O our dear and blessed Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ, how can we love thee, how can we thank and praise thee enough, when we read of all thou hast suffered for our sakes! O make our hearts feel more love for thee, and more grief for our own sins, when we think of what thou didst suffer that we might be saved. We thank thee, 0 heavenly Father, that thou didst so love this world, as to send thy Son to obey, and suffer, and die for sinners. pray thee to wash away all our sins in his precious blood, and to give us thy Holy Spirit to make our hearts new, that we may be thy dear believing children. We thank thee for the blessed words, it is finished. Make us understand them better, and let all our trust be in the finished work of our Saviour. Hear us for his sake. Amen.

We

The Resurrection of Christ.

NEXT day was the Sabbath, and Ellen and Harry did not come to read with their mamma till after church. She said, "I am glad our lesson for to-day has come to be on our Sabbath. What is this day to keep us in mind of?"

Ellen replied, "God rested on the Sabbath, after he had made the world." "How long was God in making the world?"

"Six days, mamma."

Yes, and he rested on the seventh day, and told Adam that was always to be a day of holy rest. But since Jesus died, all believers in him, all Christians, keep the Sabbath not on the last day of the week, but on the first. Do you

know why?"

"Because Jesus rose from the dead

on that day."

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"And so the Sabbath now is in memory of two things, God creating the world, and the rising of our Lord from the dead. It is delightful to think that though he submitted to die, and to be laid in the grave, death and the grave could not keep him under their power. He soon rose in glory, and therefore we are sure that his people shall also rise in glory and blessedness. There is a very beautiful chapter about this, the 15th of 1st Corinthians, which you must read when you are a little older. Now look at this picture of the women at the sepulchre, and the beautiful angel speaking to them."

O, how pretty! What does the angel mean by pointing up with his hand?"

"He means that Jesus is not there, but has risen from the grave. Do you

know where he was buried?"

"We shall read of this in Matthew," "When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathæa, named

Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: he went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre."Matthew xxvii. 57-61.

"Joseph's tomb was one he had made for himself, a kind of cave cut out of the rock, and we are told by John that it was in a garden. People in that country, who could afford it, liked to have tombs of their own, away from others, and Joseph was a rich man. It was very bold of him to ask the body of Jesus from the Governor. And who do you think was with him? Read here."

"And there came also Nicodemus, (which at the first came to Jesus by night,) and brought a mixture of myrrh

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and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”—John xix. 39, 40.

Oh, mamma, was that Nicodemus who was so afraid to come to Jesus at first?"

"Just him, my dear; you see how he had believed what Jesus told him, and what a bold disciple he was now.'

"What were the spices for, mamma?" "It was the custom in the East, when any honourable person died, to embalm the body; that is, to bury it with strong spices, which would keep it from going to decay soon. The people of Egypt were famous for knowing how to do this well. Do you not remember papa reading to us about the mummies of Egypt, which were found almost whole after thousands of years?"

"Oh yes, and uncle said he had seen one."

"Well, we often read in the Bible of kings and great men being buried in