certain assurance, for us, that though we die, yet shall we live! I
have shewn you, in the beginning of my sermon, how nothing that dies
perishes to nothing, but begins a new and a higher life. How the
stone becomes a plant,--something better and more useful than it was
before; the plant passes into an animal--a step higher still. And,
therefore, we may be sure that the same rule will hold good about us
men and women, that when we die, we shall begin a new and a nobler
life, that is, if we have been true MEN; if we have lived fulfilling
the law of our kind. St. Paul tells us so positively. He says that
nothing comes to life except it first die, then God gives it a new
body. He says that even so is the resurrection of the dead,--that
we gain a step by dying; that we are sown in corruption, and are
raised in incorruption; we are sown in dishonour, and are raised in
glory; we are sown in weakness, and are raised in power; we are sown
a natural body, and are raised a spiritual body; that as we now are
of the earth earthy, after death and the resurrection our new and
nobler body will be of the heavens heavenly; so that "when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall
have put on immortality, then death shall be swallowed up in
victory." Therefore, I say, Sorrow not for those who sleep as if
you had no hope for the dead; for "Christ is risen from the dead,
and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

And I say that this has to do with the text--it has to do with
Ascension-day. For if we claim our share in Christ,--if we claim
our share of our heavenly Father's promise, "to give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him;" then we may certainly hope for our share in
Christ's resurrection, our share in Christ's ascension. For, says
St. Paul (Rom. viii. 10, 11), "if Christ be in you, the body is dead