incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible 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 THESS. iv. 13, 14. 15, 16, 17.

But I would not have you 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 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.

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious hody, according to the working whereby he is able even to snbdue all things unto himself.

IN these passages of the divine testimony, we have the idea clearly expressed, that there will be a resurrection from the dead. Of this we have a physical evidence in the example of our divine Head. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." This evidence is additional to that dictate of inspiration, which affirms the doctrine to be true. Respecting

the reality of the fact, therefore, however wonderful and mysterious, there can be no doubt in the mind of any person who believes in revelation. But respecting the process and manner of the resurrection; the form and power of the bodies, and the moral situation to which it first introduces them, our ideas may be very inadequate and faint. It is what our eyes have never seen. It is where our experience has never led.

The analogy of temporal things, used to prefigure it, would undoubtedly give us lively impressions of its process and nature, if we already possessed some just ideas of the operation, which, concerning it, is described. this privilege is not ours at present. Perhaps the situation of our mortal state, would not admit it.

But

Under these embarrassments we must pursue our subject, if we pursue it at all, and acquire what we can learn from the written testimony of Jesus, and his Apostles. If it were ever proper for one to introduce apologies, for undertaking to discuss a subject beyond his understanding, I might make a multitude for engaging in this; but as I conceive they could be of no valuable use to my auditors, I shall therefore omit them.

Perhaps a befter method we cannot more conveniently adopt in laboring this subject, than in seeking in the passages before us proper answers to the following questions:

1st. What are we to understand by the resurrection?

2d. Respecting the human family, is it universal?

3d. Are all raised at one time?

4th. "With what body do they come ?"

5th. Are we to consider physical operations, though exercised by divine power, ever to be made the exclusive cause of moral effects?

The best answers we can give to these questions, from scripture and the analogy of things, will, no doubt, comprise the most correct knowledge we can, at present, obtain on the subject.

By the resurrection of the dead, we are undoubtedly to understand, the renewal of the same persons to life, who had ceased to live. To suppose, in the life to come, any thing dif ferent from this, would be to account something different from the natural import of a resurrection. If a new race of intelligent beings spring to life in what we account the resurrection, distinct from the present, and not at all from the composition of the present, how could they be called the children of the resurrection, in any sense different from us, on account of our original creation? What would theirs be but an original creation as ours was? No other that we can conceive. To this subject I conclude our fourth scripture alludes, which says; "He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also, quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Second. Respecting the universality of

the resurrection, the scriptures are express. Such are 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." "And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." "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."

In the sentiment here exhibited, the christian church of all denominations is happy in being united. And in this union we find one of the most important articles of the christian faith. We hope for life beyond the grave, and in revelation we find the assurance of our hope. Brightening prospect! hopeful assurance! how cheering to the mind! how animating to the soul, that God's vast intelligent creation shall eternally live! Live,not in everlasting death, but in eternal life, in the unalterable love and holiness of the great Creator.

Third. The question now comes before us, are all mankind raised at one time? This may not be considered a question of equal importance with some others; but is worthy of examination in connexion with our subject. The scriptures before us, if they be not ex. press on the subject, certainly seem to favor the idea, that we are not to look for the resurrection of all at one period or point of time.

When Christ exhorts the rich to call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to their feasts, saying, they cannot recompense, he observes, those that call them shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. If there be but one resurrection, being recompensed at the resurrection of the just, describes nothing different from being recompensed at the resurrection, which renders the phrase, of the just, useless. This construction is not according to our Savior's diction in general. Conciseness and meaning are the usual characteristics of his style. Had he said, recompensed at the resurrection,' or 'recompensed at the resurrection of the just and unjust,' we could not have inferred but one resurrection; but when he said, 'the resurrection of the just,' it seems to imply that there would be a time, when there would be a resurrection of the just only. Although Christ's words plainly favor this idea, yet it is just to remark, they are not to be considered as absolute proof. They do not contradict a universal resurrection at one time; but the closing words of the sentence, as be fore observed, could not, in that case, convey any distinct meaning.

In our second scripture, we have an allusion, that appears equally as strong as the one we have been considering. "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage." It appears to be a natural inference