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the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Such expressions as these, used by the apostles, they thought justified them in saying that the resurrection, so far as man was concerned, was only a new spiritual life imparted through their Saviour's death and resurrection; and this they said was past already in all who believed on His name.

They received the fact, that Christ had triumphed over death by rising from the grave. In this He had proved His own power and divinity, but they could not see that it proved anything for them beyond the fact, that their Master yet lived, that the Strong One was on their side. They thought that their connexion with it was merely spiritual; that it only symbolized the new life, which every one who confessed Him was to experience in this world. Therefore they taught, that the resurrection of Christians was past already. Narrow were the views those men entertained of Christ and His work. They saw not that He came to destroy death entirely. That is, not only to renew in man's soul a principle of holiness, whereby he may serve God here below, but also to justify him entirely, by freeing him in his whole nature from every mark of sin. They saw not the full meaning of those great contrasts: "The first man, Adam, made us all subject to death. The second man, Christ, redeemed us from the power of the grave." Looking at man as a composite of body and soul, a state of death is plainly one of deficiency. Death never could have existed but for sin. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." This violent parting of soul and body, which we naturally dread so much, would not have been entailed upon us if we had kept our first estate. In communion with God, we should not have dreaded the passage from this world to a higher and more glorious one. The body celestial, the spiritual body that St. Paul here speaks of, would have been got in some other way. We should not have been sown in corruption, in order to be raised in incorruption, sown in dishonour and weakness, in order to be raised in glory and

power. But for sin, there would have been no dishonour or corruption in us; there would have been no death. Think of Enoch and Elijah, how they were translated without parting with the body! The body as well as the soul comes from the hand of the pure and holy One. He is the Creator of both, and He saw them both that they were good. In these bodies of ours there is no inherent evil; did not Christ show us this? Did not He live holy, harmless, undefiled in this body of ours? He showed us what we were made for, body and soul. There was no law of sin in His members. He needed not to cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Brethren, the dominion of evil in us is our own act. It is of ourselves that we lie under the curse of sin. The end of God in our creation was, that we might be holy as Christ was holy; perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. Had we fulfilled this end no dishonour would have assailed us. Our bodies would not have been subjected to the deep humiliation of the tomb. But, blessed be God, Christ hath risen from the dead, that this humiliation might not remain, that our whole nature might be restored, our bodies as well as our spirits.

No one can doubt the resurrection of the body without doubting at the same time the real humanity of Christ. He cannot be the true representative of mankind if we cannot follow Him through all the different stages of His manifestation This is plainly the conclu

as a man.

sion of Paul. In his answer to those who said, that all men had to look for was the resurrection of the soul from sin, he tells them that Christ actually brought His body from the grave; that after His resurrection He appeared in His entire humanity, which many brethren could attest; that he was seen of the twelve apostles, after that he was seen by above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part being alive might be inquired at. "Now," he reasons, "this could not be if dead men rise not with their bodies; for Christ was a dead man. He made himself so; He entered so completely into our state; He made Himself

so truly one with us, that whatever befel Him in life or death may befal us." This is clearly the force of the apostle's reasoning on this subject, as laid down in the chapter from which our text is taken. To understand the work of Christ in its relation to us, we must bear in mind that there is a complete conformity of His nature with our nature, of His manhood with our manhood. When He took upon Him the body of Mary's son He took on Him our whole nature in its root and essence. There is no understanding of the apostle's argument without having this truth deep rooted in the mind. Without it, we shall find ourselves always putting the Redeemer at a distance from us. In reference to the resurrection we shall be apt to reason thus: Christ the Son of God was different from all other men; He may have arisen as a declaration to the universe, that "though found in fashion as a man" He was yet very different from men, and far above them; it does not, therefore, follow, that because He rose we shall rise also. To avoid this darkness, we must bear in mind that He had given up all advantage over us, that He had come down to man's estate, and as man lived and died, and rose and revived.

Nothing more need be said to make our connexion with Christ plain, and show us the deep meaning of those words of His, spoken for the comfort of the anxious heart" Because I live, ye shall live also." There is a union between Christ and His people, close, vital, and federal -a union which no distance of time can affect, and which no power can ever alter. "What shall separate us from the love of Christ?" When He died who is our head, we might be said to die; when He arose, we arose also. What was done by Him was done not for himself but for us. He did not arise from the dead as a private individual, but as the head and representative of mankind. Hence, therefore, it is said to the race of man, "Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead."

If any one should say that it is impossible our dead bodies should rise again, then the resurrection of Christ himself is plainly denied. But if Christ be not risen there is no redemption for us, no justification; as the apostle declares, “we are yet in our sins, and they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." What comfort have we in the death of Christ without His resurrection? There is no proof in His death that He paid the penalty incurred by mankind on account of sin; the proof lies in His resurrection. By it the eternal Father declared that the law was satisfied; that death, the penalty of sin, was borne to its full extent; that he who had the power of it was conquered in his own stronghold. While, therefore, the words of inspiration tell us in one place, that "God set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood," and all our redemption is ascribed to His death; "Blessed be His name," it says, in another place, "He was raised again for our justification." In death itself we can never rejoice, we can never be in love with it-no, not even with our Saviour's. It is in the destruction of death that we rejoice. The death of our Saviour in itself is not a theme in which we can delight, but only that death which was conquered by His resurrection.

