But let us think. I should like to know the age of that young man. Perhaps, if the minds of those who saw him had been calm enough to ask this question, and if some seer had been permitted to answer it, the substance of the answer might have been something like this: 'His youth is not what mortals mean by youth. He is young, yet six hundred years ago this young man stood in Daniel's chamber, having travelled in a moment across immensity, with a message to him from the King of kings; young, yet he saw Elijah in the wilderness, and, while the weary prophet slept, he it was who lighted the fire, and prepared for him the cake baken on the coals, and put the cruse of water at his head; young, yet he had speech with David, and, standing on the floor of Onan, offered for his choice the famous three terrors; young, yet he laid his hand on Lot, when 'Lot lingered;' young, but the patriarchs knew him well; young, but he saw Adam walk in Paradise; young, but his voice was heard in the music when all the sons of God shouted for joy.'

The ancient stars are young. After pouring out splendours through centuries of boundless profusion, the sun is young as ever-'his eye is not dim, nor his natural force abated.' The earth shows no sign of decrepitude after travelling so long through space; the grass is

as fresh as it was before the flood; and we say to the rainbow:

'As fresh in yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam.'

In the sense of fresh, superb vitality, he whom the visitors to the sepulchre saw was 'a young man.' 'Youth' is not so much a term of time as a term of power. I think that any being has most of youth in him who has most of God in him; that the older we Christians get, the younger we get; that we are never so full of hope as when, poising on the line between the seen and the unseen states, we are just about to leave the world. Look at that old disciple there, leaning on the top of his staff; eyes fail, ears fail, nerves fail; yet, his soul having been made white in the blood of the Lamb,' he is God's young child, and soon, in the fullest sense of the word, he will be a young man, ' clothed in shining garments.' When millenniums are past, they are all young in heaven; they grow, but they never grow old. Time writes no wrinkle there, nor crowns the head with snows.

In telling what the faithful women saw when they reached the tomb, Mark mentions one angel, using the phrase on which we have lingered; Matthew mentions one; but Luke

mentions two. There need be no difficulty in reconciling this account of Luke with the other accounts; since those who accept revelation can have no reasonable doubt that angels can render themselves visible or invisible, as the case may require; that they may have been seen at one time, unseen soon after; also seen by one party, not by another; or that one may have been seen by one set of visitants, and not by others.

The appearance seems to have taken place thus: When Mary's friends came up, startled as she had been, to see the massive block of stone flung on one side, instead of at once concluding, as she did, that robbers of the grave had been there, they determined to solve the mystery. Stooping, they entered the chamber, when they saw an angel in white raiment seated there. Immediately a second radiant form appeared. As they bowed their faces to the earth, words fell upon their ears, filling them with a tumult of rapture mingled with alarm; afterwards, certain of them remembered some of the words, certain of them others; between them they reported them all, and, putting them together, they were these: Fear not; for I know that ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here; for He is risen: behold the place where they laid Him. But go quickly, tell His

disciples, and Peter, that He is risen from the dead. Remember the words that He said to you while He was yet in Galilee,-that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And tell them, He goeth before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, as He said to you. Lo! I have told you.'

Mark xvi. 5-8. Read also Matt. xxviii. 5-7; Luke xxiv. 3-7.

EAVING for notice in proper time and

place, those words of the angel to the women which had only local and temporary reference, let us for the present restrict our thoughts to the Gospel message that was spoken. Mark reports it thus: 'Be not affrighted;' according to Matthew's rendering, he said, 'Fear not ye;' 'ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him. But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.' In this we have the first Gospel sermon preached after the Gospel had been finished on the cross, and sealed by the fact of the resurrection. It is not a sentence that dropped from the speaker's lips by accident,