loves, in the assurance of Christ, and the fact that He rose from the dead to give life to them who sleep, he beholds by joyful faith the predicted time when many that sleep in dust shall wake in glory, when the sea shall give up its dead, the earth shall render back its trust, the very ground on which we tread shall live; and from every kingdom and people under heaven, from the sunny tropics and the icy north, from the islands and the hill-tops, the race of man, over whose silent sleep the night of ten thousand ages may have hung, shall start at the trumpet's sound, and rush into life immortal.

"When the great archangel shakes the creation,
Tears the strong pillars of the vault of heaven,
Breaks up old marble, the repose of princes,"

bone to its bone, the scattered fragments of a buried world, the generations of a thousand centuries spring to their own, and they who have done good are caught up with the Lord into the air; "and so shall they be ever with the Lord."

The appearance of the Saviour, and his ascension, now demand our attention.

It was fitting that the Lord should first appear to those pious women who were "last at his cross and earliest at his grave." They fled with amazement when they found the tomb was spoiled; and the Saviour met them in the way and said "All hail." Mary Magdalene wept in the garden, and a stranger said to her, "Mary," and the truth broke on her enraptured soul; it was her risen Lord.

Two disciples were walking in the country, and their hearts burned within them as Jesus opened to them the Scriptures.

The eleven were sitting at meat when the Saviour stood in the midst of them; and again He appears to the same sad company with Thomas, that the doubting disciple might place his hand in the nail and spear wounds.

Again He meets seven by the Sea of Tiberias, and gives the command which is the Sabbath-School teacher's commission; which makes every teacher a successor of Peter, with far more truthfulness in the claim than the " Man of Sin" can boast, a command that should be written on the walls of every Sunday-School room and the walls of every Christian heart; a simple precept, but Christ-like, O hear it and heed it, "FEED MY LAMBS.'

After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; and finally He meets His disciples and leads them out to the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, to the village of Bethany, a spot that He loved, and then lifting up His hands He blessed them, and while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.

The ascension of Christ, thus simply but beautifully described

by the inspired pencil, was, in the first place, an act of triumph. It was the return of a conquering God to His palace in the skies. The heaven-lighted eye of the prophet Daniel, piercing the gloom of six hundred years, beheld this scene, and the rapt seer thus sang the triumph of his future Lord. "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before Him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away."

Having wrestled with principalities and powers, and vanquished death and the grave; having paved a passage from a world of sin and shame to one of light and glory, He now ascends to the right hand of the majesty on high. He takes the mediatorial throne, and reigns a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins.

In the second place, the ascension was an emphatic declaration that the Saviour's work on earth was done. His resurrection and appearance were essential to the completion of His plan of redemption; but now when the testament has been sealed, the testator is ready to depart. Hear his prayer: "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And now I come to thee." John xvii, 5, 6, 13. These were His own words, as the hour of His passion drew nigh, and when the agonies of death were past, and the chariots of heaven stood waiting to bear the conqueror home; He is ready to ascend "with dyed garments from Bozrah, glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength."

Lastly, the Saviour rose that the Holy Spirit might descend. "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go away, I will send him unto you." John xvi. 7. A precious ascension gift! The Spirit to convince of sin, to apply the blood of atonement, to sanctify the heart, and bring the sinner home to God. "I will not leave you comfortless," was His own kind promise to His disciples; and when He entered on His kingdom He sent the Spirit, and the heavenly messenger wings his way to their sad hearts with words of peace.

But to these startled disciples this parting was one of unmingled pain; their present bereavement, not their future joy, was the overpowering thought of that strange hour. Their loss they sawnot heaven's gain, not their own in the coming glory of the church and of Christ. They saw their master slowly ascending; the God revealed in his ethereal form; when suddenly the truth flashed on their bewildered minds, that the Son is on the wing for His Father's house. He speaks not, but hovering over them as they turn upward their mournful eyes and speechless gaze upon their rising

Lord, He smiles the last adieu; and a cloud more lustrous than the rainbow about the throne, receives the King of Glory on its bosom, and floats away into the deep blue sky.

On the plains of Bethlehem, while shepherds watched their flocks by night, the music of angels stole from the choirs of heaven, and in the midst of melody, such only as angels make in hymns to Jesus, the Saviour's advent was chanted in the ears of men. And now the Redeemer has gone, what mean those strains of triumphant song that roll along the skies? It is a jubilee in heaven! Onward, UPWARD rides the conqueror with glory flaming from His burning wheels. Attendant angels scatter crowns more radiant than stars in His ascending path. Worlds that never heard the story of redeeming love, stand still to see the victorious pageant on its shining way.

