a present and a future thing-lasting to eternity. "I am," he says, "alive for ever

The meaning of the Apostle, in part at least, is this.

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Jesus Christ, Who suffered the pains of a cruel death for us, is living now a Life of boundless power and glory, for He is described as sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on High." The whole universe, seen and unseen, is placed at His absolute disposal, for it is said, "angels, authorities and powers are made subject unto Him.”

If this Christ be the Son of God, His own True, Only Son, Whom God sent into the world to reconcile us to Himself, and if by His Death, and its accompanying pains and sorrows, He reconciled us to God-which, seeing that He Who suffered was God's very Son, He could hardly fail to do-much more now that He is not dead, but living in glory and power in the highest place in heaven, He will finish the work which He has begun, and save us, now reconciled, from sin and its consequences, if we will submit to be saved by Him.

But more than all this, when we were enemies we were reconciled.

The whole world was at enmity with God when Christ died for all men; and so there was the most serious of obstacles to the mercy God reaching us; but the Death of Christ removed

of

the obstacle in the enmity of the world. The world was very in a sense cleansed by it, as was revealed to St. Peter when He was empowered to open the door of faith to the Gentiles; so that every man in the world is redeemed; so that it is the Church's fault if he do not hear of the benefits of redemption, and his own fault if all those benefits be not his.

Much more then being reconciled, we shall be saved, if we voluntarily and consciously put ourselves under Him for purposes of salvation, by Him as a living Saviour.

Because He is not dead but alive, He can hear us, He can answer us; He can do for us and in us what seems good to Himself; and if we are His, or even desire to be His, what seems good to Him is very good for us to experience or to receive.

Because He is alive, if we pray to Him, He will do to us in this His risen, and ascended, and glorified state of Life in heaven, according to the tenor of what He did to men in His lowly, suffering Life on earth. He will heal the sores of our sins. He will restore our spiritual sight. He will reinfuse strength into our palsied wills. He will open our ears. He will rebuke the fever of our passions. He will feed us with the bread of life. He will give us to drink of the water of life, even of His Spirit. Most marvellous of all, He will call out to us as we lie in the tombs of our corruption, “Come

forth." He will raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness.

Such seems to exhaust the meaning of this assertion of inspiration, "we shall be saved by His life."

But it does not. For there can be no doubt whatsoever to one who compares Scripture with Scripture that St. Paul, when he says "we shall be saved by His life," means a something over and above, and beyond anything I have yet said.

For the Apostle does not say that we shall be saved by His power, by His reign, by His love, or even by His grace. When a man exercises power he exercises that which may be apart from himself. Whereas the Apostle says we shall be saved by that which is in Him-in Jesus-even by His very Life.

Let us dwell upon this. It is the very Easter morning theme.

What did Christ rise for? Did He not rise to assure us of the truth of all He said and promised? Assuredly. Did He not rise to assure us of our own resurrection? Most certainly. The Apostle says, "in Christ shall all be made alive.'

But is this all? By no means: for the Apostle teaches us that Christ rose that He might impart to us of His Life.

If this had been told us but once we might have said that we may be mistaken in our interpretation of so hard a saying as that one

man should give his life, not only for another, but to another. Surely each man's life is his own in such a sense that it cannot be imparted. He wants it all for himself. If he parts with his life he loses that which leaves him, and assuredly does not enter into another.

He may communicate his wealth to another; he may communicate his knowledge to another; but his life is incommunicable. He can share

it with none.

So it is with us.

But if there be, as there is, a human life instinct with Godhead, then who can set bounds to the powers and properties of such a life? There is such a life.

One said, and He rose this Easter morning to prove the truth of His saying, "I am the life." He said also, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He compared Himself and His Church to a thing which has all throughout it a common life when He said, "I am the true vine. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered." He said also, "Because I live," i. e., I live after death, "ye shall live also." He said also, “I am the Resurrection and the Life." Not, I will raise the dead, and will give life; but, “I am the Resurrection and the Life."

His Apostle says in the text, "We shall be saved by His life;" and the same servant of His says in the epistle for this Easter Day, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear;" and again, "As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Such then is the full truth implied by the Apostle when he says, "We shall be saved by His life." Do we understand how it is that we can partake of Christ's Life-the Life of a man. now in the highest place in heaven?

Assuredly not; for it is connected with two mysteries infinitely above us. The mystery of Christ's Holy Incarnation on the one side, and the mystery of our being, our sinful being, our deriving sin and death from Adam, on the other.

Well, then, if it be such a mystery—a mystery to me, my brethren, just as much as to you— should I preach about it to a congregation such as this? This is really as if one put the question, should I preach about salvation?

If we are saved by Christ's Life we should know it, so that we may avoid all that destroys His life within us. So that we may faithfully and intelligently use every means whereby we may grow and increase in His Life.

Now the epistle for this Easter Day teaches