before God? then come and clothe yourself in it at the foot of the cross. Jesus has purchased it for you this day at a costly price-the price of His own most precious blood. Then acknowledge Him with humble gratitude for blessings which a million worlds could not have purchased. And is there any one present who still rejects the offers of mercy through the cross? Is there any one here who still despises the Saviour who bore our sins in His own body? Is there any one present who still remains an enemy to such a loving Friend? O graceless being, how will you escape the judg ment of God! What think you, have you most to fear, the frowns of an offended justice, or the pleadings of a rejected love? Beware in time, forsake your sins, seek the Saviour, and obtain His grace.

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Easter-day.

MORNING SERVICE.-Second Lesson: Romans vi.

Verse 9.-" Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him."

THE resurrection of Christ is the grand pivot on which turns the whole scheme of our redemption. It is the most important article of our belief; because it is the very foundation of our faith and hope. St. Paul argues: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins." "Then they also which are fallen asleep in Jesus are perished." "But now is Christ risen from the dead," and in him "shall all be made alive." If you will look into your Prayer-book (as doubtless you have already done) you will perceive that the Church marks this day by three distinguished anthems taken from the writings of St. Paul. The first anthem tempers present joy by recalling past sorrow, in order that whilst we rejoice and "keep the feast" we may never forget that our sins shed the blood of Christ, our Passover. The angel of death spares us by striking Him.

The second anthem celebrates the Messiah's victory over death, and joyfully declares that His warfare is for ever accomplished. Christ dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.

The third anthem declares that if, by God's grace, we walk in newness of life, we may rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not only as thereby we know that the price of our redemption was accepted by the Father, but also that the Redeemer's resurrection is an earnest of our own. "Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."

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When Christ was laid in the grave, great was the triumph of His enemies; great the dejection and consternation of His friends. The sorrowful disciples had fondly hoped "that it would have been he which should have redeemed Israel." But now their hopes were buried in the tomb. How great then must have been their surprise and joy when Jesus actually arose and appeared amongst them. Greater still must have been their joy when the light gradually shone into their minds, and they became convinced that "Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more;" that "death hath no more dominion over him." Let us attend briefly (I.) To the fact; and (II.) To the result of Christ's resurrection

I. The fact of Christ's resurrection. Christ being raised from the dead."

"Knowing that

We need, I trust, produce no proofs to persuade anyone present of this fact. Still it is well not to lose sight of this great bulwark of our faith, and it is well to keep in prominent prospectus the reasons for the hope that is in us.

The resurrection of Christ was predicted, and typified some hundreds of years before it took place. In the sixteenth Psalm and tenth verse we have this remarkable prophecy : "My flesh also shall rest in hope; for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter tells us that David did not speak thus of himself: "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." soul and body were to be separated by His death and were to be disposed of in that place which was respectively appointed for them; but neither long to continue there. The body not

His

to be retained in the grave, the soul not to be left in hell, but both to meet, and being reunited to rise again.

Further back we have a type of Christ's resurrection in the case of Joseph, who was ordained to save his brethren from death, although they would have slain him. His being in the dungeon typified Christ's lying in the tomb; his being taken out from thence represented Christ's resurrection; as his exaltation to the power of Egypt next to Pharaoh signifies the session of Christ at the right hand of the Father.

Further back still, Isaac was sacrificed in Abraham's intention, and yet lived, to show that Christ should truly die, and truly rise again. Thus the resurrection of Christ was foretold in prophecies, and represented in types. Our Saviour Himself frequently intimated to His disciples that He should rise again from the dead. He told the Jews expressly: "Destroy this temple," meaning His body, "and in three days I will raise it up again." And on another occasion He said, “There shall no sign be given to this generation but the sign of the prophet Jonas, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." It is evident from the Scriptures, that "thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day." Indeed our Lord rested the whole of His Divine mission on this event. To this He referred the whole credibility of what He asserted. It was therefore of infinite consequence to the disciples that their Master should revive and forsake the tomb. Accordingly, to establish their faith, and reanimate their hope, He did arise the third day according to the Scriptures. Who can describe the disciples' feelings when they saw their Lord in the hands of His enemies? He was bound, tried, condemned, executed, and laid in the prison of the grave. There was much ignorance and unbelief remaining among them on the subject. They had not wholly got rid of the foolish idea of a temporal kingdom, but their expectations of this kind were entirely baffled. They might have had many distressing apprehensions of their own personal safety. In short they

supposed stranger on the

were perplexed and distressed beyond measure. They had misunderstood what Christ had said about rising again, and were desponding as to the event. "Besides all this," said the two sorrowing disciples to the way to Emmaus, "to-day is the third day since these things were done." Great, therefore, was their astonishment when they were first informed of His resurrection. Mary Magdalene and some other pious women were the first witnesses of the fact. They ran to inform Peter and John, who immediately hastened to the spot; they found the tomb open and the graveclothes left in it, but saw not Jesus. Peter afterwards saw Him; the news quickly spread among them; and though they were slow of heart to believe, they were constrained to admit the fact; He appeared to all the disciples and to five hundred brethren at once. They could make no mistake as to His identity; they knew Him well; He had been their constant companion for three years, they had eaten with Him, they had drunk with Him, they had conversed with Him. It was He Himself that said to doubting Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." It is on the testimony of those infallible witnesses that we are assured of the resurrection of our Saviour. This certainty to us is of the utmost consequence. This great pillar bears the whole weight of the Christian religion. They stand or fall together. Should the Samson of infidelity remove it, the whole fabric would fall to the ground. We would be "of all men the most miserable." Our present existence would be a blank, our future existence would be a hell. But we entertain no fear on this head; the grand truth comes to us confirmed by ten thousand infallible proofs on which our faith securely rests. "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead."

He "dieth no

II. The result of Christ's resurrection. more; death hath no more dominion over him." No, he could no longer hold Him within his dominion than was