And now arrived at last, ten thousand times ten thousand voices cry," LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O YE GATES, AND BE YE LIFTED UP YE EVERLASTING DOORS, AND THE KING OF GLORY SHALL COME IN!"

And from within as many voices, "WHO IS THIS King of GLORY ?"

And the shining escort answer, "The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the KING OF GLORY shall come in !!!"

Take thy throne and crown, O thou most mighty! thou whose highest glory is that thou art mighty to save! Angels shall bow before thee, archangels shall kiss thy feet, and a multitude, whom no man can number, redeemed by thy shed blood, shall sing, world without end, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

There, in the centre of the concentrated glories of the celestial city, in the midst of light that mortals may not look on, girt with ranks of saints and angels in a holy strife to swell still higher the overflowing fountains of love that gush from every breast; there, with the sceptre of a love-conquered world in His hands, and millions of redeemed and rejoicing ones at His feet,

There, the dear Man, my Saviour sits,

The God! how bright he shines;

And scatters infinite delights,

On all the happy minds.

Jesus, the Lord, their harps employs,

Jesus, my love, they sing,
Jesus, the name of both our joys,

Sounds sweet from every string.

Now let me rise and join their song,
And be an angel too;

My heart, my hands, my ears, my tongue,
Here's joyful work for you,

I would begin the music here,
And so my soul should rise;

O for some heavenly notes, to bear
My spirit to the skies.

My brethren, why stand ye gazing up into heaven. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Ye shall see Him again when He comes in the clouds of His glory and his holy angels with him. Every eye shall see Him when He comes to judgment! Would you see him now? Hark to His voice! "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." "I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

But in the strong emotions awakened by these themes, let us not forget the practical effect of the doctrine involved. "That I may know the power of his resurrection," was Paul's great desire

its power in revealing the divinity and glory of Jesus, in pledging the future triumph of the church over the terrors of death and the grave-its power in sustaining through sufferings, by which he has fellowship with Christ. Why do we know and feel so little of the power of the resurrection? Because we do not study it. Every other event in the life of Jesus, His birth, His temptation, His miracles, His trial, His agony, His death, are themes on which the church has dwelt till they form a part of the soul's experience of the Christian; these are Christ in him, and his experience is their power. The love of Christ constraineth them; but they love Him in his humiliation. Those nights of prayer, those days of darkness, those drops of sweat, those dying groans, have power to stir the heart. But the rising Saviour, the ascending Saviour, the glorified Saviour,the Lamb in the midst of the throne,the intercessor,the everliving Priest and King. This is the Saviour whose power we need to justify us sinners in the sight of God, to fit us, fire us, and rouse us for the work unto which we are called. The pages of the inspired volume furnish us no themes more full of instruction, of elevation, of impulse to holy living and noble doing, than the resurrection and ascension of our Lord. The apostles, the martyrs, the holiest men have pondered them devoutly, and have drawn lessons rich and sweet from the deserted tomb and the mount of triumph. Before leaving the subject, I would love to ask you to commune with Paul and Chrysostom, with Thomas Aquinas and Pascal, and others whose pious musings around these sacred scenes are among the most fragrant records in the church of Christ. But time has failed me.

Let us know the power of the resurrection, and so live that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also may appear with Him in glory. Soon shall we hear Him say, "Come up hith

er, and sit down with me in my Father's kingdom." O to think of heaven and Jesus, Jesus and heaven! of bowing before Him, of casting crowns at His feet, of singing, "Unto him who hath loved us, and given himself for us, and washed us in his own blood, unto His name BE GLORY."

Nor many years since I was called to minister at the death-bed of two young men. They were both at that interesting period of life when youth is just opening into manhood and giving promise of a bright and joyous future. They moved in the same circle of society, sickened and died nearly at the same time. They were both of them greatly admired for their amiable qualities and social virtues while living, and they were sincerely and universally lamented in death. They were in many respects alike; and yet in the end an affecting and instructive contrast was made so clear and plain, as to be seen and marked by a whole community. The one was a man of study, and the other of business.

The former, two years previous to the time referred to, had graduated with no little honor at one of the first colleges of New England. The impress of intellect and of manly beauty was upon his brow, and the fire of genius flashed in his eye. His mind was gifted and well cultivated. He set his mark high, and no toil or striving was omitted in order to reach it. He was ambitious and studious. His ruling passion was success in the profession which he had chosen; all things else were made subsidiary to this end; his plans for life were laid, and all was hope and expectation as he pressed forward to win the prize-when, lo! from a cloudless sky a thunderbolt suddenly descended and struck him down. That DEATH which he had put a great way off in his thoughts, and