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 COEffiiGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 REV. EDWARD M. BOUNDS 
 
THE 
 INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE RESURRECTION 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. EDWARD M. BOUNDS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "PRAYER AND PRAYING MEN," "PREACHER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REV. HOMER W. HODGE 
 
 NEW ^Sr YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
,375 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907, 
 BY HOMER W. HODGE 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1 92 1, 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 AUG 31 i92! 
 
 FORMERLY ISSUED UNDER 
 THE TITLE OF "THE RESURRECTION" 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 ©CI.A622600 
 
 . 
 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The family Bible shows that the father of 
 Rev. Edward M. Bounds, Thos. Jefferson 
 Bounds, was born in Maryland Sept. 5th, 1801. 
 His mother, Hester Ann Purnell, was born in 
 Maryland. They married November 12th, 1823. 
 Came to Kentucky, lived there for a few years, 
 then moved to Marion County, Mo. Edward M. 
 Bounds was born in Shelbyville, Mo., April the 
 15th, 1835. His father, Thos. J. Bounds, died 
 and was buried in Shelby County. His mother 
 died in 1882, June the 7th, and was buried in 
 Kirksville, Mo. 
 
 Edward M. Bounds and his brother, Charles 
 L., went to California under the lure of the gold 
 discovery in 1849. Bounds was then only 14 
 years old. It is said that he and his brother were 
 the only two boys who went across the plains — 
 and carried their religion with them. 
 
 There were eight brothers and three sisters 
 born to the family of Thos. J. Bounds, father of 
 Edward M. Bounds. Edward M, studied law 
 and was admitted and located in Hannibal, Mo., 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 but the urgency to preach was so insistent that 
 he gave up law after two years. He joined the 
 Confederate Army at the opening of the war and 
 was made a chaplain. 
 
 Bishop W. F. Mallalieu, having read these 
 chapters on The Resurrection, said in 1908, "I 
 have recently read two books by Rev. Edward 
 M. Bounds. The classical quotations at the heads 
 of the chapters are more than worth the money 
 asked for the books. Bounds says the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ was complete, literal, entire and 
 absolute; that the resurrection of the bodies of 
 the dead, whatever disposition may be made of 
 them, whether buried in the sea or burned to 
 ashes, will be precisely analogous to the resurrec- 
 tion of the body of Jesus Christ." 
 
 I met this great saint in May, 1905, when he 
 was 70 years old. He was then writing his 
 Preacher and Prayer and these "thoughts on the 
 Resurrection." We shared our board and bed 
 with him off and on until he died. It was worth 
 much to hear him talk. He would sit for hours 
 in silent meditation and prayer and then begin 
 in a delightful slow, sweet way, and if we broke 
 in upon him he became very intense. To under- 
 stand his meaning and his earnestness at times 
 was painful. He coaxed us to rise with him at 
 the 4 a. m. hour and wrestle for the lost world 
 and for money to publish his books. At last God 
 gave him the loan of enough money to publish 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 Preacher and Prayer and The Resurrection in 
 1907. The two books were written (figuratively 
 speaking) in his blood and saturated through 
 and through with his tears. Brother Bounds took 
 his edition of The Resurrection home with him 
 to Washington, Georgia, and there they remained 
 locked up for 12 years. He wrote me in Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., 15th Dec., 191 1, these words, "These 
 books I send you as a gift are my books on The 
 Resurrection. They are God's great truths and 
 will serve you well and any who read to refresh 
 on that vital truth. On 21st Dec, 191 1, he hav- 
 ing so many of these books in his attic stored and 
 no way to sell them, writes me these lines, "I 
 send you via express twenty-five copies. They 
 must be out preaching. They are God's truths. 
 Choose your occasion and persons; give them 
 away for God. I would like to see New York City 
 sowed down with them." Scatter them as you 
 can and more if you can and I will send them to 
 you gladly. His longing soul knew the great hope 
 of the Christian and he was interceding with God 
 that his precious and priceless book might have 
 readers for God's glory and God answered 
 though ten years later, and now with a becoming 
 binding and enterprising publishers one of the 
 most glorious of all spiritual doctrines is opened 
 and portrayed scripturally to a reading world who 
 desire to read all he has ever written. 
 
 Dr. A. F. Scofield of London, England, in 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 studying the history of the Roman empire writ- 
 ten by Polybius, the famed historian, discovered 
 that the Roman army used three trumpet calls 
 in breaking camp. First the trumpet blew loud 
 and continuous for a few moments, which meant, 
 "Strike your tents, pack your baggage, secure the 
 animals. " The second trumpet was to assemble 
 the companies, battalions, in formation and await 
 the last trumpet. The last trumpet was simply 
 "March" The argument would run thus : Paul 
 was among Roman soldiers at different places 
 and even chained to one in Rome and had no 
 doubt often heard the Three Trumpets sounding 
 in the years gone among the victorious legions 
 of imperial Rome. Being therefore familiar with 
 the sound of the trumpets and their meaning he 
 utters this marvelous statement in ist Corinthians 
 15:52, in reference to the resurrection (thirty- 
 five years before St. John wrote the nth chapter 
 of Revelations), "Behold I shew you a mystery; 
 we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 
 in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the 
 Last Trump" The inference is that Paul made 
 no reference at all to John's seventh trump in 
 Revelations, but referred to the third trump of 
 the Romans. If this hypothesis be true then 
 we stand with those who are God's eagles. 
 Having heard the first and second trump, we 
 await the last command, "March," that we may 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 be caught up together with them in the clouds 
 to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever 
 be with the Lord." 
 
 Bounds' interpretation is that Christ will come 
 to be glorified in all them that believe when that 
 prayer of His shall be answered, "Father, I will 
 that they whom Thou hast given me, be with me 
 where I am, that they may behold my glory." He 
 did not believe that Christ would come to be 
 glorified in only a portion of His saints and ad- 
 mired only in so many of them that believe as 
 have lived before the millennium, the rest to be 
 brought in by degrees after Christ comes and to 
 remain in the flesh as subjects of the former class. 
 
 Thank God that Christ purchased on the cross 
 virtual redemption and actual redemption. Our 
 Spirits have been virtually redeemed and actually 
 redeemed : while the body has been only virtually 
 redeemed. Ephesians 1:14: "Which is the 
 earnest of our inheritance until the redemption 
 of the Purchased Possession" The purchased 
 Possession is the body, it has not been actually re- 
 deemed until God glorifies it at the Resurrection. 
 Then "the Lord Himself will descend from 
 Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
 archangel and with the trump of God: and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which 
 are alive and remain shall be caught up together 
 with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
 Wherefore comfort one another with these 
 words." Glory be to God, Amen. 
 
 Homer W. Hodge. 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Prefatory 15 
 
 II. The Diurnal and Annual Resur- 
 rection ........ 17 
 
 III. The Whole Man Immortal . 21 
 
 IV. Christ the First Fruits of the 
 
 Resurrection 28 
 
 V. Death's Realms Invaded ... 35 
 
 VI. Resurrection Power Lodged in Jesus 
 
 Christ 40 
 
 VII. God the Security: Resurrection 
 
 Day Is a Pay Day 46 
 
 VIII. "In Christ Shall All be Made 
 
 Alive" 50 
 
 IX. The Resurrection: The Essence of 
 
 the Gospel 56 
 
 X. The Judgment and the Resurrec- 
 tion ......... 64 
 
 XI. Not Another Body But the Same 
 
 Body . 70 
 
 XII. A Literal Resurrection : The Bible 
 
 Teaching 75 
 
 xi 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XIIL 
 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Belief in the Resurrection as the 
 Corner Stone of the Christian 
 Dispensation 85 
 
 Resurrection of the Body Complete 91 
 
 Wesley's Argument for a Resurrec- 
 tion and Not a Creation . 
 
 The Christian's Body Raised Im- 
 mortal and Incorruptible 
 
 Some Bodies Will Shine 
 Brightly than Others 
 
 More 
 
 Christ's Resurrection the Pledge 
 and Symbol of Ours .... 
 
 101 
 
 109 
 
 116 
 
 121 
 
 This Changed Body Will Never 
 Know Weakness, Tears or Decay 126 
 
 And As We Have Borne the Image 
 of the Earthy, We Shall Also 
 Bear the Image of the Heavenly 131 
 
 Our Bodies Changed Instantane- 
 ously at Second Coming of Christ 135 
 
 Weariness, Waste, Weakness Here 
 — Deathless Energy There . . 140 
 
THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
THE 
 
 INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PREFATORY 
 
 J hear the thunder of eternity in my ears night and 
 day: "Behold He cometh with clouds and every eye shall 
 see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all kin- 
 dreds of the earth shall wail on account of Him; even so, 
 amen!' 
 
 Christ is near at hand for His prayer in the 17th chap- 
 ter of St. John is evidently on the eve of being answered: 
 "Father I will that they whom Thou hast given me be 
 with me where I am, that they may behold my glory!* 
 
 —Rev. Homer W. Hodge. 
 
 Besides the principles of which we consist and 
 the actions which flow from us, the consideration 
 of the things without us and the natural course of 
 variations in the creature will render the resur- 
 rection yet more highly probable. Every space 
 of twenty-four hours teacheth thus much in which 
 there is always a revolution amounting to a resur- 
 rection. The day dies into night and is buried 
 in silence and darkness; on the next morning it 
 appeareth again and reviveth, opening the grave 
 of darkness, rising from the dead of night. This 
 
 15 
 
16 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 is a diurnal resurrection. As the day dies into 
 the night, so does the summer into winter; the 
 sap is said to descend into the root, and there it 
 lies buried in the ground; the earth is covered 
 with snow or crusted with frost, and becomes a 
 general sepulcher. When the spring appeareth, 
 all begin to rise; the plants and flowers peep out 
 of their graves, revive, and grow and flourish. 
 This is the annual resurrection. The corn by 
 which we live and for want of which we perish 
 with famine is, notwithstanding, cast upon the 
 earth and buried in the ground with a design 
 that it may be corrupted and, being corrupted, 
 may revive and multiply; our bodies are fed by 
 this constant experiment, and we continue this 
 life by a constant succession of resurrections. 
 Thus all things are repaired by corrupting, are 
 preserved by perishing, and revived by dying; 
 and can we think that man, the lord of all these 
 things which thus die and revive for him, should 
 be detained in death, never to live again? Is it 
 imaginable that God should thus restore all things 
 to man, and not restore man to himself? If there 
 were no other consideration but the principles of 
 human nature, of the liberty and remunerability 
 of human actions and of the natural revolutions 
 and resurrections of other creatures, it were 
 abundantly sufficient to render the resurrection of 
 our bodies highly probable. — Pearson on the 
 Creed. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE DIURNAL AND ANNUAL RESURRECTION 
 
 Even the most illustrious [skeptic] has no better end 
 than that of displaying his powers in confounding and 
 darkening truth, and the happiest efforts of whose skep- 
 ticism cannot be more leniently described than as brilliant 
 feats of mental debauchery, 
 
 — Sir James Mackintosh. 
 
 The whole system of Jesus Christ is based 
 on the immortality of the man. It is not the 
 philosophical idea or guesses of the immortality 
 of the soul, but the immortality of the man. The 
 whole man, in his dual or triune nature, is to live 
 forever. The spirit or higher department defies 
 death; the body is to come out of the ruins and 
 prison house of death and be raised to life. Man 
 immortal; the whole man, soul, body, spirit, 
 immortal — this is the keystone and keynote of 
 the redemption by Christ. The deathless nature 
 of the soul has been taught in the philosophies 
 of earth, pagan and Christian, but the resurrec- 
 tion of the body is distinctively a Christian 
 doctrine. It belongs to the revelation of God's 
 Word. It is found in the Bible, and nowhere 
 else. Nature may have echoes, analogies, figures ;, 
 
 17 
 
18 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 but nowhere is the doctrine fully asserted, fully 
 assured, but in the Scriptures which contain the 
 revealed will of God. 
 
 This doctrine of the resurrection of the body 
 is not a mere inference from Bible statement. It 
 is the statement itself, the key of its arch, the 
 corner stone of its foundation. It is not a rich 
 afterthought of the gospel, but coordinate "Jesus 
 and the resurrection" are the gospel. 
 
 Faith can make no appeal to reason or the 
 fitness of things; its appeal is to the Word of 
 God, and whatever is therein revealed faith ac- 
 cepts as true. Faith accepts the Bible as the 
 word and will of God and rests upon its truth 
 without question and without other evidence. 
 
 Faith accepts the Word of God as indubitable 
 evidence of any fact, and rejoices in the fact as 
 true because God asserts it in his Word. Many 
 of the facts revealed to us in the Bible receive 
 the credence of our reason as fit and proper 
 things. Others extend beyond the range of 
 reason, and it has neither vision nor analogy to 
 measure them. 
 
 The resurrection of the human body, its com- 
 ing back into life from the ravages, decay, and 
 oblivion of the grave, is one of these supernatural 
 facts. It has been the anxious and tearful ques- 
 tion of the ages: "Can the dead live? Is there 
 strength anywhere to vanquish death? Is there 
 any hope of victory over the grave?" Reason 
 
DIURNAL AND ANNUAL RESURRECTION 19 
 
 has neither answer to the question nor hope for 
 the questioner. Analogy starts some faint light, 
 but this goes out amid the increasing night of the 
 tomb. 
 
 There are but two questions to quicken and 
 satisfy faith in the resurrection of the body. 
 These questions are of promise and ability: Has 
 God promised to raise the body from the dead? 
 Is he able to perform his promise in this respect? 
 The body is a distinct, a very important part of 
 the man. It is the part seen, known, handled, 
 described as the man, the organ, the outlet, 
 through which the man comes into contact, sym- 
 pathy, and action with the world around. A part, 
 an all-important, indispensable part, of the man, 
 the body belongs to the man, is an original, 
 organic part of the man, evident and conspicuous 
 — will this body rise from the dead where it has 
 been laid amid tears and heart-breaking fare- 
 wells? Its death is a fact distinct and clearly 
 outlined. "Will it live again?" is the passionate 
 question of love and longing. 
 
 The heathen world sighed out their upbraid- 
 ings, emptiness, and despair. The flowers, said 
 they, died by the chill of winter, but spring's 
 warm breath brings them to life again. The day 
 declines into darkness and night, but rises again 
 into the full day; suns set, but come again full- 
 orbed out of the eclipse of their setting; moons 
 wane, but wax into fullness and brightness again ; 
 
20 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 but their loved ones leave them, eclipsed and lost 
 in the darkness of death, but no spring, no morn, 
 no rising ever brings them again. 
 
 Christianity hushes these sighs, fills this empti- 
 ness, lifts this despair. She lights the darkness 
 of the grave with the morning star of hope, and 
 sheds the luster of the resurrection day upon the 
 night of the tomb. Faith asks of unbelief, of 
 doubt and despair: u Why should it be thought 
 a thing incredible with you that God should raise 
 the dead? Is anything too hard for God?" She 
 declares: "All that sleep in their graves shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come 
 forth." 
 
 Faith puts the brightness of an immortal hope 
 amid our graveyard griefs; writes on every tomb- 
 stone, "I am the resurrection and the life;" calls 
 aloud to every mourner, "Thy dead shall live." 
 Christianity is not agnosticism, but faith, as- 
 surance, knowledge; not negative, but positive. 
 "I believe in the resurrection of the body," is a 
 fundamental and enduring item of her creed. 
 
 Christianity is not rationalism, but faith in 
 God's revelation. A conspicuous, all-important 
 item in that revelation is the resurrection of the 
 body. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE WHOLE MAN IMMORTAL 
 
 Present and future are alike bound up in our belief 
 of our Lord's resurrection and ascension; and dreary 
 indeed must this present be, and gloomy and clouded that 
 future, if our belief in our risen and ascended Lord be 
 uncertain, partial, precarious. — Bishop Ellicott. 
 
 To the front, as the solid foundation for the 
 resurrection of the body, is the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ His resurrection opens the doors 
 of the grave and lets in light and creates hope. 
 "Go tell his disciples that he is risen." This 
 angel announcement carries assurance and bright- 
 ness to all earth's realms of doubt and death. 
 
 "The resurrection of Christ is the cause of our 
 resurrection," as Pearson on the Creed says, 
 "by a double causality as an efficient and an ex- 
 emplary cause— as an efficient cause in regard 
 that our Saviour by and upon his resurrection 
 hath obtained power and right to raise all the 
 dead, Tor as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive ;' as an exemplary cause in 
 regard that ail the saints of God shall rise after 
 
 21 
 
22 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 the similitude and in conformity to the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, 'For if we have been planted 
 together in the likeness of his death, we shall 
 be also in the likeness of his resurrection.' He 
 shall change our vile bodies that they may be 
 fashioned like unto his glorious body. As we 
 have borne the image of the earthy, we may bear 
 the image of the heavenly. This is the great hope 
 of the Christian that Christ rising from the dead 
 hath obtained the power and is become the pat- 
 tern of his resurrection. " Thy dead shall live; 
 my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, 
 ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew 
 of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth her dead. 
 The Scriptures link these two facts together, 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 
 and the resurrection of man's body from the 
 grave. The dire results of his failing to rise, the 
 gloom and wreck of an unrisen Christ is not too 
 strongly put by an inspired writer: "Now if 
 Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, 
 how say some among you that there is no resur- 
 rection of the dead? But if there be no resurrec- 
 tion of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if 
 Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, 
 and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are 
 found false witnesses of God; because we have 
 testified of God that he raised up Christ : whom 
 he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not 
 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; 
 
THE WHOLE MAN IMMORTAL 23 
 
 and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; 
 ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which 
 are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this 
 life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
 most miserable. But now is Christ risen from 
 the dead, and become the first fruits of them that 
 slept. For since by man came death, by man 
 came also the resurrection of the dead. For as 
 in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive. But every man in his own order: 
 Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are 
 Christ's at his coming." 
 
 Paul puts it strongly again: "For if we believe 
 that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
 that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. But 
 if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the 
 dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from 
 the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
 by his spirit that dwelleth in you. And God hath 
 both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us 
 by his own power. Knowing that he which raised 
 up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, 
 and shall present us with you." 
 
 The Scriptures bear ample and continuous 
 evidence that the faith of the resurrection of the 
 body lies in the faith that Jesus Christ died and 
 rose again. If his flesh rotted in the sepulcher 
 of Joseph, then our hope of coming out of the 
 grave rots also; if his body went to the dust 
 of Palestine, then our faith, fancied faith and 
 
24 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 vaunted hope, of the resurrection is as pulseless 
 and dead as dust. 
 
