unconscious sleep. Death is neither the extinction, nor the suspension of our being. It brings to a close our probationary existence, but is the introduction to a state of endless happiness, or of endless woe. Think of the solemn scenes which are just before you. Let not that world, in which you will soon be no stranger, be a stranger to your thoughts. Ah! what spectacle is this?-men travelling on the shore of a boundless. ocean, on which they must soon set sail, but giving not a moment's reflection to the voyage! Awake, O awake, ere it be too late, from this fatal slumber of the soul! This topic is replete with consolation to those bereaved of pious friends. Let not your thoughts linger too much about the grave, where their bodies await the archangel's trump. True, their dust is precious, and they are still united to Christ, and "do rest in their graves," and in HIM will rest till the resurrection. But the spirits, which animated their tabernacles of clay, which imparted to them all' their life and loveliness, have been "caught up" to those populous mansions, where the saints of all ages, and of all communions, meet in blessed harmony. There, they grieve no more; they sin no more. There, they are holy; and they are happy. "Weep ye not for the dead," "Weep not for us," could they address us, would they not say, and with an eloquence which immortals alone know how to use— weep not for us; weep for yourselves. The victory is ours, the conflict is still yours. The crown is ours, the cross is still yours. Weep not for us." God grant that we may fight on till death, that the crown of victory may be ours too. "No eye shall ever shed a tear there; * Durant. XI. THE BODY RESTORED. HE Redeemed, on their departure from this THE world, as has been shown, enter into the presence of the Lord, and upon an endless career in knowledge and holiness. But, while the body is in the grave, death, the last enemy, still reigns, and the soul cannot enjoy that perfect bliss, which will be its eternal reward, when it is no longer a separate soul, but is united with a glorious body like unto Christ's. A The New Testament doctrine, in regard to those who embrace the hope set before them, is this :— The believer dies, and his body is committed to the grave; it moulders away. It is sown in weakness and dishonour; it is sown a natural body. narrow mound denotes the place where it lies. It matters not by whom we are honoured, or by whom despised; what have been the advantages, or disadvantages of our birth and condition in life. Our strength must perish, our beauty consume away, our worldly honours and affluence be left behind, and the grave become the repository of our dust. But the morning of the resurrection shall reclaim the bodies of all who sleep in Jesus from the humiliation of the tomb. They shall be raised in power, and glory, incorruptible, immortal. The apostle Paul states the fearful alternative, which remains to us, upon the denial of the doctrine of the resurrection; "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”* Such denial necessarily involves that of all revealed religion, makes faith vain, divine ordinances and institutions vain; makes the Apostles and Prophets false teachers, and Christ himself an impostor. To deny the resurrection, is to make the Gospel a fable, and the wonderful works of Christ, impositions and delusions; nay more, it makes even the history of those times, written by Pagan authors, who were contemporary with Christ, and His apostles, equally fabulous. "In short, there is no such thing as history in the world. We are in a maze of doubt and uncertainty; the greatest unbeliever is the truest believer; and the most unsettled skepticism must be the most certain religion. There is neither Redeemer, nor redemption; no reality in the relation of things; no evidence in our senses; no hope in life or death; * 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14. no heaven or immortality; no providence, wisdom, or truth in all that is, or all that appears to be; but the whole medley of things is a mere illusion, and the very being of God is a lie. those, who, without faith to receive the truth, have a vast credulity, which can swallow everything beside." This is the creed of The Apostle, selecting one of the numerous effects of Spring, the growth of seed, powerfully reasons upon this subject. He derives a striking analogy from the laws of vegetable reproduction. But, it is obvious there would be no appropriateness, and no point in his analogy, if the buried bodies of men are not to be raised up from the grave. The sown seed is buried in the earth; and as it decays in its grave, the germinating principle becomes active, and it bringeth forth much fruit. The same grain of wheat that is sown does not itself come up, but it puts forth a stalk, which bears an ear or head of wheat. Something more ample, more affluent comes up. We sow not that body that shall be. Precisely so in respect to the bodies of Christ's buried saints. As committed to the grave, they are poor corruptible flesh and blood-perhaps enfeebled and emaciated by age and disease, or blackened and consumed by fire, or fractured and lacerated, in some fearful disaster; -as raised up again, they are glorious, immortal, incorruptible, like unto Christ's glorious body. But |