out a divine providence--yea, a
divine inspiration--has the blessed Eastertide been fixed, by the Church
of all ages, as the season when the earth shakes off her winter's sleep;
when the birds come back, and the flowers begin to bloom, when every seed
which falls into the ground and dies, and rises again with a new body, is
a witness to us of the Resurrection of Christ; and a witness, too, that
we shall rise again; that in us, as in it, life shall conquer death; when
every bird that comes back to sing and build among us, every flower that
blows, is a witness to us of the Resurrection of the Lord and of our
Resurrection. . . . They obey the call of the Lord, the Giver of Life,
when they return to life, as a type and a token to us of Christ their
Maker, who was dead and is alive again, who was lost in hell on Easter
eve, and was found again in heaven for evermore. And so the resurrection
of the earth from her winter's sleep, commemorates to us, as each blessed
Eastertide comes round, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is
a witness to us that some day life shall conquer death, light conquer
darkness, righteousness conquer sin, joy conquer grief; when the whole
creation, which groaneth and travaileth in pain until now, shall have
brought forth that of which it travaileth in labour--even the new heavens
and the new earth, wherein shall be neither sighing nor sorrow, but God
shall wipe away tears from all eyes.

_Discipline and other Sermons_.

Death is not death if it kills no part of us save that which hindered us
from perfect life. Death is not death, if it raises us in a moment from
darkness into light, from weakness into strength, from sinfulness into
holiness. Death is not death, if it brings us nearer to Christ who is
the fount of life. Death is not death, if it perfects our faith by
sight, and lets us behold Him in whom we have believed. Death is not
death, if it gives us to those whom we have loved and lost, for whom we
have lived, for whom we long to live again. Death is not death, if it
joins the child to the mother who was gone before. Death is not death,
if it takes away from that mother for ever all a mother's anxieties, a
mother's fears, and lets her see, in the gracious countenance of her
Saviour, a sure and certain pledge that those whom she has left behind
are safe, safe with Christ and in Christ, through all the chances and
dangers of this mortal life. Death is not death, if it rids us