for nobler life and joy. "He is not here; He is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

Remember this the next time you hear evil shriek in triumph over good. Never mind appearances no, not even when you yourself are the sufferer. Nothing can hurt you unless it finds an ally within yourself. If Christ has risen in you He will rise in all you have to do for Him. As you gaze upon the tomb of buried hopes, say to yourself, "He is not there; He is risen; that is only where He was laid yesterday. To-day, to-morrow, and to all eternity He lives and reigns.”

THE RESURRECTION POWER

"Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." - Roм. i. 4.

THIS remarkable phrase, coming as it does at the beginning of St. Paul's most doctrinal epistle, is evidently meant as a statement of foundation truth. It embodies the most of what the Apostle has to write and preach about, and, rightly understood, supplies the key to his whole gospel. Before going any farther, therefore, in our examination of its meaning, let us be quite sure that we understand the terms employed in it. Almost every word and phrase in the text requires a brief examination. Let us take them seriatim. It is always important to make sure of the meaning of the terms we employ in our ordinary speech. I am afraid few people are sufficiently careful about that, and most of the confusion of thought that arises, either in religion or anything else, is due to our inability to pay cash for the terms we employ. Let us be sure that we can do it in this instance.

The first word is "declared." This word means designated, or ordained, or shown forth. The phrase "with power" should be taken along with

it in order to complete the sense

power to be the Son of God."

"declared with

The title "Son of God" should not need much explanation, but perhaps it ought to be pointed out that among the Jews it was used as a description of the Messiah, and did not necessarily denote a divine being. In this Messianic sense Jesus was declared to be the Son of God at several special crises of His life and work, such as the Baptism, according to Matthew's account; again, at Peter's confession of Him; again, at the Transfiguration; and, lastly, at the Resurrection.

"According to the spirit of holiness." This should not be taken to mean that the Holy Spirit apart from Jesus Himself declared Him to be the Son of God. It means that the spirit of holiness, plainly evident in the character of Jesus, was also the spirit of power. That is all it means. It is Jesus' own spirit that is in question, much as we might think of the mind or spirit shown by any one of our acquaintances in the ordinary walk of life. We might remark, for instance, that the present Lord Mayor of London is showing a beautiful spirit in his care for crippled children. It is in a somewhat similar sense that the phrase "according to the spirit of holiness" is employed in our text as descriptive of Jesus.

Lastly, "By the resurrection from the dead." This translation is not quite accurate; it ought rather to be "By the resurrection of the dead."

The difference is not unimportant, for the change of preposition enlarges the meaning of the whole passage, as we shall presently see. As the text stands it seems to be a statement to the effect that the Divine Sonship of Jesus was demonstrated beyond dispute by the fact that, quickened by the Holy Spirit, He arose from the tomb in which He had been laid after His death on Calvary. That is what it seems to say on the face of it, but I think we shall see reason to believe that this is not the whole, nor even the principal part, of the truth which the Apostle seeks to convey to his readers.

Now that we are possessed of a fairly accurate apprehension of the value of the terms employed in this passage, let us proceed to scrutinise the general statement a little more closely. I think we shall find something here that bears immediately and helpfully upon our everyday concerns. Το begin with, what is it that has given the name of Jesus the power over human hearts which it possesses to-day? When He was put to death on Calvary every one, friend and foe alike, seemed to have thought that there was an end of Him. Not only were they mistaken, but the very cross on which He died has become the symbol of His victory. No matter what we may think of the personality of Jesus, there is no denying these facts; the strongest Christian and the blankest atheist would agree about them. His influence is now greater than it ever was. Why so? What has made it possible? I think you

D

will find that our text gives us the answer in a fairly small compass. In the first place, the disciples of Jesus somehow became convinced that He was not really dead, but alive and reigning in the world unseen, interested as much as ever in the work His followers were doing, and helping them in the doing of it. I need not discuss the question of the physical resurrection. Some people think that the very existence of Christianity depends upon whether the body of Jesus rose from the tomb or not, while others are repelled by the suggestion that it did. I have previously given you my own views on the subject, and I cannot afford the time to re-discuss them now. I would merely point out that the personal followers of Jesus became absolutely convinced that they had seen their Master face to face, spoken to Him, and heard Him speak, after the world was convinced that He was both dead and buried. This conviction had immediate and important spiritual results. It gave these simple men a new and greater confidence in Jesus and in the meaning of His life than they had possessed before. They saw that that life was, after all, the strongest thing in the universe; they realised that in the end nothing could contend against it. Evil could do it no real harm, because God was behind it. Even before His crucifixion they had looked upon Jesus as the Son of God in a higher sense than that title had ever been used of any one before. But now henceforth they thought of Him in a higher way still. To them He