low His sacred Head on the Cross of Calvary, saying, "It is finished"—may He begin, continue, and end the work of salvation, not only for us, but in us! May He, who gave up the Ghost, receive our spirits into His Own safe keeping, when it shall come to pass that we must die! May He say to you and to me, when the soft treading of friends (Oh! how unlike the rabble tumult of His departure,) speaks our time approaching—may He say to us, when the darkened chamber and the hushed breath shew that you and I are going to our long Home -may He say to us, Son, daughter, "to-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." And when the Last Easter dawns, and the mighty earthquake opens a thousand cavern-tombs-when thousand times ten thousand Lazaruses come forth-may we be able to say with S. Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all those that love His appearing."

22 Tim. iv. 8.

SERMON XIV..

Easter Day.

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER.

1 COR. V., 7, 8.

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

ONCE

NCE more, has the circling year brought round the morning of the Resurrection. Once more, the Church invites her children to celebrate their Easter festival. Once more, am I, unworthy, permitted to declare, and you, beloved, to hear, the glad tidings of this Holy Season. The sadness of Lent has now passed away. It has disappeared before the rising of the Sun of righteousness, like the morning mist. We now put off our mourning, because gone are the days of sorrow. We now rise up from the bed of penitence, because our Salvation has been brought near. We endue ourselves with the garments of gladness, because "the light is come

N

and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us."

"Christ

our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast." "This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” "Christ is risen from the dead;" let us, therefore, proclaim His Resurrection, yea, rather, let us exult in our own rising. Let us triumph in the overthrow of our enemy; for One stronger than the strong hath prevailed, and the mightier than the mighty hath gained the victory. "He hath opened to us the gate of Salvation;" let us enter in and be glad; "let us serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before Him with reverence." Christ hath "died for us, yea, rather, hath risen again;" let us therefore rise with Him.

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." "The Lord strong and mighty" over sin, death and the grave. "The Lord mighty in battle" over the kingdom and powers of darkness. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall rise up in His Holy Place? Even He That hath clean hands and a pure heart."-"Christ the Firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming."

"The word Passover," says an ancient writer, "signifies the passage of the Lord; because Christ on this day returned from death to life, migrated from the world to heaven, to teach us contempt of the earthly, and love of the heavenly. High praise, then, we owe to our Heavenly Father, Who hath quickened us together in His Beloved Son, Who suffered and was

crucified in the flesh; by Whose bruises we are healed, by Whose innocent Passion we are delivered from death. And again, I say, let us magnify His Name, and rejoice in His most glorious Resurrection. First came the grief of Christ's most bitter death, which abolished the enmities of the old transgressions, and washed away all the stains of our sin. Then hath followed the sweetness of unutterable joy, and the height of perennial glory, which shall be given, after the exile of this world, to all those who are by Baptism regenerated in Christ, returning, as it were, from Egypt to the bliss of Paradise. For by the immolation of the True Lamb, the spiritual Israel hath been freed from the captivity of the condemnation of the devil, and the new people of God hath passed into the freedom of the celestial habitation; forasmuch as Christ rising from the dead hath converted the ancient Passover into the new, and transformed temporal life to eternal. Well, therefore, says the Apostle, and the holy Church throughout the world repeats the joyful strain, 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.' Ever, then, ought we to be mindful of the dolorous Passion of Christ, no less than of His joyful Resurrection for our consolation in this mortal state; that so through patience under many tribulations for Christ's sake, we may have hope and confidence that we shall reign with Him for ever."3

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; " for Himself He needed not to die; for Himself there needed neither death nor resurrection. Not for His Own sins, but for the sins of us His people, was the Passover

A'Kempis, Homily "On the mystic name Passover, and the spiritual consolation of the Soul."

sacrificed. That death was death for all. That rising again is for all who believe. As we had a first man who brought in death by sin, so have we a second Man who has brought in life from the dead. He is the forerunner, and the thousand times ten thousand shall follow. Hereafter there will be a great Easter Day, when the stone shall be rolled away from every man's tomb, when "the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God" shall summon all from their graves. His one empty sepulchre shall cause all other sepulchres to be emptied.

Now, who are they who will rejoice on that great Easter Day? Surely those who bid Easter welcome now. But do they welcome resurrection mysteries, who have never risen from "the death of sin to the life of righteousness?" Do they rejoice in Holy Easter, whose thoughts have never been with their suffering Lord, who have never grieved over sin, the bitter cause of His death? Do they rejoice in Easter, whose Lent has been a ceaseless round of gaiety and festivity? Do they rejoice, whose thoughts have been wholly occupied with their business and their pleasure, their farm and their merchandise? Do they rejoice, who have performed no acts of self-denial, made no sacrifice of ease, carried no cross? Can the frivolous votaries of the world, the thoughtless sons of pleasure and the careless daughters, rejoice? Listen to the words of the text. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." "Who," again says the writer I