Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/273

 so easily  won  by  fraud. " For  if  in  this  life  only," says St.  Paul,  "  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all men  most  miserable,  but  now  Christ  is  risen  from  the dead  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  sleep."

" Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead  the  first  fruits  of them  that  sleep,"  but  what  shall  be  the  aftermath? We, my  brethren,  our  bodies,  for  if  Christ  be  risen, we also  shall  rise  again. His Resurrection  is  the pledge of  ours  and  proves  it  possible  and  certain. It is a  law  of  spirit  and  of  matter  that  whatsoever  dissolution may  take  place,  no  particle  of  God's  creation can be  ever  lost. Nature's law  is  universal;  naught withers but  to  rise  again,  and  naught  can  rise  again except it  first  decay. How easy  then  it  is  for  God, who made  all  things  from  nothing,  to  reunite  the scattered portions  of  our  being! If summer's  sun  resuscitates the  world  of  plants  and  trees,  can  we  deny an equal  power  over  our  bodies  to  the  Son  of  God? True, the  flowers  that  bloom  this  spring  are  not  the same that  bloomed  a  year  ago,  but  were  they  rational and  capable  of  merit  and  demerit,  God's  justice would  preserve  from  year  to  year  their  absolute identity. And since  fair  lilies  are  often  born  to bloom  unseen  while  noxious  weeds  encumber  the choicest soil,  so  there  must  be  a  hereafter  where justice's scales  may  find  their  equilibrium. And this is true  of  bodies  and  souls  alike,  for  through  joy  and sorrow, through  happiness  and  pain,  through  virtue and through  sin,  our  bodies  are  the  necessary  inseparable companions  of  our  souls  and  Both,  if  God is just,  must  share  alike  reward  or  punishment. To