 All the simple and invincible proofs of the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ are confirmations 
 deep, true, eternal as Holy Writ that our bodies, 
 at the call of Jesus Christ, shall roll off the re- 
 proach and break the iron chains of death. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus is the great affirming 
 and cementing fact. By it he was declared to 
 be the Son of God with power; it is the fitting 
 and necessary complement to his advent and 
 crucifixion; it binds into a complete whole all the 
 facts of his wondrous life and puts the seal of 
 truth on them; the keystone of the sacred arch, 
 the crown of the system, the miracle of all 
 miracles. It saves his crucifixion from scorn. It 
 puts divinity and glory on the cross. The resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ was necessary to establish 
 the truth of his mission and put the stamp of 
 all-conquering power on his gospel. His death 
 met the law, conciliated divine justice; his resur- 
 rection sent the proclamation of liberty through 
 all the realms of the dead and led the conqueror 
 Death in chains. 
 
 The most casual reader of the New Testament 
 can scarcely fail to see the commanding position 
 the resurrection of Christ holds in Christianity. 
 It is the creator of its new and brighter hopes, 
 of its richer and stronger faith, of its deeper and 
 more exalted experience. It is the salient point 
 
THE WHOLE MAN IMMORTAL 25 
 
 of New Testament preaching. "Jesus and the 
 resurrection" summarized the subject of their 
 sermonizing. Without this to them there was 
 nothing but gloom and despair. If Christ, says 
 the apostle, be not risen, then is our preaching 
 vain, our faith vain, we are perjured as false 
 witnesses for God, we are yet in our sins, our 
 dead in Christ have perished hopelessly, and we 
 are of all men most miserable. All these dire 
 results are predicated of us if Christ be not risen. 
 But the apostle arrests all these appalling conse- 
 quences, and throws a flood of light and hope and 
 life over the scene by this restatement and reas- 
 surance : "But now is Christ risen from the dead, 
 and become the first fruits of them that slept.'' 
 The resurrection of Christ reanimates our hopes 
 of heaven and fixes them as sure as its foundations 
 of adamant, and as precious and beautiful as its 
 jeweled walls. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the birth 
 of a new, glorious, immortal life on the realms 
 of the midnight of death, the rising of the new 
 sun on the terrors of darkness and night. It is 
 the opening of a bright and noble highway to 
 heaven where everything had been closed and 
 sealed and every hope withered. Peter's raptur- 
 ous acclaim is not the transport of impulse, but 
 it is born of the most glorious and divine fact — a 
 fact as solid and enduring as the granite of 
 
26 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 heaven, as enrapturing as the bliss and beauty of 
 heaven. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ not only lifts dark- 
 ness and dread from the tomb, but also spans the 
 abyss which separates us from our loved dead, 
 and puts into us the strength and hope of a 
 glorious reunion in the very face of a separation ' 
 the most painful, disastrous, and despairing. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus both assures and 
 patterns our resurrection; the two are conjoined. 
 The nonresurrection of the body relegates Jesus 
 back to his grave, and seals it as forever dead. 
 Peter's triumphant shout plants the flower of 
 immortality and life on every tombstone where 
 faith had wrought its wondrous work. 
 
 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy 
 begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an 
 inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
 f adeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who 
 by the power of God are guarded through faith 
 unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
 time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. " 
 
 Hope throws its rich luster over the night of 
 the tomb and thrills with deathless joy the heart 
 where the resurrection of Jesus has been realized. 
 We are to come out of the grave because Jesus 
 came out of his grave. Our tombs will f be empty 
 of our bodies because Joseph's new tomb on the 
 
THE WHOLE MAN IMMORTAL 27 
 
 third morn was empty of his body. There is an 
 inevitable, insuperable connection between the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection 
 of our bodies. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ is the assurance and 
 type of ours — his body which died, the same and 
 not another, was raised. These bodies we now 
 bear, the same ones we shall put in the grave, 
 will be raised and fashioned after his glorious 
 body. His resurrection takes the tyranny and 
 sting from death, destroys its fears and van- 
 quishes its dominion, brings the angels down 
 beside our grave, plants hope and immortality on 
 the ruins of that grave. His resurrection con- 
 quers for us a way through the dark domain of 
 death; by it corruption puts on incorruption, 
 mortality puts on immortality. Death is swal- 
 lowed up, the victor's song is on our dying lips, 
 and death becomes our coronation day. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 Never was there an age when it was more necessary to 
 set forth events that not only imply but practically prove 
 the resurrection of the body, and that not only suggest 
 but confirm the teaching of the Church in reference to 
 the future state which it is the obvious tendency of the 
 speculations of our own times to explain away, to modify, 
 or to deny. — Bishop Ellicott. 
 
 In the person of Jesus, his acts and teachings, 
 death holds an essential, conspicuous place. It 
 could not be otherwise. Death holds a com- 
 manding and ruinous reign over the race which 
 Jesus Christ came to redeem. There could be 
 no redemption of man without an invasion of 
 the realms of death. No sunlight to humanity 
 while the clouds and night of death hung heavy 
 and dread, no spring bloom to man while the 
 winter of death swept and froze with its polar 
 blasts and killing frosts. The Emancipator must 
 break the thrall which holds, throttles, and en- 
 slaves. Of his coming and of himself the long- 
 away prophet had declared: "I will ransom 
 them from the power of the grave : I will redeem 
 
 28 
 
CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS 29 
 
 them from death : O death, I will be thy plagues ; 
 O grave, I will be thy destruction." An age 
 frivolous, recklessly treading on the verge of 
 agnosticism and suicide, may reck nothing of 
 death, its mystery and fear; but a serious age 
 will open its eye and seriously and prayerfully 
 confront death, recognize and lament its reign 
 and ruin, as the king of terrors, the woe and 
 blight of earth. Jesus Christ came to confront 
 death, to war on death, to dismantle its empire, 
 to discrown its king until every one of Christ's 
 imprisoned ones shall shout: "Death is swal- 
 lowed up in victory. O death, where is thy 
 sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 
 
 Jesus holds in his own person the death of 
 death. He boldly declares: "If a man keep my 
 saying, he shall never taste of death." He said 
 in the presence of a death whose ruthless ravages 
 had desolated his friendliest home and filled with 
 bitterest grief his most devoted hearts: "I am 
 the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth 
 in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and 
 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die." He attested the wealth and glory of his 
 triumph over death: "I am the first and the 
 last, and the living one; and I was dead, and 
 behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the 
 keys of death and of Hades." 
 
 What does Jesus, the great Teacher sent by God 
 to teach us the great things of God, say about 
 
30 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 the rising again of the body from death? In 
 raising the dead does he not in action and in plain, 
 unmistakable fact declare his ability to raise the 
 dead and intimate the possibility and encourage 
 the hope of the resurrection? u And it came to 
 pass the day after, that he went into a city called 
 Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, 
 and much people. Now when he came nigh to the 
 gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man 
 carried out, the only son of his mother, and she 
 was a widow: and much people of the city was 
 with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had 
 compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 
 And he came and touched the bier: and they that 
 bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, 
 I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead 
 sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered 
 him to his mother. And there came a fear on all : 
 and they glorified God, saying, That a great 
 prophet is risen up among us ; and, That God hath 
 visited his people. " 
 
 Is there not in this picture the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the dead? Is it not a prophecy 
 and, even more, a pledge that death in all its 
 forms shall be conquered? Shall he live and 
 death reign? Does not this great miracle raise 
 hope in him as the Lord of death? Can we not 
 say, looking with wonderment on this display of 
 the power of Jesus: "My flesh shall rest in 
 hope?" 
 
CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS 31 
 
 On his way to Jairus's house to heal his daugh- 
 ter, and while pausing to cure the woman with 
 the issue of blood: "While he yet spake, there 
 came from the ruler of the synagogue's house 
 certain which said, Thy daughter is dead; why 
 troublest thou the Master any further? As soon 
 as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said 
 unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, 
 only believe. And he suffered no man to follow 
 him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother 
 of James. And he cometh to the house of the 
 ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and 
 them that wept and wailed greatly. And when 
 he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make 
 ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, 
 but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 
 But when he had put them all out, he taketh the 
 father and the mother of the damsel, and them 
 that were with him, and entereth in where the 
 damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by 
 the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi ; which 
 is, being interpreted, Damsel, (I say unto thee,) 
 arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and 
 walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. 
 And they were astonished with a great astonish- 
 ment. And he charged them straitly that no man 
 should know it; and commanded that something 
 should be given her to eat." 
 
 Another proof is this of his mastery over death 
 that he has the keys of death and the fact that 
 
32 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 man's best friend has the power over man's 
 greatest foe. It has that in it which gives hope 
 over death, which does so readily yield to the 
 power of Christ. 
 
 The other record of raising the dead is that of 
 Lazarus. This is the crown of his miracles. 
 Martha averred her belief in the fact of the 
 general resurrection of the dead. "I know, said 
 Martha, that he shall rise again in the resur- 
 rection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I 
 am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth 
 in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 
 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
 never die." Do not these words coupled with 
 the action of Jesus give strong intimations and a 
 well-grounded hope that Jesus will break the rule 
 of death and bring light and immortality to light 
 out of the midnight of the tomb? u And Jesus 
 lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee 
 that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou 
 hearest me always; but because of the people 
 which stand by I said it, that they may believe 
 that thou hast sent me. And when he had thus 
 spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come 
 forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound 
 hand and foot with graveclothes : and his face 
 was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to 
 them, Loose him, and let him go." How many 
 others were raised from the dead is not recorded^ 
 
CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS 33 
 
 It seems an incident of common observation and 
 the attestation of the divinity of his mission. 
 
 The raising from the dead of these persons is 
 not only an attestation of the divinity of his 
 mission, but we repeat that they are prophetical 
 and proclamatory to the race of their emancipa- 
 tion from their fierce and relentless foe — death. 
 
 In addition to these acts which heralded the 
 release of all incarcerated in the prison house of 
 death, Jesus taught in express language the resur- 
 rection of the dead. His attitude toward death 
 was one of dire and eternal opposition. He came 
 as the representative of life and life-giving; that 
 man might have life and have it more abundantly 
 — a life unshadowed by death, and to which death 
 was a stranger. In contrast and opposition to 
 Adam, he was a life-giving Spirit. "Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall 
 never see death." Again we refer to those won- 
 derful words used in the presence of death, and 
 in view of its iron rule, and while the tears of 
 sympathy and indignation were still wet upon his 
 cheeks he declared: "I am the resurrection and 
 the life : he that believeth on me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and 
 believeth in me shall never die." These words 
 find their highest and broadest truth : that in his 
 very person there were forces and principles 
 inimical and destructive to death; that, as he 
 lived, death must die. The saying of Paul is but 
 
34 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 a condensed summary of this great purpose. 
 "The appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
 hath abolished death, and hath brought life and 
 immortality to light." The Epistle to the 
 Hebrews asserts the same great truth: that in 
 Jesus Christ, his person and his work, were lodged 
 the mighty forces which were to bring universal 
 freedom from death. "Forasmuch then as the 
 children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also 
 himself likewise took part of the same; that 
 through death he might destroy him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver 
 them who through fear of death were all their 
 lifetime subject to bondage." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 death's realms invaded 
 
 J am not so ignorant of the temper and tendency of the 
 age in which I live as either to be unprepared for the sort 
 of remarks which the literal interpretation of the Evan- 
 gelist will call, or to attempt an answer to them. Vision- 
 ary ravings, obsolete whimsies, transcendental trash, and 
 the like I leave to pass. — S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 The attitude of Jesus Christ to the doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the dead is one of familiar- 
 ity and matter of course. In the sixth chapter 
 of John with what an emphatic, authoritative 
 manner he deals with it as a generally acknowl- 
 edged, great basic fact ! "For I came down from 
 heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of 
 him that sent me. And this is the Father's will 
 which hath sent me, that of all which he hath 
 given me I should lose nothing, but should raise 
 it up again at the last day." 
 
 This resurrection he puts as the declared pur- 
 pose and will of God, that he should raise them 
 up at the last day. This was imperative if he 
 accomplishes God's design. The capsheaf of 
 God's purposes for Jesus Christ was that he 
 
 35 
 
36 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 should raise the dead. Again he returns to this 
 great thought, purpose, and fact: "And this is 
 the will of him that sent me, that every one which 
 seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have 
 everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the 
 last day." 
 
 Again he iterates the fact, and declares that 
 he is committed to it. The Father commits it to 
 him. The resurrection power is lodged in Jesus. 
 "No man can come to me, except the Father 
 which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise 
 him up at the last day." Again Jesus gives ut- 
 terance to the important statement: "Whoso 
 eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
 eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last 
 day." 
 
 Death and him that had the power of death 
 — that is, the devil — against these, the author of 
 evil and his works, Jesus Christ set himself. He 
 declared himself to be the resurrection and the 
 life, that death in every form, in every way, and 
 at every place, must yield to him. We stress and 
 iterate the fact that he is life. "If a man keep 
 my saying, he shall never see death." "Whoso- 
 ever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die." "He that believeth in me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live." "I am the first and the 
 last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and 
 behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the 
 keys of death and of Hades." "I am come that 
 
DEATH'S REALMS INVADED 37 
 
 they might have life, and have it more abund- 
 antly." Life against death is he. Jesus Christ, 
 the source of all deathless energy, by absolute 
 and eternal fitness, by a matter of course, and by 
 character he is the foe, the destruction of death. 
 He is coequal, coeternal with the Father, and 
 pours the Father's full tide of life on the world. 
 "For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth 
 him all things that himself doeth: and he will 
 show him greater works than these, that ye may 
 marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, 
 and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth 
 whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, 
 but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 
 my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation; but is passed from death unto life. 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is com- 
 ing, and now is, when the dead shall hear the 
 voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall 
 live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so 
 hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 
 And hath given him authority to execute judg- 
 ment also, because he is the Son of man." 
 
 "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, 
 in the which all that are in the tombs shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth: they that have 
 done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they 
 that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judg- 
 
38 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 merit." He had made strong declarations of life> 
 eternal life, and of a spiritual resurrection; seeing 
 their wonderment, he goes on to declare a greater 
 marvel still — the resurrection of the body from 
 the grave as the inevitable sequence of the life 
 in his Father and in himself. All shall come forth 
 — death shall yield its hold, and the grave deliver 
 its prisoners long held. All shall come forth — 
 not a body left — not an atom of the grave's dust 
 but shall have the touch and taste of the resur- 
 rection life. Jesus Christ tells his disciples that 
 when he comes in the glory of his Father with 
 the holy angels he will reward every man accord- 
 ing to his works. To secure this end, the resur- 
 rection is a necessity. 
 
 The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the 
 typical facts of the resurrection of the body; not 
 only of the glorious change, but of the renewed 
 life of the body and of the general judgment day. 
 The presence of Moses and Elijah there are the 
 trophies as they appear in glory of the resurrec- 
 tion power of Christ. It is a distinct prophecy 
 and foreshadowing of the coming of the body out 
 of the power and ravages of death. Moses and 
 Elijah appear at this hour as the first fruits of 
 the resurrection glory. It is worthy of remark 
 that it is here as well as in the continuous ministry 
 of Christ that the body, this body of our humilia- 
 tion, has its sign and pledge of its future glory. 
 
 "I will raise him up at the last day." These 
 
DEATH'S REALMS INVADED 39 
 
 iterated words deserve great and grave con- 
 sideration—there is to be a day, a great day, 
 a tremendous day; the last day, the closing of 
 this world's history. Time shall be no more. 
 Eternity, changeless eternity, will begin its new 
 history for man. Paul calls it "the day of wrath 
 and revelation of the righteous judgment of 
 God;" the day when "the dead, small and great, 
 shall stand before God." The raised dead — 
 raised from their sleep in proud city cemetery or 
 the silent forsakenness of the unmarked loneliness 
 of the country sleeper; from the ocean depths, 
 shrouded and entombed for ages in its restless, 
 defiant, fathomless caves ; from the dismal abodes 
 of the Hades whose waves and fires were but 
 the voices which told of deeper waves and fiercer 
 fires to come. This is the day when Christ is 
 committed to the raising of his dead ones, when 
 his and man's last enemy, death, shall be de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 "Last day!" Day of God's glory and power! 
 Day of terror and alarm to the unbelieving and 
 impenitent — their eternal doom! Day of re- 
 nown and victory to Jesus Christ, of infinite com- 
 fort to all his saints. Infinite comfort ! Infinite 
 in measure and infinite in length. This last day 
 is one of God's appointed days — God's decreed 
 days. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 RESURRECTION POWER LODGED IN JESUS CHRIST 
 
 The power of God speaks it possible that there may be 
 a resurrection; the Scriptures make it certain that there 
 shall be a resurrection. — Rev. Matthew Henry. 
 \ // you knew the power of God, you would know that 
 He can do it; and if you knew the Scriptures, you would 
 know that He will do it.— Bishop Horne. 
 
 In the lessons that Jesus Christ taught of the 
 unselfish ministries of the social life he guards 
 our feasts and their guests so that there may be 
 none of the pride of life in them: "Then said he 
 also to him that bade him, When thou makest 
 a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy 
 brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neigh- 
 bors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recom- 
 pense be made thee. But when thou makest a 
 feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the 
 blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot 
 recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed 
 at the resurrection of the just." 
 
 The resurrection of the dead was an accepted 
 fact in Jewish popular teaching and credence, 
 well known and constantly taught in the Pharisaic 
 
 40 
 
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION POWER 41 
 
 schools of thought and doctrine, grounded on the 
 teaching of the Old Testament and their schools 
 of tradition and stalwart orthodoxy. In teach- 
 ing, Christ accepts as true the doctrine as under- 
 stood and so bases and refers the holy ministries 
 of mercy and service to that great time for their 
 recompense: "At the resurrection of the just." 
 
 All the events of this life are to have their 
 reference to the resurrection hour! How un- 
 selfish and dignified, how full of gravity will a 
 life be that shapes all its actions by the resurrec- 
 tion or judgment day! u But I say unto you, 
 That every idle word that men shall speak, they 
 shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 
 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by 
 thy words thou shalt be condemned." "Thou 
 shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the 
 ]ust! } Assured fact! The truth of all truths! 
 Let us keep our eye on that great hour. Let us 
 shape our actions by its high rules of righteous- 
 ness, rectitude, truth! Let us await its awards 
 with a holy, lowly, unselfish ministry to the 
 afflicted and beggared ones of earth, who cannot 
 recompense us — take God as their security, and 
 look to the resurrection as pay day. 
 
 The statements of Jesus are direct in regard 
 to the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees, 
 who did not believe in the resurrection, pro- 
 pounded a question to Christ in order to confute 
 the doctrine. In his reply he asserts the fact in 
 
42 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 opposition to the Sadducees and elevates the doc- 
 trine above the low and carnal views of the 
 Pharisees, and also asserts it as fundamental to 
 the nature of God and as belonging to the teach- 
 ings of Moses. 
 