The body that "was made sin " for us He resigned to its penalty; the frail humanity that on account of sin was subject to weariness, and pain, and death, He delivered up to all these miseries. He submitted to die; for such was the sentence of offended law. For a time His body lay in the tomb, and His soul dwelt in the abode of the departed, but it was not for death to triumph over Him. Good is stronger than evil. The Good One could not be holden by the Evil One. "His soul was not left in the habitations of the dead, neither was the Holy One suffered to see corruption." He rose from the tomb, He triumphed over death, He conquered the grave.

We say He did all this, for it was of himself that He rose. Other men had been raised from the dead before this scene at Golgotha, but of none of them

could it be said he rose of himself; they were all raised by a power external to themselves. Christ alone had power to lay down His life and take it up again. A Lazarus had come forth from the grave, but he had not the life in himself by which he did so, and he came forth only to return again. Christ's resurrection tells us another tale. His body sprang out of the earth transformed and glorified-a spiritual body. Remember how it could accompany His spirit wherever He wished, how it could appear and vanish, how it went through doors closed and barred, how it ascended up into heaven before the admiring gaze of men! Wondrous change! but oh! mystery of mysteries, it is but the type of our change! Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?

The apostle, in a former part of this chapter, having proved to the Corinthians, from the very nature of Christ's manifestation itself, that a belief in the resurrection is inseparable from the Christian faith, takes up some questions that may arise in men's doubting hearts regarding it. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come ?" Thou fool, the seed sown in the earth yields a beauteous flower and a ripened ear; doubt not that God can make thy buried body produce a glorified body. "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him." Christ's body sprang in beauty and glory out of the earth where it had been sown like a seed. It sprang a spiritual body, a body with which He could appear and vanish. It was as different from the buried one as the flower is from the seed, yet it was the same body still, even to the print of the nails and the wound of the spear. Who can describe the body with which the dead shall arise? Yet who need doubtfully ask, "With what body do they come?" Oh, what a glorious victory Christ has achieved for us! May we not all join in the apostle's song of triumph, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?" Yes, beloved, we may all join in it; and this

is what we proposed in the second place to shew. "Christ has conquered death for every man." The victory He gained over the grave He gained not for himself, but for us, we have only to believe to rejoice in it. We inherit death from Adam, but life from Jesus Christ. The last is our birthright as well as the first, for by Jesus Christ we have a right to the tree of life. Every child of man born into the world is Christ's child,-His by creation, His by purchase. True, it belongs to a race who sold their original birthright for a mess of pottage,-who, for the gratification of self, renounced their allegiance to their Creator-cast from them their title as His children. But, in the fulness of His love, that Creator bought them back the title, and a reconciled Father loves to call them children. Ah! that little one, born with the nature Christ redeemed by His sufferings and deaththat little one may live to deny the Lord that bought it, and take its portion in the second death! But this alters not the fact that it rightfully belongs to Christ. Oh, that it may claim its eternal inheritance in Him! Woe be to the parent who shall not tell it to do so! Who shall not by his own life declare that men are bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ! "The Son of God died for our sins, and rose again for our justification;" but what avails it if we believe not? What avails it if we put away the purchased glory from us? Without Christ in the soul the sting of death remains. Brethren, it is only on behalf of believers that death is spoiled of his sting, and yet I say again that all of us may join in the apostle's song, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?" The necessity of faith puts no barrier between us and that eternal life which the risen Saviour has purchased for men. What is believing, but just taking God at His word, when He says, "My Son died for your sins, and rose again for your justification?"

Surely God knows what was required to magnify His law and make it honourable. Now His Word declares that Christ did all that was required. "God is just while He justifies the ungodly." Christ

has consulted all His attributes and reconciled them all. God's justice suffers not, when He pardons to the uttermost all that come unto Him in Christ. Oh, sons and daughters of men, think of this! There is nothing required of you. A free pardon is offered you. You have only to reach out the hand of faith and accept the gift. You have not to wait till you get what you call repentance. That is an after work,-it follows from receiving the pardon. The principal ingredient in repentance is humiliation, from feeling the infinite love against which you have sinned. Oh, bring not your own work before Christ's work! Begin not by thinking that you must do somethingthat you must repent. Begin as the Gospel begins, by declaring you are saved, saved not by works, but independently of works, nay, before works. Not till you begin thus will you fall down and adore God; not till then will you pour out your whole heart and soul to God. Not till then will you use the words of the text: "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Thus do we see that we may all join in the sentiment of the text, and not till we all join in it heart and soul does Christ get His due. Let no man be afraid lest our obligation to "work the works of righteousness" is lessened by this doctrine of free and sovereign grace. It would be easy to shew that it is increased tenfold,-that the law becomes the delight of the soul as the law of a Father.

