vehicle for our immortal experiences and affections, “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown n dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body."

"h

12. I have all along assumed that, like the sort of death and resurrection which takes place in a germinating seed, the withdrawal of life from the animal body and the manifestation of life in the development of a spiritual body constitute one process. I am not aware of any kind of metamorphosis in nature which favours the notion that the spirit, having quitted its dilapidated tenement, will be left houseless-that, having cast off its worn-out vesture, it will remain unclothed, in many cases certainly, in most cases possibly, for a vast period of time, awaiting the

i

h I Cor. xv. 41-44.

According to the Scriptures (1 Cor. xv. 22, 23) all will be made alive (Swomonohσovтα) in Christ; but the persons who undergo the change denoted by this word exhibit it in different ranks, and these appear, not simultaneously, but in succession: "each in his own rank (èv tų ídíų Táyμari), Christ the first-fruits, then those who are Christ's in His appearing, then the end, etc." Rightly to understand, however, the drift of words suggested by Divine Inspiration, it may be sometimes necessary to assign to them an ideal completeness of meaning. I cannot but think, therefore, that the process of making alive, as here conceived, involves all things which are implied in the absolute and final defeat of the King of Terrors, and thus, in the case of the departed saints, its triumphant manifestation to those in whose eyes they have perished and who are now triumphing over them. As regards the saints, it is intimated that the consummation of the Redeemer's work will be effected by the revelation of His Kingdom and Glory. But surely we are not authorized to assume that they are even up to this day disembodied spirits, and so will remain it may be for thousands of years to come. If such is indeed their condition, St. Paul has been disappointed; for, when he was in the tabernacle of a mortal body, and groaning under the burden he had then to bear, his desire of deliverance was, not that he might be unclothed (édúσaσ@ai), but clothed upon (éπevdúσaolai), that his mortal part might be swallowed up by life

restoration of certain atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and so forth, which, it must be presumed, would be, if visible, absolutely indistinguishable from other atoms of the same substances, but with which at one moment or another in its earthly career it happened to be in organic association. This notion presupposes a transparently unscientific conception of corporal identity. Organized matter is in a state of never-ceasing flux: it may be compared to flowing water; it may be represented to our imagination by a stream, which is in one sense always the same, but in another never preserves its identity for two consecutive moments. I am permitted to say that I have the same body now which I had ten years ago; but that which constitutes the identity is not fixity of atoms, but continuity of life. It should be further observed that, on the hypothesis in question, a Providential arrangement must be supposed in order to insure that no single atom shall, in the course of countless transfers, have become in such wise the property of a plurality of bodies that it cannot be restored to one without detriment to the rest. But even the largest concessions in respect to mysterious possibilities leave an objection which is still insuperable;

(2 Cor. v. 4). Is he, then, still unclothed? As regards himself, and probably the majority of his fellow-believers, he looked simply for a transformation and an ascension into heaven (vid. 1 Thess. iv. 15; I Cor. xv. 51, 52; Phil. iii. 20, 21). The final and glorious coming of the Saviour would, as he imagined, find them alive on the earth. He did not profess, however, to know the times and the seasons; and this expectation has proved to be erroneous. But I find in the Scriptures much to encourage, and nothing to forbid the belief, that for those who have that life which is hidden with Christ in God (Col. iii. 3), the end of this present life is truly their ascension into heaven, and, at the same time, an organic change in which the body of their humiliation, being transformed, is conformed to the body of His glory, according to the energy of His power even to subject all things unto Himself (Phil. iii. 21).

for the restoration of atoms could serve no conceivable purpose on the supposition that, after they have been gathered together from the ends of the earth for the reconstruction of a body that was dissolved and dissipated ages ago, their stay is to be but momentary-in other words, if the state of flux is to be perpetuated. If, on the contrary, flux is to be succeeded by fixity, and change by permanence, we may reasonably ask whether the life of an hour and the life of many years will yield alike the precise amount of material requisite for structural perfection, or whether some at least, among those who die infants, will rise infants and so remain to all eternity. Nothing, indeed, forbids the poetry that represents dry bones and dust as gathering together, and assuming the human form, and becoming penetrated with the breath of life: this visionary picture of an unimaginable reality may, for anything we know to the contrary, be no farther from the truth than any other picture which our imagination is capable of receiving; and, in signifying a renewal of vitality in every capacity for life and activity which belongs to human nature, it is not misleading us. But if we conceive of the material of our bodies from the chemist's point of view, and then expect its resurrection, we assuredly deceive ourselves and hide from our minds the truth by overlaying it with a hopelessly confusing entanglement of fantastic and inconsistent speculations. What we have reason to expect is, that the spirit, after leaving its present body, will assume new

