The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

350 THE RESURRECTION
peered into the abyss
into whose depths no light was
cast, from which no voice came back, they found but
cold comfort in the conjectures and theories of the
philosophers, and but a desperate satisfaction in the
pleasures of sense, by which they sought to make the
most of the present time. God and immortality are
two truths which we see to be most closely related ;
but as a practical need it may be questioned whether
the second does not stand nearer to the average
human heart than the first—that men believe in God
because they must believe in
immortality, rather than
believe in immortality because they believe in God.
So long as the sun of prosperity shines upon them at
least, they are apt to think they need nothing further,
yet none can resist a tremor at the thought of what
the future may unfold. A religion, therefore, which
claimed to penetrate the veil, to bring near to faith,
if not yet to sight, the eternal world, had an irresistible
attraction. It was when Peter declared "that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ," that the people were
pricked in their heart. It was St Paul's first solemn
message to the Christians of Rome, that Jesus was
" declared to be the Son of God with power, according
to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the
dead." And these utterances of His Apostles were
but the echoes of Christ's own testimony concerning
Himself— " I am the resurrection and the life."
They are sweet and solemn words ; they sound
like music in our ears—like
noble and familiar music,
full of sad and tender association. For we have
perhaps heard them in our hour of sorrow, when the
hand that was wont to press ours in love and friend-