January 27

You hath he quickened. — EPH. ii. 1.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. — JOHN v. 25.

WHO are the dead? Alas, we know but too well! Some of them have been carried from our homes. Their dust lies beneath the grass and the flowers in the cemetery. Their images haunt tenderly our memories. Their influence is woven, in many a golden thread, into our characters and lives. But these are not "the dead" of whom our Lord here speaks. He has reference to those who are "dead while they live," "dead in trespasses and sins," who have no perception of, or love for, or interest in, spiritual things, who do not "live unto God." Even heathen have had some perception of the possibility of spiritual death, present as well as future. "What," said Socrates to his disciples, — "what if some of those around us were already dead souls!" It is a terrible thought that even in the midst of the life and beauty of the world, over a vast multitude of souls "death reigns," and corruption is creeping. It may be that we ourselves are spiritually dead, or little better. But "the hour cometh," it is not far away, it "now is," for the dead to arise. Already it is the resurrection morn. Even now the Son of God is calling, and all around us men are coming to life. "Now is the day of salvation." "They who hear shall live." But how can the dead hear? Because he who speaks to Lazarus at the same time gives him the power to hear, and to obey, and to "come forth." O thou who art "the Resurrection and the Life," dispose us to hear thy voice and awake from spiritual death to life eternal!

John E. Todd.

Oh, let the dead now hear thy voice! Bid, Lord, thy banished ones rejoice! Their beauty this, their glorious dress, Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness.

J. WESLEY (Translation).