Eva’s turn came next and she read:  “’And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.’”

Then Lucilla:  “’Women received their dead raised to life again:  and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.’”

“Will the resurrection be of all the dead, Grace? the wicked as well as the righteous?” asked her father.

“Yes, papa,” she answered; then read aloud:  “’Marvel not at this:  for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.’”

It was little Elsie’s turn and she read a verse in Acts pointed out by her mother:  “’And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.’”

It was Ned’s turn now and he read a passage selected for him by his mother:  “’For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.’”

It was the captain’s turn again and he went on with the reading:  “’Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:  and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ:  whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’”

“Yes,” said Grandma Elsie, “we needed a divine Saviour, and Christ’s resurrection proved his divinity; as Paul tells us here in the first chapter of Romans, ’And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’  Peter too teaches us that the resurrection of Christ was necessary to our salvation.  It seems plainly taught in this verse of the fifth chapter of his first Epistle.  ’Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.’”