hand into His side, I will not believe." Eight days afterwards, Thomas also being present, our Lord came and saluted them with the usual benediction, "Peace be unto you:" then, addressing Himself to Thomas in the very words the Apostle used, He said, "Reach hither thy finger and behold My hand, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless but believing." Then the Apostle, overcome by the undoubted proof, and overwhelmed no doubt with confusion at the thought of his own hardness of belief, and with the sense of our Lord's condescension, exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" To whom our Lord replied, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." After this, when the disciples were returned into Galilee, there He was repeatedly seen of them, and once by above five hundred brethren assembled together. At last He blessed the apostles, and ascended up into heaven in the presence of them all.

Such, then, were the predictions of the law and of the prophets, and such the evidence of their accomplishment in the person of our Lord. As there is no point of greater importance to be believed than this of our Lord's resurrection, so was none other established by such abundance of direct and positive testimony. And the effect of that doubt and distrust with which the intelligence of His resurrection was first received by the apostles, has only been to increase the weight of testimony by which it is established to all suc

ceeding ages, in which we may learn to adore the wisdom and goodness of our common Lord. But from the care which was thus taken that the proofs of it should be incontrovertible, and the number of eye-witnesses so very many, and they men so fearless, and uncorrupt by the things of this world, that being assured of the truth of what they had seen, they delayed not at all hazards to profess and publish it to the world, and thought it their chief happiness to be permitted to seal the truth of their testimony with their life's blood, we may understand the great value and necessity of this fundamental article of our belief, "The third day He rose again from the dead."

How precious it is and how necessary we shall perceive if we reflect upon the cause for which His resurrection took place and the consequence to which it leads. "He was delivered”—that is, He was delivered over, or given up to die-"for" -or on account of—" our sins, and He was raised again for"-or on account of-" our justification." As our sins were the cause of His death, so having made satisfaction to God's justice by suffering the punishment and paying the penalty Himself, and becoming an atonement and propitiation for us, upon our forgiveness and justification He rose again from the dead. For the penalty being paid, there was nothing to detain and keep our Lord in the condition of death. Wherefore He arose; and His rising was a proof that the satisfaction was complete, and that man was justified. This justification, then, is the grace wherein we now

stand, the previous state of pardon for Christ's sake which was necessary before the Holy Ghost should be given; and the consequence is no other than His gifts to influence, i.e. to chasten and sanctify, our hearts and minds, and thus enable us to reform our lives. The great value of the belief of our Lord's resurrection lies in the right sense and apprehension of this its consequence; for, if we do indeed believe, the truth of His resurrection is to be seen in our lives. When the Prophet spake of the justification of God's people, he added also this concerning the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost; when God said that the sins and iniquities of the people He would remember no more, He said also, "I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." And nothing else but this is in the Church's contemplation in the prayer she directs us to prefer this day,-" Almighty Father, who hast given Thine only Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification, grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may alway serve Thee in pureness of living and truth, through the merits of the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Repentance, which was first preached, hath no other meaning than a real change of mind leading to a real change of life. The righteousness and sanctification of the faithful, spoken of as the one grand characteristic of the Gospel dispensation, is no more figurative and ideal than the

doctrine of the remission of sins through the satisfaction of the death of Christ, and the justification of mankind by the merit of that atonement; but, like it, is always to be understood as real and actual, and must be found so too in all who shall have benefit by the same. They who by faith have embraced the Gospel of Christ have their part in that for which He rose again from the dead, which brings with it the assistance of the Holy Spirit of God. But can the Almighty Spirit come down without effect? Assuredly as that is impossible, a life led by the Spirit of God, in obedience to the Word of God, and in conformity with the doctrine of our Lord, the Son of God, is ever expected in the professor of the Gospel by it shall he be seen; it is the only acknowledged witness of his believing; it is always the companion of the faith which justifies. If the abundance of iniquity which is still beheld in a world calling itself Christian, but falsely so calling itself, be a stumbling-block over which many fall, this is no more than the Scriptures have taught us to expect, which teach us also that Christ shall come again to judgment. And if the natural error and sinfulness of our minds present an obstacle to our improvement and an impediment to our faith, we know that such a mind must be mortified and subdued.

By attending to the lessons of the Church and to the doctrines of Scripture with a humble and submissive mind, we shall soon perceive that the sort of holiness required of us is not indeed incompatible with the condition of the nature in

which for a while we must remain. And with a mind thus enlightened, when we consider the unrighteous and ungodly lives of some who owe better things to their Lord and to their brethren, we shall perceive how even falsehood and vice itself bear their proper testimony to the truth of our most holy faith. For the net that was to be cast into the sea gathered of all kinds. And these have not the testimony of the Spirit. The water and the blood they have; for they have been baptized, and for them also Christ died; and if they would be purified they might be justified. But that which is the truth is wanting. They go on in sin. They are rebellious, and they strive not to amend. In them the world hath overcome, for they live for it alone. Therefore they do not indeed believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, and that He rose again for our justification. "For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." "And who is he that overcometh," argues the Apostle, "but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

We, brethren, who believe, know what our Lord's will and the will of God the Father is,— that we should set our minds on doing His will here and on an estate in heaven hereafter, that for this we should learn to overcome, even as He our Lord also overcame; when we contemplate His life and character who was given to us for an example that we should follow His steps, we understand that patience with respect to the present sad effects of sin, together with a decided and