had now arrived. Surrounded by the weeping friends, Jesus groaned in spirit and was troubled." The sympathies of his soul were awakened, and "Jesus wept." The Jews were struck with the Savior's tenderness, and said, "Behold how he loved him!" and said among themselves, "Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Neither they nor the bereaved sisters seemed to dream of his resurrection from the dead. So that when they came to the grave, and Jesus bade them roll away the stone from its mouth, they interposed that he had been dead four days, and the body must therefore have become offensive. But at his command the stone is rolled away-the astonished Jews are looking on with wonder-the weeping sisters hardly know whether to hope or fear. He lifts his eyes to heaven, offering a brief memorial of his faith to the Father, and then, with a voice whose tones of authority penetrated the deep cavern of the dead, he cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" Memorable words! "Martha! Mary! dry thy tears; thy brother lives!" He comes forth, with his graveclothes around him. Ye wondering, doubting Jews, come, with your own hands, "loose him and let him go," that ye may know that he whose death-agony ye witnessedhe, whose body ye laid in the grave, has been truly restored to life.

"And instantly, bound hand and foot,
And borne by unseen angels from the cave,
He that was dead stood with them. At the word

Of Jesus, the fear-stricken Jews unloosed

The bands from off the foldings of his shroud;
And Mary, with her dark vail thrown aside,
Ran to him swiftly, and cried, 'LAZARUS!
MY BROTHER LAZARUS!' and tore away
The napkin she had bound about his head,

And touch'd the warm lips with her fearful hand-
And on his neck fell weeping. And while all

Lay on their faces prostrate, Lazarus

Took Mary by the hand, and they knelt down

And worshiped Him who loved them."

7. The dead bodies of the saints resurrected at the crucifixion. The prodigies attendant upon the crucifixion were such as filled the land with consternation and dread. Earthquakes rent the solid rocks and opened the graves of the dead. The sun railed itself in darkness and the earth wrapped around her the sable robes of mourning. "From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." (Matt. xxvii, 45.) This darkness lasted from noon till three o'clock in the afternoon-a period of three hours. It was, therefore, clearly a supernatural event-as a total eclipse of the sun can not last longer than a quarter of an hour; and besides that, this being the time of the Passover, was at the full moon, when an eclipse of the sun is impossible. Mention is made of these prodigies by heathen writers; and Dionysius, the king of Egypt, is recorded to have exclaimed, "Either the God of nature is suffering, or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin." And even the Roman centurion, and those with him, when they witnessed these wonders, "feared greatly," and exclaimed: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" The multitude who were gathered to witness the spectacle were also filled with wonder at the mysterious displays of the power of God, and "smote their breasts and returned" to their homes.

It was among such prodigies as these that St. Matthew says, "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matt. xxvii, 52, 53.) It is not recorded who these saints were, nor yet what became of them. It seems probable, however, that they were persons known in Jerusalem, and thus their ready identification. Their resurrection was no doubt designed, along with the other marvels of the occasion, to confirm the Divine mission of

Christ, and demonstrate him to be the promised Messiah of the Jews. They seem to have been quickened to life in, through, or after-età―his resurrection. They did not rob him of his character as "the first-fruits;" but they rose with him, and probably accompanied him to glory.

Now, let us glance at this progressive development of this miraculous power of restoring the dead to life. In the case of the daughter of Jairus, death had just taken place. The body was scarcely cold; the flush of life and youth had hardly faded from her cheek; the corpse was still in her father's house, and they who had witnessed her dying agony were still weeping over it. Hardly had the spirit. passed the gates of death, when it was summoned back by the great arbiter of life and death, and bid to tabernacle awhile longer in its tenement of clay. With the young man of Nain, death had occurred some time before. The corpse had lain the appointed time; it was no longer fit for the sight of the eye; it had been prepared for burial, and was now being borne to "the house appointed for all living." No Savior had been invited to the house of mourning; none was expected. The widow had given up her son. The whole city, moved by compassion, had gone forth; no other result than that of his burial enters into any of their thoughts. Just then the Savior meets them, as it were by accident, in the open highway. He is moved with compassion, touches the bier, and the dead man lives. The case of Lazarus presents features differing from both of these. He had not only been prepared for burial, but the body had already been laid in the tomb, when the Savior came to their now desolate home. The process of decomposition had already commenced, the rioting of the worms. begun, and the body had therefore become offensive to the smell. But though the process had advanced further, it was not beyond the power of Omnipotence to check, and

from incipient corruption life comes forth renewed in all its healthfulness and vigor. In the resurrection of the "bodies of the saints" there is still an additional feature of striking import. These "bodies" had been long entombed; the flesh had moldered back to dust; the dry bones and scattered dust only remained. But, behold, under the quickening power of the resurrection of the Son of God, these are restored to life. They come forth the type and the demonstration of a universal resurrection. It was the demonstration that Death was now crushed forever beneath the arm of the Almighty. It was the demonstration "that a power existed that could recover the plundered spoils of Death, could re-embody the parted spirit, could restore it to the fullness of its prerogatives as the quickening principle of an immortal frame."

One more fact-the resurrection of Christ-and our chain of argument will be complete. Even skepticism itself can ask no more. "Why, then, should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?"

But this theme—the resurrection of Christ—viewed first as a matter of fact, and secondly as the pledge of ours, is a theme so wide in its range, so full in its details, and so momentous in its bearing upon the general resurrection of the dead, that we must reserve it for a separate theme of discussion. In the mean time, let us be thankful that we have found so firm footing on which to plant our feet, as we have felt our way along in our search after truth. Even now, looking upon the cold form of death, we may say:

"Yet through these rigid limbs once more

A nobler life, erelong, shall pour;

These dead, dry, bones again shall feel

New warmth and vigor through them steal;

Re-knit and living they shall soar

On high, where Christ lives evermore."

(From the Ger. of N. Hermann.)

X.

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST THE PLEDGE OF OURS.

"This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." ACTs ii, 32. "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" 1 Cor. xv, 12.

THE resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has ever been regarded by the Christian Church as a doctrine of vast importance. It derives its importance not merely from its relation to the scheme of redemption-illustrating the office, character, and triumph of Christ-but also from its important relation to the general doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The two things are closely allied by the apostle: "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen;" and, on the other hand, "If Christ be not risen," then is our faith in the resurrection vain, and also they "which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished." In fact, so close is the connection between the resurrection of Christ and the final resurrection of those of whom he has "become the first-fruits," that those who admit the former will find little ground to question the latter.

It was a dark and gloomy hour when the Lord of life and glory-the hope of Israel-lay the victim of death, the tenant of the grave. How could the apostles ever have gone forth to preach salvation through a Savior still held by the bands of death? How could they have preached the resurrection of the dead, while he, through whom was the