which they maliciously brought against it, could not prevent it.

In addition to this, there is the exact fulfilment of the prophecies. One from the mouth of the Psalmist, many hundred years before Christ came upon earth: 66 Thou

wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption."*

In addition to this, His own word concerning Himself was fully accomplished. Behold," said He, to His twelve disciples, "we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles; and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death; and the third day he shall rise again."+

All this was most literally fulfilled; on the third day He did rise again, and so perfected our redemption; by His death destroying death, in taking away its sting; and by His rising again, depriving the grave of its victory.

The fact, then, of our blessed Lord's resurrection, stands clearly proved by the confession of the Roman soldiers themselves, who were the appointed guard of the tomb. The + Luke, xviii. 31–33.

*Psalm xvi. 10.

strict discipline of the Roman army would never have suffered a Roman guard to have slept upon their post; and unless well supported by the influence of those in power, they would never have dared to confess that the body was taken from the sepulchre, which they were set to watch.

The fact of the resurrection of our Lord was also proved by prophecy fulfilled, and by the actual testimony of many, who saw, conversed with, and handled Him after He was risen from the grave.

The holy and solemn lessons which arise from this great and wonderful power of God, belong to us all; and we, who profess to believe the fact, are each called upon to apply them to ourselves.

The first thing designed hereby, is that we have true faith. St. Paul, speaking of the faith of the patriarch Abraham, saith, that it "was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness."* Now," continues the holy Apostle, "it was not written for his sake, alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."+ We are bound, therefore, firmly to believe,

* Rom. iv. 9.

+ Ver. 23-25.

that, as sin was answered for by the death of Christ, so, when he rose from the grave, our justification in the sight of God was perfected; that unless Christ had died, our sins could not have been forgiven; and that unless Christ had risen again, we could not have been justified and received up into the glory which He is now preparing for His redeemed.

The second use of the doctrine of our Lord's resurrection is, in that it is the only effectual remedy against the fear of death." Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin, once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God."*

Hence we learn that Christ hath conquered death, and" him who hath the power of death, that is the devil." o

1

Death h✩h now no sting for those who live and didy cChrist, through faith in His merits and sufferings, and in obedience to His Gospel. The passage to the other world hath now lost its terrors; and Christ Himself will guide us safe through the gloom of the valley of the shadow of death. This is a consolation which we all greatly need; for one day or other, we shall all go down into the grave, and know, by personal experience, what it is to die.

To die is a debt which we each owe unto God, as the just consequence of sin; and that debt we must all pay.

But there is a wide distinction between death, as it now is to the faithful believer in Jesus Christ, and death, as it would have been, had Christ not died. He hath destroyed the only sting of death, and removed far from us the unutterable horror of dying with unpardoned sin upon the soul; and death, therefore, is not now that enemy which it must have been to every one, if the sting thereof had not been taken away.

To those who truly believe in, and entirely submit themselves to the truth of the Gospel, in a holy faith, and an humble endeavour to understand, and do the will and commandments of God, death is no more than a messenger of peace, to summon thin from the trials of earth, to the blesse, saj of heaven. When our Lord Jesus Ch

grave, He for ever depr

ose from the death of that

dreadful sting with which he can now wound none, save those only who remain in their sins, unrepented of, and unforsaken.

The fear of dying, (however some portion of natural fear may remain through infirmity of the flesh,) is not now to the true Christian the pang which, to the ungodly, goes before "the second death." It is the impenitent only who need fear that foretaste of the final ruin of

body and soul in those dreary regions of the condemned, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

A third consideration arising from the sub ject of this Holy Day's rejoicing is, that through the resurrection of Christ, we have the undoubted pledge of our own resurrec tion. "God," saith the Scripture, “hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by His own power.

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The power of Christ to raise Himself from the grave, shews us a power equal to the great work of raising up us also. If," saith the Holy Apostle, "we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."† Well, then, may we now rejoice through the Almighty Power of Christ; for though we must still "see corruption," which Christ's sacred body could not see; though these earthly bodies of flesh must still return through death, to the dust out of which they were taken, yet is there "a celestial body" to spring from our ashes, which shall perish no more for ever. Christ, who hath raised Himself, will one day raise up us from the grave, and change this mortal to immortality, this corruptible to incorruption.

These are the consolations which Christ's

* 1 Cor. vi. 14. ·

+ Rom. vi. 5.