the world without, and because he hates it with a deep and burning hatred that can never rest until it is consumed, victory is assured.

If we are the children of God we must learn to hate sin as he hates it, to love righteousness as he loves it, to throw ourselves into the battle of righteousness against sin with all the ardor of a heart in which Christ dwells by faith, with all the energy of a soul quickened and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, with something of the flaming wrath that burns unquenchably in the breast of the Almighty. Then we shall have part in the ministry of our Master, shall serve the eternal purpose of God, shall have a part in the conflict, the victory, the reward. When the flames have done their work from the mighty conflagration shall come forth new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Let us rejoice in God who is a Saviour because he is a consuming fire, and let us give ourselves to the service of the Kingdom, which is first righteousness, then peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness must be established before peace and joy can prevail. It is ours to-day to wage the war of righteousness that the blessings of the Kingdom may be won.

"He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment

seat:

O be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on."

VII

THE RISEN CHRIST

"If Christ be not risen."

I Cor. 15:14

There were those in Corinth who denied the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Probably they believed in the immortality of the soul, but held that the body should perish, regarding it as a prison from which the spirit should be delivered by death, a fleshly vesture suited to the present life, but having no place in the life beyond. Paul declares that to deny the resurrection of the dead, the raising of the body from the grave, in altered form indeed but with identity preserved, is to deny the resurrection of Christ. "If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised." He was a real man, having a true body and a reasonable soul. He submitted to the conditions of our mortal life, yielded to the power of death, was laid in the tomb, that in all things he might be made like unto his brethren. To deny the resurrection of men is to deny his resurrection, for he too was a man. And that in Paul's view is to sweep away the very foundation of Christian faith.

So vital is the truth of the resurrection of Christ that he proceeds to establish it by an elaborate argument. He does not reason from the universal to the particular, seeking to establish the doctrine by considerations of a general nature, and then applying it

to Christ. But he reasons from the particular case to the universal truth, setting forth the proof that Christ rose again, and then showing that the resurrection of mankind is bound up with his. That he rose again is the foundation of the doctrine of the resurrection. Why may we believe that men shall rise again? Because this man has actually risen, this man, the Son of Man, who gathers up in his own person the interests and destiny of mankind. How can it be said that there is no resurrection of the dead, when in fact Christ has risen?

As the doctrine rests upon the fact of Christ's resurrection, Paul marshals the evidence for the fact with convincing power. Three lines of argument are followed.

(1) He reminds them that the resurrection as well as the death of Christ was predicted in the Scripture. "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures." This is the earliest creed of the Christian Church. The Corinthians accepted the Old Testament as the word of God. How then could they deny that resurrection which the Old Testament clearly foretold? Why should it be thought a thing incredible with them that God should raise the dead, when he had declared by the mouth of his prophets that the Christ should rise again? On the Day of Pentecost Peter appealed to the Sixteenth Psalm. David exclaimed, "Thou wilt not leave my

soul unto sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." Evidently David did not speak of himself, for his body had long since moldered to dust; but he "spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption." His death and resurrection are the firm pillars on which our faith rests, and both the death and the resurrection were foretold. If we trust the prophecy, we must accept the fact. As God is true, if Jesus was the Christ, as we all believe, he must have risen from the dead; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The argument is absolutely conclusive for those who accept the Old Testament as the word of God, and Jesus as the Christ.

(2) He appeals to those who saw him after he rose from the dead, and summons an imposing array of witnesses. On the day of his resurrection he appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, most of whom were still living; then to James; to all the apostles; and last of all to Paul himself. These were honest men; they had known Christ during his earthly life. Some of them were his intimate friends. They were not looking for his resurrection, but had abandoned all hope of seeing him again; and could hardly believe the evidence of their senses when he appeared to them. They had abundant opportunity to satisfy themselves that it was really their Master whom they saw, and not a mere hallucination, the offspring of a heated fancy. At least ten times he

showed himself to some of them in visible form. He resumed his familiar intercourse with them. They walked and talked and ate and drank together. They had nothing to gain by declaring that they had seen him unless it was true. Their witness to the resurrection drew down upon them the hatred of the Jews and the mockery of the Greeks; but in face of persecution and of death they maintained that they had seen him. They were thoroughly persuaded that he had risen and appeared to them, and devoted their lives to preaching Jesus and the resurrection; and some of them sealed their testimony with their blood. If anything may be established by human witness, the resurrection of Christ is established beyond a doubt.

(3) The third line of truth is what the logicians call the reductio ad absurdum. It consists in assuming a proposition, and showing that the consequences which follow from it are absurd. Then it is plain that the proposition is itself absurd. If the conclusions are preposterous, the premises are false. This method is constantly employed in mathematics, in philosophy, in our common speech. If it is properly used, no mode of argument has more convincing and overwhelming power. If it can be shown that the inferences are properly drawn, there is no possible answer.

This is Paul's argument: You deny the resurrection of the dead, that involves the denial of the resurrection of Christ. Now see to what that leads. If Christ be not risen,