SERMON.

"HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED UP?".

- 1 Cor. xv.

35.

It seems almost impossible for man, or for angel, to state exactly how the dead are raised up. Jesus leaves the matter in the dark. The apostles do not attempt to explain it minutely. It is one of the mysteries that are peculiarly under the sole management of God. How? What matter how? It is the fact we want, not the means. How does the seed become the tree? How does a little mist grow into a star? How is the infant ever a man? Ah! tell me how any thing is, as it is? Sift nature's secrets if you can. Look at yourself, then find out all about your mind, your body, and your heart. It is impossible. Do not go into the future, asking how, until the past and the present are all plain. There is something very beautiful and very sublime in the spirit that rests content with realities, never attempting to make these realities tell the secret of their growth.

A peach tastes just as good, although you know nothing about its history as you hold it in your hand, and as you are ready to enjoy its delicious flavor. A ship sails just as well, although you never could tell how it was made, nor of what timber it is composed.

I do not declaim against the study of reasons, but I merely wish to maintain that they are not absolutely indispensable. I wish to attest that man can get along very well without them.

If, then, we cannot tell how the dead are raised, why do we preach about it? why do we talk about it? and why do we think about it? Are we not wasting our time and our patience, and are we not foolishly beating the air?

This is really a serious question; for the whole world are guilty of dealing with this important subject, so that if it be a subject that should not be touched, the whole world will have to be summoned to the bar of judgment. Why is our mind given to us if we are not to use it? Would not the possession of thought be a mockery, if thought were never to be called out, and if its powers were never to be tested? These intellectual faculties that we possess must be constantly exercised, for thus alone can we master truth. If we smother reason, if we crush imagination, and if we chain judgment, we soon should become idiots. Every thing material and spiritual that we learn is gained through ideas. Thought is the acorn: invention is the oak. Dim fancies float in the brain. They are examined, they are sifted, they are caged, and then they are published; whilst the result is the explosion of error and the inauguration of some beautiful fact. The probable and the possible in this way become the actual. Thus, Galileo threw overboard the astronomy of previous ages, casting the priests into great dismay. He would not have dared to have acted from impulse, and, by some sudden gust of passion, to have taken his stand against the whims of the vener

able hierarchy and the established prejudices of the people. He would not have dared, from any short sight, to have stood up and braved the world. No: great ideas seethed in his brain. First, with almost noiseless step, they marched along the chambers of imagery; then, more bold, they leaped with thrill of joy. Still more sure, they careered, they surged, and they thundered, till they forced themselves into the crucible of investigation. Then, as a necessary consequence, they soon sprang from that useful captivity into public notice. So Columbus blotted out an effete geography, finding a world. So Newton tied the worlds together by a glorious balance. So Franklin stole fire from the heavens safely. So everybody gets at truth.

Brethren, the rule holds good in spiritual matters. Here we are to proceed just like the philosophers of old. Here we are to guess. We have a right to ask what is likely, what is probable, what is possible, what is reasonable, and what is just. Who knows but that if we seriously enter into this great matter we may detect foundation laws that shall make the whole question of the resurrection quite capable of demonstration, or at least entirely free from objectionable mystery? Why may there not be a spiritual astronomy, that shall calculate all the phenomena of the spirit body as it floats in ether, as well as a material astronomy, that weighs the course of the sun, moon, and stars? Why may there not be a spiritual geography, that shall tell accurately the locality of the angels, as well as a material geography, that divides continents, showing to us the points where each nation resides? Why may there not be a spiritual electricity, that shall publish the affinities of

the celestial spirits, as well as an earthly electricity that pervades, animates, and inoculates all nature? Can we not find out somewhat the cardinal laws of heaven, as well as the cardinal laws of earth? I think that we can, and I think that it is our duty to make the experiment.

It has

I do not now attempt to prove the fact of the resurrection; but, assuming the fact, I wish to look a little into its history, and I wish to sift out somewhat the laws that are affixed to its growth. First, I would maintain that we rise quickly. Not slowly; not after a hundred years; not after a thousand years; not when the world is destroyed: but at once. "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." been for a long while supposed, so it is now by a large number believed, that the resurrection of the dead does not take place till the end of all time. A great many call it a general, and not a special, resurrection; whilst such expect to slumber in the earth till the last human being dies. I frankly say that I believe no such thing, and that I think the Bible teaches no such thing. Jesus said that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. On the Mount of Transfiguration, two living prophets of the Old Dispensation talked with our Lord. So, too, the Master's words on the cross, we have quoted, where He promised the penitent thief that that very day he should be happy.

The arguments of reason, as well as the arguments of revelation, are against a prolonged sleep. Look at the waste of time, of talent, of joy, and of all things, if the billions who have died are still unconscious. Of

what possible use this paralysis of brain and soul? How could we comfort the dying and the afflicted, if we were obliged to confess to a temporary death of centuries? No. The dead are raised quickly. There is never any real cessation of consciousness or of life. They pass directly from one world to another. They take their last breath here, then their first spiritual breath there. This is philosophy; this is scripture; and this is reason. So does the worm die into the butterfly. So does winter languish into spring. So does the perishing seed assume its new life. Again, I would maintain that the resurrection takes place naturally; that is, it takes place just in the way that everybody would expect. Nature is not outraged by it, but culminated through its aid. Of course we do not expect that our very flesh and very blood are to live again. Scripture has said "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." An apostle has said "We shall all be changed." "This mortal shall put on immortality." We see the body die. We know that it decays. We know that every part of it is incorporated in other bodies. We know that after we have departed, our mortal casement becomes common property, whilst it is spread in time throughout the whole world. There is but just so much matter in the world, so it is divided, generation after generation, amongst the children of men.

Is there then a resurrection of the body? Yes. The spirit body is raised and glorified. There is a natural body; so, too, there is a spiritual body. The natural body dies, or rather escapes into the air, or goes into the ground. The spiritual body lives, - lives for ever.