have a resurrection from the dead, and an entrance into glory. Death shall have no dominion over me." One can not fail to notice the unhesitating confidence with which David asserts that God will redeem him from the grave. There is no doubt, no questioning; but his soul enters into the full conviction of the power and faithfulness of the Divine Word. A striking comment upon this passage is found in Ps. xvii, 15: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

Let us, also, note the force of that memorable declaration of Job, (xix, 25, 27:) "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." We are aware that this is a disputed passage; some making it refer simply to Job's restoration to health and happiness, and others regarding it as an announcement of his faith in a coming Redeemer, and through him of the resurrection from the dead. We think no one will doubt that the impression made upon the common reader will be that Job refers to Christ and to the resurrection from the dead. This first impression is strengthened by the solemn manner in which the passage is introduced. Job was evidently laboring with some momentous thought. What he had uttered before in defense of himself and in refutation of his friends, he is willing should pass away. But now so momentous is the truth to which he is about to give utterance, that he would not have the least portion of it lost. "O that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!" (Job xix, 23, 24.) Nothing could be more apt or appropriate, if by a Divine afflatus he was about to announce the

sublime doctrine of redemption and the resurrection, that he should desire every word and every syllable to be preserved as a testimony among the generations yet to come. But if he referred simply to his personal temporal deliverance, to desire such a record of it as this particular point for the ages to come, borders closely upon the absurd.

But when we come to examine the terms and figures employed in the passage itself, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, in the sweep of his inspired vision, Job comprehended the great Redeemer of men. My Redeemer liveth-is alive now. But in the latter day he shall stand upon the earth; and through him should be the resurrection from the dead. What though after my skin worms shall have destroyed this entire body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Nay, in this identic body that has been decomposed and devoured by worms, should he behold him! for he was to see Him for or by himself and with his own eyes. We leave it for the skeptic and the infidel to explain how all these events could happen without a resurrection from the dead.

3. Coincident with the foregoing propositions, and going to show that the doctrine of the resurrection was taught in the Old Testament, we notice the fact that it was generally received by the Jews.

Gaussen says it was a beautiful custom among the Jews of his acquaintance, on entering the cemetery for the purpose of burial, to bow themselves three times toward the earth, and then taking up some grass from the spot where the grave was to be dug, to throw it behind them, while they together repeated aloud these words of the prophet, "Your bones shall flourish like an herb." (Isaiah lxvi, 14.) Thus was symbolized, that as the herb was resuscitated from the death of Winter, so should the remains of their departed brother, now returned to dust, revive again in the resurrec

tion Spring. This custom had its origin, no doubt, in a faith that had come down to them from the ancient time.

Incidental evidence of the existence of this faith among the Jews is afforded in the exclamation of Herod, when he heard of the wonderful works of Christ: "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead." (Matt. xiv, 2.) Such a thought would hardly have occurred to him, had not the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead been generally received.

Another evidence is found in the fact that the rejection by the Sadducees of the doctrine of the resurrection is so often referred to as a marked peculiarity of that small and ignoble sect. Had not the doctrine been generally received by the Jews, its denial would not have been regarded as the characteristic badge of a peculiar sect-distinguishing it from others.

Again, when our Savior comforts Martha with the promise, "Thy brother shall rise again," she, supposing that he was simply applying to the case the common and comforting doctrine of the resurrection, responds, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (John xi, 23, 24.) Here, most clearly, the general resurrection of the dead is referred to as a doctrine known and received. Else, when Jesus spoke of the resurrection of Lazarus, Martha would not have supposed he referred to the "resurrection at the last day."

We know that some endeavor to evade the force of this conclusion by saying that anastasis, the word employed here, means merely the future existence of man, without any reference to a resurrection. But Martha speaks of an event that shall take place "at the last day." And our Lord, in the very next verse, makes a distinction between anastasis and the future life: "I am the resurrection (anastasis) and the life,” (zaì ý (wñ.) But to place the matter

beyond all doubt, the sacred writers speak of the resurrection of Christ from the dead as an anastasis. In Acts i, 22, Peter speaks of the apostles as being "witnesses of his resurrection”—anastasis. In Acts ii, 31, it is said of David: "He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection (anastasis) of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption." (See, also, Acts iv, 33.) "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection (anastasis) of the Lord Jesus." The apostle Peter speaks of the "elect" as being "begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection (anastasis) of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Pet. i, 3.) These passages refer not to the future life of Christ in glory, but to the resurrection of his body from the grave. They are absolutely conclusive of the subject.

In the eleventh of Hebrews, all through which the apostle portrays the nature of faith, and its triumphs amid persecutions and deaths, he reaches the climax in those who, in the midst of their tortures, would not accept deliverance at the sacrifice of their faith, "that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Heb. xi, 35.) Thus, in the darkness and gloom of that earlier age of type, and shadow, and prophecy, the glorious coronal of the resurrection was the hope and the stay of God's suffering and persecuted ones.

One other fact to show that this doctrine was generally received among the Jews. We refer to the speech of Paul before Felix, in which, referring to the Jews, he says: "They themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts xxiv, 15.) When we consider the person uttering this declaration-how thoroughly versed he was in all manner of questions among the Jews; and when we consider the occasion upon which it was uttered, and the audience that

heard it without denial, we can scarcely conceive of evidence that could be more conclusive, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was generally received among the Jews as a part of their religious faith, taught in their sacred writings.

III. THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION IS STILL MORE CLEARLY ASSERTED IN THE SCRIPTURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

In the New Testament we find the references to this doctrine so numerous, that, without classification, we shall fail to present the subject as clearly as we wish. It will be our business, then, to enunciate a few points.

1. The doctrine of the resurrection had, on various occasions, the tacit assent of Christ. Had the belief in the resurrection been an error, it would have afforded our Savior an excellent opportunity to correct the error of the people, when the Sadducees came to him caviling at the doctrine. But instead of showing that the Jews had mistaken the Scriptures, and that the doctrine of the resurrection was not revealed in them, he shows simply that the cavils of the Sadducees sprung from their ignorance of the power of God. The doctrine of the resurrection could hardly be asserted with more force than is here done by Christ. The very fact that it is a sort of tacit recognition, and at the same time an uncovering of the folly of an ignorant, pretentious objector, gives to this incident peculiar pertinence.

Again, also, when Martha refers to "the resurrection at the last day," our Savior makes no correction of her faith. He does not blast her hope by saying that the dead rise not, and that there is no resurrection. It is utterly inconsistent with all our ideas of his character to suppose that would have left so dear a friend the dupe of so false a