by Rev. W. R. Williams, D. D.
There is proclaimed one mightier than death or hell. He is the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory. He, in bringing rescue tasted of death, yea not only met the common lot, but bore on himself the common and concentrated guilt of our race. Doing this he tore the sting from death and to them that believe. He is become the author of life, everlasting life.
To them that recieve Christ, the war though fierce has lost its main terror and is stripped of its perils, mortality loses its ghastliness and puts on hopefulness and promise. The grave is like the wet, cold March day, behind whose gloom lie the treasures of bursting spring and the glories of refulgent summer. The light afflictions are but for a moment. Death to the saint changes many of its offices. If pain walks at his side, He is also the queller of strife and the calmer of care. No more throbs or sighs, but rest. He is in one sense the Destroyer, but in another the Restorer. He brings back, through Christ's victorious grave, the lost innocence and peace of Eden. He divides the nearest ties, but also re-unites to those who sleep in Jesus. He is the curse of the law, but through the blessed one, who magnified and satisfied the law, he becomes to the believer in Jesus, the end of sin, the gate of Paradise, and the recompense of a new, a better and an unending life.