 "Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, 
 which deny that there is any resurrection; and 
 they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote 
 unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, 
 and he die without children, that his brother 
 should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his 
 brother. There were therefore seven brethren: 
 and the first took a wife, and died without chil- 
 dren. And the second took her to wife, and he 
 died childless. And the third took her: and in 
 like manner the seven also : and they left no chil- 
 dren, and died. Last of all the woman died also. 
 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them 
 is she? for seven had her to wife. And Jesus 
 answering said unto them, The children of this 
 world marry, and are given in marriage : but they 
 which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that 
 world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can 
 they die any more: for they are equal unto the 
 angels; and are the children of God, being the 
 children of the resurrection. Now that the dead 
 are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when 
 he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the 
 God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is 
 
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION POWER 43 
 
 not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all 
 live unto him." 
 
 This afforded Jesus Christ a fine opportunity 
 to explode the doctrine of the resurrection if not 
 true; instead he relieves the doctrine of its 
 Pharisaic rubbish and debauchment, declares and 
 confirms it by Scripture and by the character of 
 God, putting it upon its divine and spiritual basis. 
 
 This is an important occasion. It is light on 
 the doctrine of the resurrection to those who 
 opposed it. Doubtless this question had often 
 confused and silenced the Pharisees. The Sad- 
 ducees denied the resurrection — angel and spirit. 
 Here they came saying there was no resurrection, 
 maintaining this against our Lord. He answers : 
 "Ye do not understand the Scriptures which imply 
 the resurrection, nor the power of God before 
 which all these obstacles vanish." Our Lord as- 
 serts here against the Sadducees the existence of 
 angels and reveals to us the similarity of our 
 future glorified state to their present one. The 
 books of Moses were the great and ultimate 
 appeal for all doctrine. The assertion of the 
 resurrection comes from the very books from 
 which their objections had been constructed. Our 
 Lord here speaks of the conscious intent of God 
 in speaking the words. God uttered these words 
 to Moses in the consciousness of the still endur- 
 ing existence of his peculiar relation to Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus declares that they still 
 
44 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 live. It is an assertion which could not be made 
 of an annihilated being of the past. Weighty 
 testimony against the so-called sleep of the soul 
 in the intermediate state. The burden of the law, 
 "I am the Lord thy God," contains in it the seed 
 of immortality and the hope of the resurrection. 
 
 For the present state of men marriage is an 
 ordained and natural state of things. They who 
 are worthy to obtain the resurrection life are no 
 longer under the ordinance of marriage, for 
 neither can they die any more. They will have 
 no need of a succession and renewal; they are 
 alive for evermore. They are by their resurrec- 
 tion essentially partakers of the divine nature, 
 and can die no more. It is a covenant relation 
 on which the matter rests. In regard to him who 
 inhabiteth eternity, the being of all is a living one 
 in all its changes. (Alford's "Commentary on 
 Matthew and Luke.") 
 
 How clearly, distinctly, sublimely our Lord 
 declares the resurrection of the body from God's 
 relation to his covenant patriarchs, as shown in 
 the call of Moses for their deliverance from an 
 enslavement as dark, as terrible, and as hopeless 
 as death ! Their deliverance from the death and 
 slavery of Egypt was to be a type and prophecy 
 of the glory of the resurrection from the domin- 
 ion and tyranny of death. 
 
 Our Lord on this occasion, answering the ques- 
 tioning of the Sadducees, puts them to silence; 
 
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION POWER 45 
 
 but beyond this he draws the sublimest lesson 
 about the great doctrine of the resurrection of 
 the body, from the call of Moses, and unfolds the 
 truth free from the stain and thralls of the flesh. 
 The resurrection — heavenly life — is to be a new- 
 life based on new relations. The earthly family 
 institutions are not to be revived in the resurrec- 
 tion life. They have their divine uses on earth, 
 pass their day here, but will not have their place 
 in the eternal. The angel life will be the model. 
 The angels are not born into families; each one 
 is separate, independent. So will be our future, 
 individualized and immortal. No marriage there 
 — marriage, the basis of earthly relations, the 
 prime factor in earthly good, will not be there. 
 No death — the source of deepest woe and pain 
 will not be there. Marriage and death are 
 earthly and not heavenly — belong to earth and 
 not to heaven. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GOD THE SECURITY : RESURRECTION DAY IS A PAY 
 
 DAY 
 
 Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declaration than 
 the following, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, 
 in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 
 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the 
 resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the 
 resurrection of damnation," He had pronounced a message 
 of inestimable importance and well worthy of that splen- 
 did apparatus of prophecy and miracle with which His 
 mission was introduced and attested — a message in which 
 the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to 
 their doubts and rest to their inquiries. 
 
 — S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 The bringing back of the dead is one of the 
 great distinctive and gloriously magnificent and 
 triumphant facts of the gospel — its glory, the 
 crown and seal of its divinity. If the dead rise 
 not, its scepter is departed, its prophecies and 
 promises have failed, its luster is dimmed and 
 tarnished, its melody turned to discord and shame. 
 The resurrection is to the world what the minstrel 
 was to Elisha. All prophecies, all visions of 
 beauty, the hand of the Lord — all are in it. If 
 
 46 
 
GOD THE SECURITY 47 
 
 the dead rise not, then are we most miserable, 
 tuneless, and dead — neither inspiration, vision, 
 prophecy, nor God with us. This great fact is 
 iterated and reiterated by new statement, by 
 figure, and by type. It is the theme which checks 
 the sigh, comforts the mourner, makes strong the 
 weak, lights the fires of immortality and eternal 
 life amid the darkness and ravages of earth's 
 graveyards, spans the dark abyss of death with 
 the golden bridge of an eternal reunion, spirit 
 and body both in heaven. 
 
 A simple setting will show how large a place 
 the resurrection of the body had in the preaching, 
 experience, hopes, and comforts of the New 
 Testament Christians. 
 
 Jesus Christ had in his person the power of 
 the resurrection. He was the incarnation of the 
 resurrection. Yet outside of his person there 
 was the fact of the resurrection. The power in 
 him, his resurrection applied, brings into life 
 again all the dead. "As in Adam all die, even so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive." How clear 
 and strong is the statement about the Holy Spirit 
 in us, whose indwelling gives to us the pledge and 
 verity of the resurrection as well as the earnest 
 of heaven ! "But if the Spirit of him that raised 
 up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that 
 raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken 
 your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth 
 in you." 
 
48 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 So we come into sympathy with struggling, 
 groaning, oppressed creation about us, which has 
 in its very groans the prophecy of its resurrection. 
 Nature in this says that the divine word is but 
 a figure of us looking with oppressed and eager 
 groanings to the future. u For the earnest ex- 
 pectation of the creature waiteth for the mani- 
 festation of the sons of God. For the creature 
 was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by 
 reason of him who hath subjected the same in 
 hope. Because the creature itself also shall be 
 delivered from the bondage of corruption into 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God. For 
 we know that the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain together until now. And not 
 only they, but ourselves also, which have the first 
 fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan 
 within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, 
 the redemption of our body. For we are saved 
 by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for 
 what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we 
 with patience wait for it." 
 
 This is the prophecy, poetry, and bloom of 
 Christ's system. The future is its glory. The 
 resurrection is the rich jewel of the gospel. The 
 Holy Spirit inspires nature and fills man with 
 this glorious resurrection hope. The more we 
 have of the power of the Spirit's inworking, the 
 deeper and stronger are the convictions of the 
 
GOD THE SECURITY 49 
 
 resurrection; and the richer, sweeter, more as- 
 sured the consciousness of our salvation by hope, 
 the more profound the certainty of the adoption 
 of these bodies into the glorious familyhood of 
 the heavenly home. 
 
 The Sadducees denied the resurrection of the 
 dead. That which inflamed and grieved them 
 and aroused them to unite with the enemies of 
 the disciples was that the disciples taught and 
 preached through Jesus the resurrection from 
 the dead. Apostolic teaching and preaching 
 broadened the resurrection from the personal 
 resurrection of Jesus to the universal fact of the 
 resurrection of the dead. As certainly as Jesus 
 had been raised from the dead, so certainly would 
 all the dead be raised. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE" 
 
 Skepticism inust ever be a misfortune or defect: a mis- 
 fortune if there be no means of arriving at truth; a de- 
 fect if, while there exists such means, we are unable or 
 unwilling to use them* — Thomas Arnold. 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead 
 was emphasized by Paul and made most conspic- 
 uous as being the essence and sum of the gospel. 
 In Athens- — cultured, skeptical, proud Athens — 
 he declares the great fact. It brought a new life 
 and a new and unknown hope to the paganized 
 world: "Now while Paul waited for them at 
 Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he 
 saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore 
 disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and 
 with the devout persons, and in the market daily 
 with them that met with him. Then certain 
 philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, 
 encountered him. And some said, What will this 
 babbler say? others said, He seemeth to be a 
 setter forth of strange gods : because he preached 
 unto them Jesus, and the resurrection." 
 
 Mars Hill heard the same before its august 
 
 50 
 
"ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE" 51 
 
 tribunal: "And the times of this ignorance God 
 winked at; but now commandeth all men every- 
 where to repent : because he hath appointed a day, 
 in the which he will judge the world in righteous- 
 ness by that man whom he hath ordained; 
 whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, 
 in that he hath raised him from the dead. And 
 when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, 
 some mocked : and other said, We will hear thee 
 again of this matter." 
 
 Before the Jewish council he declared: "Of 
 the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called 
 in question." 
 
 Paul's address before the Roman governor, 
 Felix, was a personal defense, yet made strong 
 by the doctrine of the resurrection which he de- 
 clared to be his main offense. "But this I confess 
 unto thee," he declares, "that after the way 
 which they call heresy, so worship I the God of 
 my fathers, believing all things which are written 
 in the law and in the prophets: and have hope 
 toward God, which they themselves also allow, 
 that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, 
 both of the just and unjust." 
 
 In the same address he returns to and dwells 
 on this fact of raising the dead: "Let these 
 same here say, if they have found any evil doing 
 in me, while I stood before the council, except 
 it be for this one voice, that I cried standing 
 among them, Touching the resurrection of the 
 
52 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 dead I am called in question by you this day." 
 He asserted before Agrippa that the doctrine 
 of the resurrection was the great promise of God 
 to the fathers, the promise which gave hope to 
 them and hope and fortitude to him; and then 
 startles the Romanized Jewish judge by the ques- 
 tion: "Why should it be thought a thing in- 
 credible with you, that God should raise the 
 dead?" 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead 
 was everywhere preached and believed as one 
 of the primary, fundamental, all-inclusive facts 
 of the gospel. It comes in also incidentally as 
 well as doctrinally. It comes to give largeness 
 and power to experience; to give point and force 
 to an exhortation or injunction. "Now the body 
 is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the 
 Lord for the body. And God hath both raised 
 up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own 
 power. Know ye not that your bodies are the 
 members of Christ?" But we had the sentence 
 of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in 
 ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." 
 Again: "We having the same spirit of faith, 
 according as it is written, I believed, and there- 
 fore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore 
 speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord 
 Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall 
 present us with you." 
 
 Some members of the Corinthian Church had 
 
"ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE" 53 
 
 fallen into error about the resurrection of the 
 dead. The fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians 
 is devoted to the refutation of their errors and 
 the statement of the doctrine. Therein the apos- 
 tle views it from almost every standpoint and 
 with all colors. The fact of death so universal 
 and deplorable is centered in Adam; the fact of 
 the resurrection, its truth, authority, and glory, 
 centers in Christ : u For since by man came death, 
 by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
 all be made alive. But every man in his own 
 order: Christ the first fruits; afterwards they 
 that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the 
 end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom 
 to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put 
 down all rule and all authority and power. For 
 he must reign, until he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
 is death. For he hath put all things under his 
 feet. But when he saith, all things are put under 
 him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did 
 put all things under him. And when all things 
 shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also 
 himself be subject unto him that put all things 
 under him, that God may be all in all." 
 
 He declares: "In a moment, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 
 sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
 and we shall be changed. For this corruptible 
 
54 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
 put on immortality." 
 
 The following majestic, luminous, and com- 
 forting declarations were made to the Thessalon- 
 ians: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, 
 brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that 
 ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 
 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
 even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
 bring with him. For this we say unto you by the 
 word of the Lord, that we which are alive and 
 remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no 
 wise precede them which are asleep. For the 
 Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
 the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall 
 rise first: then we which are alive and remain 
 shall be caught up together with them in the 
 clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall 
 we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort 
 one another with these words." 
 
 What a place the resurrection of the dead had 
 in apostolic preaching ! What comfort and solaces 
 it had! How oft repeated to edify, refresh, 
 strengthen I What a rich message it was for the 
 early Church to bear and receive ! What a vol- 
 ume full of inspiration and embellished to them ! 
 How oft repeated ! how well assured were they of 
 its truth ! It belonged to the heart of their faith; 
 it burnished with a double radiance their hopes; 
 
"ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE" 55 
 
 it made them to endure martyr fires and persecu- 
 tions fiercer than martyr flames! We need to 
 have these first fundamental facts put into our 
 spiritual being anew like iron put into the blood 
 to make it red and strong and life-giving. These 
 mighty fact-forces have to us lost their energy 
 and their divine magic. Our faith demands to 
 be fed anew by them. They must be to us what 
 they were to the apostles — the summary, subject, 
 and power of our preaching. They must be to 
 us the pabulum of our faith, the food of our souls, 
 the nurser of a giant faith, the inspirer of giant 
 praying. 
 
 These facts must be to us what they were to 
 the primitive Christians — creed, experience, serv- 
 ice. They must weave our songs, fill our testi- 
 mony. We must know that Jesus Christ has been 
 raised from the dead, for we have been raised 
 from the death of sin with him. We must know 
 that our bodies shall be raised from the dead by 
 his Spirit which is in us, which gives an assurance 
 and foretaste of the resurrection day. 
 
 O what a blessed hope is ours ! 
 
 While here on earth we stay, 
 We more than taste the heavenly powers, 
 
 And antedate that day: 
 We feel the resurrection near, 
 
 Our life in Christ concealed, 
 And with his glorious presence here 
 
 Our earthen vessels filled. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE RESURRECTION : THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL 
 
 / am laboring, though most imperfectly, to lead them 
 {my scholars) to Christ in true and devoted faith. I hold 
 all the scholarship that ever man had to be infinitely 
 worthless in comparison with even a very humble degree 
 of spiritual advancement. — Thomas Arnold of Rugby. 
 
 The resurrection of the body will be universal 
 and personal, general and particular, of every 
 one good and bad, or, in the language of the 
 Bible, "a resurrection of the just and unjust." 
 It will take place generally and at the last day. 
 Jesus Christ is very clear in his statement as to 
 the time. 
 
 He declares his supreme loyalty to the Father, 
 and avers, "I came down from heaven not to do 
 mine own will, but the will of him that sent me," 
 and then declares the will of his Father in regard 
 to the resurrection: "And this is the Father's 
 will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath 
 given me I should lose nothing, but should raise 
 it up again at the last day." 
 
 With great solemnity he again declares the will 
 of the Father and his own power and purpose in 
 
 56 
 
THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL 57 
 
 raising all believers from the dead "at the last 
 day:" "And this is the will of him that sent me, 
 and every one which seeth the Son, and believeth 
 on him, may have everlasting life : and I will raise 
 him up at the last day." 
 
 He combines it with the statement of the 
 Father's drawing, and the drawn ones are to be 
 raised "at the last day:" "No man can come to 
 me, except the Father which hath sent me draw 
 him: and I will raise him up at the last day." 
 And again he iterates and reasserts that the 
 crowning glory is to be the resurrection at the 
 last day: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him 
 up at the last day." 
 
 This was the accepted truth of the resurrection 
 stated by Martha in her great sorrow at Laza- 
 rus's death: "I know that he shall rise again in 
 the resurrection at the last day." Again Jesus 
 uses the statement which locates the resurrection 
 and combines it with the judgment: "He that 
 rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath 
 one that judgeth him: the word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." 
 
 These two tremendous facts — the judgment 
 and the resurrection — are united in God's Word. 
 They certainly have a close unity in importance, 
 in event, and in bearing. Peter declared of 
 Christ : "He which is charged of God to be judge 
 of the quick and dead." Paul in his solemn 
 
58 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 charge to Timothy declares of Jesus that he 
 shall judge the quick and the dead at his appear- 
 ing and kingdom. Peter, in his Epistle, says: 
 "Who shall give account to him that is ready to 
 judge the quick and the dead." 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the plain teach- 
 ing of Jesus and his apostles these two facts, 
 resurrection and judgment, are united. "Where- 
 fore we labor, that, whether present or absent, 
 we may be accepted of him. For we must all 
 appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that 
 every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be 
 good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of 
 the Lord, we persuade men." The saints are 
 specially charged and reminded that they must 
 appear before the judgment seat of Christ for 
 the things done in the body. In the interest of 
 compassion and love, in our judgment, Paul in 
 Romans interrogates and reminds Christians: 
 "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why 
 dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall 
 all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But 
 he that judgeth me is the Lord. x Wherefore judge 
 nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
 will both bring to light the hidden things of 
 darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the 
 heart; and then shall each man have his praise 
 from God." 
 
 To heal broken hearts, to confirm faith, to 
 
THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL 59 
 
 arrest excessive mourning for our dead, Paul 
 gives utterance to the Thessalonians : "But I 
 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- 
 cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow 
 not, even as others which have no hope. For if 
 we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even 
 so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 
 with him. For this we say unto you by the word 
 of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain 
 unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent 
 them which are asleep. For the Lord himself 
 shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
 voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
 God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then 
 we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
 together with them in the clouds, to meet the 
 Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the 
 Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with 
 these words." 
 
 In the fact of a general judgment as well as in 
 the coming of our Lord, the resurrection of the 
 dead is held as a fact precedent and to be taken 
 for granted. This is declared in the parable of 
 the talents, the lord coming to reckon with his 
 servants. This purpose had been declared and 
 established from the first: "And Enoch also, the 
 seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 
 Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
 his saints." 
 
 We have Christ's inimitable description of his 
 
60 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 coming the object in the twenty-fifth chapter of 
 Matthew: "When the Son of man shall come 
 in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
 then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and 
 before him shall be gathered all nations : and he 
 shall separate them one from another, as a 
 shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and 
 he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
 goats on the left." 
 
