JESUS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.

REV. R. W. HAMILTON.

NEW COURT CHAPEL, CAREY STREET, MAY 11, 1834.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"-JOHN, xi. 25, 26.

If ever home, my brethren, was honoured and blessed, it was that of Bethany, though now we find its family sunk into the distraction of grief: tears are new to it. In other suburbs and villages of Jerusalem, their inhabitants had cherished the presence of the Saviour, but only one of those abodes is noted as always offering him welcome, and frequently offering him repose. Its inmates ministered to him of their substance, and there he rested his weary head. Pious friendship and domestic love chose it for their most favoured dwelling. Martha would ply the household affairs; Mary would breathe the holiest dispositions; and Lazarus was, in all probability, the stay and solace of both. Their means, if not affluent, were abundant; they were raised beyond straits and poverty: united in affection, they clung to one another, and resisted all thought of separation: one roof sheltered them, and one hearth cheered them. But though they passed their life together, it was not in the dulness of uniformity; they presented those differences of character, those rainbow excellences, which by varying the monotony of life, increases its zest, and developing the influences of religion in multiform expressions, illustrate the better i's beauties.

Still, the circumstance which honoured and blessed that home, was the condescension of the Lord: it always stood with unlatched door for him; and within it he found a calm retreat and refuge: he loved its devoted and affectionate family, the spectacle of mutual attachment, consecrated to pure religion, was refreshing to his oft-sinking mind, and as a balm to his well-nigh broken heart: and in the bosom of this holy kindred, he seems to have rested his confidence and reclined his heart, more serenely than in any other circle; and if he knew a familiar haunt, and found an earthly abiding place, it was in this rural spot, and amidst this chosen society. Each shared in his benign affections. Something intimates a cordiality and freedom of communication to which few were admitted. Deeply solemn, their intercourse flowed onwards unrestrained. Ah, had we records of that gracious, awful, fellowship, a limning of that countenance while it hung over the transfixed group, a report of that voice which spoke in the tones of an hitherto unuttered mercy, an outline of that conversation which suggested doubt and fear, which resolved the one, and allayed the other-when the Master called for them, when Mary sat at his feet, when Martha forgot her too hospitable cares, when Lazarus, little foreboding an early death, looked up to the guide of his youth, the counsellor of his manhood, and the anticipated

friend of his age-when they sung their hymn, when he prayed, when he opened to them the Scriptures, when he lifted up his hands and blessed the simple repast, when he gave them greetings and benedictions, when the evening passed too soon, and the morning broke too late, when the joy of his arrival was only checked by the dread that he must speedily depart again! Oh, homestead of Bethany! Palace never knew the more than twelve legions of angels, which hovered in attendance on thy glorious guest; court never contained the Potentate who once sought thy shade, and accepted thine accommodation-the Lord of Hosts, the Prince of the kings of the earth. And when he last bid them farewell, how unsuspecting were they of trouble! This was their only grief, and their best hope was his quick return. Future intimacy would they predict, an ample recompense for their present deprivation.

What are those wailings from yonder dwelling? Why do those lights hurry to and fro across that vine-entwined lattice? Wherefore is every member of that household shrouded in sackcloth? How has that peaceful sylvan cottage become so suddenly a house of mourning? Death has come up into its windows. Sad things have befallen these heart-broken sisters. Perhaps they had long since marked their only brother's decline of health; they saw the colour of his cheek come and go; nor had they overlooked his sunken eyes: fear predominated, and was prophetic of the event. Or, perhaps, and more likely, he was smitten by an unlooked-for blow. Behold, God taketh away: who can let him? Well may they be bitter in soul. They have seen him die; they have seen him stretched on his bier; they have seen him borne to his tomb: they cannot conceal it from themselves, that the havoc of dissolution and corruption has begun. The light in their tabernacle is put out, which no longer is filled with the voice of joy and thanksgiving; he is not where involuntary expectation waited for him; everywhere he has left his image, and yet nowhere does he appear: that three-fold cord is broken. Cheerless is their mien; weeping endures through their night, without joy coming in the morning. They could speak but on one theme, but dare not entrust themselves with it: they forget all walks but one, and steal alternately unto their brother's grave, to weep there. And they feel one dark aggravation of their woes; when their beloved brother began to sicken, they sent immediate information to the friend who had frequently professed, and proved, his firm regard; but, strange, he has responded no message of pity, and still he absents himself. This appearance of unkindness troubled them.

