"Like a IV. The Christian will die with honor. shock of corn cometh in his season." There is such a thing as an honorable funeral, where devout men assemble, carry to the grave and make great lamentation. Such funerals are like a "harvest home." There is such a melancholy grandeur there. We ought to pay great respect to the departed saints' bodies. "The memory of the just is blessed." There are two funerals for every Christian; one the funeral of the body and the other the soul-rather it is the marriage of the soul; for angels stand ready to carry it to the Saviour. The angels, imitating husbandmen, as they near the gates of heaven may shout "Harvest Home." There is a holiday whenever a saint entersand there is praise to God, "While life, or thought, or being lasts, THE THE INEVITABLE BATTLE. REV. U. R. THOMAS. There is no discharge in that war.-Ecc. viii: 8. HE dark thought in these words is the inevitableness of death. Death is an unavoidable war-a war in which we are all pressed men. The richest can obtain no substitute, and the greatest are not exempt. Illustrious statesmen must enter the lists. Queens and kings are like others here. Death comes up into their windows and enters into their palaces. The Queen of Song must sing her own battle-cry and take the place of a dead minstrel. The sculptor, the geologist, the architect, how renowned each may be, must resign the chisel, hammer or pencil to other hands. The skillful physician who devoted his life to conflict disease and resist death, falls at last himself. The accomplished historian drops in the ranks and leaves it to another to write his history. The judge upon the bench drops his pen and takes his place in the silent corps. Philanthropists, who have given themselves to remove suffering and confer happiness, are called by this giant Death to cease their beneficent work and follow him, leaving behind a place in the Pantheon of the workers of love." Preachers of the cross, upon whose lips thousands have hung, and who have turned many to righteousness, cannot evade death's reveille, who extinguishes their burning and shining light in the tomb. Two lessons at least are taught. I. That we too shall have our places among the dead, even though we be obscure, and not illustrious, unknown. instead of honored. The edict has gone out, "It is appointed unto all, &c." "The small and great are there." Death is a war. We are all conscripts for that war. There is no necessary disgrace in death. The great may have dignity there, the good glory. "Not to thy resting-place shalt thou retire alone, &c." But this is not our consolation. The strong consolation, the purest comfort is in this, "Christ died." The very flower of our humanity faded, the Prince of the Kings of the earth died, laid in the tomb, left there an immortal fragrance. He took flesh and blood, "that through death he might destroy, &c." II. That our death will terminate the mission and fix the influence of our life. Various are the ways in which we may serve our generation and glorify God. There is no monotony in God's service. There is a place for each and all, but the death of those who have gone before us proclaims that our work is hastening to its close. Therefore, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, &c.," or the nobler spirit of Jesus. "I must work the works of Him that sent me, &c." Let our lives be good, if not great, useful, if not illustrious, and then our names will be cherished on earth, and we shall be had in everlasting remembrance. IT THE VITAL QUESTION. JOHN TODD, d.d. Shall he live again ?-Job xvi: 14. T is not whether my property be restored, or this leprosy leave me, or my children be decently buried, or shall ever these friends now reproaching me alter their opinions, but, "If a man die shall he live again ?" Ten thousand other questions will not weigh a feather compared with this of our text. I. There are some things which make it seem improbable that he will. All men feel that death is the result of sin. Death would not have entered Eden if sin had been kept out. Sin came bringing the flood, digging every grave since, and keeps continually at his work. The graveyard is full of little cells in which prisoners are shut up. They were stripped of everything before they were confined there. No one ever returns. Wise men have looked into the grave, tried to peep into eternity, but no voice was heard, no movement seen. They saw nothing beyond the grave, and resurrection was almost too much to hope for. How improbable that the lifeless man shall ever come out again. II. The resurrection of the body seems probable for two reasons. 1. There is an undefined impression in the minds of all men that the dead shall live again. The heathen if possible buried their families side by side. Every family had a great tomb. Abraham bought a burying-ground. Jacob said, "I will lie with my fathers, &c." A savage carries his wife's body a hundred miles to bury it with other loved ones. What is that undefined hope, that voice that whispers to the heart, probably all these shall be reunited in life again? Is it a ray shot from revelation? The very man who scorns the Bible wants a family burying-place. 2. The changes we see take place around us, show the resurrection to be highly probable. Look at that sand changed into glass. Look at that little decaying acorn out of which the oak springs. Look at that leafless tree which the spring clothes anew with leaves, flowers and fruit. Look at that worm in her cell, apparently lifeless, break out into a beautiful insect brilliant as the rainbow. The power of the resurrection is in each of these. And shall man so curiously and wondrously made, have the spirit driven out of her home for ever? III. The Bible makes it certain, that if a man die, he shall live again. Life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel. Paul recites the facts of Christ's resurrection, and if anything can be proved by witnesses then it is proved that Christ did rise from the dead. God gave Him power to rise. His rising was a pledge that he would. raise up all the dead. Job, who asks this question of our text, saw this truth, and cries, "I know that my Redeemer, &c." Daniel, Paul, and John believed it. If any doctrine is fully revealed it is this: My whole being has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The debt has all been paid. I shall come up again from the grave with a body like Christ-no sin, suffering or decay. "Blessed is he who hath part in the first resurrection." Those who have done evil shall come forth to the resurrection of damnation. Avert the latter resurrection by coming to Christ for life now. RESURRECTION HOPE. REV. H. CANON MELVILL. How are the dead raised up, &c. ?-1 COR. xv: 35, 36. THE doctrine of the resurrection of the body is pcculiar to Christianity. The immortality of the spirit had been spelled out by some of the heathen, but when Paul spoke on Mar's Hill of the resurrection of the body, some mocked and others said, "We will hear thee again of this matter." The text suggests: I. The real identity of the resurrection body. The apostle uses the figure of a seed put into the ground, &c. So the body as a shriveled seed is put into the ground, but it shall rise different, and yet the same. Its identity shall be preserved. Ten thousand objections may be raised. But if it were necessary omnipotence and omniscience could trace and bring forth every atom. But to preserve identity this is not needful. But remember the same body in which you sinned, is the same body that shall suffer if you die in sin, or if you are a believer the same body in which you will be glorified. II. While the identity is real, the transformation is glorious. The body is now full of seeds of decay. It has sufferings, aches, pains, all premonitions of coming death. But the new body is incorruptible-upon it the tooth of time can have no power and into it the dart of death can never be thrust. Every part of the new body shall have stamped upon it "immortality." It will be a beautiful body. It is raised in glory. The chrysalis |