was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever

more."*

But

my mortal part is to die. This curiously wrought frame is to be destroyed, either by the rude violence of sudden calamity, or by the slow decay of age or disease. Well, my Saviour has undergone the solemn dissolution of soul and body before me; and, though his “flesh saw no corruption,” and mine is to see it, he has written on the awful portal, “ Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ? ” + With my dissolving dust there will lie in the grave's cold bosom a principle of life, which, at the voice of the Son of God, and under the breathing of that Spirit which raised him from the dead, will hereafter germinate with immortality, and rise to expand into a tree of life, which shall wave its branches, like palms of victory, over conquered death, and the despoiled grave. “For this corruptible MUST put on incorruption.” | Why? Because my Saviour has redeemed it. He has made it a part of his own mystical body, every member, every particle of which, must partake of his immortality. He has risen, the head of that body; and no

one, that belongs to him, can be left behind in a state lower than heaven and glory. Let my person become loathsome, as ever a living mass of dying flesh yet became, under the corrupting touch of disease so loathsome, that even the tenderest of earthly friends may dread to approach me, and may pray for the hour when the grave shall close over me – faith

may

smile and triumph. For He, who is in his own person the source, the substance, the first-fruits, and the efficient cause of the resurrection, “ shall change this vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”* In him I shall die - die

" blessed. The dead in him shall rise first, and meet him in the air, when he shall come to fill up the everlasting portion of them that are saved, and of them that perish. Be this, therefore, my supreme desire, “ that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection," + by personal experience, as the resurrection of my renewed and reconstructed nature.

*

In thy furrow, darksome grave,

Low, beneath thy heavy clod, -
Deep, below the keel-ploughed wave,

Where no living foot hath trod,

Safe, though long forgotten, lie
Seeds of immortality.

They must live; like precious grain,

Starting into life and bloom;
They must rise, for “He must reign,”

Jesus, who despoiled the tomb:
He, the Resurrection, lives :
He the promised harvest gives.

See! the mighty Angel stands !

Hark! the resurrection blast!
Lo, the sickle in his hands

Reaps the harvest in at last:
Heaven is filled with glorious store,
Gathered to its golden floor.

O my soul! is Jesus thine, —

Thine, his resurrection power? 'Tis enough:— thy dust resign,

Till thy Lord's triumphant hour ; Vile and worthless as it is, It shall share thy spirit’s bliss.

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

My Saviour is my RIGHTEOUSNESS. In the moral government of God there can be no compromise of justice no relaxation of law. An intelligent and accountable agent must either be entitled to the divine favor, on the footing of obedience, or be obnoxious to the divine wrath, as being involved in guilt by transgression. I am a sinner, in the very constitution of my nature; and the whole tenor of my life has either run counter to the will of God, or has fallen short of its required perfection. Even that part of my conduct which has borne some semblance of righteousness, has been, throughout, defective ; and an imperfect obedience can never satisfy a perfect law. Defect is sin. It requires atone. ment; and, in common with the whole aggregate of human guiltiness, it has found it in the death of the eternal Son of God. But this atonement

only exempts me from the punishment due to my sin. It gives me no title to acceptance with God, no assurance of his favor, and no prospect of future happiness. To have a claim on these, I must henceforth have my nature restored to a sinless state, and be placed in a new scene of probation, where I may perform a sinless obedience to the will of God; or I must obtain from him a dispensation of grace, as far beyond my reason to devise, as my moral condition to merit. This dispensation of grace meets me in the person and work of my adorable Saviour.

66

The prophets foretold my joy and my privilege : Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength."* I have neither in myself. I have both in him, and to the highest perfection, even to the full amount of my necessities. By Jeremiah, the truth is stated, if possible, with yet greater force, when he predicts that the name of the Redeemer, and of his church, as being one with himself, shall be this: "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."+ Having given me himself, his righteousness is mine. He made my sin his own, when he bore it" in his own body on the tree," when "the Lord

Isa. xlv. 24.

+ Jer. xxiii. 6; xxxiii. 16.