 His dual purpose is set forth to the disquieted 
 Thessalonians in strong terms, and they are urged 
 to repose under the cheering fact that their 
 Saviour would come again, and his coming would 
 be to them the end of sorrow, of pain, and fear: 
 "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when 
 the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 
 with his mighty angels. In flaming fire taking 
 vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
 obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 
 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
 glory of his power; when he shall come to be 
 glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all 
 them that believe." 
 
 "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
 before God; and the books were opened: and 
 another book was opened, which is the book of 
 life : and the dead were judged out of those things 
 which were written in the books, according to 
 their works. And the sea gave up the dead which 
 
THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL 61 
 
 were in it; and death and hell delivered up the 
 dead which were in them : and they were judged 
 every man according to their works. And death 
 and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is 
 the second death. And whosoever was not found 
 written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
 of fire." 
 
 "And the times of this ignorance God winked 
 at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to 
 repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the 
 which he will judge the world in righteousness by 
 that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he 
 hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath 
 raised him from the dead." 
 
 All these passages of the judgment are prom- 
 ises and pledges of the resurrection of the dead. 
 The Bible is explicit on the point; no vague 
 analogies, no poetic dreams, but plain statement 
 declaring the fact. 
 
 The resurrection will be general, all will be 
 raised at the same time, as Paul declares — a 
 resurrection "both of the just and unjust." 
 
 The resurrection is one of God's unconditional 
 facts ; it will take place ail the same though never 
 a man, woman, or child believe in it. In regard 
 to this alarming and comforting fact, our unbelief, 
 neglect, cannot make the truth of God a lie. It 
 is inevitable and irresistible. God, who cannot 
 lie, has promised, and Jesus has sealed the prom- 
 ise by his resurrection. 
 
62 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 We should familiarize ourselves with the fact. 
 It will nerve us for the conflict of faith, bring 
 comfort to the grave bereft of all other comfort, 
 give a sweet and bright hope in death which de- 
 stroys every other hope. 
 
 We are assured that these soul-cheering, faith- 
 invigorating facts of the Bible are not fed upon 
 as a sweet sacrament, cherished as our talisman 
 against sorrow and sin. They do not enter like 
 iron into our blood. Or else we would not be 
 children tossed about by every wind, the prey 
 of every temptation. This doctrine should be 
 the joy and rejoicing of our hearts. Inspired and 
 charmed by its hopes, we should be lifted above 
 all weakness and defy all assaults. 
 
 We subscribe to the creed, "I believe in the 
 resurrection of the body," which was taught by 
 God to Moses in the burning bush, confirmed to 
 us by prophet and apostle, symbolized and as- 
 sured in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We 
 accept it not because we understand its method 
 but because God has declared it in his Holy Word. 
 To raise the dead is one of the thrilling and 
 momentous objects of the coming of Jesus. The 
 dead are to be raised, and Jesus Christ is coming 
 to do that work; it is too important and glorious 
 to be delegated to the most honored and lofty 
 among angels or men. The Lord in person com- 
 ing from heaven, with a shout of triumph and a 
 call of authority to the heavens and to the earth. 
 
THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL 63 
 
 The archangel's trump and the dead raised first 
 — that is, before our Lord attends to any other 
 business. The living are neither noticed nor 
 crowned till the dead are awakened to share in 
 their joys and honors. Locked in the embraces 
 of love and reunion, we will be caught up to meet 
 the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with 
 the Lord ! Amen, so let it be ! 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE JUDGMENT AND THE RESURRECTION 
 
 A going-down star is not annihilated, but shall appear 
 again. O happy and blessed death, that golden bridge 
 laid over by Christ my Lord betwixt times clay ban\ks 
 and heaven s shores! 
 
 Your sun is well turned and lozu; be nigh your lodging 
 against night. We go, one by one, out of this great mar- 
 ket till the town be empty and the two lodgings, heaven 
 and hell, be filled. O thrice blessed are they who hold 
 Christ with their tears and prayers! 
 
 — Samuel Rutherford. 
 
 It will be a resurrection. The same body 
 which is put in the grave will come out. This is 
 necessary to a resurrection. It is not an evolu- 
 tion, not a new creation, but a resurrection — a 
 standing out and up into life again, the same body 
 in form, substance, identity. The body is a being, 
 a department of man's marvelous nature. It is 
 separable from the other part of man's being, 
 and will be separated by death. The body, its 
 identity and being, is clear, unmistakable, well- 
 defined, visible to eye, sensible to touch, much 
 more tangible, visible, real to us than the soul. 
 When death separates the spirit from the body 
 
 64 
 
JUDGMENT AND RESURRECTION 65 
 
 and God says it shall return to dust, it will be so ; 
 and when God says, the body shall come out of 
 the grave, out of its dust, the same thing we put 
 in the grave. 
 
 The Word of God teaches that the same body 
 which lived and died and lay in the grave will be 
 raised — a literal resurrection, not a new creation, 
 but a raising of the body from its grave and dust, 
 an awakening from its long and undisturbed sleep. 
 
 The power of Christ over death was declared 
 in the resurrection of Lazarus and his own 
 triumph over the grave. These were prophecies, 
 pledges, and patterns of our coming from the 
 dead; and in each instance the same body which 
 went into the grave came out. It shall be so 
 with us. 
 
 The resurrection of the identical body that 
 was laid in the grave is the doctrine of the Bible. 
 This literal resurrection is the foundation stone 
 of New Testament revelation. Nothing indicates 
 our defection and driftings more than the views 
 of the resurrection which are finding favor in 
 high and low places among preachers, teachers, 
 and people. With many, fiction and philosophy 
 are substituted for the truth as it is in Jesus. We 
 are inhaling our religious opinions from the 
 tainted atmosphere of rationalism instead of the 
 Bible. We are leaving Isaiah and David for 
 Emerson or George Eliot. Robert Elsmere and 
 John Ward preach to us instead of Paul and 
 
66 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 Peter. We have surrendered faith to philosophy, 
 reduced revelation to reason, and deem ourselves 
 wiser, if not better, than our fathers. We hesi- 
 tate not to say that every departure in a less or 
 remote degree from the orthodox doctrine that 
 the resurrection is a literal raising of the body 
 is a departure from the Bible and a lessening of 
 the tenacity and strength of our personal faith. 
 
 "I believe in the resurrection of the body," is 
 Christendom's universal creed. The orthodox 
 explanation of this item of the creed is thus 
 summed up by Bishop Pearson: u We can there- 
 fore not otherwise expound this article than by 
 asserting that the bodies which have lived and 
 died shall live again after death, and that the 
 same flesh which is corrupted shall be restored. 
 Whatsoever alterations shall be made shall not 
 be of their nature but of their condition, not of 
 their substance but of their qualities; which ex- 
 plication is agreeable to the language of the 
 Scripture, to the principles of religion, to the 
 constant profession of the Church against the 
 Origenists of old and the Socinians of late." 
 
 The Bible statement is direct, unmistakable in 
 its meaning that these same bodies which have 
 been the vehicles as well as the abode of the soul, 
 its partner as well as its servant, shall be raised. 
 The man is as much body as soul, and the Bible 
 doctrine holds to the resurrection of the body — 
 this body — its identity well maintained, and its 
 
JUDGMENT AND RESURRECTION 67 
 
 dust rekindled to life and beauty. This same 
 body, which has shared so fully in the trials and 
 sorrows of this earthly life, shall share in all the 
 ultimate triumphs or sorrows of the life to come. 
 
 In the eighth chapter of Romans we have this 
 most explicit statement: "But if the spirit of 
 him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in 
 you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
 also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that 
 dwelleth in you." It is the mortal body, the dead 
 body, which is to be quickened into life. 
 
 In the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians we 
 have a prayer which has a strong bearing on this 
 point: u And the very God of peace sanctify you 
 wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and 
 soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The body is 
 to be sanctified, set apart in all its uses and mem- 
 bers to God, sealed as his property; and in that 
 case to be preserved blameless unto the coming of 
 our Lord — blameless, no cause for censure, the 
 body kept pure, free from blame. 
 
 We have the word "preserved," which means 
 guarding, watching, take care of, to guard, to 
 watch, to keep, as a prisoner is kept with sleepless 
 vigilance. Who is to guard the spirit? God. 
 Who is to guard and keep the body? God. To 
 keep till the coming of Christ. God is to watch 
 over the body, keep it as he keeps the spirit. So 
 God will guard the body's sleeping dust till Jesus 
 
68 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 comes, and then bring it with him. Soul, spirit, 
 body, kept by God's power till Jesus comes ! The 
 common and simple meaning of Scripture is that 
 the same body will be raised from the grave. 
 There would be no triumphant strain, triumph 
 would not be admissible, if the body was not de- 
 livered from death! u O death, where is thy 
 sting? O Grave, where is thy victory ?" would 
 have neither fitness nor place; but how appro- 
 priate the enrapturing notes of victory to a body 
 laid low and humbled by the enemy death, and 
 now released and all-victorious ! The rigid Bible 
 and orthodox view has been almost wholly sur- 
 rendered by modern theology. The following 
 will perhaps show the commonly received opinion. 
 It is called the modern idea: "The modern doc- 
 trine repudiates this idea of a literal resurrection 
 of the flesh. Yet it holds that the spirit has in 
 another world some sort of organism through 
 which it acts, and by which it has its connection 
 with the material universe. What that organism 
 is, and how it operates, no one pretends to know. 
 Swedenborg held that there is in the human body 
 a spiritual body, and that this spiritual organism 
 rises at death, so that the soul is not yet clothed 
 with an immortal tabernacle. This is one form 
 of the modern doctrine of the resurrection of the 
 body. In a sentence, then, the modern doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the body, so far as that 
 doctrine is in any form intelligently held, is that 
 
JUDGMENT AND RESURRECTION 69 
 
 the spirit has in the other life a spiritual organism, 
 and that this spiritual organism has some sort of 
 connection, not by us understood, with the ma- 
 terial organism which is possessed upon the 
 earth." 
 
s 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 NOT ANOTHER BODY BUT THE SAME BODY 
 
 Upon the supposition that the living agent each man 
 calls himself is a single being, it is as easy to conceive 
 that we may hereafter animate these same or new bodies, 
 variously modified and organized, as to conceive how we 
 can animate such bodies as our present. 
 
 — Bishop Butler. 
 
 Church leaders whose standards of dictum 
 hold to the literal resurrection have fallen in 
 with this modern idea. The modern idea is es- 
 sentially rational. It has no special regard for 
 revelation, no great reverence for authority. The 
 modern idea takes its cue from the Bible, but 
 makes havoc of Bible facts and principles. It 
 may range itself under the name of some great 
 Bible doctrine, but it disembowels the doctrine, 
 and leaves us nothing but an empty, delusive 
 name. No one conversant with the trend of 
 things can be ignorant of the fact that rational- 
 ism, under the cover of modern ideas or thought, 
 is affecting the granite foundations of God's 
 truth. Doctrines which the wisdom and faith of 
 the Church have reduced to axiomatic dogmas are 
 
 70 
 
NOT ANOTHER BUT SAME BODY 71 
 
 so changed by the transforming process of mod- 
 ern thought that no essential part of the original 
 doctrine remains. The new dress has changed 
 not only the outward appearance, but the heart 
 of the precious old truths is entirely changed. 
 It is marvelously strange how widespread are 
 false views of Christ, his atonement, the resur- 
 rection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 
 These pernicious views are found in literature, 
 commentary, exposition; they are clothed in such 
 attractive garb and found in so many places that 
 they fix themselves in thought before we are 
 aware of it, and we have so little knowledge of 
 the Bible that we cannot detect the counterfeit. 
 It comes to pass that views always rejected by the 
 great body of believers as unscriptural are re- 
 ferred to without scrutiny or protest. 
 
 It is one of the problems of this age to find out 
 the process how the current of orthodoxy, puri- 
 fied, deepened, and made strong by the confluent 
 piety of ages, finds itself almost lost in the shal- 
 lows and sands of the ancient and worst forms of 
 heterodoxy. 
 
 These modern ideas are not modern, though 
 they may bear its imprint. They are almost as 
 old as Christianity, and are as heterodox as they 
 are old. We would not oppose them because they 
 are new, nor reject them because they are hoary 
 reprobates. We put no store by the modern idea. 
 No special store do we put by the ancient idea. 
 
72 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 We do, though, put store, all the store we can 
 muster, by the Bible idea. We measure all that 
 is old and all that is new by that infallible stand- 
 ard; and of whatever is new or whatever is old 
 which does not agree with that, we say, Let it be 
 accursed, and he who bids it Godspeed is partaker 
 in the sin. 
 
 Is this modern idea the Bible idea? Is it 
 worthy of being put to the front of gospel state- 
 ments? How vague and intangible this modern 
 idea of the resurrection! How strange that rea- 
 son should reject as unworthy of credence the 
 Bible statement of the resurrection, and yet gulp 
 down with greediness the dreamy vagaries con- 
 tained in the modern idea. The Bible idea of the 
 resurrection of the body is the fact of a literal 
 resurrection of the body. The Bible declares that 
 our bodies are parts of us, that they are included 
 in the recovering scheme of grace, that they are 
 partners with the spirit in its earthly course of 
 faith or disobedience, and that they are to share 
 in the honors or shame of the eternal future. 
 
 The resurrection of the same bodies which we 
 put in the grave is the doctrine which pervades 
 the Bible through and through. All its truths 
 are soaked in this great doctrine. The same body 
 put in the grave is to come forth. Its weakness 
 is to put on immortal energy. Its corruption is to 
 put on incorruption. This comforting doctrine 
 full of enrapturing, deathless hope, which has 
 
NOT ANOTHER BUT SAME BODY 73 
 
 been the support of martyrs and saints, which has 
 quenched for them the violence of the fiery stakes, 
 which has quickened their faith, wiped away their 
 tears, relieved the bitterness of death, and en- 
 abled them to triumph over the grave — this doc- 
 trine, which commends itself to reason as well as 
 to faith, is to be relinquished for this modern idea, 
 which for practical, vigorous Christian uses is as 
 profitless as ".ZEsop's Fables" or the "Arabian 
 Nights." 
 
 The Bible word to assert this doctrine is "resur- 
 rection," which means the rising again after a fall 
 — the rising again of the thing that had fallen, 
 not the rising of something else — and to this idea 
 the Bible strongly and constantly holds us. 
 
 Not only is the doctrine of the resurrection of 
 the body involved in the doctrine of the general 
 judgment, but the fact that it is the same body. 
 A new body could not stand in the judgment, for 
 it is not accountable — it is the same body that 
 was a witness and a sharer in the transactions of 
 life that is to be in the judgment. A new body 
 would not be amenable to the judgment bar. So 
 it is declared that the judgment will be of the liv- 
 ing and of the dead. "And he commanded us to 
 preach unto the people, and to testify that it is 
 he which was ordained of God to be the judge of 
 quick and dead." Paul writes to Timothy: "I 
 charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the 
 
74 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 dead at his appearing and his kingdom." The 
 dead represent the ones put in the grave. Isaiah 
 preached the resurrection of the same bodies. He 
 was called the evangelical prophet because he 
 saw these latter-day glories and doctrines so dis- 
 tinctly. He says: u Thy dead men shall live, to- 
 gether with my dead body shall they rise. Awake 
 and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as 
 the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the 
 dead." 
 
 The dead are to live. The body only is dead; 
 the body is to live. With Christ's resurrection 
 as the pattern and power they are to arise. That 
 which dwells in the dust is to awake and sing; the 
 body only is to be resolved to dust. The body 
 in the dust is the body that is raised. The earth 
 shall cast out her dead. The earth holds noth- 
 ing but the body; the spirit has never been im- 
 prisoned by the earth nor soiled by its mold. The 
 earth holds our bodies. The authority of the 
 resurrection will break that hold, and these pris- 
 oners of hope will come forth. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A LITERAL RESURRECTION: THE BIBLE TEACHING 
 
 We converse every day with wonders and miracles no 
 less admirable than many of those points of faith which a 
 naturalist will not believe. .For the footprints of Omnip- 
 otence and Wisdom are in everything we see and hear: 
 only here is the blindness of mankind, that he looks not 
 diligently into things of ordinary occurrence, but passeth 
 them over as of course. — Lord Hale. 
 
 The resurrection of the body — of the same 
 body which we put in the grave — is the corner 
 stone of the whole Christian system. Against 
 this doctrine the rudest assaults of unbelief have 
 been aimed. Philosophy has held the doctrine up 
 to scorn and contempt, as being unreasonable and 
 impossible. The first departure from the Chris- 
 tian faith was the denial of the resurrection. No 
 one doctrine of Christ's system tests the genuine- 
 ness and solidity of faith as a belief in this cardi- 
 nal fact. Satan generally makes the first break in 
 faith at this point. A giving way at this point 
 destroys the foundations. Richard Watson, 
 whose "Theological Institutes" have been the 
 training school of Methodist preachers for 
 
 75 
 
76 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 nearly a hundred years, deals with the resurrec- 
 tion of the body after a masterly way, with the 
 strength of a philosopher, the simplicity and di- 
 rectness of a child's faith, unswerving loyalty to 
 God's truth. He says: 
 
 In this intermediate but felicitous and glorious 
 state the disembodied spirits of the righteous will 
 remain in joy and felicity with Christ until the 
 general judgment, when another display of the 
 gracious effects of our redemption by Christ will 
 appear in the glorious resurrection of their bodies 
 to an immortal life, thus distinguishing them from 
 the wicked, whose resurrection will be to "shame 
 and everlasting contempt," or to what may be 
 emphatically termed an immortal death. 
 
