hrist: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead
rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them
that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive.'"

"Yes," said Grandma Elsie, "we needed a divine Saviour, and Christ's
resurrection proved his divinity; as Paul tells us here in the first
chapter of Romans, 'And declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.'
Peter too teaches us that the resurrection of Christ was necessary to
our salvation. It seems plainly taught in this verse of the fifth
chapter of his first Epistle. 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.'"

"Yes," said Violet, "Jesus said to his disciples, 'Because I live, ye
shall live also.' His resurrection is surely the pledge and assurance of
that of his people."

"Papa, does everybody have to die?" asked little Ned.

"Everybody except those who are alive when Jesus comes again, as he will
some day in the clouds of heaven. This is what the Apostle Paul tells us
about it in the letter he wrote to the Thessalonians. 'Them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then
we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with
the Lord.'"

"'Wherefore comfort one another with these words,'" added Evelyn softly,
finishing the quotation; "and oh, what a comfort it is!"

"There could be none greater," said Grandma Elsie. "Think of being
reunited with all the dear ones gone before, and in the immediate
presence of Jesus; never again to be pa