s up the conditions of it, and awakens the consciousness of
it. "I am the resurrection and the life: whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die." We suppose this means, he shall
know that he is never to perish: it cannot refer to physical
dissolution, for the believer dies equally with the unbeliever; it
cannot refer to immortal existence in itself, for the unbeliever
is as immortal as the believer: it must refer to the blessed
nature of that immortality and to the personal assurance of it,
because these Christ does impart to the disciple, while the
unregenerate unbeliever in his doctrine, of course, has them not.
Coming from God to reveal his infinite love, exemplifying the
Divine elements of an immortal nature in his whole career, coming
back from the grave to show its sceptre broken and to point the
way to heaven, well may Christ proclaim, "Whosoever believes in
me" knows he "shall never perish."

Among the Savior's parables is an impressive one, which we cannot
help thinking perhaps fancifully was intended to illustrate the
dealings of Providence in ordering the earthly destiny of
humanity. "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed
into the ground and the seed should grow up; but when the fruit is
ripe he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." Men
are seed sown in this world to ripen and be harvested in another.
The figure, taken on the scale of the human race and the whole
earth, is sublime. Whether such an image were originally suggested
by the parable or not, the conception is consistent with Christian
doctrine. The pious Sterling prays,

"Give thou the life which we require, That, rooted fast in thee,
From thee to thee we may aspire, And earth thy garden be."

The symbol shockingly perverted from its original beautiful
meaning by the mistaken belief that we sleep in our graves until a
distant resurrection day is often applied to burial grounds. Let
its appropriate significance be restored. Life is the field, death
the reaper, another sphere of being the immediate garner. An
enlightened Christian, instead of entitling a graveyard the garden
of the dead, and looking for its long buried forms to spring from
its cold embrace, will hear the angel saying again, "They are not
here: they are risen." The line which written on Klopstock's tomb
is a melancholy error, engraved on his cradle would have been an
inspiring truth: "Seed sown by God to ripen for the harvest."

Several