ingly fall back on the simple narrative as it stands in our scriptures. And in doing that I may confidently assert that as a matter of fact we do in our deepest sinfulness feel the sympathy of the sinless Jesus, as we feel no man's sympathy. We may indeed fail to do so when we allow these difficulties to disturb the mind; but never when we can come with perfect simplicity to that most beautiful history. I have sought to put aside these difficulties-not by ignoring them, which I know is useless, but by steadily looking into them to discover their fallacy. I have done this because I desire for us all that we may be able to come to our gospels, where I find the very substance of christianity, with open and unburdened minds; conscious that when we can do that we are likely to find ever new and increasing loveliness in our gospel, and in Christ who is its divine and heavenly light.

3. I have now only briefly to notice the concluding part of this verse; though we might enlarge upon it to a great extent. But I wish no more now than to give you clearly what seems to be its thought.

The entire power of christianity over us rests in the love, or the loving sympathy of Christ, towards and with us; just that which we have been looking at. This is made abundantly clear through the whole of the evangelic narrative, and equally so in all the epistles, when we see how the apostles regarded Christ. And beyond that we feel it. It is the love of a holy Saviour to us, that breaks our bonds, that gives us hope that all evil may be conquered, and strengthens us to enter upon the warfare. Most beautifully has Paul put this fact into its sublimest form, when we thus understand his words. Christ the sinless, he teaches, came down into the midst of our sinful humanity,

took it and us into his warmest heart of love, became conversant with all the forms of sin that oppress us and make us miserable—though without ever allowing himself to be in the least degree conquered by them. Herein he awakens our hearts to love, he strikes to the very depths of the soul with his loving sympathy, till his conquest over us is complete. In that conquest he makes us sensible how much we can be one with him, and in his unsullied holiness he shows us how to be one with him is to return to holiness and God. Thus are the gates of heaven and blessedness opened to us through his holy sympathy. Since he has come down into the experience of our sin and sorrow, there making our hearts inseparably and eternally his own, what shall the end be but that he raises us up into his own pure life, which is the righteousness of God. I do not venture now to follow the thought on,-sometimes it seems to me too lofty, too sublime, too full of rich felicity; but I cannot resist the evidence on which it rests; that as there are no human sorrows, griefs, and weaknesses, in which Christ has not participated, so neither are there any divine glories and felicities in Christ, in which his true followers may not also share,

SERMON VII.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

"And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid; go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. -MATT. xxviii,, 9, 10.

O understand the nature and the meaning of the resurrection of Christ, it is necessary to study care. fully the peculiar incidents of these ten or thirteen appearances of Christ.

1. He is first seen by the women returning from the sepulchre to tell the disciples. According to Matthew they recognize his voice, and he bids them tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee.

2. He is next seen by Mary at the door of the sepulchre, who takes him to be the gardener, but afterwards recognizes him by his voice, when he addresses her doubtless with that peculiar expression with which she was so familiar.

3. The third appearance is " in another form" to the two disciples going to Emmaus. They travel all the way in conversation without knowing him. They recognize him

when he is sitting with them at meat, and then he immediately ceases to be seen of them.

4. During the same day he is seen by Peter, as noticed by both Luke and Paul:

5. The same evening he appears to the disciples, assembled for fear of the Jews. At first they are affirighted, thinking that they see a spirit, till he convinces them of his reality by appealing to his hands and feet and eating.

6. Eight days afterwards he appears to them again, this time Thomas being present. Thomas wishes for his sign, which Jesus grants, not because it was any better or more conclusive evidence, but it was the sign Thomas requiredsimilar to the sign on the dial of Ahaz required by Hezekiah.

Christ stands among them, the door being shut.

7. Next he appears to several of them at the sea of Tiberias. Again they do not know him. He is revealed to them by the great draught of fishes, which open the eyes of John.

8. The eleven, by appointment, meet him on a mountain in Galilee. Still" some doubted."

The additional information we gain from Paul is, that he 9. Was seen by James, when, we do not know.

10. By "five hundred brethren at once;" where they were assembled, for what purpose, and how Christ appeared, we can form no conjecture. All we know is that they were all disciples.

11. He was seen by Paul himself at his conversion. It is worthy of remark that Paul regards this as a genuine appearance of the risen Christ on a level with the rest.

12. The appearances to the "twelve" and "to all the Apostles" we cannot identify; possibly they may refer to the two appearances at Jerusalem.

13. He leads them out to the Mount of Olives; from whence he ascends to heaven.

The circumstances to be considered are these:

1. That on every occasion they fail to recognize him by the bodily appearance, which seems to vary in its form. They discover him only by some special sign, either adapted to their condition of doubt, or revealing Christ's spiritual character.

2. That our Saviour in no respect conformed to the laws of matter, so unlike his previous life. He came in; he vanished; the door being shut. We hear nothing of his travelling, except to converse with "the two." He would not be handled, except to aid their weak faith. He dwelt nowhere. He paid no regard to the intensely interesting associations of outward places-Calvary, Gethsemane, Bethany. He formed no outward fellowships.

3. He never appeared to any except disciples-believers; though unquestionably all Jerusalem must have been stirred and full of expectation.

The conclusion is difficult to avoid-that Christ rose in no fixed material form of flesh and blood, but in what Paul calls a spiritual body, capable of taking any form, as circumstances might render advisable.

Christ was, in fact, leading his disciples into an entirely new conception of life and death, of bodily and spiritual existence; and it was the difficulty they felt in entering into this new conception that occasioned their repeated doubts, and our Saviour's gentleness with them. They were not backward to receive the fact of the resurrection; but the form of it was contrary to all their old prejudices. Until they could lay hold of these quite new thoughts of life, &c., the resurrection could not be fully realized by

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