not behind nor in the grave are trod,' but will last as long as
Christ, their Object, lives, and as long as we in Him live also.

THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION

'I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures; 4. And that He was
buried, and that He rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures.'--1 COR. xv. 3, 4.

Christmas day is probably not the true anniversary of the Nativity,
but Easter is certainly that of the Resurrection. The season is
appropriate. In the climate of Palestine the first fruits of the
harvest were ready at the Passover for presentation in the Temple. It
was an agricultural as well as a historical festival; and the
connection between that aspect of the feast and the Resurrection of
our Lord is in the Apostle's mind when he says, in a subsequent part
of this chapter, that Christ is 'risen from the dead and become the
first fruits of them that slept.'

In our colder climate the season is no less appropriate. The 'life
re-orient out of dust' which shows itself to-day in every bursting
leaf-bud and springing flower is Nature's parable of the spring that
awaits man after the winter of death. No doubt, apart from the
Resurrection of Jesus, the yearly miracle kindles sad thoughts in
mourning hearts, and suggests bitter contrasts to those who sorrow,
having no hope, but the grave in the garden has turned every blossom
into a smiling prophet of the Resurrection.

And so the season, illuminated by the event, teaches us lessons of
hope that 'we shall not all die.' Let us turn, then, to the thoughts
naturally suggested by the day, and the great fact which it brings to
each mind, and confirmed thereafter by the miracle that is being
wrought round about us.

I. First, then, in my text, I would have you note the facts of Paul's
gospel.

'First of all ... I delivered' these things. And the 'first' not only
points to the order of time in the proclamation, but to the order of
importance as well. For these initial facts are the fundamental
facts, on which all that may follow thereafter is certainly built.
Now the first thing that strikes me here is that, whatever else the
system unfolded in the New Testament is, it is to begin with a simple
record of historical fact. It becomes a philosophy, it becomes a
religious system; it is a revelation of God; it is an unveiling of
man; it is a body of ethical pre