sion makes to have been taken by Paul before Agrippa, that Christ was the first that rose from the dead, is triumphantly appealed to as proof positive that until after our Saviour's resurrection no one had ever arisen at all, that is, to an immortal life. A few facts bearing upon this point, are hereby commended to the candid consideration of all.

1. Some of the Jews in our Saviour's day seem to have held a resurrection into this mortal state, each subject thereof emerging from a land of bodiless souls, and again taking on an earthly body, to be at length relinquished at death, in like manner as he or she was supposed to have done at least once before. Witness what is related in the gospels, that John the Baptist was said to have arisen from the dead; as also, that some one of the old prophets was said to have arisen. Such supposed risings were each (supposedly) the rising of a dead person from the dead, that is, out from among them-hence, probably, the phraseology in question.

2. Scripturally, with one or two apparent exceptions, the dead in general are never said to rise from the dead. Christ arose from the dead; but the dead in general simply rise or are raised.

3. Those few persons who were raised from the dead in bible times, were all raised to mere mortal life, Jesus Christ only excepted. He, therefore, is not merely the First, but also the Last, and of course the only one, ever raised from the dead to an immortal life.

4. The scripture expression "the dead" is by no means synonimous with death, or a state of death-on the contrary, it is a plural expression, generally a personal one, and in general exactly equivalent to the phrase " those who have died."

It must be seen from the above facts, that a rising from the dead is a rising from those having died. The employment of such language by the scripture writers is to be accounted for not alone by the probable fact that such language was in common use, but in part also by the consideration that the dead in general are not seen by us after their decease, and so when a raised individual (really or supposedly raised) was seen after his decease, he was conceived ofnot as having arisen simply, or along with the dead in general, but as having arisen out from among the dead, or

separately. It would seem that the "difficulties "

passing the doctrine of the resurrection might, in many instances, be very considerably lessened by a proper attention to the above facts.

From the arguments of some (and those not illiterate persons either,) one would almost suppose that they take the Scriptures to have been written in the English tongue, yea even in the exact terms of the common version, supplied words and all. Thus in order to prove, scripturally, that Jesus Christ is the procuring cause of the resurrection for man, this text has been confidently adduced: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." But is it not apparent here, that the force of the text in proving that point, depends mainly -not to say entirely-upon the italic word "came"? Yet this, in each member of the sentence is supplied, the text literally being,-"For since through a man, the death, through a man, also, the resurrection of the dead.”

If the supplied words in the text just cited are really authoritative, we are certainly under obligation to believe, as a scripture doctrine, that Christ has truly procured immortality for us,-or, at the least, that it comes through his agency. Nor this alone. We are equally under obligation to believe that some other man has by some means rendered us mortal! If it were not for Christ, men would have no resurrection to immortality; and-strange to say-were it not for some other man, men would have been immortal on earth! But (not to press the question in relation to Christ) how was it possible for that other man to effect a radical change in the essential nature of our entire race? difficulty, in both its parts, is wholly avoided by simply considering that whether the common English version of the Scriptures is an inspired work or not, the supplied words in it make no pretensions to inspiration.

This

The apostle's idea may not have been that the death and the resurrection of mankind were caused, respectively, by two men, but simply that by or through these men were those events revealed.

It may not be amiss to state that in no text of Scripture,

except the one above cited, are those ideas put forth which the common version there makes to have been put forth by the Apostle. We read, indeed, that Christ "hath abolished death" but the remainder of the text is far from even intimating that by such abolition, man's essential nature became changed, so that we now pass from this into a mode of existence we could never have inherited had not that abolition been effected. After saying that Christ "hath abolished death," he does not add," and hath brought life and immortality into being; " but his words are, "Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light,” --that is to say, hath revealed them."

To the early Christians, death was abolished in much the same manner as was the ceremonial law to those of them who nationally were Jews. A goodly number of years before the actual passing away of the old dispensation, all that was perishable in the Mosaic system became null and void to the christian Jews-was, in effect," abolished" to them; and yet the unbelieving Jews were still as firmly bound by it as ever, they seeing not, as did the Christians, its general transitoriness, but holding it to be in all its parts perpetual. In like manner, death was always, intrinsically, just what it has been since Christ's time,-the termination of simply this mode of existence; yet it had always seemed to be what it was not,-the termination of existence itself; and it was only by the reception of the genuine doctrine of immortality, through faith in Christ, that death came to be viewed in its true light, and thus virtually abolished.

