cannot be annihilated or destroyed; for the same body must return again, in the same form and shape, on the morning of the resurrec tion.

Where is the dust that has not been alive?
The spade, the plough, disturb our ancestors;
From human mould we reap our daily bread!

YOUNG,

Our chain is now ascending above our atmosphere, as was observed at page 221; consequently, we must now "walk by faith, and not by sight," We know what a dead body is by sight, and what a grave is by sight; but we know not what the resurrection of the body is, any further than we can comprehend it by faith; as is the case with many other things. For instance: I believe that my blood did, some time or other, commence its journey of circulation through all my veins and arteries, though I know not how, when, or from what cause; yet I believe it, because I now feel it running.

Just so is the resurrection. I believe that I shall come again, though I know not the process; "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 1 see God whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me." Job xix. 25-27.

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 be ever with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thess, ir, 14-18,

But some man 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 bear grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. 1 Cor. xv. 35-37.

"It may chance of wheat, or of some other grain." The bean or pea we plant in our garden is not the same bean or pea that comes again. That which we sow must die, or it will not quicken; yet it is the same, the same sort, the same flower, the same kind of pod in length and size, and it will be the same bean that was sown that will rise again. Just so with my body: It will be the same body that was sown in corruption, that will rise in incorruption; the same body that was sown in dishonour, that will rise in glory; the same body that was sown in weakness, that will rise in power; the same body that was sown a natural body, that will rise a spiritual body; all that will be left in the ground will be its corruption; envy, malice, evil speaking, evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, lies, blasphemy, hypocrisy, the love of wealth and pleasure, and sin, with all its train of disease, pain, and death.

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. For this corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; so, when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought 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? 1 Cor. xv. 50, 53-55.

If, as is commonly supposed, the earth contains, at any one given period of time, no less than four hundred millions of souls; what a congregation must all those generations make, which have succeeded each other for six thousand years!

What an immense harvest of men and women springing up from the caverns of the earth, and the depths of the sea! Stand awhile, my soul, and contemplate the wonderful spectacle!

Adam formed

in paradise, and the babe born but yesterday; the earliest ages and last generations, meet upon the same level. Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Barbarians, people of all climes and languages, unite in the promiscuous throng. Here those vast armies, which, like swarms of locusts, covered countries; which, with an irresistible sweep, over-ran empires; here they all appear, and here they are all lost-lost, like the small drop of a bucket, when plunged amidst the boundless and unfathomable ocean! O the multitudes which these eyes shall behold, when God calleth the heavens from above, and the earth, that he may judge his people!

The time draws on,

When not a single spot of burial-earth,
Whether on land, or in the spacious sea,
But must give back its long-committed dust,
Inviolate; and faithfully shall these

Make up the full account, not the least atom
Embezzled, or mislaid, of the whole tale.
Each soul shall have a body ready furnish'd,
And each shall have his own.

Hence, ye profane!

Sure the same power,

Ask not, How can this be?
That rear'd the piece at first, and took it down,
Can re-assemble the loose scatter'd parts,
And put them as they were. Almighty God
Has done much more; nor is his arm impair'd

Through length of days; and what he can, he will;
His faithfulness is bound to see it done.

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumbering dust,
Not unattentive to the call, shall wake,

And every joint possess its proper place,

With a new elegance of form, unknown

To its first state.

As the day dies into the night, so doth the summer into the 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 sepulchre; when the spring appear eth, all begin to rise; the plants and flowers peep out of their graves, revive, and grow, and flourish. This is the annual resur

rection. 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 corrupt, and being corrupted, may revive and multiply. Our bodies are fed with this constant experiment, and we continue this present life by a succession of resurrections. Thus, all things are repaired by corrupting, are preserved by perishing, and revive 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, as 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 of the principles of human nature, of the liberty and remunerability of human actions, and of natural revolutions and resurrections of other creatures, it were abundantly sufficient to render the resurrection of our bodies highly probable. Bp. Pearson.

The mechanism of the human frame, and the direction of some of its movements, contrary to the known and received laws of philosophy, sufficiently demonstrate that the architect of such a piece could effect any thing. Nothing could be argued philosophically against the doctrine, from the dissolution of the parts of the human frame. Bodies are capable of restoration, after being most completely dissolved. If you take a piece of silver, and plunge it into a vessel of aqua fortis, it will not merely dissolve, but become invisible, as sugar melting in water. When it is thus dissolved, if you pour into the vessel a little oil of tartar, or even salt water, the silver, which before was invisible, will fall to the bottom in a white powder; none of its qualities are changed, and nothing of its value diminished. It may be taken out and inelted down, and committed to the hand of an artist, and may be formed into the same piece of plate as before its solution. Thus may the body be dissolved and scattered; it may be burnt to ashes, or buried in the dust; but the power of God can restore it; and it is no greater exertion of power than was required at its formation, and is exercised in its preservation. And as the human body is always undergoing some change, and in a few weeks becomes materially altered, by the dispersion of

some of its particles in perspiration or otherwise; and in the re placing of them by nutriment received; yet no one scruples to call it the same body, and no one doubts his personal identity. So, at the resurrection of the body-its constituent parts will be sufficient to secure its identity. Dr. Collyer.

The bodies of the saints, that is, of pious and holy persons who die in the Lord, will, in the morning of the resurrection, undergo glorious change.

1. From base and ignoble, they shall be altered into bright and ethereal bodies; for that which was sown in dishonour will be raised in glory. This body of ours, by reason of sin, is abject, dishonour able, and vile. Whilst we are alive, we are liable to deformity and defilement, and after we are dead, it becomes exceeding loathsome and ghastly to the sight, and can be kept but a few days above ground. This very body shall spring from the grave, entirely free from these imperfections; it shall become a body of light, and shall shine forth with splendour, majesty, and glory, like the sun in the firmament. This mighty change shall be wrought by the imme diate power of Christ; he shall change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like his glory body.

2. From earthly and sensual bodies, they shall be transformed into spiritual and heavenly bodies; for that which is sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body. The bodies we now have are endued with carnal appetites and sensual desires; we stand in need of the gratifications of sense and appetite to a certain degree, to refresh, strengthen, and support them, and to enable us to go through the labours and employments of life, insomuch that those fleshly appetites are a clog to the spiritual operations of the soul; they retard its motions towards celestial and divine things; but our resurrection bodies shall be purified from all carnal desires; they shall need no animal food to repair them, nor sensual pleasures to refresh them; and consequently there will be found in them no temptation to sin: on the contrary, they will be so highly refined, and so gloriously exalted, that they will be assisting to the spiritual and divine life of the soul; they will help it forward in all its ever