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January 13, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI twentieth century as it was on that glorious night upon the hills of Bethlehem, when heaven came clown to earth and angels sang to the shepherds that evangel that brought the new star into our heavpn? lie. light all along the track of time, and giving to the sinblind vision of man a glimpse of what redemption should mean to a lost world. The natal day of our Redeemer! "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." It is no earthly Prince that claims your loyalty and your praise. In the little stable at Bethlehem. Immanuel (God with us) saw the dawn of the first Christmas day. And on that day the Father's messengers came to herald his coming. Heaven Tejoiced with earth over redemption begun. God in the person of his Son dwelling in human flesh, is the great mystery of the ages. He becomes "an infant of days," lived in the homes of men ; and that he might sympathize with every phase of human life, hungered. thirsted, suffered as other mortals, "being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Through thirty-three years this wonderful Savior lived daily in contact with a lost, ruined world, his pure nature hourly enduring the agony of sin's unhallowed touch?even in his own disciples. Betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, he went to Calvary and there bore our sins, surrendering to the Father the life he so freely gaye for the sins of men. When we celebrate the birth of this glorious Redeemer. we should not fail 1 J?1 * . .... .u .v/ui\ ij(i\. r\ iijjvjn me narKcsi aay in the world's history, when Jesus, hanging upon the cross, said, "It is finished." 'And although men denied and reviled him, heaven strengthened him. and earth, amid the earthquake shock and the thick darkness that hid so vile a deed even from its perpetrators, sympathized with her God. We should also remember Easter dawn, the open tomb, the shining angels, and the glad message, "He is not here, but is risen." It was the wonderful power of the resurrection, the crowning act of redemption, that gave to the pen of Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, those wonderful 1 iitrs* ? worcis, 1 nat i may know him, and the power of his resurrection." Paul did not believe in a dead Christ, but realized that "he liveth and abideth forever." The risen Christ is the vital point in the Christian's creed. For Paul affirmed with great confidence. "We shall live with him by the power of God." The power of the resurrection, that brought Jesus again from the dead, shall be manifest in every believer in Jesus as the Redeemer. Being united to him by a livintr faitli .. 1. _ 11 ? '? 1 * .M.fti, iiivov uuuic^ snail MJIIIC (1HV DC rCClCClllCCl from corruption, "This mortal shall put on immortality," and we shall realize, in deed and in truth, the power of his resurrection. Well may we gladsome be, each Christmas morning, For it is herald of a greater day, When we shall greet our resurrection dawning, And leave behind these tenements of clay. Floral Manse, S. C. AN OF THE SOUTH. II BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD. By Dr. Webster. "They that are baptized" means those who, as we say today, have united with the church, who have confessed Christ or made a public profession of their faith. Now Paul says that some had been led to take this step by reason of the dead, or on account of the dead. By "the dead," we may understand him to mean not so much those who have lived well and have died nobly like the martyrs and other "sceptered spirits who rule us from their urns," as those of their own kith and kin who have fallen asleep in Jesus. "The death of Christians," says our commentator, "leads to the conversion of survivors," who in the first instance "for the cal-e of dead" (their beloved dead), and in hope of reunion turn to Christ?for example, as when a dying mother wins her son by the appeal, "Meet me in heaven." In Croiinth among the accessions to the church may have been households who came to this decision on account of the persuasion of dying lips. This may have been well known to all in the Corinthian Church. Paul's point is that if the dead are not raised, there will be no reunion of the spirits parted by death, although they have pledged each other to meet again. "It has often happened," writes Ian Maclaren, "that at the touch of this unseen hand, hard and sceptical men have arisen and set their faces towards God for the hope of seeing again a golden head on which the sun was ever shining.7' He is speaking of the little children who went out from us, and we have not seen them since. Many of us must enroll ourselves among those who were baptized on account of the dead. "What led you to Christ?" The question was asked of a young man who had come before tbe session. The answer was, "We were engaged to be married and she died." Only another way of saying. "I come to be baptized on account of one who is dead." "Doctor " salrl o pastor who was dying, "can I live till noonday? I am glad you think I can. Then I may see Mr. B. He cannot he here much before noon." That man of God was dead at noon, but before he passed away he had pleaded once more with Mr. B., and not in vain. Thirty years' service in the church session and in the Sunday School attested the change that came over that man, who was baptized as a follower of Christ by reason of the words and the life and the love of his pastor now dead. Does it not bring us close to the beloved Paul as we find, if this interpretation is correct, that in his churches, as well as in ours, were not a few who owed their con version under God to the words spoken by kinsmen and friends while they were yet with us, and especially as they went out from us on their journey home??The Christian Intelligencer. The faith that will not trust God will bear watching in civil contracts. The mission of a mission is to save the lost and bring in the kingdom of God.