eternity. No illusion can deceive us here. Fixed upon the rock of ages, the evidence of fact is before our eyes. We can stand by the tomb of Christ with his faithful disciples on the third day after his crucifixion, and behold the intrepid Roman soldiers tremble, and become as dead men, over the sepulchre which they were watching. They were terrified by the earthquake, and affrighted at the sight of the angel, whose countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.

This testimony is as satisfactory to us, as it was strong to them. It comes with no vision that can terrify or affright us. We have no interest that it should be untrue. No single event takes possession of our minds; there is an accumulation of evidence; every incident relative to the resurrection of Christ, confirming and supporting each other. Each scene of testimony is gradually disclosed; and as it is beautifully and graphically expressed by the apostle, life and immortality are brought to light like the rising of the morning-sun, till the great truth stands revealed before us.

"Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection 1."

1

II. The resurrection of the dead.

No question can be of greater interest to man who knows that he shall die than that of the resurrection of the dead; and no question can come to any man with greater advantage than to a believer of the Gospel, whose mind is previously stored with spiritual instruction, and with an assured confidence that he shall live again. When we sit down to contemplate on this awful subject, which every man should do at his entrance into life, as well as at his departure from it, circumstances of the highest moment must present themselves before him. I will not suppose any one in a Christian country wholly ignorant of a general knowledge of a world to come, nor yet of its expected consequences. But the effect of this knowledge on the present conduct of men, is a different consideration. The posture of the mind is that point which gives direction to the thought; and that, alas! in all men is more or less distorted; of course, less available to immortal happiness, than might reasonably have been hoped for. Reason, perhaps, might make an effort to rectify this imperfection; and doubtless this was the intention of the Almighty in the distribution of this estimable quality. That it fails in an essential part, can only be attributed to the history of human nature in its fallen state; and, if recovered, can only be so under

the grace and favour of him who created us, and by the blessed means which he has himself provided. Man is, indeed, in poetical language, an "archangel ruined 1." But God has not left himself without witness in our hearts. Fallen as we are, we still feel an impulse to regain our better state; and we are taught to pray that the Lord may prevent us in all our doings with his most gracious favour, and further us with his continual help, that finally by his mercy we may obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We cannot sit down to think without a desire of improving the moral condition of our hearts. This is something gained. A little further inquiry, and we find a considerable accession of light entering our understanding. We cherish our new knowledge, but we yet hardly know that to make that light effectual to the benefit of the soul, it must be a light reflected from above. The wisest of men must continue ignorant, if he confines his observations to mere worldly occurrences. It has been my lot to live in an age of great discoveries; and improvements in sciences and mechanical arts are certainly astonishing. But I have also lived to see that a man may increase in worldly wisdom, while he degrades in spiritual understanding. The rapid progress of art, arising from an exertion of the human mind, is favourable to the best interests of man, I should hope, in more than a worldly sense;

because by it the use of the faculty of reason is better understood. But if we improve not also in the essential qualities of true religion, we shall never be wise unto salvation.

These reflections will not be thought inconsistent with our present subject, as the resurrection of the dead connects this world with that which is to come; and as we see the infant mind gradually expanding from the mere atoms of imagination, if I may so say, to all the wisdom which the world affords, we may rationally argue that the regions of eternity will open all the treasures of an improving spirit to the soul admitted into the glorious society of redeemed men and holy angels, in the ineffable presence of the Creator and Redeemer of us all.

A resurrection, then, from a state of death to one of life and immortality, is that one concern in which we are all engaged. Here there can be no delusion, "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten'." Thus ends the record of human life. But what? Is this the end of man? Man, born with celestial endowments! Man, springing upwards in every fine faculty of the soul! Man, the image of his Maker! Here, then, pause; and seek for evidence that will cheer away the gloom, and make the man valuable to him

1 Eccles. ix. 4, 5.

self. But here his proud heart must bend, must be emptied of vain-glory and worthless vanity before his eyes can see. He must be humbled before the mighty hand of God. "I am a worm and no man,” even a patriarch could exclaim; and one of our Lord's most ardent apostles acknowledged himself the chief of sinners. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," was man's original condemnation. Yet a remission of the sentence was graciously vouchsafed by the merciful. Judge. The humbled and penitent Christian cannot be detained in doleful regions of sorrow with the Gospel in his hand and in his heart. "The stones," says Job, "are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold'." The grave, indeed, retains golden dust and precious sapphires, when it retains within its grasp the reliques of the righteous; for "the righteous hath hope in his death." The Son of God himself felt the horrors of the tomb; but they were the last horrors which he was doomed to experience. He brake the bonds of death; he rescued the sinner from the grave. He rose triumphant into heaven and bore with him to the throne of the Almighty an innumerable host of happy followers, who cease not in their joyful acclamations to sing, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever 2"

1 Job xxviii. 6.

2 Rev. v. 13,