By the death of the first man that was known to have died, was clearly foreshown, in the early times, the death of mankind in general; so, also, by the rising of the first man that was known to have arisen, was afterward shown, with like clearness, the rising of all that had died, or that should thereafter die. "For since through a man, [was shown] the dying [of the alive,] through a man, also, [has been shown the rising of the dead."9

The raising of the dead and the quickening of the dead, though doubtless nearly related to each other, are nevertheless spoken of by the Saviour as separate operations,—in like manner as the making of Adam to be a living soul or 8 Eph. ii. 15; 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14. 9 Proposed rendering of 1 Cor. xv. 21.

72 Tim. i. 1.

creature, is described by Moses as the constructing of an earthly body, and the subsequent inspiring of that body with animal life: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," says Moses: "The Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them," are the words of Christ. It would thus seem that the quickening process, as connected with the future life, has a direct relation to the resurrection body-has much the same relation to it as the infusing of the breath of life into Adam had to his earthly body. Animal, earthly, mortal life appears to have been bestowed in the one case; spiritual, celestial, immortal life seems to be imparted in the other. But in like manner as the breath-inspiring process is not often adverted to in the Scriptures, it being, for the most part, taken to be included in being created,—so, also, the quickening process is seldom mentioned by the scripture writers, it being in like manner taken to be included in being raised. In a few texts, however, quickening is mentioned as inclusive of the resurrection. It is true also, that, as with the resurrection, so with the quickening process, it is frequently applied, in the Scriptures, to the subject of christian experience in this life.10

The raising of the dead is never, in all the Scriptures, ascribed to Christ; while, on the contrary, it is expressly and frequently ascribed to God. Witness the following text, with sundry others: "God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power. "9 But the quickening of the dead (in some sense) he participates in, and as an active agent, notwithstanding the fact that he himself has been the passive subject of the same process. ("Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: " literally, "in the spirit.") Thus our Lord expressly affirms that, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." And the apostle styles him "a quickening spirit." 11

The text, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," has direct reference to the quickening process. (The latter part were better rendered, "shall all be quickened.") The affirmation is not, "shall all be raised," nor is it exactly equivalent to that. But if

10 Gen. ii. 7; John v. 21; Rom. iv. 17; Eph. ii. 5; Rom. viii. 11. 11 1 Pet. iii. 18; John v. 21; 1 Cor. xv. 45.

it were, the text could not teach that all are to be raised by Christ, or even through the agency of Christ, in such manner as that we, without such action or agency on his part, should have no resurrection,-because, then, it must, of necessity, also teach the absurd idea that all die the death of the body by or through the agency of-Adam, and that were it not for his action or agency in the case, we should all of us be immortal in this life-in these bodies of flesh and blood! Nor does it (any more than it teaches this last) teach that by or through the agency of Christ, all are to be quickened.

The text in hand, as also the preceding verse, obviously recognizes some established connection between Adam and us, and between Christ and us also. What, now, is it that so connects us, if it is not the bond of a common nature? Connected thus with Adam, all die, even as Adam died; connected thus with Christ, all will be quickened even as Christ was quickened. "For even as all die [in connection with] Adam, so, also, shall all be quickened in [connection with] Christ." 12

It sometimes happens that in having to do with the scripture testimony concerning the resurrection, very little regard, if any, is had to the palpable fact that the words rise, raise, &c., in the Scriptures, are not always employed in the same sense. It may not, indeed, be denied that those terms have some diversity of application; but then it is quietly assumed that in the texts cited, just that sense of the terms is actually present which it is indispensably necessary should be present in order to prove the point then in hand. The following example of Shaker-like logic may serve to illustrate this very convenient method of proving a proposition:

"Marriage is of anti-Christ. All true Christians are actual subjects of the resurrection; and the children of the resurrection' enter not into matrimonial relations. The scripture writers aver and exhort, We know that we have passed from death unto life.' God. . . . hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.' Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him.' If ye then be risen with Christ, seek 12 Proposed rendering of 1 Cor. xv. 22.