death indeed, but only for a time; for death is now dead in him, and has for ever yielded to his supremacy. The melancholy picture which we beheld on Mount Golgotha can no longer be discerned: the body of weakness, the tabernacle of feeble flesh,-the heavy and earthly covering, a prey to the fury of the elements, the mortal form, in which he atoned for our sins, all has been left behind him in the tomb. In Christ, who formerly was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, we now behold a glorified being that can no longer suffer or die any more; for his body has received immortal life, and the splendour of unchangeable brightness; and in his soul there is a paradise of peace and a heaven of joy and delight. There is no longer a trace in his heart of sorrow and suffering, struggle and trial: his wounds are for ever closed, and his soul only experiences the approbation of his Father, the enjoyment of the love of God, and the constant sensation of his presence. Hell lies conquered under his feet, for it beholds the thunderbolt in his hand which could in an instant annihilate it. The accusers are ashamed and silent, and no longer open their mouths; for they see that even the snow of angel-purity would appear dark when viewed in the light which emanates from the breastplate of our great High Priest. The angels surround him, and rest under the shadow of his wings; for they feel that life is in his breath, and peace in his presence. Thus the Prince of Easter stands clad in a glory which fills both heaven and earth; the King of Earth, which he hath bought with his blood, and King

of Heaven, which now greets him with rejoicing, because the Son of Man is about to mount the throne of eternal majesty.

III. But of what avail is it to us that Christ is so beautiful and glorious? and how are we benefited by it? Well may you ask the question, for it is of the utmost importance to us all. If we belong to Christ, that is to say, if we rest upon him in faith with the ardour of our whole hearts, then are we partakers in the beauty, splendour, and victorious glory in which he rises from the tomb, for he is ours in all his majesty and greatness: and this is our great joy in contemplating the Easter miracle. Perhaps ye think that I am speaking figuratively—not so, I speak literally; or that I allude to a glory of which we shall be partakers hereafter-but there also ye are mistaken, for we are partakers of it already. While I declare to you those astonishing things, I have not sand, but rocks under my feet; and my intelligence is not airy and unsubstantial, but dug out of the great mine of the word of God; for have you not observed that the hearts and mouths of the apostles are full of this thing, and that this is the great spring of their unutterable joy, their unspeakable delight, and their lofty courage, with which they contemned difficulty and death? Consider the subject for a moment, and you will find it so; for how otherwise could they have been happy in this evil world, smiling at the impotency of death, hell, and the devil, had they not rested securely on the great article of the resurrection of Christ?

We must now contemplate the subject more nearly.

The great importance of the resurrection of Christ, and the great subject for consolation which it affords, are generally found in two circumstances; that thereby the validity of the sacrifice on the cross was divinely proclaimed, and that a seal and pledge was given to us of our own future resurrection. These are precious and undoubted truths; but there is a third circumstance, frequently overlooked, which ought to be taken into consideration before all others, for it is the point in the Easter miracle from which beams the greatest light and splendour.

You know the words of Paul, in Romans iv. 25: when speaking of Christ, he says, "who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justificacation." From this text you may discern the heartenrapturing truth which I am about to announce to you. For our sins he was forsaken by God; and the whole sum of our transgressions, which should stand recorded against us in the great book at the last day, was in a mysterious manner attributed to him. He made atonement for them, and bare the curse, which otherwise would have fallen upon us and caused our eternal damnation. I am free and at liberty; but this negative principle does not include the whole efficacy of the mediatorship and atonement of Christ: my situation is not that of a criminal whom the mercy of his king has permitted to escape his merited punishment; but through Jesus I have entered into the rights of a child, I have become sanctified through him, an object of love to my heavenly Father, and an heir of eternal life. All this was declared to me by the mira

cle of the third day, and on the wings of Easter morning this mighty and incomparable consolation flew to greet me.

It was of his own free-will that Jesus tasted of death; love prompted him, otherwise he needed not to have done so. Death was not due to him, for in his own person eternal life belonged to him; but he was willing to suffer our doom, and it is therefore we behold in him the unheard-of spectacle of a man all pure and holy treated by God as a sinner. To the glory, also, in which we behold him clad on the third day, he stands in quite another relation than he did to his sufferings; for the latter did not personally belong to him, but the former was his due: he had a right to it, and was worthy of it, for he had won and deserved it by his obedience. But for whom had he won it? For himself? Of what use could it have been to him, to whom all belonged already, as being one with the Father? You must now call to mind that in all his actions and sufferings he stood in our place, and fulfilled in our name the work of his Father; thus earning for us its fruit and reward, and receiving for us, after his resurrection, the garland and the crown from the hands of his eternal Judge and Rewarder.

There is an expression of our Redeemer in the Gospel of St. John x. 17, which particularly merits our attention: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." This verse appears at first sight mysterious, and that in more than one respect. The first thing which astonishes us, is the cause to which Jesus attributes

the love of his Father: we had hitherto imagined that Jesus was beloved by God because he was his Son, "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person;" but here Jesus assures us that the cause of his Father's love towards him is his laying down his life for sinners. Jesus does not speak of himself here as the Word, which was from the beginning with God, and which was God; but as of another person, who, by the execution of certain conditions, merits the Father's love and approbation. It is obvious that Jesus, in this expression, does not allude to the love with which Jehovah loved him through all eternity; but to another love, which he, the Mediator, and the Second Adam, should win for his sinful people as their pledge and representative. And this love of God, in which men become partakers through Jesus Christ, could not have been attained but by his death, which has made atonement for our sins, and satisfied divine justice in our stead. Henceforward, therefore, God does not love Jesus as his only-begotten Son merely; he loves him also as our Head, and in him he loves sinners. This explains the first mystery; but there is a still deeper and holier signification in the words, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life." But why does he lay down his life? "That I might take it again!" is the answer; and it is not temporal life alone of which Jesus here speaks. The word "life" comprehends all that glory which the Son enjoyed with the Father from the beginning, and of which he now divested himself. Willingly he gave up this divine glory and happiness, and received in