scale of heavenly song. It is, "He is risen!" Of Elijah it was said, "He is ascended."

Of Lazarus it was said, "He was raised"; but for the first time it is now said, "He is risen." Yes, and in rising He broke the bars of death, and left open the portals of the grave that all His people might follow Him in due time.

Meanwhile, one of the holy women who came to embalm the body of Jesus, but had not seen the angel, lingered sad and disconsolate around the empty tomb. The stone rolled back, and the empty sepulchre made her think that her Lord had been carried off, and not knowing where to find Him in order to render the last sad duties, she began to weep. Bending over the tomb, she saw two angels clothed in white, one at the head and the other at the foot of the place where Christ had lain. These angels said to her: "Woman, why weepest thou? and she said unto them: "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him."

Turning at the moment, she saw Jesus Himself; but, not recognizing Him, and supposing Him to be the gardener, she said: “Sir, if

Thou hast taken Him away, tell me where Thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." Jesus said, Mary!" and immediately, she recognizing Him, she fell at His feet, saying, "Rabboni!" that is, "Master." Then Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and what things He had said unto her.

Here are the indisputable facts which prove His resurrection:

1. "Jesus was dead."

2. "He was laid in the new tomb."

3. "A guard of Roman soldiers was placed in charge of that tomb."

4. "The soldiers themselves announced the resurrection of Jesus."

5. "The folded clothes show that Jesus was not stolen."

6. "He appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to two disciples going to Emmaus, then to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to five hundred brethren when assembled at Jerusalem, then to James, to all the apostles, and this occurred at several times.

Thomas must not only see Him, but with his hands and fingers feel the prints of the nails

and the scars of His wounds. They eat and drink with Him, receive instructions and commissions from Him, and see Him taken up into heaven.

Stephen, Paul and John the Divine saw Him after He was ascended into heaven. The soldiers who were set to guard the sepulchre are forced to be witnesses, as of His death, so of His resurrection.

The coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, the miracles done, the gifts of the Spirit received in His name, and the faith of the world in Him do testify to the same; so that there can be no reason in the world to doubt His resurrection.

Christ is the resurrection; therefore, its source and spring, its author, and finished in a sense in which no other can be.

When He emerged from the tomb on the morning of the world's great Sabbath He brought life and immortality with Him, by which the perils of the deep sea, before awaiting the plunge of the diver, the treasures, before lying in the deep mine, were by Him seized and brought up to the light of day. Look and

see the place where the Lord lay, and tremble -but rejoice with trembling.

Is the stone there yet? If it is, if the stone is not yet rolled away, if the grave-stone and spices yet shroud and embalm the corpse, then let the darkness come and blot out the sun, and bid a long, long good-night to all the world's hopes of life, for existence is a feverish dream, and death shall be its ghastly but its welcome end.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept."

CHAPTER XXIII.

66 THE ASCENSION OF JESUS CHRIST."

"He led them out as far as to Bethany. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." The sentence was left incomplete; the benediction was broken off, as it were, at a semi-colon. "While He blessed them." It is as the song of an ascending bird, now so clear, so sharp, so sweet, and now less so, and now, and now— and now-and it is gone, away into the light, away into the nativity of the morning, away into heaven! We should bless God for broken benedictions, for incomplete farewells. The way of the going seems to intimate the certainty of the coming. As if Christ had said: "You have heard half the sentence now, the other half you shall hear in the morning."

"Forty days" had now elapsed since the crucifixion. During those forty days nine