 On this subject, no point of discussion of any 
 importance arises among those who admit the 
 truth of Scripture, except as to the way in which 
 the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is to 
 be understood; whether a resurrection of the sub- 
 stance ot the body be meant, or of some minute 
 and indestructible part of it. The latter theory 
 has been adopted for the sake of avoiding certain 
 supposed difficulties. It cannot, however, fail 
 to strike every impartial reader of the New Testa- 
 ment that the doctrine of the resurrection is there 
 taught without any nice distinctions. It is always 
 exhibited as a miraculous work, and represents 
 the same body which is laid in the grave as the 
 subject of this change from death to life by the 
 
A LITERAL RESURRECTION 77 
 
 power of Christ. Thus, our Lord was raised in 
 the same body in which he died, and his resur- 
 rection is constantly held forth as the model of 
 ours; and the apostle Paul expressly says, "Who 
 shall change our vile body, that it may be fash- 
 ioned like unto his glorious body." The only pas- 
 sage of Scripture which appears to favor the no- 
 tion of the rising of the immortal body from some 
 indestructible germ is i Corinthians xv. 35: "But 
 some men will say, How are the dead raised up, 
 and with what body do they come? Thou fool, 
 that which thou sowest is not quickened except 
 it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest 
 not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it 
 may chance of wheat, or of some other grain." 
 If, however, it had been the intention of the 
 apostle, holding this view of the case, to meet 
 objections to the doctrine of the resurrection, 
 grounded upon the difficulties of conceiving how 
 the same body, in the popular sense, could be 
 raised up in substance, we might have expected 
 him to correct this misapprehension, by declaring 
 that this was not the Christian doctrine, but that 
 some small parts of the body only, bearing as little 
 proportion to the whole as the germ of a seed to 
 the plant, would be preserved, and be unfolded 
 into the perfected body at the resurrection. In- 
 stead of this, he goes on immediately to remind 
 the objector of the differences which exist between 
 material bodies as they now exist: between the 
 
78 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 plant and the bare or naked grain; between one 
 plant and another; between the flesh of men, of 
 beasts, of fishes, and of birds; between celestial 
 and terrestrial bodies; and between the lesser and 
 greater celestial luminaries themselves. Still 
 farther he proceeds to state the difference, not 
 between the germ of the body to be raised and 
 the body given at the resurrection, but between 
 the body itself, understood popularly, which dies, 
 and the body which shall be raised. "It is sown 
 in corruption, it is raised in incorruption," which 
 would not be true of the supposed incorruptible 
 and imperishable germ of this hypothesis; and 
 can be affirmed only of the body itself, considered 
 in substance, and in its present state corruptible. 
 Further, the question put by the objector, "How 
 are the dead raised up?" does not refer to the 
 modus agendi of the resurrection, or the process 
 or manner in which the thing is to be effected, as 
 the advocates of the germ hypothesis appear to 
 assume. This is manifest from the answer of the 
 apostle, who goes on immediately to state, not 
 in what manner the resurrection is to be effected, 
 but what shall be the state or condition of the 
 resurrection body, which is no answer at all to 
 the question, if it be taken in that sense. 
 
 The first of the two questions in the passage 
 referred to relates to the possibility of the resur- 
 rection, "How are the dead raised up?" the sec- 
 ond to the kind of body which they are to take, 
 
A LITERAL RESURRECTION 79 
 
 supposing the fact to be allowed. Both questions, 
 however, imply a denial of the fact, or, at least, 
 express a strong doubt concerning it. It is thus 
 that "how p in the first question is taken in many 
 passages where it is connected with a verb; and 
 the second question only expresses the general 
 negation or doubt more particularly by implying 
 that the objector could not conceive of any kind 
 of body being restored to man which would not 
 be an evil and imperfection to him. For the very 
 reason why some of the Christians of that age 
 denied or strongly doubted the resurrection of the 
 body, explaining it figuratively and saying that it 
 was past already, was, that they were influenced 
 to this by the notion of their philosophical schools, 
 that the body was the prison of the soul, and that 
 the greatest deliverance men could experience was 
 to be eternally freed from their connection with 
 matter. Hence the early philosophizing sects in 
 the Christian Church, the Gnostics, Marcionites, 
 etc., denied the resurrection on the same ground 
 as the philosophers, and thought it opposed to 
 that perfection which they hoped to enjoy in an- 
 other world. Such persons appear to have been 
 in the Church of Corinth as early as the time of 
 St. Paul, for that in this chapter he answers the 
 objections not of pagans but of professing Chris- 
 tians appears from verse 12: "How say some 
 among you, that there is no resurrection of the 
 dead?" The objection, therefore, in the minds 
 
80 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 of these persons to the doctrine of the resurrec- 
 tion did not lie against the doctrine of the raising 
 up of the substance of the same body; so that, 
 provided this notion could be dispensed with, they 
 were prepared to admit that a new material body 
 might spring from its germ, as a plant from seed. 
 They stumbled at the doctrine in every form, be- 
 cause it involved the circumstance of the reunion 
 of the spirit with matter, which they thought an 
 evil. When, therefore, the objector asks, "How 
 are the dead raised up?" he is to be understood 
 not as inquiring as to the process, but as to the 
 possibility. The doubt may, indeed, be taken as 
 an implied negation of the possibility of the resur- 
 rection with reference to God; and then the 
 apostle, by referring to the springing up of the 
 grain of corn when dissolved and putrified, may 
 be understood to show that the event was not in- 
 conceivable by referring to God's omnipotence, as 
 shown in his daily providence, which, a priori, 
 would appear as marvelous and incredible. But 
 it is much more probable that the impossibility im- 
 plied in this question refers not to the power of 
 God, which every Christian in the Church of Cor- 
 inth must be supposed to have been taught to 
 conceive of as almighty, and therefore adequate 
 to the production of this effect; but as relating to 
 the contrariety which was assumed to exist be- 
 tween the doctrine of the reunion of the soul with 
 the body, and those hopes of a higher condition 
 
A LITERAL RESURRECTION 81 
 
 in a future life, which both reason and revelation 
 taught them to form. The second question, 
 u With what body do they come?" like the former, 
 is a question not of inquiry but of denial, or at 
 least of strong doubt, importing that no idea could 
 be entertained by the objector of any material 
 body being made the residence of a disenthralled 
 spirit which could comport with those notions of 
 deliverance from the bondage of corruption by 
 death which the philosophy of the age had taught 
 and which Christianity itself did not discounte- 
 nance. The questions, though different, come, 
 therefore, nearly to the same import; and this ex- 
 plains why the apostle chiefly dwells upon the 
 answer to the latter only, by which, in fact, he re- 
 plies to both. The grain cast into the earth even 
 dies and is corrupted, and that which is sown is 
 not "the body which shall be, " in form and qual- 
 ity, but "naked grain"; yet into the plant, in its 
 perfect form, is the same matter transformed. So 
 the flesh of beasts, birds, fishes, and man is the 
 same matter, though exhibiting different qualities. 
 So, also, bodies celestial are of the same matter 
 as "bodies terrestrial" ; and the more splendid lu- 
 minaries of the heavens are, in substance, the 
 same as those of inferior glory. It is thus that 
 the apostle reaches his conclusion, and shows that 
 the doctrine of our reunion with the body implies 
 in it no imperfection — nothing contrary to the 
 hopes of liberation "from the burden of this flesh" 
 
82 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 — because of the high and glorified qualities which 
 God* is able to give to matter; of which the su- 
 perior purity, splendor, and energy of some ma- 
 terial things in this world, in comparison with 
 others, is a visible demonstration. For after he 
 has given these instances, he adds: "So is the 
 resurrection of the dead; it is sown in corruption, 
 it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, 
 it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is 
 raised in power; it is sown a natural [an animal] 
 body, it is raised a spiritual body," so called, "as 
 being accommodated to a spirit, and far excelling 
 all that is required for the transaction of earthly 
 and terrene affairs"; and so intent is the apostle 
 on dissipating all those gross representations of 
 the resurrection of the body which the objectors 
 had assumed as the ground of their opposition, 
 and which they had probably in their disputations 
 placed under the strongest views, that he guards 
 the true Christian doctrine on this point in the 
 most explicit manner, "Now, this I say, brethren, 
 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
 God, neither doth corruption inherit incorrup- 
 tion"; and, therefore, let no man henceforward 
 affirm or assume it in his argument that we 
 teach any such doctrine. This also he strengthens 
 by showing that, as to the saints who are 
 alive at the second coming of Christ, they also 
 shall be in like manner "changed," and that "this 
 
A LITERAL RESURRECTION 83 
 
 corruptible," as to them also, "shall put on in- 
 corruption." 
 
 Thus, in the argument, the apostle confines him- 
 self wholly to the possibility of the resurrection of 
 the body in a refined and glorified state; but omits 
 all reference to the mode in which the thing will 
 be effected as being out of the line of the objector's 
 questions and in itself above human thought and 
 wholly miraculous. It is, however, clear that 
 when he speaks of the body as the subject of this 
 wondrous "change" he speaks of it popularly as 
 the same body in substance, whatever changes in 
 its qualities or figure may be impressed upon it. 
 Great general changes it will experience, as from 
 corruption to incorruption, from mortality to im- 
 mortality; great changes of a particular kind will 
 also take place, as its being freed from deformi- 
 ties and defects, and the accidental varieties pro- 
 duced by climate, ailments, labor, and hereditary 
 diseases. It is also laid down by our Lord that 
 "in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor 
 be given in marriage, but be like to the angels of 
 God" ; and this also implies a certain change of 
 structure; and we may gather from the declara- 
 tion of the apostle that, though "the stomach" is 
 now adapted "to meats and meats to the stomach, 
 God will destroy both it and them" ; that the ani- 
 mal appetite for food will be removed, and the 
 organ now adapted to that appetite have no place 
 in the renewed frame. But great as these changes 
 
84 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 are, the human form will be retained in its per- 
 fection, after the model of our Lord's "glorious 
 body," and the substance of the matter of which 
 it is composed will not thereby be affected. That 
 the same body which was laid in the grave shall 
 arise out of it, is the manifest doctrine of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION AS THE CORNER 
 STONE OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION 
 
 The resurrection of the saints is called the manifestation 
 of the sons of God, the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God, the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. It is 
 the grand jubilee of the Church, and even of the creation. 
 Till then the former as well as the latter shall be held 
 under a degree of bondage, as being yet subject to the 
 effects of sin. But then Chris fs promise shall be fulfilled, 
 Cf I will raise them up at the last day'* and the deliverance 
 of the saints will be the signal of that of the creation. 
 
 — Rev. Andrew Fuller. 
 
 The notion of an incorruptible germ, or that 
 of an original and unchangeable stamen, out of 
 which a new and glorious body, at the resurrec- 
 tion, is to spring, appears to have been borrowed 
 from the speculations of some of the Jewish rab- 
 bins, who speak of some such supposed part in the 
 human frame under the name Luz, to which they 
 ascribe marvelous properties and from which the 
 body was to arise. No allusion is, however, made 
 to any such opinion by the early fathers in their 
 defenses of the doctrine of the resurrection from 
 
86 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 the dead. On the contrary, they argue in such a 
 way as to prove the possibility of the reimton 
 of the scattered parts of the body, which suffi- 
 ciently shows that the germ theory had not been 
 resorted to, by Christian divines at least, in order 
 to harmonize the doctrine of the resurrection with 
 philosophy. So Justin Martyr, in a fragment of 
 his concerning the resurrection, expressly answers 
 the objection that it is impossible for the flesh, 
 after a corruption and perfect dissolution of all 
 its parts, to be united together again, and con- 
 tends "that if the body be not raised complete, 
 with all its integral parts, it would argue a w y ant 
 of power in God" ; and although some of the Jews 
 adopted the notion of the germinating or spring- 
 ing up of the body from some one indestructible 
 part, yet the most orthodox of their rabbis con- 
 tended for the resurrection of the same body. So 
 Maimonides says: "Men, in the same manner as 
 they before lived, with the same body, shall be 
 restored to life by God, and sent into this life with 
 the same identity"; and "that nothing can prop- 
 erly be called a resurrection of the dead but the 
 return of the very same soul into the very same 
 body from which it was separated." 
 
 This theory, under its various forms, and 
 whether adopted by Jews or Christians, was de- 
 signed, doubtless, to render the doctrine of a res- 
 urrection from the dead less difficult to conceive, 
 and more acceptable to philosophic minds; but, 
 
RESURRECTION, CORNER STONE 87 
 
 like most other attempts of the same kind to bring 
 down the supernatural doctrines of revelation to 
 the level of our conceptions, it escapes none of the 
 original difficulties and involves itself in others 
 far more perplexing. 
 
 For if by this hypothesis it was designed to re- 
 move the difficulty of conceiving how the scattered 
 parts of one body could be preserved from becom- 
 ing integral parts of other bodies, it supposes 
 that the constant care of Providence is exerted 
 to maintain the incorruptibility of those individual 
 germs, or stamina, so as to prevent their assimi- 
 lation with each other. Now, if they have this 
 by original quality, then the same quality may 
 just as easily be supposed to appertain to every 
 particle which composes a human body; so that, 
 though it be used for food, it shall not be capable 
 of assimilation, in any circumstances, with another 
 human body. But if these germs, or stamina, 
 have not this quality by their original nature, they 
 can be prevented from assimilating with each 
 other only by that operation of God which is pres- 
 ent to all his works, and which must always be 
 directed to secure the execution of his own ulti- 
 mate designs. If this view be adopted, then, if 
 the resort must at last be to the superintendence 
 of a Being of infinite power and wisdom, there 
 is no greater difficulty in supposing that his care 
 to secure this object shall extend to a million than 
 to a thousand particles of matter. This is, in 
 
88 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 fact, the true and rational answer to the objection 
 that the same piece of matter may happen to be a 
 part of two or more bodies, as in the instances of 
 men feeding upon animals which have fed upon 
 men, and of men feeding upon one another. The 
 question here is one which simply respects the frus- 
 trating of a final purpose of the Almighty by an 
 operation of nature. To suppose that he cannot 
 prevent this is to deny his power; to suppose him 
 inattentive to it is to suppose him indifferent to his 
 own designs ; and to assume that he employs care 
 to prevent it is to assume nothing greater, nothing 
 in fact so great as many instances of control which 
 are always occurring; as, for instance, the regu- 
 lation of the proportion of the sexes in human 
 births, which cannot be attributed to chance, but 
 must either be referred to superintendence or to 
 some original law. 
 
 Thus these theories afford no relief to the only 
 real difficulty involved in the doctrine, but leave 
 the whole case still to be resolved into the al- 
 mighty power of God. But they involve them- 
 selves in the fatal objection that they are plainly 
 in opposition to the doctrine of the Scriptures. 
 For: 
 
 i. There is no resurrection of the body on this 
 hypothesis, because the germ, or stamina, can in 
 no good sense be called "the body" If a finger, 
 or even a limb, is not the body, much less can 
 these minuter parts be entitled to this appellation. 
 
RESURRECTION, CORNER STONE 89 
 
 2. There is, on these theories, no resurrection 
 at all. For if the preserved part be a germ, and 
 the analogy of germination be adopted, then we 
 have no longer a resurrection from death, but a 
 vegetation from a suspended principle of secret 
 life. If the stamina of Leibnitz be contended for, 
 then the body, into which the soul enters at the 
 resurrection, with the exception of these minute 
 stamina, is provided for it by the addition and ag- 
 gregation of new matter, and we have a creation, 
 not a resurrection. 
 
 3. If bodies in either of these modes are to be 
 framed for the soul by the addition of a large 
 mass of new matter, the resurrection is made sub- 
 stantially the same with the pagan notion of the 
 metempsychosis; and if St. Paul at Athens 
 preached not "Jesus and the resurrection," but 
 Jesus and a transmigration into a new body, it will 
 be difficult to account for his hearers scoffing at a 
 doctrine which had received the sanction of sev- 
 eral of their own philosophic authorities. 
 
 Another objection to the resurrection of the 
 body has been drawn from the changes of its 
 substance during life. The answer to this is that, 
 allowing a frequent and total change of the sub- 
 stance of the body (which, however, is but a hy- 
 pothesis) to take place, it affects not the doctrine 
 of Scripture, which is that the body which is laid 
 in the grave shall be raised up. But, then, we are 
 told that if our bodies have in fact undergone 
 
90 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 successive changes during life, the bodies in 
 which we have sinned or performed rewardable 
 actions may not be, in many instances, the same 
 bodies as those which will be actually rewarded 
 or punished. We answer that rewards and pun- 
 ishments have their relation to the body not so 
 much as it is the subject, but the instrument of re- 
 ward and punishment It is the soul only which 
 perceives pain or pleasure, which suffers or enjoys, 
 and is, therefore, the only rewardable subject. 
 Were we, therefore, to admit such corporeal mu- 
 tations as are assumed in this objection, they af- 
 fect not the case of our accountability. The per- 
 sonal identity or sameness of a rational being, as 
 Mr. Locke has observed, consists in self-conscious- 
 ness: u By this every one is to himself what he 
 calls self, without considering whether that self 
 be continued in the same or divers substances. It 
 was by the same self, which reflects on an action 
 done many years ago, that the action was per- 
 formed." If there were indeed any weight in this 
 objection, it would affect the proceedings of 
 human criminal courts in all cases of offenses com- 
 mitted at some distance of time ; but it contradicts 
 the common sense because it contradicts the com- 
 mon consciousness and experience of mankind. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 RESURRECTION OF THE BODY COMPLETE 
 
 Who for the first time saw the little pendant coffin in 
 which the insect lay entombed would ever predict that in 
 a few weeks, perhaps in a few days or hours, it would be- 
 come one of the most elegant and active of winged insects? 
 And who that contemplates with the mind of a philos- 
 opher this curious transformation and knows that two 
 years before the insect mounts into the air, even while 
 it is living in water, it has the rudiment of wings, can 
 deny that the body of a dead man may at some future 
 period be again invested with vigor and activity and soar 
 to regions for which some latent organization may have 
 peculiarly fitted it? — Dr. Gregory. 
 
 John Wesley, who has the undisputed pre- 
 miership in the great Methodist movement, holds 
 to the doctrine of the resurrection in an inflexible 
 and scriptural way. In a sermon from the fif- 
 teenth chapter of First Corinthians he says : 
 
 The apostle, having in the beginning of this 
 chapter firmly settled the truth of our Saviour's 
 resurrection, adds: "Now if Christ be preached 
 that he rose from the dead, how say some among 
 you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" 
 It cannot now any longer seem impossible to you 
 
 91 
 
92 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 that God should raise the dead; since you have so 
 plain an example of it in our Lord, who was dead 
 and is alive; and the same power which raised 
 Christ must also be able to quicken our immortal 
 bodies. 
 
 "But some man will say, How are the dead 
 raised up? and with what body do they come?" 
 How can these things be? How is it possible 
 that these bodies should be raised again and 
 joined to their several souls, which many thou- 
 sands of years ago were either buried in the earth 
 or swallowed up in the sea or devoured by fire? — - 
 which have moldered into the finest dust, that 
 dust scattered over the face of the earth, dis- 
 persed as far as the heavens are wide — nay, which 
 has undergone ten thousand changes, has fattened 
 the earth, become the food of other creatures, and 
 these again the food of other men? How is it 
 possible that all these little parts, which made up 
 the body of Abraham, should be again ranged 
 together, and, unmixed with the dust of other 
 bodies, be all placed in the same order and posture 
 that they were before, so as to make up the very 
 selfsame body which his soul at his death forsook? 
 Ezekiel was indeed, in a vision, set down in a 
 valley full of dry bones, "and he heard a noise, 
 and behold a shaking, and the bones came to- 
 gether, bone to his bone ; the sinews and the flesh 
 came upon them, and the skin covered them above, 
 and breath came into them, and they lived, and 
 
RESURRECTION COMPLETE 93 
 
 stood upon their feet." This might be in a vision. 
 But that all this, and much more, should in time 
 come to pass; that our bones after they are 
 crumbled into dust should really become living 
 men; that all the little parts whereof our bodies 
 were made should immediately, at a general sum* 
 mons, meet again, and every one challenge and 
 possess its own place, till at last the whole be 
 perfectly rebuilt — that this, I say, should be done 
 is so incredible a thing that we cannot so much as 
 have any notion of it. And we may observe that 
 the Gentiles were most displeased with this arti- 
 cle of the Christian faith. It was one of the last 
 things the heathens believed, and it is to this day 
 the chief objection to Christianity. 
 
