prellent day ancient tomb& on which are to be read inscriptions expressing hopeleBB regret for the dead. The Church address~d by St. Paul was a little community which had learnt to enJoy a strange, new view of the state and prospects of the departed, planted 1D the midst of a great pagan populace that held the melancholy sentiments of these epitaphs. Contrastini/: the Christians with "the rest" of the people the apostle reminds them that they should not give way to the despairing sorrow that was natural to men who had no hope. I. OUTSIDE CHRISTIANITY SORROW FOR THE DEAD IS HOPELEl!S. 1. History and ezperience establish this fact. Pagan tombs everywhere express themselves with various degrees of despair, but never with cheerful hope. Nations like the Egyptians that had a firm faith in a future !ile can scarcely be said to have enjoyed any hopes respecting that life. A general dream of immortality pervades our race; but it is everywhere dim and cheerless. Many men at all times have broken away from it altogether, and have said with Catullus, "When once our brief day has set we must sleep one everlasting night." 2. Reasoning can,iot conque1· the common hopelessness of aorrow for the dead. The arguments outside Christianity may be divided into two classes: (1) Naturalistic; e.g. from the nature of consciousness, from the indestructi- bility of all known existences, from the general instinct of immortality, from analo ..ies of sleep, tra.nsforn,a.tions of insects, succession of winter, spring, etc. Less and less weight is being ascribed to all such reasoning. It will not bear the strain of anxious doubt. The mourner tums his eyes in vain to nature for comfort. (2) Theistic. (a) In the 1INldom of God. Man's life being but imperfectly developed here, the Divine idea of hnma.nity would be vain and futile without a larger world for realizing it. (b) In the i'U,Stice of God-the necessity of a. future judgment. (c) In the goodness of God. A father would not mock his child by creating him so that he has a great hunger for a future which is unattainable. Nevertheless even these arguments do not satisfy, for who can venture to speak with a.ssura.nce of the high counsels of the A Imighty? and, moreover, they presuppose a knowledge of the character of God which only Christianity clearly furnishes. 11. CHRISTIANITY DB.A WS THE STING OF HOPELESSNESS FROM SORROW FOR THE DBAD, 1. It does not destroy that sorrow. To do so would he impossible. We must grieve a.t parting from those who are dear to us. Indeed it would be unbmlthy for us entirely to conquer natural sorrow. We should have to conquer natural love first. A softening, subduing, purifying mission comes with this grief, and is one of the best means of hel]Jing us to receive Christian truth. 2. But Christianity removes the sting from this sorrow by depriving it of hopelessnesa. The hope which St. Paul refers to is plainly the hope of receiving hack those who have been taken from us_ by death. They are gone, but not gone for ever. Every weary year as IC passe11 brmgs us nearer t.o the happy reunion. The words of St. Paul plainly show that he believed in the mutual reeognition of friends in the future life. · UL THE DEA.TB AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST ABE THE 8ECBET OF THIB CHBIB· TIAN TRANSFIGURATION OF SORROW FOB THE DEAD. 1. The strongest argument to convince men generally of a future life is to be found in the resurrection of Christ taken in connection with his life and tt,aching. He spoke of judgment and of eternal life. He cc.nfirmed his words by rising from the dead. The conlirmation is twofold. (1) 'l'he resurrection is a Did.::ie authentication of the claims and mission of Christ. (2) It is an insLance, a crucial test, a proof that a future life is possible. 2. For Christians the death and resurrection of Christ are grounds for enjoyi11g the hope of a reunion of all tl~ dead who die in the Lord. (1) 'l'be triumph of Christ is here showu. Now, the object of his death and resurrecLion was to redeem the world. But this redemption would be vain if there were no resurrecriou. "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable." 'l'h11 resurrection of Christ proves that the object of his death was obtained. lt must therefore be followed by the resurrection of bis people in order that the redemption thus uccomplislwd may be fully r~alized i_n them. (2) Tlie union of Christians with Christ secures their resurrection. His experience becomes the experience of his people, because he lives in them and they live in him (1 Cor. xv. 22).-W. F. A.
VerL 15, 16.-The order of the second advent. The 1ubject1 here brought before 111 oH. IV, 1-18.] 'l'HE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE Tm~SSALONIAN8. 101