raised up?" Take the answer which God gives you by the mouth of His Son, and the pen of His apostle, "That which

quickened except it die."

thou sowest is not

He has given to the

mute earth a voice, and made it preach to you the truth of the text. He has opened to you another book, in addition to the lively oracles of His Word, in which you may read written in letters of light, that man shall rise again. You have faith in the natural seed time and harvest; you commit your seed to the earth in confident hope that that same earth will give it back to you again in a rich crop of golden corn. You have never yet been disappointed of your hope. And shall not He who has power to revive the corn-seed, have power to quicken your mortal body, and cause the grave to give up her dead, "sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption: sown in dishonour, but raised in glory: sown in weakness, but raised in power: sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body?”* O the stars that spangle the heavens above your head are not more numerous than the proofs of a Resurrection at your feet, when you remember that the quickening of each buried seed is a symbol of the quickening of man's

* 1 Cor. xv. 42-44.

mortal body. Your body must die, it must be clothed with loathsomeness and covered with dishonour; ay, so loathsome, so dishonourable shall the now beautiful tabernacle become, that love itself, as she gazes upon it, shall be compelled to bury it out of her sight; but there is wrapped up in that mortal coil the seeds of an endlessly-enduring life, and when "the Lord gives the word," it shall burst forth a regenerated thing,-bright and beautiful with the beamings of Resurrection.

In the text we have three several points brought before us; the certainty of Christ's Death, the certainty of Christ's Resurrection, and the consequent certainty of the Resurrection of His people: for "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Let us consider these topics of discourse in their order, and may the blessed Spirit, the purchase of the blood, and the gift of the risen life of Jesus, be in our midst, and apply them to our hearts for comfort and for edification.

I. Our first point is the certainty of Christ's death. On this we need not dwell at length, for the sad circumstances of it are yet fresh in our recollection, nay, they are almost as present

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to our mind's eye, as if we had been the actual witnesses of them, and had eighteen hundred years ago trod the streets of Jerusalem, and followed in the train of the mad tumultuous assemblage, as it rushed through the opened gates of the city, and swept wildly over the plain that led to the hill of Calvary. O we cannot yet have forgotten the sad scenes of shame and suffering. The conflict in the garden, the posture of agony, the brow of blood, and the anguish of the thrice-reiterated prayer, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt," the hurry and confusion of the betrayal, "Thinkest thou

that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?"— then the violent seizure by an armed band, who hurry Him away first to Annas, and from Annas to Caiaphas, and from Caiaphas to Pilate, and from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back to Pilate again ;-then the mock ceremonial of a trial, His doom having been long before determined on, and the still more

* Matt. xxvi. 39. † xxvi. 53, 54.

heartless mockery of a crucifixion, the purple robe, the crown of thorns, the sceptre of reed, the kneeling before Him in derisive homage, the greeting Him with the scornful salutation, "Hail, King of the Jews!" while one blindfolds and another buffets Him, then the stripping Him of the insignia of royalty, and throwing around Him His own mean garments, and dragging Him away amid the hootings of the rabble throng to the hill of crucifixion, there, but stay! the heart sickens over the humiliating scene, and the feelings shudder and shrink back from a further view of the appalling picture. O is it possible that human nature can be so fallen, so degraded? Yes, Brethren, and the saddest thought of all is, that you and I possess no better nature than was possessed by Jew and Pharisee, and Herod and Pilate, and that had we been in Jerusalem, on that miserable morn, we might, but for the grace of God, have joined with the mad multitude in mocking and murdering our Lord. O let this thought humble us to the dust, let it lead us to search and sift our hearts, as to whether we are really partakers of that grace which alone makes one man to differ from another.

But why, it may be asked, recall to our

To endear

It is the

minds these scenes of suffering? to you, Beloved, the after-glory. remembered gloom and horrors of the prisonhouse which make the light of liberty so inexpressibly sweet. And Jesus Himself would have us remember them. Cherish ever, He says, the remembrance of my death. Though all else should fade from your mind, maintain a firm, believing grasp of this. It is the rock of your faith; it is the anchor of your hope; it is the key-stone on which the whole arch of Scripture rests. Take away this, and the whole fabric of truth totters to the ground.

My death is the secret of your life. My cross is the seal of your crown. Bind this truth about your neck. Wear it stamped indelibly on your brow. Lay it up in the deep of your heart, to be brought forth day by day, as the miser brings forth his hoard, and feasted on for the food and refreshment of

your soul. My agony in the garden, my torture on the cross, and all the suffering that went before, the trial-scene, the scourging, the taunting, the buffeting, my denial by one friend, my betrayal by another, my desertion by all, and above all, that great and exceeding bitter cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"-let your right hand forget her