 It may be proper to mention some of the rea- 
 sons upon which this article of our faith is built. 
 
 The plain notion of a resurrection requires that 
 the selfsame body that died should rise again. 
 Nothing can be said to be raised again but that 
 very body that died. If God give to our souls 
 at the last day a new body, this cannot be called 
 the resurrection of our body, because that word 
 plainly implies the fresh production of what was 
 before. 
 
 There are many places of Scripture that plainly 
 declare it. St. Paul, in the fifty-third verse of this 
 chapter, tells us that "This corruptible must put 
 on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im- 
 mortality." Now by this mortal and this corrupt!- 
 
94 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 ble can be meant only that body which we now 
 carry about with us, and shall one day lay down 
 in the dust. 
 
 The mention which the Scripture makes of the 
 places where the dead shall rise further shows 
 that the same body which died shall rise. Thus 
 we read in Daniel: "Those that sleep in the dust 
 of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 And we may likewise observe that the very phrase 
 of sleep and awake implies that when we rise 
 again from the dead our bodies will be as much 
 the same as they are when we awake from sleep. 
 Thus again our Lord affirms: "The hour is com- 
 ing in which all that are in the graves shall hear 
 his voice and shall come forth; they that have 
 done good to the resurrection of life, and they 
 that have done evil to the resurrection of dam- 
 nation." (John v. 28, 29.) Now if the same 
 body do not rise again, what need is there of open- 
 ing the graves at the end of the world? The 
 graves can give up no bodies but those which were 
 laid in them. If we were not to rise with the very 
 same bodies that died, then they might rest for- 
 ever. To this we need only add that of St. Paul : 
 "The Lord shall change this vile body, that it 
 may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." 
 Now this vile body can be no other than that with 
 which we are now clothed, which must be restored 
 to life again. 
 
RESURRECTION COMPLETE 95 
 
 That in all this there is nothing incredible or 
 impossible, I shall show by proving these three 
 things: (i) That it is possible for God to keep 
 and preserve unmixed from all other bodies the 
 particular dust into which our several bodies are 
 dissolved, and can gather and join it again, how 
 far soever dispersed asunder. (2) That God can 
 form that dust so gathered together into the same 
 body it was before. (3) That when he hath 
 formed this body he can enliven it with the same 
 soul that before inhabited it. 
 
 1. God can distinguish and keep unmixed from 
 all other bodies the particular dust into which our 
 several bodies are dissolved, and can gather it to- 
 gether and join it again, how far soever dispersed 
 asunder. God is infinite both in knowledge and 
 power. He knoweth the number of the stars, and 
 calleth them all by their names; he can tell the 
 number of the sands on the seashore ; and is it at 
 all incredible that he should distinctly know the 
 several particles of dust into which the bodies of 
 men are moldered, and plainly discern to whom 
 they belong and the various changes they have 
 undergone? Why should it be thought strange 
 that he, who at the first formed us, whose eyes 
 saw our substance yet being imperfect, from 
 whom we w r ere not hid when we were made in 
 secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts 
 of the earth, should know every part of our bod- 
 ies and every particle of dust whereof we were 
 
96 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 composed? The artist knows every part of the 
 watch which he frames; and if it should fall in 
 pieces, and the various parts of it lie in the great- 
 est disorder and confusion, yet he can soon gather 
 them together and as easily distinguish one from 
 another as if every one had its particular mark. 
 He knows the use of each, and can readily give it 
 its proper place and put them all exactly in the 
 same figure and order they were before. And 
 can we think that the Almighty Builder of the 
 world, whose workmanship we are, does not know 
 whereof we are made or is not acquainted with 
 the several parts of which this earthly tabernacle 
 is composed? All these lay in one vast heap at 
 the creation till he separated them one from an- 
 other and framed them into those distinct bodies 
 whereof this beautiful world consists. And why 
 may not the same power collect the ruins of our 
 corrupted bodies and restore them to their former 
 condition? All the parts into which men's bodies 
 are dissolved, however they seem to us carelessly 
 scattered over the face of the earth, are yet care- 
 fully laid up by God's wise disposal till the day of 
 the restoration of all things. They are preserved 
 in the waters and fires, in the birds and beasts, 
 till the last trumpet shall summon them to their 
 former habitation. 
 
 But say they: "It may sometimes happen that 
 several men's bodies may consist of the selfsame 
 matter. For the bodies of men are often de- 
 
RESURRECTION COMPLETE 97 
 
 voured by other animals, which are eaten by other 
 men. Nay, there are nations which feed upon 
 human flesh; consequently they borrow a great 
 part of their bodies from other men. And if 
 that which was part of one man's body becomes 
 afterwards part of another man's, how can both 
 rise at the last day with the same bodies they had 
 before?" To this it may easily be replied that a 
 very small part of what is eaten turns to nourish- 
 ment; the far greater part goes away according 
 to the order of nature. So that it is not at all 
 impossible for God, who watches over and gov- 
 erns all this, so to order things that what is part 
 of one man's body, though eaten by another, shall 
 never turn to his nourishment; or if it does, that 
 it shall wear off again, and sometime before his 
 death be separated from him, so that it may re- 
 main in a capacity of being restored at the last day 
 to its former owner. 
 
 2. God can form this dust, so gathered to- 
 gether, into the same body it was before. And 
 that it is possible all must own who believe that 
 God made Adam out of the dust of the earth. 
 Therefore the bodies of men being dust after 
 death, it is no other than it was before; and the 
 same power that at the first made it of dust may 
 as easily remake it when it is turned into dust 
 again. Nay, it is no more wonderful than the 
 forming of a human body in the womb, which is 
 a thing we have daily experience of, and is doubt- 
 
98 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 less as strange an instance of divine power as 
 the resurrection of it can possibly be. And were 
 it not so common a thing, we should be as hardly 
 brought to think it possible that such a beautiful 
 fabric as the body of man is, with nerves and 
 bones, flesh and veins, blood, and the several other 
 parts whereof it consists, should be formed, as we 
 know it is, as now we are, that hereafter it should 
 be rebuilt when it has been crumbled into dust. 
 Had we only heard of the wonderful production 
 of the bodies of men, we should have been as 
 ready to ask: "How are men made, and with what 
 bodies are they born?" as now, when we hear of 
 the resurrection, "How are the dead raised up, 
 and with what bodies do they come?" 
 
 3. When God hath raised this body, he can 
 enliven it with the same soul that inhabited it 
 before. And this we cannot pretend to say is im- 
 possible to be done, for it has been done already. 
 Our Saviour himself was dead, rose again, and 
 appeared alive to his disciples and others, who 
 had lived with him many years, and were then 
 fully convinced that he was the same person they 
 had seen die upon the cross. 
 
 Thus have I shown that the resurrection of the 
 same body is by no means impossible to God. 
 That which he hath promised he is able also to 
 perform by that "mighty power by which he is 
 able to subdue all things to himself." Though, 
 therefore, we cannot exactly tell the manner how 
 
RESURRECTION COMPLETE 99 
 
 it shall be done, yet this ought not in the least 
 to weaken our belief of this important article of 
 our faith. It is enough that he to whom all things 
 are possible hath passed his word that he will 
 raise us again. Let those who presume to mock 
 at the glorious hope of all good men, and are 
 constantly raising objections against it, first try 
 their skill upon the various appearances of na- 
 ture. Let them explain everything which they 
 see happen in this world before they talk of the 
 difficulties of explaining the resurrection. Can 
 they tell me how their own bodies were fashioned 
 and curiously wrought? Can they give me a plain 
 account, by what orderly steps this glorious, 
 stately structure, which discovers so much work- 
 manship and rare contrivance, was at first cre- 
 ated? How was the first drop of blood made, 
 and how came the heart and veins and arteries to 
 receive it? Of what and by what means were the 
 nerves and fibers made? What fixed the little 
 springs in their due places, and fitted them for 
 the several uses for which they now serve? How 
 was the brain distinguished from the other parts 
 of the body and filled with spirits to move and 
 animate the whole? How came the body to be 
 fenced with bones and sinews, to be clothed with 
 skin and flesh, distinguished into various muscles? 
 Let them but answer these few questions about 
 the mechanism of our own bodies, and I will 
 answer all the difficulties concerning the resurrec- 
 
100 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 tion of them. But if they cannot do this without 
 having recourse to the infinite power and wisdom 
 of the First Cause, let them know that the same 
 power and wisdom can reanimate it after it is 
 turned into dust, and that there is no reason for 
 our doubting concerning the thing because there 
 are some circumstances belonging to it which we 
 cannot perfectly comprehend or give a distinct ac- 
 count of. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 wesley's argument for a resurrection and 
 not a creation 
 
 This he [Paul] calls the manifestation of the sons of 
 God, alluding to children's being brought forth to the 
 light when they are born. This was to have its highest 
 fulfillment at the resurrection, when they shall be born 
 from the grave. They themselves, therefore, join with 
 the creation around them, groaning within themselves, 
 waiting for the most glorious, the ultimate and perfect 
 manifestation of the sons of God when they shall be born 
 of the grave. — Rev. Jonathan Edwards. 
 
 Then John Wesley shows the change between 
 the qualities of the mortal and glorified bodies of 
 God's saints. He says: 
 
 The change which shall be made in our bodies 
 at the resurrection, according to the Scripture ac- 
 count, will consist chiefly in these four things : ( i ) 
 That our bodies shall be raised immortal and in- 
 corruptible. (2) That they shall be raised in 
 glory. (3) That they shall be raised in power. 
 (4) That they shall be raised spiritual bodies. 
 
 1. The body that we shall have at the resur- 
 rection shall be immortal and incorruptible: "For 
 
 IOI 
 
102 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
 mortal must put on immortality." Now these 
 words "immortal" and "incorruptible" not only 
 signify that we shall die no more (for in that 
 sense the damned are immortal and incorrupti- 
 ble), but that we shall be perfectly free from all 
 the bodily evils which sin brought into the world. 
 That our bodies shall not be subject to sickness 
 or pain or any other inconveniences we are daily 
 exposed to. This the Scripture calls "the redemp- 
 tion of our bodies," the freeing them from all 
 their maladies. Were we to receive them again, 
 subject to all the frailties and miseries which we 
 are forced to wrestle with, I much doubt whether 
 a wise man, were he left to his choice, would will- 
 ingly take his again — whether he would not choose 
 to let his still lie rotting in the grave rather than 
 to be again chained to such a cumbersome clod of 
 earth. Such a resurrection would be, as a wise 
 heathen calls it, "a resurrection to another sleep." 
 It would look more like a redemption to death 
 again than a resurrection to life. 
 
 The best thing we can say of this house of 
 earth is, That it is a ruinous building, and will 
 not be long before it tumbles into dust ; that it is 
 not our home (we look for another house eternal 
 in the heavens) ; that we shall not always be con- 
 fined here, but that in a little time we shall be de- 
 livered from the bondage of corruption, from this 
 burden of flesh, into the glorious liberty of the 
 
WESLEY'S ARGUMENT 103 
 
 sons of God. What frail things these bodies of 
 ours are! How soon are they disordered! To 
 what a troop of diseases, pains, and other infirm- 
 ities are they constantly subject! And how does 
 the least distemper disturb our minds and make 
 life itself a burden ! Of how many parts do our 
 bodies consist! And if one of these be disor- 
 dered, the whole man suffers. If but one of these 
 slender threads whereof our flesh is made up be 
 stretched beyond its due proportion, or fretted 
 by any sharp humor, or broken, what torment 
 does it create ! Nay, when our bodies are at the 
 best, what pains do we take to answer their neces- 
 sities, to provide for their sustenance, to preserve 
 them in health, and to keep them tenantable, in 
 some tolerable fitness for our soul's use. And 
 what time we can spare from our labor is taken 
 up in rest and refreshing our jaded bodies and 
 fitting them for work again. How are we forced, 
 even naturally, into the confines of death; even to 
 cease to be; at least to pass so many hours with- 
 out any useful or reasonable thoughts, merely to 
 keep them in repair! But our hope and comfort 
 are that we shall shortly be delivered from this 
 burden of flesh, when "God shall wipe away all 
 tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
 there be any more pain; for the former things are 
 passed away." O when shall we arrive at that 
 happy land where no complaints were ever heard, 
 
104 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 where we shall all enjoy uninterrupted health both 
 of body and mind, and nevermore be exposed to 
 any of those inconveniences that disturb our pres- 
 ent pilgrimage? When we shall have once passed 
 from death unto life, we shall be eased of all the 
 troublesome care of our bodies, which now takes 
 up so much of our time and thoughts. We shall 
 be set free from all those mean and tiresome la- 
 bors which we must now undergo to support our 
 lives. Yon robes of light, with which we shall 
 be clothed at the resurrection of the just, will not 
 stand in need of those careful provisions which 
 it is so troublesome to us here either to procure 
 or to be without. But then, as our Lord tells us, 
 those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain 
 that world neither marry nor are given in mar- 
 riage, neither can they die any more, but they are 
 equal to the angels. Their bodies are neither 
 subject to disease, nor want that daily sustenance 
 which these mortal bodies cannot be without. 
 "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but 
 God will destroy both it and them." This is that 
 perfect happiness which all good men shall enjoy 
 in the other world: a mind free from all trouble 
 and guilt in a body free from all pains and dis- 
 eases. Thus our mortal bodies shall be raised 
 immortal. They shall not only be always pre- 
 served from death (for so these might be, if God 
 pleased), but the nature of them shall be wholly 
 
WESLEY'S ARGUMENT 105 
 
 changed so that they shall not retain the same 
 seeds of mortality: they cannot die any more. 
 
 2. Our bodies shall be raised in glory. "Then 
 shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom 
 of their Father." A resemblance of this we have 
 in the luster of Moses's face when he had con- 
 versed with God on the mount. His face shone 
 so bright that the children of Israel were afraid 
 to come near him till he threw a veil over it. And 
 that extraordinary majesty of Stephen's face 
 seemed to be an earnest of his glory. "All that 
 sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw 
 his face as it had been the face of an angel." How 
 then, if it shone so gloriously even on earth, will 
 it shine in the other world, when his and the 
 bodies of all the saints are made like unto Christ's 
 glorious body ! How glorious the body of Christ 
 is, we may guess from his transfiguration. St 
 Peter, when he saw this, when our Lord's face 
 shone as the sun and his raiment became shining 
 and white as snow, was so transported with joy 
 and admiration that he knew not what he said. 
 When our Saviour discovered but a little of that 
 glory which he now possesses, and which in due 
 time he will impart to his followers, yet that little 
 of it made the place seem a paradise; and the dis- 
 ciples thought that they could wish for nothing 
 better than always to live in such pure light and 
 enjoy so beautiful a sight. "It is good for us to 
 be here : let us make three tabernacles." Here let 
 
106 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 us fix our abode forever. And if they thought it 
 so happy only to be present with such heavenly 
 bodies and to behold them with their eyes, how 
 much happier must it be to dwell in such glori- 
 ous mansions and to be themselves clothed with 
 so much brightness! 
 
 This excellency of our heavenly bodies will 
 probably arise in a great measure from the hap- 
 piness of our souls. The unspeakable joy that we 
 then shall feel will break through our bodies and 
 shine forth in our countenances. As the joy of 
 the soul even in this life has some influence upon 
 the countenance, by rendering it more open and 
 cheerful, so Solomon tells us : "A man's wisdom 
 makes his face to shine." Virtue, as it refines 
 a man's heart, so it makes his very looks more 
 cheerful and lively. 
 
 3. Our bodies shall be raised in power. This 
 expresses the sprightliness of our heavenly bodies, 
 the nimbleness of their motion, by which they shall 
 be obedient and able instruments of the soul. In 
 this state our bodies are no better than clogs and 
 fetters, which confine and restrain the freedom 
 of the soul. The corruptible body presses down 
 the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down 
 the mind. Our dull, sluggish, inactive bodies are 
 often unable, or backward, to obey the commands 
 of the soul. But in the other life "they that 
 wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; 
 they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they 
 
WESLEY'S ARGUMENT 107 
 
 shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and 
 not faint." Or, as another expresses it: "They 
 shall run to and fro like sparks among the stub- 
 ble." The speed of their motion shall be like that 
 of devouring fire in stubble, and the height of 
 it above the towering of an eagle; for they shall 
 meet the Lord in the air, when he comes to judg- 
 ment, and mount up with him into the highest 
 heaven. This earthly body is slow and heavy in 
 all its motions, listless, and soon tired with action. 
 But our heavenly bodies shall be as fire, as active 
 and as nimble as our thoughts are. 
 
 4. Our bodies shall be raised spiritual bodies. 
 Our spirits are now forced to serve our bodies 
 and to attend their leisure, and do greatly depend 
 upon them for most of their actions. But our 
 bodies shall then wholly serve our spirits and 
 minister to them and depend upon them. So that 
 as by a natural body we understand one fitted for 
 this lower, sensible world, for this earthly estate, 
 so a spiritual body is one that is suited to a spirit- 
 ual state, to an invisible world, to the life of 
 angels. And, indeed, this is the principal differ- 
 ence between a mortal and a glorified body. This 
 flesh is the most dangerous enemy we have: we 
 therefore deny and renounce it in our baptism. 
 It constantly tempts us to evil. Every sense is 
 a snare to us. All its lusts and appetites are in- 
 ordinate. It is ungovernable, and often rebels 
 against reason. The law in our members wars 
 
108 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 against the law of our mind. When the spirit is 
 willing, the flesh is weak; so that the best of men 
 are forced to keep it under and use it hardly lest 
 it should betray them into folly and misery. And 
 how does it hinder us in all our devotions 1 How 
 soon does it jade our minds when employed on 
 holy things ! How easily by its enchanting pleas- 
 ures does it divert them from those noble exer- 
 cises ! But when we have obtanied the resurrec- 
 tion unto life, our bodies will be spiritualized, 
 purified, and refined from their earthly grossness. 
 Then they will be fit instruments for the soul in 
 all its divine and heavenly employment; we shall 
 not be weary of singing praises to God through 
 infinite ages. 
 
