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may be well content to share those degrees of excellence which stamp all creation; things in heaven and things on earth. "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. One star differeth from another star in glory;" whilst each yet adorns the heavens, and all move to the will and the honour of Him who created them. So also is the resurrection of the dead. All are then changed and made immortal. Our bodies "sown," like the seed-grain, "in corruption, are raised," like the pleasant plant, "in incorruption;" "sown in dishonour," and loathsome in their perishing, "they are raised in glory," lovely and imperishable; "sown in weakness,' all strength faileth when life faileth, "they are raised in power;" raised to life which shall yield to death no more: sown natural bodies," as born in Adam, they are raised spiritual bodies," as born anew of God in Christ Jesus; and since His body, though for a season separated from its spirit, saw no corruption, so "as in Adam, we have borne the image of the earthy," and must therefore die; "we shall also," in Christ, "bear the image of the heavenly," and shall live for ever. But because "corruption doth not inherit incorruption," we must die, ere such corruption can be changed. "Behold," then adds the Apostle, "I show you a mystery." That which the word and Spirit have revealed to me, respecting this wondrous and awful change which must happen to us all, when our bodies shall be raised from their graves, be reunited to their kindred souls, and stand forth for final judgment that I declare to you. What though now, in the solemn stillness of the grave, our bodies lie, sleeping calmly and undisturbed by the turmoil

of this ever restless world? we shall not so sleep for ever. "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Do any find it hard to receive this saying? Bear we in mind, that Time is with God as nothing; a thousand years in his sight being as yesterday. Wherefore, though it hath pleased Him that the appointed numbers of us his creatures should have been created successively throughout long generations; one generation removed, and making room for another; reason herself must allow, that the same power which thus created mankind by gradual supply, could have created them at once. It were worse than folly to doubt this position. God therefore can, “in a moment, change death to life; corruption to incorruption; dishonour to glory; natural to spiritual bodies." And that which He thus can do, He hath by his word and Spirit declared He will do. "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Further, we shall as surely be thus raised in our identity as Jesus Christ raised himself in his own body in which He had lived and been crucified 1. "This corruptible must put on incorruption," "and this mortal, put on immortality." The living too will be changed", from natural to spiritual bodies, from mortal to immortal; to meet their final doom for bliss or for misery. How clearly and how forcibly did our blessed Lord set forth the facts, upon which the Apostle declares these truths. This

1 Our blessed Lord's earnestness with his disciple Thomas is in striking evidence of this. See page 139.

2 We are taught that Christ will judge not the dead only, but the quick--or those who shall be alive at his coming.

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trumpet-call is to come suddenly; "at an hour when we think not of it 1." It is to come, when men shall be engaged in all the activity of worldly business and worldly pleasure. Hence the Redeemer's startling warning to his disciples; "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!" Can any mind realize to itself a sound so appalling, as that of the angel-trumpet when it awakens the myriads of dead now sleeping in their dust, and changes the living from mortal to immortal? And can I still live, for a moment, unprepared, unwatchful, unready to meet the God whose judgment then will await me-judgment irreversible? O thou ever present God! Thou God in whose more immediate presence we mourners assemble, as we follow our loved departed to the tomb, and hear thy word of consolation, and pray thy sustaining help, and confess our unworthiness, and implore grace, so henceforth to amend our ways and our doings, that when others listen to these truths, as they mourn us, they may have good hope in remembering that we lived and died in thee!-O God! save us and help us, we pray thee!

The bright and wondrous prospect which these truths lay open, man may rejoice in; yet duly to appreciate them were rather an angel's province; human powers see not its extent or its glories. Still, faith firmly holds these truths, and hope rapturously anticipates, for Jesus' sake, one day to know their value and to share their bliss; "for then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is

1 The suddenness of this final call is very frequently and very earnestly stated by our blessed Lord. Matt. xxv. 6; Luke xii. 40. 2 Mark xiii. 37.

swallowed up in victory." Their warfare then accomplished, the righteous will be called to receive their crown, the weary will then find rest, and the patient pilgrim meet his welcome; every tear will then be wiped from every eye, for the wicked then must cease their troubling: and "there shall be no more death, nei"ther sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any

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more pain: for the former things are passed away;" and the redeemed shall unite in the joyous acclaim, "Lo! this is our God! we have waited for him; and "he will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited "for him; we will be glad, and rejoice in his salva“ tion 1.” Say now, O mourner! hath not the Church led thee to the springs of the waters of comfort? Art not thou ready, for thyself, in the prospect of thine own death; and even for the departed, whom thou lovest better than thyself; to cheer the drooping heart? to "lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees?" and to adopt the animating language of St. Paul, “O death, where is thy sting?" Apart from its consequences as the punishment of sin, death is, in truth, rest from toil, ease after pain, peace for sorrow. Sin is its sting. Yet where is that sting now? It is drawn. Its strength is the law 2: but the blood of Christ hath satisfied the law; and even the transgressors thereof are saved, as many as plead his atonement. Then, "O death," again we ask, "where is thy sting?"

1 Rev. xxi. 4; Isa. xxv. 8, 9.

2 Rom. vii. 7. "I had not known sin, but by the law."

3 What a motive to holiness! For surely the ungodly and the worldly would not dare to offer such a plea? Folly itself would hardly presume in prayer to implore the love and the mercy of a

Thine own spirit of malice is rendered harmless. The force of temptation may beat us down for a time, but we "shall not greatly fall," for thy sting is fatal 6 no more. Thou canst not kill, where Christ, by fulfilling the law, hath made alive.' Death thus is not only unable even to keep our bodies its prey for ever, but is preparing them for a resurrection to a more glorious and eternal life. Where then, O grave!

where is now thy victory? I know that for a season thou wilt hold in thy dark mansion my body, brought 'low by death; yet I know also that by this short• lived victory over me, in bringing my mortal body to corruption, thou art but preparing for me an im'mortal body of glory to spring from it; and by thy poor victory over me on earth, art securing my rich victory over thee in heaven. Thine is the ' defeat — ours the triumph, long looked for, through 'Jesus Christ our Lord'.'

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And can thoughts like these fail to revive thy drooping spirit, to give it fresh strength, and to supply a more enduring, a more fixed stedfastness? "Stedfast" in the Lord, it will stand like a rock, firm and immovable, drive storm and tempest as they may. The winds may beat against it, the waters rage high and around it, but they shall not prevail to shake it. From amidst this scene of mourning, faith hath pointed to the word of promise, and led thee by its bright light to thy Saviour-no longer incarnate, a man of

Being, who by the life of the suppliant was disobeyed, and disregarded, and dishonoured.

1 Hosea xiii. 14. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction."