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66 tenderness were revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, therefore, is the first-fruits of the new creation.

8. S. James writes: "Of His own will hath He begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of His creatures;" that is to say, those who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost are the first-fruits among the nations. The word is as the beginning of the harvest, when the first sheaf, reaped and bound, was lifted up before the Lord as the first-fruits of the field. So among the nations is the Body of Christ the fellowship of the regenerate, who, by a new birth, have risen from spiritual death to spiritual life, and are thereby partakers of immortality. They are members of a Divine Head, who is "the first-fruits of them that slept;" and in Him also they are risen, and have become partakers of the powers of the world to come. S. Paul says that we have "the first-fruits of the spirit." S. Peter describes the Christian people as "a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people," whose office in the world is "to declare His virtues who hath called us out of