'It is properly called the soul, when considered as needing a body for the due discharge of its functions; the spirit, when regarded as superior to the body and authorized to regulate and control its affections and appetites. The yuxiкds ǎvēρwπos is the man in whom spiritual virtue is in abeyance. He may be compared to some king who, however despotic and self-willed, is to all intents and purposes the slave of an imperious minion. As regards the lusts of the flesh, he is characteristically passive: he foregoes the exercise of his rightful authority;

organic conditions, that these conditions will be in all respects suitable to its nature, which can never cease to be human, and that they will be such as for ever to preclude disorganization. What we have to confess is, that the state of the departed is beyond the reach of our imagination, that no mental picture can suggest an answer to the question, "With what body do they come?" and that we have no more actual knowledge of the process by which this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality, than that it will be accomplished by the power of God.

13. To describe our present body as animal (4vxikóv) is to intimate, not that it has been formed out of an invisible and impalpable anima or breath (4vxh), but that it is adapted to that inferior kind of life, that comparative grossness of sentient experience and volitional activity, which we denominate animal. On the other hand, therefore, when we affirm that our future body will be spiritual (πνευματικόν) we must be understood to mean that it will afford due scope for all the energies proper to the spirit (TVεvμa). But the spiritual life must be assumed to be, in its perfection, an advance in all respects beyond the animal life; and accordingly the spiritual body, viewed as a development of powers, must be taken to imply, not isolation from non-sentient atoms and non-sentient forces, but an increase of energy in regard to these, a more extended and effectual influence over them. The two

the πνευματικὸς ἄνθρωπος, on the contrary, effectually asserts it. My view of personality, it will easily be seen, forbids me to conceive of man's being as a compound of soul and spirit. Animal life is separable from it, but what is commonly signified by the soul is that which survives the animal body, and therefore, as I believe, nothing less than the indissoluble personality of the man himself.

k

descriptions of organic life correspond respectively to two editions, so to speak, of human nature, one of which is represented by the First Adam, who came into existence a living soul (ἐγένετο εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν), the other by the Last Adam, who was constituted a quickening spirit (¿yéveto eis πνεvμа SwoжоLov). Of these two exhibitions or presentments of humanity the former was, as regards the inner man, unformed and uncultivated, and in his original integrity only negatively perfect; the latter was the realized ideal, the true Man made in the image of God. The former, accordingly, was, as one may say, produced from the earth, was a creature of the soil or clay (xoïkós), the latter drew His existence from heaven. In the former, as is apparent, all die; in the latter, as those to whom He has been truly revealed cannot but believe, all will be made alive. Thus our expectation is, that when the time of our dissolution has arrived, and our dust is to be given back to its kindred dust, we who bore the image of the earthy, shall thenceforth and for ever bear the image of the heavenly (τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου).

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k I Cor. xv. 45.

1 Cor. xv. 49. It is only in connection with His Ascension into heaven that our Lord's Resurrection throws light upon the life of the world to come. In vanishing from mortal sight he assumed organic conditions of existence such as transcend the reach of mortal imagination. A development of life took place in which the animal passed into the spiritual, the earthly into the heavenly. Such is the change we shall undergo when He fashions anew the body of our humiliation and conforms it to the body of His glory in accordance with the energy of His power to subject to Himself the universe (Phil. iii. 21).

In re-appearing to His disciples after He had risen from the grave, He did not-He could not-manifest to their eyes the image of the heavenly. The body they saw and touched was still the body of His humiliation. Preserved from corruption and revived, it retained the traces of His previous sufferings-the visible effects of the ghastly wounds it had received. Its revival had therefore a very profound significance in relation to the task He had accomplished-a meaning