that He broke the bonds of death, rose again and ascended up 'to heaven to intercede for us with the Father and to prepare a place for us; and that, when we come to die, we shall not go into everlasting darkness, but shall come to Christ and shall be with Him in everlasting blessedness. How can we keep this saying? Can we keep it by giving alms to the poor, or by practicing honesty in our dealings? This we are of course to do, but that is doing something which Moses has commanded, and it is not keeping the word: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1, 7. This saying we can only keep in the same way as we read of Mary, the mother of Jesus: "But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." Luke 2, 51. Christ's saying we can keep in no other way than by keeping it in the heart, by resting our faith, trust and confidence in it. There is the word: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1, 15. That word I can keep in no other way than by believing it, by holding it as a faithful saying. There is the word: "Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2, 2. That word I can keep in no other way than by believing it and rejoicing over it; for it requires nothing of me, it only tells me that Christ is the propitiation for my sins. So it is with the whole Gospel. It can be kept only by receiving it as a word of divine truth, and resting the heart's trust and confidence in it.

How is it that the Lord to so simple a thing as keeping His saying in faith, ascribes this great benefit of never seeing death? It is because Christ will not be separated from His Word. A man may go back on his word, but Christ not. Hold Christ's Word and you have Christ Himself. On this Dr. Luther very appropriately says: "Because the Word proclaims Christ to us, it proclaims unto us Him who overcame death, sin, and the devil. Hence he that grasps and holds it, grasps and holds Christ, and, therefore, obtains through the Word that he is delivered from death forever. Hence it is a Word of life, and

it is certain, whosoever keeps it, shall never see death." Sermon on this text, § 8.

III.

And now, what does the Lord promise to him that keeps His saying? "He shall never see death." And this the Lord affirms with the double affirmation: "Verily, verily, I say unto you." The Lord does not promise that he shall not die, but that he shall not see death. On another occasion He did say: "I am the resurrection, and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," John 11, 25, but there He was speaking of death in a different manner than here, as His words show: "Though he were dead, yet shall he live," live in me. But here the Lord makes a distinction between dying and seeing death. He that keeps Christ's saying shall die, but he shall not see death. Dying and seeing death is not one and the same thing; there is a great difference between them. It is one thing to die, and quite another thing to see death. Death is the separation of soul and body, but seeing death is to see it as death, in all its horridness. To the first we are all subject; we must all die, the Christian as well as the un-Christian; but in the latter, the seeing death, there is no such equality; for he that keeps Christ's saying does not see death in its hideousness. And why not? Especially because of two things. In the first place, he that keeps Christ's saying has in that saying a sure and infallible weapon to ward off those things which make death so awful to man. What are those things? They are: Sin, the curse of the law, and the just judgment of God. These are the things which make death so terrible to sinful man, and against these things the saying of Christ furnishes a sure and effective weapon. If sin would trouble him, he that holds Christ's saying wards it off with the appeal that Christ, the Lamb of God, has taken away his sins. If the law would accuse him, he answers that the Son of God was put under the law to redeem him from the curse of the law. If the judgment of God presents itself, he appeals to the word: "He that believeth on

the Son, is not condemned." John 3, 18. So he that keeps Christ's saying has in that saying a weapon to ward off those things which torment the conscience in death, and which make death so bitter to man.

Another reason, why he that keeps Christ's saying does not see death although he dies is, because by that saying he knows where his soul is journeying to. He that does not keep Christ's saying must, at the very best, die in uncertainty. He has nothing infallible to hold to, no positively reliable guide, and, therefore, does not know where his soul will go, but he is tormented with the evil foreboding that it will not fare well. He that does not keep Christ's saying, that does not believe His promises, may, at the approach of death, say that he must go, but he can nevermore sincerely say that he wants to go; for only with terror can he think of entering upon so uncertain a journey. One not keeping Christ's saying can nevermore uprightly say, as Paul does: "I have a desire to depart." Phil. 1, 23. But he that keeps Christ's saying knows where his soul is going; for he has the Word of the Lord: "Where I am there shall also my servant be." John 12, 26. He that keeps Christ's saying knows, when the hour of death is come, that now he is going to Jesus, the Beloved of his soul, and he anticipates the journey with joy. So the believer overcomes death. He does not see it in all its hideousness, nor taste its pangs in all their sharpness, but holding the Lord's Word and Promise he regards death the entrance into eternal glory. He is like one standing at a river bank, whose eye, riveted by the beauties of the shore beyond, does not see the rushing current of the waters. That this is the death of the believer the Lord solemnly affirms, saying: "Verily, verily, I say unto you.”

Blessed, blessed is every one that keeps the saying of Christ in his heart, so keeps it that it becomes rooted in him and death itself can not uproot it; for verily," he shall never see death." Amen.

V. SUNDAY IN LENT.

SECOND SERMON.

TEXT; Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil, Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. John 8, 52–59.

Abraham, because of his faith and obedience toward God called "the father of the faithful," obtained the promise that he should be "a father of many nations"; for when he once on a time in sadness of heart complained: "I go childless," the Lord answered him: "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. So shall thy seed be." Gen. 15, 5. Numberless as the stars of the firmament the seed of Abraham was to become, and not a letter of this promise has fallen to the ground.

But the seed of Abraham is of four kinds. In the first place, the Seed of Abraham is He in whom Abraham himself and all the families of the earth are blessed: Jesus Christ, who, as concerning the flesh, came from the seed of Abraham. This is that Seed in whom all the promises given to Abraham centred, through whom all the children of Abraham were to become the blessed of the Lord; for of him Paul writes, Galatians 3d, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Jesus Christ is THE Seed of Abraham, the Source and Author of the blessing.

In the second place, the seed of Abraham are his bodily descendants: the Jews, the Ishmaelites and all those nations that descended from the six sons of Keturah, Abraham's second wife. This bodily seed of Abraham is of two kinds: those who are descendants of Abraham, but have not Abraham's faith, the Arabs and the unbelieving Jews; and those who both are descendants of Abraham and have Abraham's faith, the believers of the Old Testament and all Jews who have been converted to Christ.

Finally, Abraham has a seed as the "father of the faithful." "Know ye therefore," says St. Paul, "that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Gal. 3, 7. Christ is the Seed of Abraham, and hence all those are the children of Abraham who believe on Christ and through faith are one with Him. These, the community of saints, are, in the sense of the Scriptures, the true seed of Abraham; for so St. Paul writes: "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Rom. 9, 6. Before God those are not the children of Abraham who have not the faith of Abraham, although they be his bodily descendants; but those are the children of Abraham who walk in the faith in which Abraham walked, although they be descendants of Japhet or Ham. Therefore Christ said to the Jews: "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." John 8, 39. Those only are Abraham's true children who believe on the promised Seed and who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Before God the Jews are no longer the children of Abraham, but a countless multitude of those who are not his bodily descendants, have been adopted the children of Abraham and have come into the inheritance. We of the house of Japhet have become the children of Abraham through faith in the prom