e life; he that
liveth and believeth on Him shall never die!"

Yes! however many be the comforting thoughts which cluster around the
grave of Lazarus, grander still is it to gather, as Jesus Himself here
bids us, around His own tomb, and to gaze on His own resurrection scene!
It was the most eventful morning of all time. It will be the focus point
of the Church's hope and triumph through all eternity.

"The Lord is risen!" It proclaimed the atonement complete, sin pardoned,
mediation accepted, the law satisfied, God glorified! "The Lord is
risen!" It proclaimed resurrection and life for His people--life (the
forfeited _gift_ of life) now repurchased. That mighty victor rose not
for Himself, but as the representative and earnest of countless
multitudes, who exult in His death as their life--in His resurrection as
the pledge and guarantee of their everlasting safety;--"I am He that
liveth," and "because I live ye shall live also."

Anticipating His own glorious rising, He might well speak to Martha,
standing before Him as the representative of weeping, sinful, woe-worn
humanity, "He that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die." "_In
Me_, death is no longer death; it is only a parenthesis in life--a
transition to a loftier stage of being. _In Me_, the grave is the
vestibule of heaven, the robing-room of immortality!"

Reader, yours is the same strong consolation. "Believe," "Only believe"
in that risen Lord. He has purchased all, paid all, procured all! Look
into that vacant tomb; see sin cancelled, guilt blotted out, the law
magnified, justice honoured, the sinner saved!

Ay, and more than that, as you see the moral conqueror marching forth
clothed with immortal victory, you see Him not alone! He is heading and
heralding a multitude which no man can number. Himself the victorious
precursor, he is shewing to these exulting thousands "the _path_ of
life." He tells them to dread neither for themselves or others that
lonesome tomb. The curse is extracted from it; the envenomed sting is
plucked away. In passing through its lonesome chambers they may exult in
the thought that a mightier than they has sanctified it by His own
presence, and transmuted what was once a gloomy portico into a triumphal
arch, bearing the inscription, "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave,
I will be thy destruction!"

IX.

THE MOURNER'S CREED.

How stands our faith?

These mighty thoughts and words of consolation--are they rea