moral consciousness, and there made effective in his personal renewal, so that in Christ he found himself a new creature. These changes in himself, of forgiveness and reconciliation, by which he had peace with God and comfort in the Holy Ghost, he traced directly back to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as the active cause of an internal experience; and the internal experience became the witness of the spirit, or the evidence of God in his heart and conscience.

It is because of this direct, constant spiritual communication between every believer and Christ, as the power of God unto salvation, that Paul declared to the Romans the righteousness of faith, which neither ascends into heaven to bring Christ down, nor descends into the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead; for "the word [that is, Christ] is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

This is a modern experience, repeated daily among those who are dead to the world, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Each man comes into relation with Christ, not remotely or indirectly through the New Testament narratives, save as they are a shadow of better things to come; not on the testimony of history; not merely through holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; but each man comes for himself, at first hand, directly, and not through another, into spiritual relations with Jesus, is crucified with Jesus, raised with Jesus, sitting with him in heavenly places, meeting him face to face, heart to heart, life to life, or life in life.

Christ thus becomes the life of every renewed man. His death and resurrection are repeated in every child of God.

This is only saying, in another way, that Jesus Christ, in his life and death, comes into peculiar necessary moral relation with every member of the human race, and is a moral force of the highest potency for the recovery or renovation of mankind.

It may be thought that such a moral force and such a relation is unreal, fanciful, belongs to an imaginary world; and we can only say that all moral relations and experiences are unreal to those who have not been morally and spiritually exercised. Love is an imaginary emotion for those who have not loved. The spiritual consciousness of Christ's power, working in the soul, the knowledge of union with Christ, the witness of God in man's soul, that he is crucified with Christ and risen with Christ, can be attained in no other way than by repentance and faith, a frank and hearty reception of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”

This is the open secret of Christian living. The evidence we have to show that Christ is a moral power, working for the redemption of mankind, is that of men being saved, living epistles, known and read of all; being redeemed, here and now, in their bodies and spirits, from sin and temptation, delivered from chains and darkness, brought into the light and liberty of the children of God, into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in Jesus Christ, having fellowsnip with the Father and with his Son Jesus. Christ, and thus showing by manifest tokens that Christ is in them, the wisdom and power of God unto salvation, or a moral force of the highest potency working for the renovation of mankind.

Edward Beecher Mason.

CHRIST RISEN

JOHN 20: 11-20

"But Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping," etc.

Two days in the Christian year have been especially dedicated to the spirit of joy, Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. When the latter festival became established it was called Dominica Gaudii "the Joyful Sunday," and through the centuries has yearly called the nations to share its exultation. To these days of rejoicing the modern Church has added a third, the Children's Sunday, the festival of youth and hope. And when the Easter lesson falls on Children's Sunday, as is the case this year, it should be a joyous day indeed, doubly dedicated to songs and flowers, to hope and gladness and the full heart's praise. Such exultation echoes the joy of that first Easter morning, and our meditation on the theme of the hour can but reflect some aspects of that many-sided triumph.

The New Testament gives us six separate accounts of the resurrection of our Lord and his subsequent appearances to his disciples. Each evangelist records the great event, and additional accounts are given by Luke in the Acts and by Paul in First Corinthians. If we compare them it becomes evident that each narrator's point of view has been determined by the main purpose underlying his record, and that the combined narrative is thus more full and comprehensive. Matthew, for instance, writing for the Jews, is the only one to describe the unsuccessful attempt of the Jewish authorities to conceal the resurrection. As his great theme

is the development of the kingdom of God, so he sees in the resurrection the triumph of the king over his enemies, and the assertion of his regal authority. He emphasizes the gathering of disciples in Galilee and the royal commission to conquer the world.

The gospel of John, on the other hand, is one of personal testimony, the recital of the experience of the beloved disciple in order to convince men of the divinity of his Master. He tells the things that he has seen and heard and handled concerning the Word of life. In his story of the resurrection he therefore tells us how he himself stooped and looked into the empty tomb, and how the stupendous truth burst upon his mind as "he saw, and believed." And then he gives us glimpses of the experience of one and another of the little company as the startling fact gradually forced itself upon their incredulous minds. "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."

Our lesson gives us a vivid picture of Mary Magdalene as she thus emerges from the gloom of grief and fear into the light of the new day of the world's hope. Upon her fall the first beams of its dawn. Not to Peter the penitent, nor to John the beloved; not to James the just nor Thomas the matter-of-fact nor the two bewildered pilgrims on the Emmaus road was the first appearance vouchsafed. But it was one of that little company of devoted women, "last at the cross and earliest at the grave," to whose love, stronger than death, the blessing of this revelation was given. “Such devotion, born of a great deliverance, and such love, kindled by the love of God to us, compel revelation."

We know nothing of her previous history except that she lived at Magdala, a little town on the shores of Galilee's lake, and that she had been a demoniac. It was an aggravated case, for out of her went "seven devils," and her healing was one of Jesus' most noted miracles. There is no evidence beyond tradition for the common notion that

her disease was the reward of a profligate life, but her name has become the accustomed designation of the fair penitent rescued from the paths of shame. Whether her affliction was occasioned by her sin or not, her deliverance was wrought by the word of Jesus, and her gratitude to her deliverer was manifested at every opportunity of service. With Salome and the mother of Jesus she ministers to his need; together they stand before his cross, and are associated in this crowning experience of the resurrection. As we study the effect of the resurrection upon these devoted followers, we get a new sense of the extent of its influence.

I. It is a victory over the doubts and fears of friends. The disciples did not desert their dead Lord. They had fled when he was arrested in the garden; the boldest had denied him in Caiaphas' hall. But their love soon reasserted itself. They followed him to the cross, the beloved form was buried with honor, and the tomb was the magnet which drew them all with irresistible attraction. Yet the few glimpses we get of them reveal a sadly bewildered company. They cannot doubt the demonstrations of power, the signs of his divine commission, which Jesus had often shown in their presence. They cannot forget his wisdom and his love. Some of them, like Mary Magdalene, are in their own persons witnesses of his redeeming power. They linger lovingly over the memory of his words and deeds as they confer sadly together. But they have no hope. To them their Master is now the defeated and dead leader of a lost cause. Yet they had "hoped that it was he which should redeem Israel." But soon we behold these same disciples suddenly transformed. Instead of grief and despair they are filled with an undying hope and a joy that no man taketh from them. They no longer slink away into hiding, but boldly preach in the temple and dare the Sanhedrin to the face. What has wrought this marvelous change? Whence have come this new courage and