 Thus after what little we have been able to 
 conceive of it, it sufficiently appears that a glori- 
 fied body is infinitely more excellent and desirable 
 than this vile body. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S BODY RAISED IMMORTAL AND 
 INCORRUPTIBLE 
 
 The resurrection of the dead must be admitted to be a 
 great mystery which nothing but the occurrence of the fact 
 can unfold. The apostle puts this question into the mouth 
 of an infidel: "How are the dead raised up? and with 
 what body do they come?" which he answers in a very un- 
 ceremonious manner: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest 
 is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, 
 thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it 
 may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God 
 giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed 
 his own body" The glorious prospect opened by this 
 doctrine is not less animating because it surpasses our 
 comprehension. On the contrary, its profundity only 
 serves to increase our astonishment and enhance our grati- 
 tude. The apostle, in his apology before Felix, resolves 
 the whole into an immediate exertion of divine power. 
 Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God 
 should raise the dead? If indeed the gospel professed 
 to teach the theory of the fact, it would be a just objection 
 that this was beyond the grasp of our faculties. If, on 
 the contrary, it merely reveals facts and those facts have 
 immediate practical bearings on the hearts and lives of 
 those who receive them, all objections on account of their 
 mysteriousness are futile, because they proceed on the sup- 
 position that God intends to develop the whole mystery, 
 
 109 
 
110 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 whereas He discovers only so much as may be adapted to 
 rectify the conscience and purify the heart. 
 
 — Robert Hall. 
 
 John Wesley concludes by practical infer- 
 ences : 
 
 I. From what has been said, we may learn 
 the best way of preparing ourselves to live in 
 those heavenly bodies, which is by cleansing our- 
 selves more and more from all earthly affections, 
 and weaning ourselves from this body and all the 
 pleasures that are peculiar to it. We should begin 
 in this life to loosen the knot between our souls 
 and this mortal flesh ; to refine our affections, and 
 raise them from things below to things above; 
 to take ®ff our thoughts and disengage them from 
 present and sensible things, and accustom our- 
 selves to think of and converse with things future 
 and invisible; that so our souls, when they leave 
 this earthly body, may be prepared for a spiritual 
 one, as having beforehand tasted spiritual delights 
 and being in some degree acquainted with the 
 things which we then shall meet with. A soul 
 wholly taken up with this earthly body is not fit 
 for the glorious mansions above. A sensual mind 
 is so wedded to bodily pleasures that it cannot 
 enjoy itself without them, and it is not able to 
 relish any other, though infinitely to be preferred 
 before them. Nay, such as follow the inclinations 
 of their fleshly appetites are so far unfit for 
 
CHRISTIAN'S BODY IMMORTAL 111 
 
 heavenly joys that they would esteem it the great- 
 est unhappiness to be clothed with a spiritual 
 body. It would be like clothing a beggar in the 
 robes of a king. Such glorious bodies would be 
 uneasy to them; they would not know what to do 
 in them ; they would be glad to retire and put on 
 their rags again. But when we are washed from 
 the guilt of our sins, and cleansed from all filthi- 
 ness of flesh and spirit, by faith in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, then we shall long to be dissolved and to 
 be with our exalted Saviour. We shall be always 
 ready to take wing for the other world, where 
 we shall at last have a body suited to our spiritual 
 appetites. 
 
 2. From hence we may see how to account for 
 the different degrees of glory in the heavenly 
 world. For although all the children of God shall 
 have glorious bodies, yet the glory of them all 
 shall not be equal. "As one star differeth from 
 another star in glory, so also is the resurrection 
 of the dead." They shall all shine as stars, but 
 those who, by a constant diligence in well-doing, 
 have attained to a higher measure of purity than 
 others shall shine more brightly than others. 
 They shall appear as more glorious stars. It is 
 certain that the most heavenly bodies will be given 
 to the most heavenly souls; so that this is no little 
 encouragement to us to make the greatest progress 
 we possibly can in the knowledge and love of God, 
 since the more we are weaned from the things 
 
112 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 of the earth now the more glorious will our bodies 
 be at the resurrection. 
 
 3, Let this consideration engage us patiently 
 to bear whatever troubles we may be exercised 
 with in the present life. The time of our eternal 
 redemption draweth nigh. Let us hold out a 
 little longer, and all tears shall be wiped from our 
 eyes and we shall never sigh nor sorrow any more. 
 And how soon shall we forget all we endured in 
 this earthly tabernacle, when once we are clothed 
 with that house which is from above? We are 
 now but on our journey toward home, and so must 
 expect to struggle with many difficulties; but it 
 will not be long ere we come to our journey's 
 end, and that will make amends for all. We shall 
 then be in a quiet and safe harbor, out of the 
 reach of all storms and dangers. We shall then 
 be at home in our Father's house, no longer ex- 
 posed to the inconveniences which, so long as we 
 abide abroad in these tents, we are subject to. 
 And let us not forfeit all this happiness for want 
 of a little more patience. Only let us hold out 
 to the end, and we shall receive an abundant 
 recompense for all the trouble and uneasiness of 
 our passage, which shall be endless rest and peace. 
 
 Let this especially fortify us against the fear 
 of death; it is now disarmed, and can do us no 
 hurt. It divides us indeed from this body awhile, 
 but it is only that we may receive it again more 
 glorious. As God therefore said once to Jacob, 
 
CHRISTIAN'S BODY IMMORTAL 113 
 
 "Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will go 
 down with thee, and will surely bring thee up 
 again/' so I may say to all who are born of God, 
 Fear not to go down into the grave: lay down 
 your heads in the dust; for God will certainly 
 bring you up again, and that in a much more glor- 
 ious manner. Only "be ye steadfast and unmov- 
 able, always abounding in the work of the Lord/' 
 and then let death prevail over and pull down 
 this house of clay; since God hath undertaken to 
 rear it up again, infinitely more beautiful, strong 
 and useful. 
 
 We see how this apostle and founder of Meth- 
 odism held to the Bible statement of this vital 
 and fundamental fact. Had John Wesley held 
 the fact of the resurrection of the body by a feeble 
 or a lax tenure, then he would neither have been 
 God's apostle nor the founder of Methodism. 
 Wesleyan Methodism had not been if John 
 Wesley had gingerly held this essential and indis- 
 pensable fact dissolved and disemboweled by 
 philosophical admixture and rationalistic dubiety. 
 All this marvelous work would not have been, 
 or gone glimmering — "A schoolboy's tale, the 
 wonder of an hour;" "Like a tale told by an idiot; 
 full of sound and fury signifying nothing." 
 
 We have made these extracts from men of the 
 highest order of intellect and culture of varied 
 creeds of faith, yet essentially one. We see that 
 
114 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 they accepted the fact of the resurrection of the 
 body as their gospel creed, maintained it despite 
 all philosophical objections, and heartily ap- 
 proved and advocated it. 
 
 We would reemphasize the fact that there are 
 no new arguments nor stronger ones against the 
 resurrection of the body than those which the 
 fathers had to confront, and they met them with 
 resolute and strong faith, Why is this doctrine 
 held so feebly and with so many qualifications by 
 the Church of this day? There is no solution of 
 this question to be found outside of the decay of 
 that simple, spiritual, strong faith which domi- 
 nated these men who made their times a great 
 spiritual era. 
 
 These men spent no time nor devices in devising 
 methods to make it easy for God to seem to do 
 what he had promised to do and yet not do it. 
 By the modern popular process of tinkering and 
 toning we get God out of the matter, and reduce 
 the Christian system to a godless philosophy. A 
 resurrection without God is the point to which 
 modern progressive theology is moving. It is 
 high time we had quit this toning down divine 
 truth to answer the purposes of our unfaith and 
 bad philosophy. This is a poor business for 
 preachers or people to be at — this playing the 
 role of philosophers, this dwarfing and destroying 
 revelation to satisfy the limitations and blindness 
 of reason. Let reason use all its sanctified powers 
 
CHRISTIAN'S BODY IMMORTAL 115 
 
 in ascertaining what God says, in learning in 
 silence, reverence, and meekness God's words — 
 learn to obey revelation, but never to sit in judg- 
 ment on its truth, its fitness, nor its facts. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SOME BODIES WILL SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY THAN 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 We may think, perchance, that we are free to speculate 
 to prove historical credibilities, to boast the liberty of a sus- 
 pended assent to what seems all too objective and material 
 for the falsely spiritualizing tendencies of the age in which 
 we live. We may think so now; but when the end draws 
 near, when sorrow breaks us, when age weakens, when 
 darkness begins to close around us, where will all such 
 license of thought be and what will it avail us? 
 
 — Bishop Ellicott. 
 
 Amid the signs and transactions of the death 
 and resurrection of Christ we have this statement : 
 "And the graves were opened; and many bodies 
 of the saints which slept arose, and came out of 
 the graves after his resurrection, and went into 
 the holy city, and appeared unto many." 
 
 The graves were opened, the bodies that slept 
 arose and came out of their graves. Nothing 
 could be more explicit; nothing clearer than that 
 this was a literal resurrection, a literal return to 
 life of the bodies put in the grave. This is the 
 first fruit of Christ's resurrection, the pledge and 
 symbol of ours. 
 
 116 
 
BODIES WILL SHINE 117 
 
 Christ's resurrection was the great pattern of 
 ours. He said to his disciples: "Behold, my 
 hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me 
 and see," He showed them his hands and side — 
 a literal resurrection of his pierced, marred, and 
 bleeding body. This is the earnest authority and 
 hope of our resurrection. We are to be raised 
 from the dead, not from a germ, for this is the 
 fact paganized. It is not a rehabilitation, not a 
 new creation, but a raising up again of the same 
 thing which had fallen — raised and transfigured, 
 refined, glorified, in conditions, relations, quali- 
 ties. So also is the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 Among the first indications of heresy, is that 
 about the resurrection; our going off begins here- 
 in Paul's masterly argument in Corinthians to 
 refute these resurrection heretics, he sets forth 
 the literal resurrection: the body sown in weak- 
 ness, raised in power; the same body raised that 
 is sown. The mortal — that is, the dead body — 
 puts on immortality. The corruptible body puts 
 on incorruption. 
 
 The dead are to stand before God in judgment. 
 We are to be judged for the deeds done in this 
 body. This body is a partner in all our doing, and 
 it must bear its share in the awards of that judg- 
 ment day. Christ says soul and body can be cast 
 by God into hell. The identity, the unity, and 
 sameness follow through the history of eternity. 
 These vile bodies are to be changed — not other 
 
118 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 bodies made, but these we bear and will put in 
 the grave are to feel the regenerating and trans- 
 forming force of the resurrection. 
 
 Daniel says: "And many of them that sleep 
 in the dust of the earth shall awake, and some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shame and everlast- 
 ing contempt." 
 
 The sleepers are to come forth. It is the body 
 that sleeps; the soul never sleeps. It is that which 
 is sleeping in the dust of the earth which is to 
 awake. The sleepers in the dust of the earth are 
 to awake. The body only is sleeping in the dust 
 of the earth. What could be more specific, direct, 
 than this statement? 
 
 Our Lord says: "Marvel not at this: for the 
 hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 
 graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; 
 they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
 of life, and they that have done evil, unto the 
 resurrection of damnation." 
 
 Here the resurrection is coming out of the 
 grave. What have we put in the grave ? These 
 mortal bodies — and that which we put in the 
 grave is to hear his voice and come out of the 
 grave. 
 
 Paul puts the doctrine in a wholesome form 
 and very full of comfort: "But I would not have 
 you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
 which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as 
 others which have no hope. For if we believe 
 
BODIES WILL SHINE 119 
 
 that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
 which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 
 
 No refining in this to meet the vicious philoso- 
 phy of the day. No surrender to the higher 
 rationalistic and Sadducean criticism. It is a 
 brave and tender statement of a precious and 
 divine truth. Who are sleeping in Christ? We 
 know who! We folded their hands with tears 
 and kissed the lips and laid them to sleep and 
 wrote on their tombs the words of hope and res- 
 urrection. We did not see their spirits and could 
 not follow them in their heavenward flight, but 
 we did bear their bodies, broken-hearted, and lay 
 them to sleep and their forms are forever mir- 
 rored on our hearts, and Christ shall bring them 
 back to us out of their graves and out of their 
 sleep to our embrace and to our hearts. 
 
 We sang, as we laid them to sleep, "Asleep in 
 Jesus." We put it on the marble that marked 
 their bed of sleep: 
 
 "Asleep in Jesus! Blessed sleep! 
 From which none ever wakes to weep." 
 
 It is out of the grave they are to come ! It is 
 out of the dust they are to come! It is out of 
 the sea they are to come! The body is in the 
 grave, the body is in the dust, the body is in the 
 sea. The body, imperishable as the spirit, shall 
 by the voice of the Son of God come out of the 
 grave, come out of the dust, come out of the sea. 
 
120 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 Glorious fact, mysterious fact; but God, God's 
 Son, God's Word makes and solves its mystery. 
 Faith holds to God, faith holds to God's Son, 
 faith holds to God's Word. Faith, almighty 
 faith, sees God, sees the Son of God, sees his 
 word, laughs at mysteries and impossibilities, and 
 cries: "It shall be done!" 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Christ's resurrection the pledge and symbol 
 
 OF OURS 
 
 Paul felt in the depths of his soul that the life of the 
 Christian, as it subsists in faith now, can only subsist in 
 hope of the future. Without this assumed view of the 
 future, the whole Christian life appears in his eyes as en- 
 deavors without an object, the pursuit of a phantom, the 
 sport of a delusion. For the life of other men is directed 
 to the higher or lower aims which are to be attained in 
 intellectual pursuits, or in the gratification of the senses 
 and which can be actually attained on earth. But the 
 life of Christians, with all its conflicts, efforts, and re- 
 nunciations, refers to an object that has no truth, if it be 
 not realized in the eternal life of the future. 
 
 — JOHANN A. W. NEANDER. 
 
 It is obvious that this present body, not in sub- 
 stance but in qualities and capacity, will not be 
 suited to the changed and higher conditions and 
 employments of the heavenly life. It may not be 
 so obvious, but must be equally true that the rev- 
 elation on this point, if made to us in detail, could 
 not be understood, and so we have the facts stated 
 in an explicit but general way, that these bodies 
 are to be changed. The great outlines only are 
 given. It is said with force that these bodies in 
 
 121 
 
122 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 their present qualities will be entirely unsuited to 
 the changed relations ; that flesh and blood cannot 
 inherit that happy state nor meet its high de- 
 mands. 
 
 Speculations and theories, never satisfactory, 
 are generally profitless in regard to these divine 
 mysteries. The Bible is the only safe guide. We 
 are not to seek after mysteries in God's Word, 
 or marvels, but to search out and know the truth 
 as revealed by God in its teaching without error, 
 fancy, human opinion, or philosophy. God's truth 
 is all we need to know. It is what we ought to 
 want and earnestly and faithfully to seek. 
 
 God reveals to us two distinct facts about his 
 purposes with our bodies : The first is the raising 
 of our bodies from the grave. The body is his 
 in its original creation: he made it fearfully and 
 wonderfully. This body is sacred to God; sacred 
 to God by creation. God created these bodies. 
 Out of common dust they were made, but the dust 
 was sanctified and made holy for God's high pur- 
 poses. The body is sacred to God, for it is his 
 temple, as sacred and holier than any temple ever 
 built to God: "Know ye not that your body is 
 a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" 
 The body dedicated as a temple is devoted to 
 God. The body holy to God as a temple is holy. 
 Our bodies are God's work, God's workmanship, 
 God's temple, God's property. He owns these 
 bodies; they are to glorify him and he will glorify 
 
PLEDGE AND SYMBOL 123 
 
 them. The body is sacred to God because he 
 clothed his Son in it. Jesus wore this body on 
 earth, wears it now in heaven. The body shares 
 in the work of the redemption by Jesus; its re- 
 generation will come through its resurrection and 
 glorious change. God sanctified and ennobled it 
 by appearing in the body to patriarch and prophet. 
 He gave it divine honor and clothed it with im- 
 mortality when he clothed his Son in a body of 
 flesh. He gave the body triumph when he raised 
 it from the dead in the person of his Son. This 
 body he has declared he will raise from the deadly 
 ravages of the grave. The second great purpose 
 God has in decree for the body is that it shall be 
 so changed as to qualify it for and adapt it to all 
 the highest enjoyments, employments, pursuits, 
 and advantages of the heavenly life. 
 
 This change so marvelous may be likened to 
 the regeneration of our souls. The substance is 
 not changed, the identity and sameness not de- 
 stroyed, but a wonderful transformation has taken 
 place in the conditions, relations, appetencies of 
 the soul. The man is the same, and yet a new 
 man; old things are passed away, and behold, all 
 things are become new. This change which comes 
 over the body may be likened to that which comes 
 over the earth when the deadness and coldness of 
 winter give way to the life, beauty, and warmth 
 of spring; it seems a different world, so changed 
 from glory to glory, and yet it is the same, but we 
 
124* THE INEFFABLE GLORY - 
 
 see what God can work. The same God who 
 works such regenerating wonders in the soul, such 
 natural wonders in the transforming spring — this 
 same God shall awake these dead bodies from 
 the sleep and wreck of the grave and regenerate 
 them into glories far more abiding and sublime 
 than these which mark the changing spring. 
 Amen ! So let it be ! 
 
 We have no adequate idea of the change; 
 imagination has scarcely a foundation on which 
 to build, fancy must not be indulged. Our ordi- 
 nary language and conceptions are tame and 
 cannot rise to the height of this mysterious and 
 thrilling fact. The Bible gives us the model and 
 some outlines. The model is the glorious body of 
 Christ. The model we have never seen. Its 
 picture was shown to us on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, but we are blinded and stupefied by its 
 glory. The outlines of this great change which 
 is to come upon our bodies is given us in the 
 fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. We there 
 learn that the change will make it a powerful 
 body, not in the enlargement of size, but in the 
 elements of force, endurance, energy. It will have 
 neither inherent nor acquired tendency to decay; 
 its vigor will be unimpaired, its energy never re- 
 laxed. Corruption will put on incorruption. 
 Death will be swallowed up in life. Dimness, 
 dishonor, shame will be changed to glory. The 
 change will be from a natural, earthly body to a 
 
PLEDGE AND SYMBOL 125 
 
 spiritual, heavenly one. The body, so the Bible 
 teaches us, will come out of the grave changed 
 into immortal strength, never to know weariness, 
 weakness, tears, decay, death, ready for the differ- 
 ent and higher uses of the heavenly life. 
 
