(Rom. viii. 11.) Thus the resurrection of Christ gives stability both to our preaching and your faith. It enables you to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

3. Moreover, the resurrection of Christ affords proof that He will come to be our Judge. If He had remained in the grave, we might well have doubted whether He had satisfied the claims of Divine justice. But now that He has been very greatly abased, He shall be very highly exalted; to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. ii. 10, 11); "because He hath`appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." (Acts xvii. 31.) "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father." (John v. 22, 23.)

4. The resurrection of Christ affords proof that all that our Saviour spake of Himself was true. Did He assert, "I and the Father are one"? Did He say, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John v. 17, 18), making Himself equal with God, and asserting that, together with the Father, He was the Creator and Upholder of all things? Did He call Himself the Bread which came down from heaven (John vi. 35, 41) to give life unto the world, and declare that, as the living Father had sent Him, and He lived by the Father, so he that ate this Bread (John vi. 57), even he should live by Him? Did He say, "Before Abraham was I am" (John viii. 58), and proclaim Himself the Son of God (John x. 36), and 660 pray, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John xvii. 5), and declare, “All mine are thine, and thine are mine"? (John xvii. 10.) His resurrection stamped all these sayings as true; for would God the Father have raised a deceiver and a blasphemer from the grave? Assuredly not. But His resurrection proved all that He had spoken of Himself to be true,

and that He came from God, as He said, and went to God.

5. Finally, the resurrection of Christ is an assurance to us all of our own resurrection to eternal life in the last day, if only we believe in Him, and continue stedfast in this faith unto the end. He Himself has told us, "Because I live, ye shall live also;" and that "this is the will of the Father, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him should have everlasting life, and that He will raise him

up at the last day." (John vi. 40.) Such is the close union between Christ and the believer, that the resurrection of the former is the sure pledge of the resurrection of the latter.

Therefore, brethren, beloved in the Lord, cleave unto Him with full purpose of heart. Hear His voice, and follow Him, and then you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of His hand. He is the Resurrection and the Life, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Him shall never die. (John xi. 25, 26.) Union with Him is life, separation from Him certain death. Believer, did He die for you He also rose again for you. Did He bleed and

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suffer for you? He also triumphed for you. His victory was yours. Sooner will a mother forget her sucking child than the Lord Jesus forget you. He remembers His travail for you. He has graven you on the palms of His hands. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And when you rise again from the grave, or are found alive at His coming, you shall rise in His glorious likeness. "Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be." But this we know, that "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is." "And so shall we be ever with the Lord."

But what will become of the wicked in that day? Will not they rise? Yes; but not in His image. They will bear the image of him whom they have served, and be an abhorring to all flesh. And while "the wise shall inherit glory, shame shall be the promotion of fools."

SERMON IV.

1 COR. XV. 16-20.

"For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

"Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept."

ALL the apostles combined in preaching Jesus and the resurrection. It was a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, and was universally received by the Church. (Vers. 1 and 11.) But certain Christians at Corinth, tainted, probably, with the Greek philosophy, and looking upon the body as the prison-house of