rence separated from us by a space of time. There is no historical fact more certain than this, that the Man Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.

But suppose you are right, and the Christians who are celebrating Easter Day are wrong in the doctrine taught. What does your view imply (and remember that you have to show these things):—

First. That a Roman guard at the peril of their heads suffered the disciples to remove the body of Jesus;

Second. That after this was successfully accomplished one and another and another who did not believe in His Resurrection should assert that they had seen Him alive;

Third. That over five hundred who are said to have seen Him at one time, should enter into collusion to perpetrate a lie;

Fourth. And you are to consider that this statement was repeated again and again where denial would have been easy;

Fifth. That in the details of the event there is no -conflict of testimony;

Sixth. That all these things happened in a time of the highest enlightenment-the Augustan age of literature, science and philosophy—when upon the points of one being dead or alive, and of an historical record, men were as competent to weigh evidence as they are to-day; and that this fraud, as by your implication, grew and gained currency till in about 300 years Christians were not only tolerated but were regarded as the saving and redeeming element in the imperial government;

And Seventh. That the consentient accounts of this act, its purpose and meaning, are so abundant that at this

length of time we could recover the Gospel, even if every Bible in the world were destroyed;

And, lastly, that since the time the Resurrection began to be preached human society has undergone a moral revolution, and the lives of hundreds of thousands are regulated by precepts which stand or fall with the doctrine; that this very day men and women by hundreds will go to their homes refreshed, strengthened and comforted for the hardships, the privations, the dangers and sorrows of life, fortified against sin and rejoicing in a well-assured hope-all because Christ is risen.

It will not do for you to deny these facts; you must disprove them one and all before you can ask or expect even a hearing for your religion of matter, or of man, or of culture. And if you cannot do this, and do not prove your position, you offer an insult to our intelligence, and to your own; you destroy every ground of confidence in your statements, and you commit a sin which can be repaired only by your open acknowledgment that you are in error, and that Christ is indeed risen as He said.

One single point must here be made. Christians. know, and agnostics know, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is fundamentally a Gospel of the Resurrection.

But this doctrine underlies all our worship-the externals as well as the inward bearings of religion. We have assailed the logic of the objectors and we await an answer. We go further, and strike on the very point of their shield.

Honesty is the great boast of by far the larger part of these neologians. We assail their honesty. On the score of that virtue we arraign them because they have utilized Christian institutions, profited by the moral

fruits of the Resurrection, and advocate the continuance of religious habits and practices which are indissolubly united with the doctrine of the Resurrection that they profess not to believe.

Sustain your character for honesty, gentlemen and ladies of these schools, before you ask us to give up our belief that Christ hath arisen.

From time to time we commemorate the birthday and the inauguration of George Washington as the first president of these United States. Who was this man and what did he do? We know sufficient about him and yet none of us ever saw him. What we know comes to us by records written in his lifetime, or shortly after, and by authentic traditions.

We venture to say, that, although this man lived an hundred years ago, and the God Man, Christ Jesus, 1800 years, the number of independent witnesses of his life and actions and of thoroughly accredited traditions concerning Jesus Christ are more than those who have helped to make the biography of our great general; and that the substantial agreement of the evangelists and apostolic writers is more thorough and pervading than of the biographical writers of any world hero.

So that, if we believe that there have existed such men as Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Cæsar, Napoleon and others and they performed the acts ascribed to them, in just the same way, but with complete accounts we have abundant testimony, to satisfy any man, except one says that he won't believe anything, that Jesus died and rose again.

The case has been stated briefly and fairly for any whose minds are open to the conviction of the truth as

it is in Jesus. May the Blessed Spirit enlighten those that are not.

But we will go right on glorifying our Most Holy Redeemer, who on this day rose the Conqueror of Death and the grave, and who is alive forevermore. And through union with His Sacred Body will, according to His pleasure, appropriate and apply to our lives His power to break down the kingdom of sin, Satan and Ideath within and around us.

Christ is risen! Rise we with Him, and live we henceforth as children of Light, and of the Resurrection!

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

TEXT: Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.-St. John xx. 20.

By the REV. WM. REID CROSS,

Rector of Grace Church, Hinsdale, Ill.

T is the evening of the first Easter Day. The disciples, now a confused, perplexed, bewildered company, are gathered together, probably in the upper chamber.

Three days ago all their hopes for the future of the great cause to which they had dedicated their lives, all their own prospects in the careers upon which they had entered, all the bright visions which their fancy had painted of the kingdom which their loved Master was to rule over, and in whose glory they were to share, perished with their Lord upon the Cross. A common danger, and sympathy in a mutual sorrow, still keeps them together, but they are as sheep having no shepherd. The bond of a sublime devotion to the person of Jesus which had once united them, and which seemed to be indissoluble, has been broken. Their careers are gone. There is nothing for them to do but to return to their old vocations, and to return to them broken-hearted, disappointed men.

To add to their trouble, the tomb where Jesus was laid has been found empty; and members of their company assert that He is risen, and that they have seen