 The change will not be by stages or progres- 
 sions — no evolution in it — but in a moment, in 
 the twinkling of an eye, when the last trump shall 
 sound. The change will be by the immediate 
 power of God, distinct from the resurrection in 
 fact and act, but scarcely in time. This is our 
 faith : the resurrection of the body by the power 
 of God. We live in this faith; we bury our dead 
 by the light of this hope; shall fall asleep our- 
 selves with this blissful hope as our winding shee*. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THIS CHANGED BODY WILL NEVER KNOW WEAK- 
 NESS, TEARS OR DECAY 
 
 We are informed that both Moses and Elijah appeared 
 also in glory! — a glory somewhat similar •, we may suppose, 
 though jar inferior, to that with which Christ was iitr 
 vested, hike him, they were probably clothed in raiment 
 of unusual whiteness and splendor; and the form of their 
 countenances might also be changed to something brighter 
 and more illustrious. Now this would be a just represen- 
 tation of the glorified state of saints in heaven. Par- 
 ticular attestation was given on the mount to two of its 
 principal doctrines: a general resurrection and a day of 
 retribution. — Bishop Porteus. 
 
 The change will not be in material substance 
 nor shape. Christ was of the same form, shape, 
 and substance after his resurrection as before, 
 but refined, glorified. The marvelous change is 
 based simply on the power of God, who, out of 
 the same substance and material, can make so 
 many diverse things. Many most serious, perni- 
 cious errors have had their origin in the failure 
 to discriminate between the two — the resurrection 
 of the body and its miraculous change. The 
 error among some Corinthians about the doctrine 
 
 126 
 
NO WEAKNESS, TEARS, DECAY 127 
 
 of the resurrection seems to be the modern idea 
 that this body, earthly, dull, low, and fleshly in its 
 nature and appetencies, was thereby unfitted for 
 the heavenly life, and would not be raised. The 
 Bible comes in and says it will be changed and 
 refined in substance — not new, but changed to 
 meet changed conditions. The husband builds a 
 house ample and well fitted to his uses when first 
 married, family small; but when the family en- 
 larges and conditions change, with ample means 
 he does not build a new house, but out of the sub- 
 stance and material of the old he changes his 
 home. 
 
 Paul avers God's ability to change the body by 
 referring to nature in seed-sowing. The farmer 
 in his wheat sows a bare grain; God is able to 
 take that grain of wheat and so alter it that it 
 comes out in a blade and stalk — the body that 
 God chooses to give it. Then God takes the sub- 
 stance — flesh, mere flesh — and he changes some 
 of it into the highest order of flesh, flesh of men; 
 then he changes the same substance into a coarser 
 fabric, flesh of beasts, another flesh of fishes, and 
 another part he fashions flesh of birds — showing 
 God's power to endlessly diversify the same sub- 
 stance. Then God's ability extends to make out 
 of the same material heavenly bodies for heavenly 
 uses, and earthly bodies for earthly uses. Not 
 only does God's illimitable power extend to di- 
 versifying the same flesh into various kinds, not 
 
128 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 only does his power enable him to make out of 
 the same substance bodies for low earthly uses 
 and also for high heavenly uses ; but the power by 
 which he can diversify and make the same sub- 
 stance diverse in its glory, like the sun, moon, and 
 stars, all the same in substance and form but 
 different in glory by God's power. So the argu- 
 ment that God can change the elements and ma- 
 terial of this body make it all glorious. So he re- 
 plies to the heterodox Corinthian who in the spirit 
 of unfaith asked: "How are the dead raised 
 up? and with what body do they come?" Raised 
 up, says Paul, by the power of God, and changed, 
 says Paul, to fit the demands of the resurrection 
 life. 
 
 We have the distinct and luminous statement 
 in Philippians : "For our citizenship is in heaven ; 
 from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ : who shall fashion anew the body of 
 our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the 
 body of his glory, according to the working where- 
 by he is able even to subject all things unto him- 
 self." 
 
 The time of the change will be at the second 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. "For the Lord 
 himself shall descend from heaven, with the voice 
 of the archangel and with the trump of God: and 
 the dead in Christ shall rise first." And he (the 
 Lord Jesus Christ) will fashion anew this body 
 of our humiliation — the old body. The pattern 
 
NO WEAKNESS, TEARS, DECAY 129 
 
 of new fashioning of our bodies will be his own 
 glorious body, nothing higher, nothing richer, 
 nothing diviner, nothing more beautiful than the 
 glorified body of Jesus. We have in the trans- 
 figuration of Jesus a glance at his glorious body. 
 As Trench says: "The transfiguration has ever 
 been contemplated in the Church as a prophecy 
 of the glory which the saints shall have in the 
 resurrection. As was the body of Christ on the 
 mount, so hereafter shall their bodies be. In pas- 
 sages out of number we have hints of the luminous 
 character of the future glorified bodies of the 
 redeemed. All these scriptures pointing to the 
 glorious conformity of their bodies then, with all 
 which his body at this time was, who now showed 
 in himself as the first fruits of the new creation 
 what hereafter he would show in all them that 
 were his." How luminous his body the night of 
 the transfiguration ! They describe it : "His face 
 did shine as the sun, his garments became white 
 as the light." "His garments became glistering, 
 exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can 
 whiten them." "And as he was praying, the 
 fashion of his countenance was altered, and his 
 raiment became white and dazzling." Glory was 
 there! Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. 
 
 The pattern after which our resurrection will 
 be found is the glorified body of Christ. This is 
 not only hinted at, but distinctly asserted in the 
 Bible: "And so it is written, The first man, 
 
130 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was 
 made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not 
 first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; 
 and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first 
 man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is 
 the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such 
 are they also that are earthy; and as is the heav- 
 enly, such are they also that are heavenly. And 
 as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
 shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 AND AS WE HAVE BORNE THE IMAGE OF THE 
 
 EARTHY, WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE 
 
 IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY 
 
 How shall dust and ashes hope to ascend into the heaven 
 of heavens if it cannot feel with alt the fullness of con- 
 viction that One who was bone of our bone and flesh of 
 our flesh has entered those realms before us and has taken 
 up our very nature glorified and beautified to the right 
 hand of the Everlasting Father? — Bishop Ellicott. 
 
 The Bible declares that these bodies are to be 
 changed, not other bodies made or developed; 
 but these vile bodies, the earthly bodies which 
 belonged to us, the bodies of our humiliation, 
 shame, and weakness, are to be changed and fash- 
 ioned into the form of Christ's glorious body. 
 It was Christ's same body, the body pierced and 
 dead on the cross, the body which slept in Joseph's 
 tomb that was made glorious. So it is to be our 
 same body — the body which had suffered the 
 humiliation — that is to share the glory. It is to 
 be accomplished by his divine power, and at his 
 second coming. 
 
 This change will follow, in point of time, im- 
 
 131 
 
132 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 mediately after the resurrection. The change will 
 not be secured by the gracious effects of the genial 
 clime nor advanced by the slow stages of progress. 
 It will be instantaneous, the immediate act of 
 God's creative and regenerating power. 
 
 This will be the hour of our final triumph; the 
 last enemy, Death, will be destroyed, and no 
 traces of the ravages of death nor the ruin of sin 
 will be left. Then we will have proof of the cor- 
 rectness of the apostle's figuring and its results: 
 "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present 
 time are not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory which shall be revealed in us." 
 
 Then will be realized the transmuting power 
 of God — how the dull and dreary things of this 
 life can be changed to jeweled brightness; how its 
 light afflictions, which pressed so wearily and 
 heavily upon us, have been working for us a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 
 Then we shall not see through this earthy glass 
 darkly, but face to face, with full and unveiled 
 vision; then, in the fullness of knowledge as well 
 as light, we shall know even as we are known. 
 Then we will realize how here, even with the high- 
 est spiritual vision, eye did not see, nor ear hear, 
 neither did it enter into the heart of man to con- 
 ceive of things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love him. 
 
 These are the two glorious facts awaiting these 
 bodies — *hese bodies broken and imprisoned even 
 
IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY 133 
 
 in this life and humbled into death and dust. 
 They are to be raised from the dead, the long 
 sleep of death is to be broken by the power of 
 God when the archangel's trump shall sound; but 
 it also teaches that the body thus raised shall 
 undergo a change to fit it for its glorious resur- 
 rection life. Paul declares to us that this change 
 shall consist of several particulars, which shall 
 distinguish it from and contrast it with the pres- 
 ent body, described by him thus : "It is sown in 
 corruption ; it is raised in incorruption." Changed 
 from corruption to incorruption. Our bodies now 
 are wasted, wasted by sickness, wasted by age, 
 wasted by care, wasted by toil. All, everything, 
 mark it as corruptible — its beauty fades, its 
 strength decays, its life grows feeble and feebler. 
 Our heavenly bodies will not be subject to decay 
 nor to the weakness of age; they will not be the 
 heirs of sickness or death; by them 
 
 "Sickness and sorrow, pain and death 
 Will be felt and feared no more.*' 
 
 Sorrow and the labors of this earthly life break 
 and mar the force of this body and it wastes away. 
 Our resurrection body will not be affected by any 
 of these. 
 
 "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." 
 Dishonor, ignominy, disgrace, the grave, the dirt, 
 the rottenness. We bury our dead out of our 
 
134 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 sight, dishonored, lost to sight, surrendered to 
 darkness, loneliness, silence, to rottenness, worms, 
 and to earth, to ashes, to dust. 
 
 These bodies are dim and dishonored things, 
 bodies of humiliation, shame, and suffering; they 
 arrest the full flow of joy and check the rapture 
 of the immortal spirit. The transformation which 
 they will undergo will make them glorious, shining 
 with a splendor which outvies the sun. Doubtless 
 they will be luminous and attractive, shapely with 
 symmetry and perfect in form, lustrous with an 
 immortal life, radiant with its deathless charms. 
 
 Do we overstate the change: Raised in glory? 
 Glory, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dig- 
 nity, grace, splendor, brightness — these all, each, 
 are in it. Christ said of them : u They shall shine 
 forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 
 "They- that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament; and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars forever and ever." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 OUR BODIES CHANGED INSTANTANEOUSLY AT 
 SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 
 
 / rejoice in the glory to be revealed, for it is no un- 
 certain glory we look for. Our hope is not hung upon 
 such an untwisted thread as I imagine so, or it is likely, 
 but the cable of the strong tow of our fastened anchor is 
 the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our 
 salvation is fastened with God's own hand, with Christ's 
 own strength, to the strong strap of God's unchangeable 
 nature. 
 
 Let us be ballasted with grace that we be not blown 
 over and that we stagger not. I never believed till now 
 that there was so much to be found in Christ on this 
 side of death and heaven. How sweet, how sweet is our 
 investment! — Samuel Rutherford. 
 
 "It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power." 
 Our bodies in their present form are feeble. Their 
 history is sown in weakness, frailty is the essential 
 quality, their greatest vigor is dashed in a mo- 
 ment's disease, its manliest strength goes down to 
 childish feebleness in a day and sinks helpless and 
 nerveless into the grave — born to weakness, as 
 well as to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward. The 
 resurrection change will be into power. Energy 
 
 135 
 
136 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 will be one of its predominant features then, as 
 weakness is now — energy, deathless energy; en- 
 ergy unimpaired by labor, by clime, by sickness, 
 or death; energy without restraint or diminution, 
 energy tireless in its pursuits. Exhaustless in its 
 flow of life and spirits, it will need no rest to 
 repair, no sleep to refresh, no recreation to re- 
 cover waste; it will feel no faintness nor fatigue 
 by the strongest pressure, severest tension, and 
 most engaging employments. They will serve 
 God day and night, as the outflow of a vigor which 
 is sustained without pain or weariness through all 
 the midday hours of that nightless land. 
 
 Weariness, weakness, waste are here. The 
 heavenly bodies will be strength unabated, vigor 
 unworn, life unweakened; no age to its youth, no 
 sickness to its health, no fatigue to its toil, no 
 night to its day. Energy unabated, power un- 
 limited, strength unimpaired, vigor unweakened — 
 these will characterize our heavenly bodies. 
 
 "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spir- 
 itual body." Natural, our present bodies are 
 akin to the brutes and in common with them — 
 subject to appetite and passion, not actuated by 
 the higher part of our being. The spiritual body 
 will be lifted above appetite, passion, fitted for the 
 uses and as the vehicle of the immortal part of 
 man which is akin to God, and all its being, uses, 
 and employment must be after God's high and 
 heavenly designs. These bodies of ours in their 
 
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 137 
 
 present form are natural bodies, fitted for our 
 present uses, but low and fleshly in their tastes and 
 tendencies. They are but dragged unwillingly 
 into the regions of the spiritual and heavenly; they 
 are truly of the earth earthy — "vile bodies" they 
 are called in the Epistle to the Philippians. The 
 change will fit them for heavenly and spiritual 
 uses; they will be the fitting agents for the 
 changed, high, happy sphere into which the resur- 
 rection life has introduced them. The fittest 
 organs they will be for heavenly activities and 
 heavenly engagements. These earthborn and 
 earth-habituated bodies translated to heaven with- 
 out change would be unfit for the engagements 
 of that world, bewildered by its brightness, ap- 
 palled by its sleepless labors. Smitten and over- 
 powered by its ecstatic visions, they could not bear 
 the strain of that life; they could not engage in 
 its worship nor meet the duties of one hour of 
 heavenly demands. Its change will fit it for the 
 exchange of weakness for strength, sickness for 
 health, life for death, and mortality for immor- 
 tality, earth for heaven. 
 
 The apostle begins this fifteenth chapter of 
 First Corinthians to refute errors about the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection, but carries it on by put- 
 ting the doctrine in its true and sublime attitude, 
 and closes with a lofty and triumphant strain: 
 "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual 
 body. So also it is written, The first man, Adam, 
 
138 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 became a living soul. The last Adam became a 
 life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which 
 is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that 
 which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, 
 earthy: the second man is of heaven. As is the 
 earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as 
 is the heavenly, such are they also that are heav- 
 enly. And as we have borne the image of the 
 earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heav- 
 enly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and 
 blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither 
 doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I 
 tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we 
 shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 
 sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
 and we shall be changed. For this corruptible 
 must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
 put on immortality. But when this corruptible 
 shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal 
 shall have put on immortality, then shall come to 
 pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed 
 up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O 
 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death 
 is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks 
 be to God, which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always 
 abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 
 
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 139 
 
 as ye know that your labor is not vain in the 
 Lord." 
 
 Here the apostle includes in this great change 
 those who are living when Christ shall come. 
 Though they do not die, they will be changed — 
 that is, those who are Christ's. In a moment, 
 quicker than thought, the work will be wrought; 
 the change not in substance but in quality. At 
 that time, the bodies of the dead in every particle 
 rescued from the grave and changed to incorrup- 
 tion, the triumph will be complete. Then, and 
 not till then, our rapturous and victorious song 
 will be sung, and the prophecy fulfilled. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 WEARINESS, WASTE, WEAKNESS HERE DEATH- 
 LESS ENERGY THERE 
 
 Figuratively speaking, when Christ slipped down from 
 the cross j He descended first "into the lower parts of 
 the earth" and came into the kingdom of death. With 
 one stroke of His mighty sword He cut away the turrets 
 and foundations of death's temple. With another sweep 
 of that terrible scimetar He broke death's scepter ', smashed 
 his crown, captured his keys, then plunging through the 
 ashes of damnation and lunging on the gates of hell, tore 
 them from their sockets, cutting the bars of iron in pieces 
 and ascending the throne of his imperial majesty the devil, 
 He hurled him into the burning marl and sulphurous flame, 
 then placing His right foot upon the neck of the devil and 
 His left upon the jaws of death, He lifted his hand to 
 heaven and shouted through the gloom of eternal night 
 "I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold I am 
 alive forevermore and have the keys of death and hell." 
 And in a moment more with Satan chained to one 
 chariot wheel and death to the other, He drove up the 
 steeps of Hades leading captivity captive while heaven s 
 hosts peering over the battlemented walls of jasper 
 shouted in raptured choruses, "He hath prevailed, He hath 
 prevailed; He shall not fail, He shall not fail!' Emerging 
 at a point called Joseph's Tomb and remaining forty days 
 with his friends He after this ascended into heaven "from 
 whence we look for the Saviour: the Lord Jesus Christ: 
 who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned 
 
 140 
 
DEATHLESS ENERGY THERE 141 
 
 like unto His glorious body, according to the working 
 whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." 
 
 — Rev. Homer W. Hodge. 
 
 The future of man will be divinely glorious 
 and divinely illustrious. He is to share the place 
 of Jesus, where Jesus and his followers are to be. 
 This is the specific teaching of Jesus. "I go to 
 prepare a place for you," said Jesus; "and if I 
 go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and 
 will receive you unto myself; that where I am, 
 there ye may be also!' In his sacerdotal prayer 
 Jesus said: "Father, that which thou hast given 
 me, I will that, where I am, they also may be with 
 me; that they may behold my glory, which thou 
 hast given me." The statement in the Apocalypse 
 is very exalted, very strong, and very clear: "He 
 that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down 
 with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat 
 down with my Father in his throne." 
 
 Jesus must have the place of greatest dignity, 
 of highest honor in the universe. God has 
 awarded this to him without question or limita- 
 tion — a name above every name, a place above 
 every place. Jesus calls it paradise, a place of 
 ineffable beauty, God-adorned and exuberant in 
 its divine embellishments — untold beauty to fas- 
 cinate the eye and ravish and intoxicate the heart. 
 The divine word is that Jesus will shepherd all 
 the blessed flock of that thrice-blessed land. With 
 them Jesus will be, and for them Jesus will be. 
 
142 THE INEFFABLE GLORY 
 
 The honor, dignity, power, and glory bestowed 
 on him will be theirs. They are joint heirs with 
 him of all God's most generous inheritance. Rich 
 indeed, surpassing rich, shall be the saints in that 
 large, exhaustless, immortal store. 
 
 "I am fully persuaded of this as of a most 
 necessary and infallible truth: that as it is ap- 
 pointed unto all men once to die, so it is de- 
 termined that all men shall rise from death, that 
 the souls separated from our bodies are in the 
 hands of God and live, that the bodies dissolved 
 into dust or scattered into ashes shall be recol- 
 lected in themselves and reunited to their souls, 
 that the same flesh which lived before shall be 
 revived, that the same numerical bodies which 
 did fall shall rise, that this resuscitation shall be 
 universal, no man excepted, no flesh left in the 
 grave, that all the just shall be raised to a resur- 
 rection of life, and all the unjust to a resurrection 
 of damnation; that this shall be performed at the 
 last day when the trump shall sound, and this I 
 believe the resurrection of the body." 
 
 With what acclamations with saints, rising 
 from the dead, applaud the Redeemer! How will 
 the heaven of heavens resound his praises for- 
 ever! "Thanks be to God" will be the burden of 
 their song; and angels will join in the chorus and 
 declare their consent with a loud Amen ! Halle- 
 lujah! 
 
 THE END 
 
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