But neither of these could open the tomb, and rescue an individual from the cold embrace of death, and bring him forth to the light of life, and enable him to stand before men, as though the grave had never closed upon him. The evidences of the divinity of his mission, which were continually accumulating as he advanced in his career of benefi cence and miraculous operations, proving that God was with him, gathered in a bright halo around the tomb. The glory and truth of heaven, by which his whole course had been made radiant, was drawn to a focus upon that; and as he burst its confines, raising to the heavens his nail-pierced hands, it was impossible for those who saw him rise,-and it is impossible for those who heartily believe that he rose, not to believe with the apostle Paul that he "was raised from the dead by the Omnipotence of the Father."

This the apostles realized; and therefore this is the reason, when they took their lives in their hands and went out to scatter the seeds of truth and righteousness over the face of the Gentile world, that they attached so much importance to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. This they considered the foundation upon which the whole temple of eternal life must be reared. Faith in that one fact lay at the bottom of the Gospel system. To prove that, was to prove all they had been instructed to preach. Upon that fact, they were willing to stake all they held dear. "If Christ be not risen," says Paul, "then is our preaching vain, and your faith is

also vain; yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he hath raised up Christ." Thus does the apostle risk his whole cause, his reputation for honesty, and his temporal and spiritual welfare, upon the single fact that the Son of man was raised from the dead. He does this because that was a fact; and because on the belief of it must be based the belief in the divinity of Christ's mission, in every mind to which his gospel should be addressed. Now the divinity of his mission being established, all he taught or revealed is established according to his claims; for none can be so void of reason as to suppose that the God of the universe would either send forth a messenger to publish falsehood, and bestow upon him miraculous powers to witness to it; or that a divinely commissioned herald of truth would prove recreant, and proclaim a falsehood to the children of men.

It being a fact, then, that the apostles constantly pointed to the resurrection of Christ as a pre-eminent proof of the divinity of his mission; and that it must be, by all minds, in all ages, considered as irrefragable evidence of it,—the conclusion is legitimate that the direct and immediate object of that wonderful event was, to give evidence of that great truth, upon which the whole Christian system is based.

The resurrection of Christ has another work to perform beside that of operating upon the intellect, or convincing the understanding, and that is upon the heart. Its ultimate object is a moral one. Saith

an apostle, "He was delivered for our offences, and raised for our justification"-that "God raised up Jesus from the dead, and gave him glory, that our hope as well as our faith might be in God"—and that as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Father so we should walk in newness of life." Says Paul, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Thus we must rise with him above all the works of death, through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Yet

"The revival of Christ, to be sure, is a bare physical fact. A certain portion of organized matter passed out of one state into another state. when should we come to an end of enumerating the influences of that fact? It is the key-stone to Jewish history. It binds together into a whole the extraordinary narrative which begins with the call of Abraham, or the mission of Moses, and ends in the destruction of the Jewish polity and the dispersion of the Jews. To both events, and all that intervenes, it gives meaning and unity. That bare physical fact illustrates the character of the pure and infinite Spirit. It reveals God as the Almighty and the all-loving. Look at it in its effects on the speculations of philosophers; it solved the most difficult question in which they had entangled themselves, and the most deeply interesting. It superseded their conflicting arguments on the destiny of man, and made historical fact banish metaphysical doubt. See its political bearing: how large a portion it has col

ored of the broad surface of the stream of time. On

theory and practice, mind and manners, private life and public history, the past and the future,-how illimitable are its influences !"*

* W. J. Fox.

CHAPTER XI.

AN EXAMINATION OF THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER OF FIRST CORINTHIANS.

By consulting chapter 3: 6-10, of this epistle to the Corinthians, and Acts 18: 1-18, we learn that St. Paul was the first who preached the gospel at Corinth, that city of splendor and moral corruption. He labored there a considerable length of time, and succeeded in establishing a church, composed, probably, of Jews and Gentiles. But having work to do in other places, he was obliged to leave them, after which other teachers visited Corinth, and were the cause of much strife and improper conduct among the brethren, who gradually fell from their first estate, and finally became extremely disorderly and licentious. (chap. 1: 11, 12; 3: 3—10, 22.) This was probably brought about in part by their teachers, and in part by old habits and the vicious practices of those around them. Paul hearing of this wrote to them (chap. 5: 9) an epistle, which is not now extant. But it seems they paid little or no attention to his rebukes and instructions. At all events, they did not improve by his admonitions; and some of their teachers denied his authority altogether, and taught doctrines which were false in