to which it refers.

In Acts xxiv. 15 Paul again expresses his faith in, and hope of "the Resurrection o f the just," which he

distinctly separates from "the resurrection of the unjust" when he declares "there shall be a resurrection of

the dead, both of the just and unjust.

It was this hope which sustained those worthies of faith, Heb. xi. 35, "others were tortured, not accepting

deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection."

Dear friends, I have thus gone through most, if not all, of the Scriptures which bear on this solemn and

important doctrine. You all profess to believe in the Resurrection, every time you repeat one or other of our

Creeds. But do you reflect on the bearing which this great doctrine has on yourselves? You have heard of

the blessedness of those "who have part in the first resurrection" and of the doom of "the rest of the dead."

Oh what an affecting thought that all of us must have our part in one or the other of these: either in the

glories of the "first Resurrection" or in the terrors of the "second death"! You cannot have part in both.

Surely you have not listened to these solemn Scriptures unmoved! Our Lord speaks, in Luke xx. 35, of those

who "shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age, and the resurrection from the dead." Oh! to be thus

"accounted worthy"! What does it mean? Who are they that are thus "worthy"? When all our lives we have

been unprofitable servants"! When we write ourselves down as guilty sinners, vile, and undone; Where is

our merit? Where is our worthiness? Ah! blessed be God, all who take this ground, the ground of sinners,

guilty before God, and cry with the Publican, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" go down to their house

"justified" and "worthy." With them all merit is for ever shut out, and all boasting for ever excluded. All the

worthiness of Jesus at once becomes theirs! All the worthiness of His Life; all the worthiness of His death;

all the worthiness of His person and His work! They are worthy in Him and in Him alone.

Worthy the Lamb is Heaven's cry, Worthy the Lamb our hearts reply!

Oh the wondrous worthiness of Jesus! And what a fact for us to remember, that all whom God thus

accounts "worthy," he makes worthy! Jesus was "made sin" for them, and they are "made the righteousness

of God in Him;" and though in their own estimation they are still worthless, and feel themselves to be

increasingly so day by day, yet their desire is to live for God, to walk with God, to "look for the Saviour," to

"love His appearing," and to rejoice in the hope of the first resurrection.

Dear brethren, these are not mere sentiments, or opinions. May God give us to see the importance and

solemnity of them as great facts. May you be led to see that he who talks about these things, and repeats

them in a creed, and yet knows not the power of them, does but deceive himself, and goes into eternity with

a lie in his right hand. May God lay this great subject on all our hearts that we may increasingly desire with

St. Paul, that "if by any means we might attain to the out-resurrection from among the dead;" and for this to

count all else but dross. The Lord grant it, for Chris t's sake.