*|| That so many thousands of human beings have assembled to worship our Lord and God beneath the dome of this Cathedral Church this Easter night, is a statistical fact which, if it were ascertained, would have no particular interest if it were not that linked to that fact is the idea of its vast, its complex, its humanly speaking unascertainable power. So many intelligences enlightened by the truth of Christ, so many hearts warmed by the love of Christ, so many wills braced by the grace of Christ, so many souls brought face to face with truth yet without spiritual benefit, and therefore most assuredly not without spiritual loss ; this is the power of the fact before us, not the less certain because its precise measure cannot be taken, not the less interesting assuredly because its import reaches far beyond the present moment, far beyond the confines of time to the distinct horizons of eternity. And St. Paul's meaning in the text is that, so far as he may, he would, in respect of a far more momentous fact, measure at least some departments of its power, make some pro- gress in discoveries which as man he could never hope to exhaust.^
3. The resurrection was the crowning blow at sin, and carries with it a justifying power. If Christ be not risen, there has been no victory over sin and no annulment oE the law; and there can be no evidence for the sinner that the death of Jesus stands in any such relation to his faith as that the righteousness of God, which is by faith, is become his ; or that, even though he died with Christ, he has a new and spiritual life in the soul. Paul traversed precisely this road in his religious experience. Jesus appeared to him as risen and glorified. Then he knew that His death had not been that of a malefactor or of a pestilent deceiver, but was the one offering for sin which was adequate, and that Jesus whom he persecuted was his Lord and Saviour. Peter testifies to the same effect, when he tells us that, from the despair and sadness of the disciples at the crucifixion, and the disappoint-
» T. G. Selby, The Alienated Crown, 277. * H. P. Liddon, Christ's Conquest, 58.
PHILIPPIANS III. lo, II
o'^j
ment of their hopes that followed, they were " begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And the Jews, who could not receive the doctrine of a suffering Messiah, and to whom His ignominious death was an absolute bar to His claim, when they accepted Peter's testimony that He had risen, again saw also in His death their atonement, and repented and were converted. We see the power of His resurrection for justification.
^ Several years ago, a picture exhibited in the Eoyal Academy was based upon the story that Oliver Cromwell, on the night following the execution of Charles the First, stole into the room at Whitehall to look upon the body of his former foe. The painting shows him in the act of drawing aside the sheet that had been cast over the dead king. Into the lines of that intent face the artist has skilfully combined inexorable firmness and a faint touch of pity : but there is no sign of scattering clouds. The features of the Protector seem to say : " Alas, poor king ! it must needs be so. And perhaps the end is not yet." Not quite sure is he that the scaffold will mark the end of the trouble. More heads may need to fall. The execution about which historians and jurists are still debating was looked upon as inevitable. No Cavalier could have read in those strongly-lined features licence for a new opposition to the rights of the Parliament. No friend of Charles could have read encouragement in the face that was looking upon the havoc of block and scaffold. But if the Pro- tector could have undone the day, and have freed the captive of death, such an act might have been read into an assurance of peace. If a resurrection could have been brought to pass, that would have been a pledge of amnesty.^
^ Across the page, in the old archives of France, on which the taxes of the Department of Domremy should have been enumer- ated, was written the sentence of remission, " Free for the Maid's sake." It was there that Joan of Arc was born, the Maid who died for her country. God has His archives, where my sins should be commemorated and my penalty set down. His Son has blotted out, by love and death, the dark record. But I must be sure that He is risen, and that my holy Judge has accepted His substitution, before I can read the new writing on the page, " Forgiven and free for the Eedeemer's sake." ^
4. The power that Paul has specially in view is a renewing
1 T. G. Selby, TJie Alienated Crown, 281. ' A. Smellie, In the Secret Place, 359.
344 THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
/'and sanctifying power. Christ is not only a Eedeemer from sin, but the author of a new life in them that believe. He so comes to men through their trust in Him, through their self-surrender and their clinging to Him as for their life, that He and they become identified in a most real and living union. He is the vine, they are the branches. " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." If any man will identify himself in his inmost soul, in his will, in his affections, in his heart, with Jesus Christ, surrendering to Him the government of his life, he becomes thereby a new creature. For him old things are passed away, and all things become new. He is like a child born into a new world. He is alive from the dead ; he is risen as Christ was raised. So close, indeed, is the identification that in their measure the mysteries of Christ's earthly life are reproduced in the spiritual experience of the believer. He is crucified with Christ, with Christ he is buried, he is raised, he is set in the heavenly places, he walks in newness of life. He knows, in short, the power of the resurrection, which is just the power of the risen Christ Himself, that power by which He reproduces in all who surrender themselves to His love " the characteristic qualities of His own V perfect manhood."