hath raised him from the dead." In the same strain he commences his Epistle to the Romans: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Peter, in his First Epistle, expresses in language still more emphatic the bearing which the resurrection of Christ has on our hopes of immortality: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, from which we have just quoted, goes on in the strongest language to state the intimate connection which, to his mind, subsisted between the resurrection of Christ and the doctrine of immortality. "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, 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 raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not."

It is not too much to say, from these various citations, that the Apostles, the writers of the New Testament, unanimously considered the resurrection of Christ to be the main fact of the Gospel, the very

hinge upon which the whole enterprise turned. If they were mistaken in this, it was all a delusion, and they themselves the most miserable and unfortunate of men. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

To this testimony of the resurrection of Christ these Apostles remained constant during their lives, and for it they freely shed their blood and died.

But God so ordered the course of things, that succeeding ages should not only have the best direct testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, but the strongest indirect evidence. Great occurrences impress themselves upon the times in which they happen. Their actual occurrence is testified not only by words, but by actions and events. The whole course of things is influenced and shaped by them. As causes, they produce effects, which remain to bear witness of them, and are wholly unaccountable without them. It was thus, I think, in an eminent degree, with the resurrection of Christ. If any reliance is to be placed on the narratives of the Evangelists, a most remarkable change took place in the conduct and character, the opinions, the feelings, and the purposes of the disciples about the time at which the resurrection is said to have taken place, and just such a change as such an event would naturally produce. Christ was crucified there can be no doubt. his followers were poor and illiterate men, natives of

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Galilee, and strangers at Jerusalem, there can be as little reason to call in question. That they were wholly destitute of resources is evident from the fact that they were unable to give their deceased Master the rites of sepulture. This was done by strangers, Nicodemus the counsellor, and Joseph, a rich man of Arimathea. Their hopes in their Master had been utterly disappointed. They had come to Jerusalem with the expectation of seeing him soon a king. But instead of this he was crucified, and they were scattered. They seem to have resumed their former pursuits, and given over all expectations as the followers of Jesus. But on a sudden they rally, they come together, they deliberate in private, they act together in public, they attract multitudes, they produce a deep impression, they testify that their Master had risen from the dead. To that testimony they were ready to sacrifice their lives. Thousands believed their testimony, for not only were they witnesses, but there were in their midst the five hundred who had seen him alive after his public execution. Could such a change have taken place in the disciples without an adequate cause? Is it in human nature to stand forth in the face of multitudes and assert a falsehood, from which they could derive no sort of advantage, and which subjected them to persecution and death? This of course is an argument which addresses itself to the minds of men in all ages.

There are, moreover, in the narratives, traces of great excitement produced by this event, precisely such as would naturally be caused by an occurrence of such magnitude, interest, and importance. On the occurrence of an extraordinary event, it so ab

sorbs men's minds that they become incapable of attending to their ordinary employments. They are seen collected in groups, exchanging their thoughts and feelings. Sympathy becomes intense, and they are unwilling to separate. We read in the Acts, that immediately on the return of the disciples to Jerusalem from Mount Olivet, from which they had seen Christ ascend, they came together. "And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." These particulars of names and place and time add greatly to the probability of the narrative. Their employment, too, prayers and supplications, is a very natural one for persons who had just witnessed such a spectacle as seeing a beloved friend ascend to heaven, and an exercise not at all likely to occupy a band of false witnesses, conspiring to deceive the world and delude all nations. In another place it is said of them: "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people." Could anything be more natural than this enthusiasm under the circumstances?

There is another incident recorded, which furnishes a still stronger proof that something extraordinary had occurred. The last thing which men are disposed to do is to relinquish their property. They

usually grasp it with tenacious hold till their hands are unclasped by death. That must be a mighty impulse which has power to overcome this attachment. In these first days of the existence of the Christian Church, the phenomenon was presented of a community giving up their private property, their own hard earnings and careful savings, and the inheritances transmitted to them by their fathers, and throwing it into a common stock for the support of all. The most rational explanation of this anomalous fact is the mighty impression made by the resurrection of Jesus. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need." In another place it is said: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul, neither said any of them that aught of the things that he possessed was his own, but they had all things common." The reason of this, as it seems to me, is casually and unconsciously thrown in by the historian himself: "And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."

These things, in my judgment, show a very great disturbance of the ordinary condition of the human mind in the first Christian community, and it can be accounted for only on the supposition of the occur