Sin makes death utterly fearful, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God we are not under the law, but under grace. Christ has removed the law as a principle of government. He who is the author and witness of the law has changed our rule of life from obedience to himself, to faith dependent on himself. The law being destroyed, sin and death are destroyed, and we need have no more fear. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." All our guilt was laid upon Him, and by His

death He bore it away. Thanks be unto God that," through death, Christ Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered men, who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." He has not only destroyed death, but also him that had the power of death,—the great deceiver, who gave death all its terrors. What need of terror now? Henceforth, when Satan seeks to frighten us with the pale face of death, we can say that we know what it is,-that though it was entailed at first as a consequence of sin, yet, since Christ has died, it is changed into a memorial of God's love, a pledge of His fellowship, a witness that He has reconciled us to himself and made us one with Him. Well may the Christian exult, "O death, where is thy sting?" Thou art not now fearful. Thou dost but call to mind that new and living way which is opened to the presence of Him who gave His Son to die for me.

Sin was long death's sting. Sin and death-these are twin sisters, who were always together till Christ died. But when Christ, who knew no sin, walked through the dark valley of the shadow of death, then, indeed, were these two divided. Death was there, but her sister, sin, was not; death was there, but she was in company with the Holy One.

Consider, O man! what Christ endured to separate sin and death, and ask yourself if He could have done more to gain your confidence and love. Oh! it is a great mystery, God manifest in the flesh! The second person of the Godhead coming down into a world of sin, and sanctifying it anew; sanctifying its pains, its miseries, and its death, by making them His own. Oh! holy and loving Saviour, what must it have been for thee to surround thyself with all our sins, and miseries, and death, and feel them as thine own! Think of it, oh man! for whom He travails in pain! It was not only on the cross He suffered; before that He cried, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Ah! we may fancy, but we can never realize the pang from which that cry

came forth!

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We may well believe that, in that terrible moment of agony, the Son of God felt all that men, since first they sinned, have felt of the hidings of God's countenance, and the risings of giant despair. Oh, wonder of wonders! He made himself to have no comfort, He felt not that He was God,-He looked upon himself as sin! Oh, how completely did He sympathize with us! He looked upon himself as the sinner of all sinners, as the sufferer of all sufferers. Gathering into His own self all our sorrows and our griefs, our tears and our terrors, He felt them as His own. Oh! who but God was sufficient for this? Who but God could sympathize so deeply? That He might fulfil completely the old prophecy, Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," His all-searching eye goes round the world's wide circle, and looks in every heart for wailings and for woes; He calls from the four winds, and from all the generations of men, into one conscious and infinite pang, the sins and sufferings of the world. They gather around Him in numbers that no man can number, the sorrows and sighs, the weepings and wants, the terrors and trials, of every age and every clime. His eye is on every death-bed, and on every battle-field, and on every scaffold where a creature dies; His ear is in every dark dungeon where a victim pines, and in every hungry home, and in every bleeding heart. Here is a misery for the loving, the tender Jesus. What wonder that He cries, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death!" Now, just because Jesus could feel all this, He was able to offer

up the full and conscious sacrifice that took away the sin of the world. When He bore all our sufferings, all our sorrows, and all our deaths, did He not bear the full vengeance of offended law? Henceforth may all men say, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

To us, brethren, if we believe, is given this glorious victory-all the blessings of the Redeemer's death-all the glories of the Redeemer's resurrection. If we believe not, woe be unto us. By virtue of Christ's resurrection, we must arise; such is its effect on all, believers and unbelievers. But what have unbelievers done? They have turned the unspeakable blessing of the resurrection into an endless curse. Oh! let us remember, that if we continue in sin, our mind will be different from Christ's mind, and so we shall have no fellowship with Him. We shall not be beyond His power. God hath given all things into His hand. "He hath the keys of hell and of death." We shall not be beyond His power, but we will have no fellowship with Him. No fellowship with the Good One-fellowship only with the Evil One; with him who is selfishness, hatred, malice, cruelty, revenge-with him, for ever!

Oh! let us remember this, and live as remembering it, that, by firm faith, we may join ourselves to Christ Jesus, "who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification," that when the time of our departure comes, we may look on death with thankfulness and hope, and not with terror and despair.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN RIGHT THOUGHTS OF GOD. "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

As underlying all Christian education, and as essential to the formation of all right habits, parents ought to cultivate in their children's hearts right thoughts of God.

If the sum and substance of religion is

to "love the Lord our God with heart, and soul, and strength," this affection should be directed towards God from the earliest years in which it is possible to possess it.

A child's heart may reach heaven, and

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