November 16

"He spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me."—Matthew 28:18.

FOR Jesus to die was gain in the richest degree—to die, and to rise again from His death. He took up once more all that He had surrendered when He came to our far-off world. Yes, and since Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet He is rewarded with a dominion which is larger still.

To-day He has a new authority to forgive my sin. Since He bore the cross for me, since He poured out from the white marble of His body the precious ointment of His blood, He has a right to speak the sentence of pardon which none can gainsay.

To-day He has a new fulness of the Spirit to impart to my soul. By His sorrow and shame, by His crucifixion and ascension, He opened the way for the coming of the Teacher, the Sanctifier, the Comforter. The Holy Ghost is given since Jesus was glorified.

To-day He has a new title to my love. Ah, mine must be a heart of adamant if I can refrain from loving Him who suffered in my room, and who appears in glory as my Intercessor. None on earth, and none in heaven, should equal Him.

To-day He has a new sceptre to which I bend. It is the sceptre of One who is not God only but Man too. It is the government of my Kinsman-Redeemer. I see in it the pledge of my own kinghood by and by.

Thus death has given my Saviour a fresh empire and a better sovereignty. Lord of lords as He was in the everlasting years, on His head are many crowns today which did not sparkle there in that unruffled and passionless eternity of the past.