g within, now and
then had longings for a power that should enable them to put their
feet upon the neck of passion.

It met the needs of men who, standing above their dead, asked again
the old and oft-repeated question of Job, "If a man die, shall he
live again?"

Christianity met all these needs.

Through crowded streets of populous towns and lonely lanes of silent
villages, in lordly palace and before straw-thatched hovels, to
listening throngs and wayside hearers, it rang forth its wondrous
proclamation.

It told men that a man had been here who had proven himself stronger
than death and mightier than the grave; a man who had burst the bars
of death asunder, spurned the sepulchre wherein human hands had laid
his body, had ascended up on high, and now, from heaven's throne,
had power to impart to men a life that hated sin, rejoiced in
virtue, could make each moment of earth's existence worth while, and
carried within it the assurance and prophecy of eternal felicity.

Far and wide, over land and sea, it rang the tidings that this
perfect life might be had by king or cotter, by freeman or slave,
without money and without price, for so simple a thing as genuine
faith in, and open confession of, him who had died and risen again.

With rich, exultant note it announced that he who as very God had
clothed himself with a new and distinct humanity, who had loved men
unto death and died for them, had not forgotten the earth wherein he
had suffered, his own grave from whence he had so triumphantly
risen, nor yet the graves of those who had confessed his name; but,
on the contrary, was coming back in personal glory and with
limitless power to raise the dead, transfigure the living, make them
immortal, and so change this earth that it should no longer be a
swinging cemetery of the hopeless dead, but the abiding home of the
eternally living sons of God.

Men held like Laocoon in the winding coils of sinuous and persistent
sin, and who vainly sought to escape from its slowly crushing
embrace, heard the good news and turned their faces towards the
rising hope of present deliverance.

Men standing in the shadow of the tombs and waiting their turn
smiled until their smiles turned into joyous laughter as they said:
"If we die, we shall live again--the grave shall not always win its
victory over us."

Do you wonder the world stopped, listened, and that multitudes
turned and followed after?

Do you wonder that this Christi