This doctrine then rests on an imperishable base, and we may take to ourselves the comfort of it. Has Jesus Christ risen? Then shall you and I rise, oh believers, from the dust of death. We see the grave before us, and it is painful to think of these active limbs of ours being bound up in the winding sheet, and laid in the coffin. It is painful to think of their mouldering beneath the crawling worm: but Jesus is "the resurrection and the life;*-He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."† Are we, let me ask, well assured that we are truly believers in Him? A resurrection of the spirit must be experienced here, remember, before we can claim that character. Have we then been born of the spirit? Having once been dead in trespasses and sins, are we now quickened" through the power of Christ. If we have this hope, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”§ Let us live as those who expect to follow our master, through the grave and gate of death, to a glorious immortality. When our "corruptible shall have put on *John xi. 25. Phil. iii. 21. Eph. ii. 1. § 2 Cor. vii. 1. incorruption, and our mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."* VII. The working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.-Eph. i. 19, 20. There was an interesting circumstance in the Jewish ceremonial, calculated to convey the most important instruction. Once in the year, on the great day of expiation, after the blood of sacrifice had been shed, the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled that blood before the mercy seat. He thus represented an atonement as made for the sins of the people. All this was strikingly typical. The High Priest, we know, typified the Lord· Jesus Christ; and the blood of animal sacrifices, the blood of "the Lamb slain from the *1 Cor. xv. 54-57 foundation of the world."* The Jews themselves regarded the Holy of Holies as a type of the highest Heaven, and with propriety. The High Priest, then, entering the Holy of Holies with the blood of the victim, shadowed forth the Lord Jesus entering the Heavens with His own blood. And thus St. Paul reasons. After speaking of the tabernacle and its service, he says, "Christ being come, an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."+ Foretelling this entrance into the temple above, David says, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." We are now called to contemplate our Lord thus ascending, and to gather from it the instruction it is calculated to convey. When He had risen from the tomb, Jesus said to Mary, "I am not yet ascended to my Father: Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." After conversing with the disciples "forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, "§ we are *Rev. xiii. 8. † Heb. ix. 11, 12. ‡ Ps. lxviii. 18. | John xx. 17. Acts i. 3. told he led them out as far as Bethany,-and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven.* He that descended," says Paul, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things."+ His Divinity had always been in Heaven, as well as upon earth, pervading at all times the immensity of space. This was the ascent of His humanity. "He took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into Heaven." And what were the reasons of this ascent? The period of His humiliation being over, there was no farther cause for Him to remain in human form upon earth. He had, "through death-destroyed-him that had the power of death:" The consequences of His sufferings were now to be made manifest; and for the sake of His people He ascended; That He might appear as their High Priest before the throne. To this we have already adverted. He "entered-into heavento appear in the presence of God for us." The office of the High Priest led, not only to expiation, but intercession; and to intercede our blessed Lord ascended.-The blood that was shed at the altar must be borne within the Holy of Holies, and prayer must there be made, aud * Luke xxiv. 50, 51. †Eph. iv. 10. ‡ Heb. ix. 24. incense must there be offered.-Even so the blood of Jesus must be borne by himself on high, and He, on the shedding of that blood, found His supplication for us: supplication for grace and help, as well as pardon. "Seeing then we have a great high priest,—says Paul,—that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore," he goes on to say, "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.*-Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.+" 66 He went to take His place as the constant representative of His people. Being peculiarly fitted to the office of mediation, by the union of Divinity and humanity in His person; and, having, as man, a sympathy with us, even the sympathy of an elder " brother,"‡ He appeared "in the presence of God," that, through Him, all prayer might be presented, and from him all blessings might flow to our race. 6. If any man sin," says the apostle, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is able to save them to the utter * Heb. iv. 14-16. Heb. v. 9. Matt. xii. 50. ||1 John ii. 1. |