and Nain, and Capernaum, and Bethany w11s not there. Some mio-ht have said," Je~u~ is deo.d," nod mig?t tell how ther saw hi_m die. Aud if others u~ged that nevertheleg~ ho Jived, they might say, "Ah yes; hves far away in heaven, among the angels." '!'hey hnd seen him go up, and a white cloud sailed ncruss and hid him from view; and since that day no human eye had looked into his face or seen the print of his feet. To mnny of us one of the gravest difficulties is to reconcile the apparent contradiction- Jesus is in the glory; Jesus is here. Jesus sits on the throne; Jesus dwells in the open, trusting heart. And our difficulty is not met by urging that Jesus himself is in the glory, but his influence is hero, his power is here, his Spirit is here; for we do not want to know about his influence, but about his personal presence, which carries and assures his influence. What we find it so hard to realize is that the only true being is spiritual being. Christ is a spiritual being; we are spiritual beings; so we can be really toaother, though the material thing space may seem to be a woeful divider. Two spirits ea~ come together; and if one spirit be weak, dependent, suffering, and the other stron;r, loving, and glorious, there may be wondrous and gracious intercommunions, and Jesus may make palsied lEneas whole. The striking thing in our text is the declaration that Jesus was actually there, a.nd there to heal. '!'hen we inquire- r. WHAT ARE THE EYES THAT CAN BEE BUCH A PRESENT CHRIST? For it is quite proper to say that both St. Peter and lEneas saw Jesus there. We so highly value the use of our bodily eyes that we fail to realize our soul-eyes. There a.re some striking instances in Scripture of the weakness of our bodily vision, and of our power to see what the eye never looks on; e.g. Sodomites wearying themselves to find the door; the prophet's servant seeing the guardian angels all round the mountains; so Saul saw nothing, and yet everything, when s::nitten down at Damascus. See also the holden eyes of the disciples on the wa.y to Emmaus. This eye of the spirit, that brings Jesus near, we call/aith. It is to the soul what the eye is to the body. It strains through the spiritual atmosphere, a.nd makes real and clear spiritual objects. And the present Christ, so beheld, becomes to us a. comfort and a joy unspeakable; telling as a gracious elevator on our whole daily life, sanctifying everything with the conviction, Christ is with me here. II. WHAT IS THE CONDITION WHICH CAN FEEL CHRIST'S PRESENCE? Need and suffering, especially spiritual need and spiritual suffering, are the great quickeners of sensibility. '!'he soul that ncedeth Christ soon makes the joyous discovery that Christ needeth the soul, a.nd hall already come seeking it. Sin-sick souls want the Physician nigh, and it is still the great gospel to men that we may stand before them and open a.nd quicken their spiritual vision as we say, "Look I Jesus Christ maketh thee whole 1"-R. T.
Ver. 40.-.Apostolic and other resurrections. There are only eight cases or resurrection from the dead recorded in the Bible. Elijah raised the widow's son at Zarephath. Elisha raised the Shunammite's son. By contact with Elisha's body in his grave, a dead man was quickened. Our Lord raised the daughter of Jnirus; the son of the widow of Nain; a.ud Lazarus of Bethany. St. Peter raised the charitable Dorcas. St. Paul restored the fallen Eutychus. Keeping these cases in mind, we may compare them with the resurrection of our Lord, and learn much from the distinct peculiarities of his resurrection. J. IN .ALL OTHER OASES DEATH TOOK PLACE UNDER THE QUIET CONDITIONS OF ORDINARY DISEASE, BUT OUR Lonn DIED DY A DEATH OF VIOLENCE. The little lad at Shunem Wao smitten by a. sunstroke. 'l'he maiden at Jairus's house was struck down by fever. Over the fading hours of Lazarus's sickness lovin~ sisters watched. Dorcas was for some days at least ill. Eutychus alone seems to have died by sudden accident. But our Lord's was death in the prime of life, in the fulness of health and strength ; death borne when a.11 the human faculties were in full vigour nnd exercise; death by the han,l uf violence; death judicially arranged; death voluntarily submitted to. Show that the diffcrei..ce is explained by our Lord's relation to human sin. II. OTHER RESURRECTIONS WERE EFFECTED THROUGH SOME BUMAN AGENCY, THE Dxvn,""E POWER WORKED BY SOME BUMAN MEDIUM ; m THE CASE OF OUR LORD THERE WAB No BUMAN AGtrnoY WHATEVER. At Zarephath and a.t Shunem there were prophet~, prayers, and painful efforts, to which a.lone returning life responded. St. Peter went into 332 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
the death-chamber of Dorcas, prayed, and spoke words of faith and power. Paul fell on and embraced the dead Eutychus. Dut our Lol'll" had life in himself," and so he ,-ose. In the grey of the dawning of that glorious Easter morn, he rose. No hand of power, no wizard's wand, no prophet's outstretched body, touched the sleeping King. He rose: that is all. Show what of his Divine natu,-e is declared to us in tllis unique and Fublime fact. He was "God manifest in the flesh." JIJ. ALL OTHER RESURRECTIONS WERE MERELY TEMPORARY RENEWALS OF EARTilLY LIFE UNDER THE SAME OLD EARTHLY CONDITIONS. Lazarus was restored for just B few more years to his home and brotherhood, by-and-by to die again even as he died at first. Dorcas came back but to make a few more garments for the widows and the poor, and then to die again, and be hopelessly la.id out for burial a second time in that upper chamber. Nobody was ever raised from the dead to live aJ,-esh sort of life under new conditions. They simply took up the thread of their old lives, as if there had been no strange break in them. The little lad ran out to his fatllcr among the reapers, just as he had done before that sad sunstroke. The maiden grew on into her womanhood as if she bad never closed her eyes to the light in that time of burning fever. .And the lad went to work again at Ne.in, to keep a home for his poor widowed mother. But in the case of our Lord there was no mere continuation of the old earthly life. 'l'he Resurrection links on to the Ascension, and Jesus risen is Jesus glorified. IV. ALL OTHER PERSONS WERE BROUGHT BACK FROM THE GRAVE ONLY TO FALL INTO ITS PO'l\"ER AGAP.;. We think of them with feelings in which much sadness mingles; for they were twice dead. But "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death bath no more dominion over him." He liveth again; and now he liveth for ever. Man's power to bless his fellow-man is sorely limited; for he must die. Christ's power to bless is unlimited; for he will never die. His resurrection was to a deathless and eternal life; there are no limitations that can ever check, on Christ's side, the beneficent operations of his grace. " Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession_for them."-R. T.