our Lord express a still diviner power and carry with them a more absolute demonstration.  If, therefore, we have known the power of Christ delivering our soul from the blindness, the paralysis, the death of sin, lifting it above the dust and causing it to exult in the liberties and delights of the heavenlies, why should we think it a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?  If He has wrought the greater, He will not fail with the less.  Christianity opens our eyes to splendid visions, makes us heirs of mighty hopes, and for all its prospects and promises it demands our confidence on the ground of its present magnificent and undeniable moral achievements.  Its predictions are credible in the light of its spiritual efficacy.  “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you,” Being one with Christ in the power of purity, we are one with Him in the power of an endless life.  Death has its temporary conquest, but grace reigning through righteousness shall finally purge the last taint of mortality.  Not through the scientific and philosophic developments of later centuries has the somber way of viewing death become obsolete; Christ bringing life and immortality to life has brought about the great change in the point of view from which we regard death, the point of view which is full of consolation and hope.  In Christ alone the crowning evil becomes a coronation of glory; the absolute bankruptcy, the condition of an incorruptible inheritance; the final defeat, an everlasting victory; the endless exile, home, home at last.  Once more, by boldly adopting the sackcloth Christ has changed it into a robe of light.  “That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”

We cannot escape the evils of life; they are inevitable and inexorable.  We may hide from our eyes the signs and sights of mourning; but in royal splendor our hearts will still bleed; wearing wreaths of roses, our heads will still ache.  A preacher who complains that Christianity is “the religion of sorrow” goes on to predict that the woes of the world are fast coming to an end, and then the sorrowful religion of Jesus Christ will give place to some purer faith.  “Through the chinks we can see the light.  The condition of man becomes more comfortable, more easy; the hope of man is more visible; the endeavor of man is more often crowned with success; the attempt to solve the darkest life-problems is not desperate as it was.  The reformer meets with fewer rebuffs; the philanthropist does not despair as he did.  The light is dawning.  The great teachers of knowledge multiply, bear their burdens more and more steadily; the traditions of truth and knowledge are becoming established in the intellectual world.  It is