ew man, and
that peace in our hearts will rule, that is, will sit there as umpire;
for it will instinctively draw itself into itself, as it were, like the
leaves of a sensitive plant, at the approach of evil, and, if we will
give heed to its warnings, and have nothing to do with what disturbs it,
we shall be saved from falling into many a sin. That peace gathers all
the possessors of the new life into blessed harmony. It is peace with
God, with ourselves, and with all our brethren; and the fact that all
Christians are, by their common life, members of the one body, lays on
them all the obligation to keep the unity in the bond of peace. And for
all these great blessings, especially for that union with Jesus which
gives us a share in his risen life, thankfulness should ever fill our
hearts and make all our days and deeds the sacrifice of praise unto him
continually.

RISEN WITH CHRIST

'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth.'--COL.
iii. 1, 2.

There are three aspects in which the New Testament treats the
Resurrection, and these three seem to have successively come into the
consciousness of the Church. First, as is natural, it was considered
mainly in its bearing on the person and work of our Lord. We may point
for illustration to the way in which the Resurrection is treated in the
earliest of the apostolic discourses, as recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles. Then it came, with further reflection and experience, to be
discerned that it had a bearing on the hope of the immortality of man.
And last of all, as the Christian life deepened, it came to be discerned
that the Resurrection was the pattern of the life of the Christian
disciples. It was regarded first as a witness, then as a prophecy, then
as a symbol. Three fragments of Scripture express these three phases:
for the first, 'Declared to be the Son of God with power by the
Resurrection from the dead'; for the second, 'Now is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept'; for the
third, 'God hath raised us up together with Him, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places.' I have considered incidentally the two
former aspects in the course of previous sermons; I wish to turn at
present to that final third one.

One more observation I mu