But he has not forgotten them; his sojourn and his delay are but the preparation for that miracle, by which these destitute women received their dead raised to life again: he ransoms him from the power of the grave; he redeems him from death. Again that habitation is arrayed in pious joy. What is the meeting when first the sisters assume the courage and composure to embrace the brother who was, in no figurative sense, dead, and is alive again—who was lost, and is found? What is the first transport when he takes his wonted place at their board? What are the thanksgivings and voice of melody which close this day of tremendous excitement, both in judgment and mercy? And if the author of the marvellous restoration of the breach made in this family did, on that evening, revisit the scene of so much bliss and gratitude, did mildly gaze on that re-union of its lately death-divided members, might he not address it, and thus explain each motive of his conduct towards them, "For a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee."

But it is not sympathy alone which interposes; though in its most exquisite form and perfect degree. In his acts and averments, the Saviour stands forth with an unwonted authority. Friends and adversaries had often asked, “What manner of man is this? Though we were his constant companions, we were often unable to understand his sayings, and were forced to ask him." But in this crisis, worthy of divine interference, he had confessed himself; "The power of the Lord is present to heal, and still more to awaken the dead." Some of the foldings of his mystery begin to unloose; the clouds that hung over him assume also a less deepened tinge; and radiations of glory escape―utterances of might and majesty are proclaimed. He lifts himself up into a superhuman attitude: he is transfigured by the excess of moral and essential splendour: he speaks with the accents of the incarnate God, "I am the resurrection and the life.

In the consideration of these words, let us attend, in the first place, to THE DECLARATIVE STYLE IN WHICH MESSIAH ASSERTS HIS PREROGATIVE AND CLAIM. For is it not strange, that he who himself must die, who has often intimated that he must die a violent and degraded death, who is now not far distant from that cruel and ignominious death-that he should express himself in phrases like this? Is this description of himself befitting a mortal's lot, and a creature's rank? Nor is the strength of this representation otherwise than raised on an examination of the obscurity and nature of the terms employed. When Jehovah becomes our salvation, though the meaning is that he becomes our Saviour, yet is it more powerfully stated by, not the declaration with respect to it, but by the thing itself: "The Lord is our salvation"-the thing itself. So when the Lord Jesus declares himself, not only the original and the spring of the resurrection and the life, but takes these facts, and throws them into his character, and selects them for his appellation, we have the strictest testimony, and strongest assurance, that the effects themselves shall be completely signalized, and that the right and the source of producing them are in himself. With him, then, is the title in a world of death, and among a race universally mortal, to reproduce the human body from decay, and to secure to the fleeting soul its immortality.

Still we cannot but be reminded, that this absolute power over the bodies, and the lives, and the spirits of men, is invariably challenged as the inalienable right of Deity. The King of Israel when he received the letter concerning Naaman, King of Assyria, exclaimed, “Am I God to kill and to make alive?" Hannah rendered this ascription: "The Lord killeth and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." This is an awful declaration of the Most High: "See now, that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive: 1 wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever." Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death; he will revive us ; he will raise us up; and we shall live in his sight. Does the Scripture speak of the resurrection? "We have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raised the dead." Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?" Does the Scriptures speak of the life that they must live? "The Lord thy God says, he is thy life and the length of thy days." "The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" "The God in whose hands thy breath is,

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and whose are all thy ways: "With him is the fountain of life." He holdeth our soul in safety he is the God of the spirits of all flesh, the Father of Spirits: all souls are his. Nothing can be, therefore, more explicit and precise than the Scripture testimony to these facts, nothing than the attribution by Scripture of all these respective rights to the supreme eternal Godhead.

