smote or the whirlwind that swept, &c., but "the Lord hath taken away." God gives the commission to death. He fixes the time when the stroke shall fall, &c., and when the dust shall return, &c. Of this truth Job made a personal application. "Thou wilt bring me to death." It is thus that we should listen to the statements of God's word. There must be a personal appropriation of the truth.

III. The description of the change of which the patriarchs was assured, "Death and the house." Death is the child of sin, but grace has made it the servant of Jesus. The separation of the soul and body, the latter to rest in its bed of dust till the resurrection, the former to go to its own place.

The body goes to the "house, &c.," the narrow one appointed for all living. Into it every other house. pours its inmates. In it, bitter foes sleep peacefully together. It is a dark house. No lamp suspended from its ceiling. No light shines into its chamber. It is a solitary house. No communion, intercourse--each alike unknowing and unknown. It is a silent house. No note either of weal or of woe ever escapes a lip. tongue of the eloquent is dumb-the knell of a dissolving world will first break the silence. It is an ancient house. Its first stone was laid in paradise. Every generation since might have clasped hands and sung "whatever we do, wherever we go, we're travelling to the grave."

The

This house has its sunlit side. It is not an eternal prison house, but a resting place, a sleeping place. "Thou wilt call and I will answer thee, &c." If it is true that man must die, it is also as true that man shall live again. Nature and revelation alike proclaim it. The leaves of autumn turn golden as they fall. "This corruptible must put on incorruption."

It is not a strange house. Parents and friends Lave occupied it before us. The Lord of life has laid in its chambers, perfumed it with his presence, and gave it His own consecration-"Come, see the place." The 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians is its epitaph, and especially the words, "Thanks be unto God, &c." Think often of this house. See it rising amid the palaces and halls and mansions of earth. Prepare for taking your place within its walls, and for having planted at its door as your memorial of hope the laurel and the palm.

GRATITUDE FOR TRIUMPH.

REV. WM. JAY.

Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, &c. I COR. XV: 57.

THERE is something very interesting and poetic in

this chapter, arising partly from association, and partly from the subject. The resurrection is only considered here in reference to those who sleep in Jesus. How sublime the words immediately preceding our text. Let us consider:

I. The victory. Victory supposes warfare-warfare, enemies. These enemies are sin, the world, Satan, death and the grave. We combine the two last, because it is scarcely possible to treat them separately, and the Apostle mentions them together. He conquers death who is not and cannot be injured by it. This is the case with every Christian. Death is stingless to them. Death stung our Surety, and left its sting in Him, so there is none for a believer. Sin is the sting of death, that He bore in his own body on the tree, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Death comes to the believer so changed, so glorious, so beatific, that it is only a falling

asleep in Jesus. It only extends to the body at mostand that body rises a better body than lay down-the resurrection body will be an advantage, not a clog to the soul. It will be modelled after the body of the Son of God. He who has conquered death through Jesus rises above the apprehension of it, and realizes all this joy and all this blessedness even now. Thanks for the victory!

II. The acquisition. It is given, "who giveth." We gain it, but God gives it. He gives us the capacity, and we fight and win through grace. 2. It is dispensed through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. In the work of our salvation, Jesus as a mediator is never left out. There is not a blessing comes to us through any other channel. He is all in all. 3. It is gradually exemplified and accomplished. It is not said that he will, or has, but he "giveth," because it is gradually confirmed and experienced. It is carried on through the whole course of the believer's life and perfected in death.

III. The gratitude. If men get gratitude for their favors, surely God ought for his salvation. If He were to discontinue his favors, in what a state of destitution and wretchedness would we be found. Gratitude consists in the return of a benefit received. Though we cannot make an adequate return to God, we ought to make a suitable return. Gratitude will appear in our asking, "What shall we render, &c.," in the sentiments of the mind, in the disposition of the heart, in the language of the lip, and in the language of the life. The best gratitude is shown in the degree and quality of the fruit we bear.

As a stimulus to gratitude, dwell upon the blessings themselves; get an increasing sense of your own unworthiness. A man is thankful in proportion as he is humble. Get an assurance of your interest in the blessed

ness of the Lord.

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"I love the Lord because he hath heard, etc." Walk before Him in newness of life. They that dwell in the house of the Lord will be still praising Him.

DELIVERANCE FROM THE GRAVE.

CANON F. W. FARRAR.

The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption.-Rom. 8:21.

THE

ears.

HE announcement of the angels to the women at the sepulcher was the most joyous ever made to human Our years, as they increase, remind us our Lord died, as we soon must die, and that He put his foot upon the skull of death, that he might still the groaning of a travailing creation, and take from us all dread of the conquered foc.

I. Death is naturally to be dreaded. Savage nations live in constant horror of death. This cannot be wondered at. They know of no world beyond the grave, and what would life be without faith in that?

II. If there be no resurrection of the dead, infinitely pathetic and unspeakably heartrending would be the phenomena of death itself. "If Christ be not risen, &c." Then they also that have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Perished! what a world of desolate anguish, what sighs of unutterable despair, lie hid in that strange word! All good and great have perished and so must we. How frightful then to live as WE ARE living in the

world!

III. But, we believe in the resurrection of the dead. For the body the same, though glorified, and re-united to a soul, though the same yet infinitely enlarged and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Yes: "Christ is

risen."

How these words change the whole aspect of human life! Nothing short of this could be our proof and pledge that we also shall rise. We are not left to dim intimations or vague hopes, or faint analogies, but we have a permanent and a firm conviction, a sure and certain hope. Look into the Saviour's empty tomb. "He is not here: He is risen, as He said." They that sleep in all those narrow graves shall wake again, shall rise again. Weep not widowed wife, father, orphan boy, Thy dead shall live. They shall come forth from the power of death and Hades. What a mighty victory! What a giant sporting! What a trampling of the last enemy beneath the feet! What a hope, what a change in the thought of life! Bravely and happily let us walk through the dark valley, for out of it is a door of immortality that opens on the gardens of heaven and the streams of life, where the whole soul is flooded by the sense of a newer and grander being, and our tears wiped away by God's own hand. This is the Christian's hope truly, and herein Christ makes us more than conquerors, more than conquerors, for we not only triumph over the enemy, but profit by him, wringing out of his curse a blessing, out of his prison, a coronation and a home. "It is sown in corruption, &c." Let us live in love, in humility, in Christ and for Christ. This will make us noble and happy in life, this will strengthen us to smile at death, this will cause us to live all our days in the continual light of these two most marvelous of all Christian truths: the resurrection of the body, and the immortality of the soul.