bodies are under sentence of death, but at the empty tomb of Christ I discover that they may be rescued from its baleful effects. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." He is and we shall be. The world finds its final cause in man and without man the world is meaningless. So in Christ, and in Him alone, may be found an explanation for man; and especially is this evident when we enter the domain of spirit. Here I want to pause with you for a moment to look upon the mind, the soul, the higher, the kingly part of man. After all, the great thing which I discover at the empty sepulchre is immortality, and God forever joined to man.

I touch a point, only a point, in the great universe of being. It sends vibrations forth from point to point, I cannot tell the how,-but on it goes beyond the veil of another world, until at last it sways the willing scepter of the very God upon His throne. I grasp a thought, only a thought; from the great infinity of thought. It moves and acts and clothes itself with more than earthly meaning, then points me on beyond my little narrow sphere, to ask of Him who only can reply: Whence am I? Who am I? And whither do I go? I speak a word, only a word, one among a thousand others, in fact, I hardly know its meaning, until it comes echoing back as from another world and thrills my inmost being. Eternity-I tremble; I cannot measure it; its meaning is more than I can understand; God alone can stretch a line from end to end and comprehend its meaning. The finite can only touch it here and move ahead. And so we must. The soul shall live.

Eternity shall endure and their relation solicits careful thought and candid inquiry. We are here in this world for a purpose. We are given the power and means to be, or not to be, what God would have us. "All," so we read from the records of our order, "who receive Him for their righteousness and put their trust in Him shall rise to life everlasting." A bundle of possibilities, wrapped up in these bodies; powers capable of almost infinite development and allied to God himself. How earnestly, how carefully should we live. That is a noble thought, said to have been seen centuries ago emblazoned on the sky and read by Constantine, that living thought upon our banner, "In hoc signo vinces." "In this sign conquerer," and every true Knight Templar and Christian believer seeks to carry it into practice for himself and others. In the cross we may conquer and the Cross of Jesus shall at last conquer the world. Sir Knights and brothers and friends, we come together today around the empty tomb of our blessed Lord and Master. A vision of surpassing glory here seems to confront us. John saw it and we shall see it by and by, if true to God, when we stand glorified soul and body redeemed in heaven. "I saw ............ in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hair was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged

sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength; and when I saw Him I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever more, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.' We pause before this surpassing glory with the soul-inspiring thought, "we shall be like Him;" we listen to the sublime truth, Jesus, the Christ, "has brought life and immortality to light," and for this life eternal and all it carries with it, again I repeat, you and I are candidates. These glimpses of truth to which I point to-day, are some of the truths which we here learn at the empty sepulchre of Christ. We grasp these truths as ours. But men sometimes believe what they know to be deeper than their believing power. Let it not be so with us, but may our believing power be broadened and deepened, reaching out from the farthest grasp of intellect into the very heart of hearts. Our grasp upon truth we may be sure will never avail us very much unless the truth grasps us. We are taught that "naught but holiness will serve as a password to gain admission into the Rest prepared from the foundation of the world." May it be impressed upon our every heart, then shall we at last hear the welcome "come ye blessed." How much that empty tomb in that garden of old Judea means to us. Here Death found more than his match. Here victory was won great beyond imagination and made possible for all mankind. Here we rest upon the substantial truth: "We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Life means something now. It means,

if fitly used, the pathway to the highest mountain peak of moral and spiritual privilege. That empty tomb is the guarantee that we shall rise and sit with him and reign. But hold! the veil of immortality intervenes. "Now we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face." From the darkness of the distant past I catch the echo of the yearning heart of the old Patriarch, "if a man die shall he live again?" I listen; I hear the echo of another voice, heavenly in its sweetness and inspiring in its certainty, gently floating over the centuries: "Because I live ye shall live also." A light now streams down from the inaccessible heights of glory. To the believer Death itself is dead. Darkness is losing its dread even here, for the light of unclouded immortality is dawning.

Here I pause with the surpassingly glorious truth, which Christ himself has left us, a truth which to us as Knights Templar and as Christian believers is full of meaning and most precious. "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."