Now it must be our province to shew, that when the Redeemer undertook these designations, to deserve and to support them was no barren boast aud empty claim. He demands them on his own pretensions, and sustains them by his own resources. So that this avowal equalizes him with the divinity, and rests upon a manifestation so distinct, that he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also. We open the inspired volume, and learn from it, that the honour of this description doth appertain to Him who was born in a manger and hanged on a cross. Psalmist and Apostle alike address the Eternal Son"Thou in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." The evidence is enlarged by the witness of those equally credible, because inspired, writers. "That ye be mindful of the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" 66 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;" that Lord being the very same concerning whom the scoffers had taunted, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming?" The prophetic oracle is most articulate in the matter of this appropriation: "His goings forth have been from old, from everlasting." The record he was compelled to bear concerning himself, was undoubtedly true. Now, how does he speak? "Before Abraham was, I am.” "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, which was and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty." "I am the living being." The frequent appeal to himself as Jehovah, is replete with this distinction; nor are these declarations more disguised: "The Son quickeneth whom he will:" he is "the Prince of Life:" "This is the true God and eternal life." Well may he say, therefore, to that corpse, "Arise, come forth :" "I will raise him up at the last day." Well may he say unto this spirit," Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He can will the length of life through which his beloved disciple shall tarry, and stand at the right hand of God to receive the earliest martyr's soul.

But his mediatorial office and merits substantiate the same declarations. He is not only the resurrection and the life in the right of his own essential deity, he bears respective relations in the covenant of grace; and these support and challenge the same honours. Being the Redeemer of his people, every constituent of their being, every interest and portion of their existence, is the subject of purchase: they are "bought with a price," "the precious blood of Christ” is the ransom; "the redemption of their souls is precious," that being the most glorious part of man: but not less important is the redemption of the body. The whole of their constituted nature is, therefore, the righteously acquired property of the Lord Jesus from every demand of punishment, every tendency of sin, the thraldom of earth, the curse of death, and the captivity of hell. The

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risen living Saviour "loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might present to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" consequently, every form of evil attaching to us, physical and moral, must be relieved. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Do their bodies sleep in the dust? They sleep in Jesus." Do their spirits exist in a separate manner? They are "present with the Lord." And he shall come again; our "Redeemer liveth ;" and "shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" then shall come to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." The body rescued from the grave, the soul no longer subsisting solitary, there shall be a perfect reinstatement of the man in all the integrity of his being; while a boundless accumulation of glory shall distinguish him above all that sin and death could ever dispel. Is not then He who has achieved this consummation "the resurrection and the life?" And shall not the song eternally roll, "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood?"

But Christ is not only the Redeemer of his people, and thus qualified to claim their redemption, and to will that they be with him where he is, that they may behold his glory, he is their Head and source of life. Their entire nature was assumed by him: they are "crucified," therefore, "with him;" they are "buried with him;" they are "quickened together with him;" they are "risen with him;" they "sit with him in the heavenly places;" they shall be "like him, when they see him as he is." Now, whether it be referred to their bodies or their spirits, he came that they "might have life, and have it more abundantly." He is, therefore, denominated "the life." He is "made a quickening spirit." Death cannot approach him, for it is turned into a living thing: he, therefore, identified himself with the holy dead; "They shall live: with my dead body shall they arise."

But in a more peculiar sense he is the life of the soul; not only its existence, but its whole being. This honour, this security, this happiness, springs from that living faith which joins us to the Lord, and makes us one spirit. And thus is his vital power most variously described and represented, as the seed of our spiritual-mindedness, the guarantee of our safety, the partner of our glory. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." All his mediatorial offices point to his exaltation, and pre-suppose the power of his endless life: "Because I live ye shall live also." "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory." And it is to this life of official engagement and meritorious fulness, as well as to that which forms its basis, its investiture with all authority, and his endowment with all influence, that our Lord alludes: "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son," mediatorially and officially, " to have life in himself."

Moreover, the Son of God as Mediator, is the universal Sovereign and Judge: he must be the resurrection and the life, therefore, in the widest signification. He is the "head over all things." It is necessary that his enemies and disbelievers be summoned from the grave for trial and for doom: he will so bring them forth; their resurrection will be his act; their eternal endurance of punishment is awfully described, as "in the presence of the Lamb:" he is their light, though they have said to the mountains and rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." He is their life wherefore they shall "ask for death, but shall not find it; and desire to die, but death shall flee from them."

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