pearance to his people is the vindication of theirs. The resurrection is revelatory of God. We know the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.

The resurrection is also revelatory of Jesus himself. Not only does it show that Jesus was right in his conception of God, but also that we are right in our estimate of Jesus. He must have been a Being extraordinary to be able to pass through the experience of death, and afterward to make known to his disciples that he was alive in glorious existence.

Of course we do not forget that others are supposed to have made themselves known directly to their friends or indirectly through appropriate mediums. Those phenomena need be neither denied nor affirmed. If there be a modicum of fact beneath the mass of humbug and hallucination, we may hope that the Society for Psychical Research will discover it.

But we may put the resurrection appearances of Jesus on a different level. Here is a perfect certainty created in the minds of many earnest, sober men. A certainty so real that they proclaimed it without fear to the world; a certainty so glorious that they accounted themselves happy above all other men in its realization; a certainty so inspiring that they founded the mightiest institution the world has known, and transformed thereby the moral character of the race; a certainty so satisfying that they could suffer persecution and death with an abiding joy.

Who was it that could come back from that undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns, and change men's hearts by his presence?

He was the Lord. Lord of himself, lord of life, lord of truth, lord over the hearts of men. How great he was! How good! Evil with its subtlest arts and

heaviest assaults could not overthrow him. He was the Lord. His rank was humble, his means were slight, but how worthily he lived! The best that is in this world was his, and none could take it from him. No one has ever been compared with Jesus. Even Napoleon's vast conceit failed there. Beyond controversy among all the sons of men he was Lord.

But at last the arch enemy assailed him. Must he who conquered every ill succumb to death? The enemy bruised his heel, but Jesus the Lord bruised his head. In the resurrection we know him as so wonderfully he had spoken of himself, “I am the resurrection and the life." We know that he passed through the experience of death unscathed.

save us?

He was the Saviour. The world needs to be saved. There is so much of oppression, of misery, of vice, of crime, of meanness. The world is so bad. We shut our eyes sometimes and call ourselves optimists, and say that everything is beautiful. But in its vast extent humanity is unlovely. The world is full of wretchedness and wrong. We need to be saved. Can Jesus Is his way the right way? Is his life the saving life? Is it not impossible and impracticable? Did not his methods bring him to the cross? Yes, and the cross brought him to the crown. The resurrection makes us able to declare, "There is no other name given under heaven and among men whereby we must be saved." All philanthropies and social endeavors without him are partial and palliative. Only Jesus is Saviour. We learn of him, risen from the dead, that he who loseth his life shall find it.

He was the Son of God, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. The disciples had lived very familiarly and lovingly with Jesus. But they had known that he was more than

they: higher, holier, diviner. We look back over the centuries and Jesus is to us a man, but not like other men. He has a dignity and a glory that are his alone. He has a mission for the world that is his alone. He has a oneness with the eternal to which no one else has ever in any wise approached. He was Immanuel, God with The significance of that wonderful life is seen in the resurrection. Jesus was so much more than any other man that after death he could break through this separation that hides from us the unseen world, and could manifest himself, and could assume the spiritual leadership of men. God is the Father. Jesus is the

us.

Son of God.

The resurrection reveals his significance. And still further, the resurrection is revelatory of redeemed humanity. Jesus lives. We are sure of that great fact. Long ago on a dark Friday in Judæa he died. But now he lives. God brought him through death into life. God graciously permitted us to know that death was conquered in Jesus Christ. He was good enough to pass through the dread experience, and to live forevermore. But Jesus lived not on the earth for himself, and he lives not now for himself. Said he, summing up his wonderful mission, "Because I live, ye shall live also." He is the firstborn among many brethren. The resurrection of Jesus reveals to us the stupendous fact that personality endures. Personality, good, holy like his, endures through death unchanged. The Son of God here is still the Son of God yonder. "Where I am," said Jesus, "ye shall be also." But we are not like Jesus now. If through his goodness he passed through death unharmed, it is not a sign that we shall be able to do the same. But we may be like him, not in fulness, but in attitude, in hope, in earnest endeavor. God is our Father also. We too

may be children of God, and the life of God, the eternal life, we too may share.

The disciples went out into the world of heathen, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, and they preached the gospel of life. When any of their number died they said, “He is fallen asleep." When death threatened, they said, "To be with Christ is far better." When they measured things, it was with reference to eternal values. Jesus brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and humanity has come to a new consciousness.

We have seen Jesus and loved him. We have believed that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and have committed ourselves to follow him. We have in him seen God, and happily, reverentially, have learned to trust our Father. We know that we are the children of the eternal, and all things work together for our good, and we are immortal. Therefore we count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, that we may know him, and the power of his resurrection.

After the Resurrection—The Unseen Presence

The evangelists have recorded four narratives of the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after the Resurrection day. These narratives are of singular beauty and of great spiritual significance. The words of Jesus which they contain are among the most influencing of all the Master's utterances. If these stories are the result of the fevered imagination of the disciples, it must be confessed that their imaginations were remarkable for a soberness, a dignity, a spiritual power, that has given to the stories the very tone and color of life.

They are

There is a noble unity in these narratives. from different men, but they all indicate a manifest intention of Jesus to withdraw his visible presence from his followers and to inspire them for the continuance of his work. There is to come a time when he can no more win disciples by his uttered word and gracious visible presence. But disciples are still to be won, and blessed shall they be who have not seen and yet have believed. The days come when no personal service can be rendered to Jesus himself. No strong

arm can pull the oar of the boat that bears him across the lake, no friend can watch with him in hours of agony. No words of devotion can cheer his soul. But the ardent love of a disciple may still be shown. He who feeds the lambs and tends the sheep manifests his love for the Good Shepherd. No more can those who followed Jesus hear his words of command, sending them on missions of usefulness, directing their evangelism. But the gathering of the children of the kingdom shall not cease. The unseen Lord, clothed with the Divine authority, still sends his followers forth and bids