EASTER SUNDAY.
Christ Our Resurrection.
" Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten thee." (Ephes. v. 14.)
I. When Christ raised His body from the dead, He decorated it with all the attributes of glory. Lacerated and deformed before, it now becomes beautiful and lovely. Reflect on the difference which exists between a body that is dead, pale, wan, and motionless, and the same body when it is invested with the attributes of glory. The same difference exists between a soul in sin, and in the state of grace. The same difference, with due proportion, is to be found between a fervent and a tepid soul. In the state of tepidity the soul slumbers, as it were; it is void of all heroical motion; it is insensible in regard to spiritual things; it is filled with idle fancies and vain trifles; and pursue shadows instead of real and substantial good. It conceives itself to be in a good state, whilst in reality it may be addressed as God addressed the Bishop of Laodicea in the Apocalypse of St. John, " Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Apoc. iii. 17.)
II. Our Saviour is ready to raise us from the state of tepidity and sin, if we consent on our part, and therefore He says of Himself, " I am the resurrection and the life." (John xi. 25.) He is the cause and author of both, as well in regard to the soul as the body. What a bene-
