for the believer. But it is open, thank God! Let us walk carefully this morning, that we might see what there is for lost humanity. I believe that God will show us something that we can carry and that we can tell. I believe we can leave this meeting this morning with a message that is worth living for and dying for. Until you are willing to die for it, it has no power, no purpose, and no plan.
The thought of God in living is one thing, but the message that I have in my hand this morning was brought by the martyrs' death and by the sacrifice of people who have seen more with their eyes closed, and have heard more than the people of this world. It is useless for you to start in to see how you feel, start in with your life and for life, to live with this message and die with this message. You can give your life voluntarily. The law compelled men to go and fight, you have to pay your tax, you have to do many things, but God never compels a man to do anything.
The sweetest sacrifice that God or man has looked upon has been given willingly and gladly without any reservation. It was given because people had a vision, and because they saw Calvary.
Once in a while I have wished I could compel people, when I have seen the possibilities that lie before them, but after all the sweetest part of it is that the red road of martyrdom has been trodden willingly and gladly by holy men and women. There has been no bondage, no iron shackles, and it stands today, after twenty centuries of opposition from hell's artillery. Give yourself willingly and gladly, and your reward is sure. There is nothing touches me like the life that has been abandoned to the Holy Ghost, and there is nothing that is so precious in the eyes of God.
After dealing with the people of all classes and color and all climes, I have a real conviction that few abandon themselves to the Holy Ghost entirely and eternally, when they do, they scarcely ever lose their experience. I do not say it is an impossibility. This emotional and mental conception of Holiness is damnable, but the heart reality and the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire is the divine preparation for a life of sacrifice and service. If you are going in with any other motive, you had better turn back at once. Make your choice. Very few people touch the supernatural, and unless some of you here this morning get a vision, there is something up the road that you will not be ready to meet. In this atmosphere of faith and prayer you can have something from heaven that will defeat all hell and spread Holiness. Thank God, He is able to do it.
I was down in Central America, and we had some meetings in a tabernacle. I do not know how it was made, but much had been done there and God had greatly blessed. After the morning meeting, I went to a tree and gathered some bananas and had my lunch. When I had finished, a man and woman came to me and asked if I would go with them, and I consented. We walked along, passed the colored meeting house -- they were praying and singing in there. We went on down the road and into a field. Away over the field there was some barbed wire round a little plot of ground, and there was a stone that had been white-washed and placed at the head. This is the story
Their little girl had died a few weeks before out in that lonely spot. They nailed some rough boards together and the man took the silk lining out of his hat and made a little pillow for the head. They took a little clean dress and placed it on the dead child and then they placed a smooth box lid over it and nailed it down. They took that little precious one out in the field and dug with their own hands a little hole in the ground and deposited that rough box to wait for the resurrection morning. Why could they do that? The father says he is willing to lie on that side and the mother says she is willing to lie on this side when her work is done. Why could they do that? Why could they close that grave in that informal way? Because of that Open grave. There was not a regret, there was nothing but a tear to stray down the face with a smile on the top of it. No wonder the angels stand on tip toe and look down to see what God has put in the heart of fallen humanity. If His grave had been closed they would have had no hope, but it is open and they had perfect confidence and a living hope.
You can talk about other things and you can offer your arguments, but you could not stand in a place like that without feeling that nothing but the supernatural could have produced that faith. The message that we have this morning is not a local one, it is for the world and the world is dying for it. It will be lost for ever if it does not get it. What is there in life unless you take life to others? What is there in a selfish life? There is simply nothing in it.
I was in China and spoke to some missionaries on Sunday morning. The next day one of them came to me. He had been in China for a number of years and he said he had been saved and knew he was a child of God, but he did not have what I had been speaking about the day before. I told him that was no sign that he could not have it if he would pay the price. He said, "Let us take a walk." and so we walked out into the cemetery. They never dig graves in China, they make the mounds on the top of the ground. We walked round until we came to rather a large mound and we knelt down. He said, "I felt yesterday that I must have the Holy Ghost, and I want Him now." He had taken a medical course, graduated with high honors, had been very successful in his work, had a burden for the lost, but had never received the Holy Ghost. He knelt by that dead Chinaman's grave and received the Holy Ghost. When he and his wife came back to our home, he said that the step he took in receiving the Holy Ghost had meant more to him than all he had ever done before. God had wonderfully blessed and used him.
Now you can carry a burden until that burden carries you. He had a greater burden than ever after he received the Holy Ghost, and just spent his life out there. We had a cable the other day. He had gone out and had been so burdened and had had such poor food that his strength was gone. He had slipped off to heaven and to rest. There is a grave out there not far from where he received the Holy Ghost.
While I was praying this morning the Holy Ghost gave me an inspiration and I believe I will see that grave. Others may not be willing to go, but I must. The vision of a lost world staggers and stuns me. I have enjoyed this tenderness and this worship, these touches are heavenly, holy, and inspiring, but, beloved, we cannot stay to enjoy ourselves. We cannot stop with our friends always. The Holy Ghost wants somebody this morning to step out with Him and never have a grave in England. I believe there are people here this morning who will never have their friends to attend their funeral if they follow the Holy Ghost. We have little two-by-four plans, and we are expecting to have a funeral and go to heaven, but before we consider getting to heaven let us consider carrying this message to a lost world. Before we consider our funeral let us consider our farewell; before we consider enjoying ourselves let us consider the honor of taking this message to the people who have never heard it, and our funeral will be all right.
When I was back of the plow the Holy Ghost came and He said, "If you will honor me I will take care of you." I have hardly thought of going to heaven since. I have never thought of my funeral since. Heaven is all right, but there is something bigger than a mansion, and that is to have people rise up and call you blessed when you enter the pearly gates. Let the Holy Ghost come in and plan for you, He is faithful.
