hey think of actually _dying_,
they feel as if to go into the next world was to be turned out into the
dark night, into an unknown land, away from house and home, and all they
have known and loved; and so they shrink from death.

_All Saints-Day Sermons_.

When you are in terror, trouble, and affliction, ay! and in the black
jaws of death, and know not where to turn, that blessed thought, "Christ
is risen from the dead," will be a shield and a strength to you which no
other thought can give. The Lord is risen--a man, with His man's body,
and His man's spirit, His human love and tenderness; He has taken them
all up to Heaven with Him. He is a man still, though He is very God of
very God, He rose from the dead as a man, and therefore He can understand
me and feel for me still--now--here in England in the nineteenth century
just as much as He could when He was walking upon earth in Judea of old.

When this world is vanishing from our eyes, and we are going we know not
whither, leaving behind us all we know, and love, and understand; then
the thought of all thoughts--"Christ is risen from the dead" is the only
one which will save us from sad, dark thoughts, from fear and despair, or
from stupid carelessness, and the death of a brute beast, such as too
many die. "Christ is risen and I shall rise. Christ has conquered death
for Himself, and He will conquer it for me. Christ took His man's body
and soul with Him from the tomb to God's right hand, and He will raise my
body and soul at the last day, that I may be with Him for ever, and see
Him where He is." In life and in death this is the only thing which will
save us from sin, from terror, from the dread of the hereafter.

_National Sermons_.

Why did he die, we ask? There must be a final cause, a purpose for each
death of every son of man, or the fact would be altogether hideous--a
scribble without a meaning--a skeleton without a soul. Why did he die?
"I became dumb, I opened not my mouth; for it was Thy doing." So says
the Burial Psalm. So let us say likewise. "I became dumb:" not with
rage, not with despair; but because it was Thy doing, and therefore it
was done well. It was the deed, not of chance, nor of necessity. Not
so. For it was the deed of the Father, without whom a sparrow falls not
to the ground; of the Son who died upon the Cross in the utterness of His
desire to save; of the Holy Ghost, who is the Lord and Giver of Life to
all created things.