But let US further view,
II. What he has done for us through the instru- mentahty of his word —
" He has brought hfe and immortahty to hght through the Gospel."
These were not known to the heathen world. As for the resurrection of the body, it was derided by them, as a vain and foolish imagination : " What will this babbler say ?" And, though some of the wiser philosophers entertained some faint conceptions about the immortality of the soul, it was in their minds a matter of surmise or of opinion only, and not of knowledge : it was never a fixed and operative prin- ciple in the minds of any, except the Jews ; and even in their minds its operation was but very rare and partial. But the Lord Jesus Christ " brought hfe and immortality to light,"
1. As a matter of undoubted certainty —
[Through the whole of his ministry, he inculcated as of primary and indispensable importance, a regard to eternal life, both of body and souH ]
2. As the portion and inheritance of all his people —
[Though he declared that an eternal state awaited all, he made a broad distinction between his believing people and others. To the impenitent and unbelieving it would be a state of inconceivable misery ; but to the obedient, a state of inconceivable and endless bliss : " The hour is coming," says he, " in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto a resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, to a resurrection of damnation ■■." Indeed, he sets before us the whole process of the day of judgment, and the doom that shall be assigned to all, according to their respective characters ; " the wicked going away into everlasting punish- ment, and the righteous into life eternaP."]
3. As equally deserving the attention of every child of man —
<i Mark ix. 43—48. Matt. x. 28. r John v. 28, 29.
s Matt. XXV. 31—46.