ry and
honor; and listen, for He speaks: "I am He that liveth, and was dead,
and behold I am alive for evermore." Consider Him! And whilst we look
and listen, how does that word of the Preacher sound, "A man hath no
pre-eminence above a beast!" And this is our portion, beloved reader.
He might indeed have had all the glory of that place, without the agony
of the garden, without the suffering and shame of the cross, had He
been content to enjoy it alone. But no--He must have His own with Him;
and now death has been abolished as to its terror and power, so that
the groan of old is replaced by the triumphant challenge: "O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Cor. xv. 55.)

The resurrection of Jesus not only makes possible--not only makes
probable--but absolutely assures the glorious triumphant resurrection
of His own who have fallen asleep: "Christ the firstfruits, afterward
they are Christ's at His coming." But further, is this "falling
asleep" of the saint to separate him, for a time, from the conscious
enjoyment of his Saviour's love? Is the trysting of the saved one with
his Saviour to be interrupted for awhile by death? Is his song

"Not all things else are half so dear
As is His blissful presence here"

to be silenced by death? Then were he a strangely conquered foe, and
not stingless, if for one hour he could separate us from the enjoyed
love of Christ. But no, "blessed be the Victor's name," not for a
moment. "Death is ours" and "absent from the body" is only "present
with the Lord." So that we may answer the Preacher's word, "A man hath
no pre-eminence above a beast," with the challenge, To which of the
_beasts_ said He at any time, "This day shalt thou be with Me in
paradise"?

Let the Preacher groan, "all is vanity;" the groan is in perfect--if
sorrowful--harmony with the darkness and ignorance of human reason; but
"_singing_" alone accords with _light_; "Joy cometh _in the morning_,"
and if we but receive it, we have in "Jesus Risen" light enough for
perpetual, unending, song.

CHAPTER IV.

But we must follow our Preacher, who can only turn away with bitterness
from this closed door of Death, once more to take note of what is
"under the sun." And sad and sorrowful it is to him to mark that the
world is filled with oppression. He has already, in the previous
chapter, noted that "wickedness was there in the place of judgment and
iniquity in the place of rig