The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1869-06-10
What is a Heavenly Body?

What is a Heavenly Body?
The following is an. extract from
"The Gates Ajar," by E. Stuart
Phelps:
I asked Aunt Winifred, in some
perplexity, what she supposed our
bodies would be like2 -..
SIT must be nearly all suppose
she said, 'for we are nowhere definite
ly told. But this is certain. They
will be as real as these"
"B1t these, you see, you can
touch"
"What would be the use of having
body that you can't see and touch?
A body is body, not a spirit. Why
should you not, having seen Roy's old
smile, and heard his own voice, clasp
his hand again, and feel the kiss on
your happy lips2
"It is really amusing" she eontin-
uod, "to sum up the notions that good
peOple-excellent people-even think
ing people-have of the heavenly
body. Vague visions of floating about
in the clouds, of balancing-with a
white robe on, perhaps-in stiff rows
about throne, like the angels in the
old pictures, cOnverging to an apex,
or ranged in semi-circles like so
many marbles. Murillo has one
charming exception. l always take
a secret delight in that little cherub
of his, kicking the clouds, in the
right-hand upper corner of the I'M
maculate Conception; he seems to be
having good time of it, in genuine
baby-fashion. The truth is, that the
ordinary idea, if sifted accurately, re-
duces our eternal personality to
gas. H
"Isaac Taylor holds, that as far as
the abstract idea of spirit is concern
ed, it may just as reasonably be gran
ite as ether.
"Mrs. Charles says pretty thing
about this. She thinks these 'super-
spiritualized angels" very "unsatisfac-
tory" beings, and that the heart returns
with loving obstinacy to the "young
men in long white garments" who
sat waiting in the sepulchre.
"Here again ] cling to my conjec-
ture about the word "angel;" for then
we should learn emphatically some
thing about our future selves.
"sAs the angels in heaven or
''equal unto angels" we are told in
another place-that may mean sim
ply what it says. At least, if we are
to resemble them in the particular
respect of which the words were spok-
en-and that one of the most impor-
tant which could well be selected-it
is not unreasonable to infer that we
shall resemble them in others. "In
the resurrection" by the way, means,
in that connection and in many 9TH
ers, simply future state of existence,
without any reference to the time at
which the great bodily change is to
come. ....
" "'But this is DEPRESSION, as the
noYelists say. I was going to say,
that it bewilders me to conjecture
where students of the Bible have dis
covered the usual foggy nonsense
about the eorporeity of heaven.
"If there is anything laid down in
plain statement, devoid of metaphor
or parable, simple and unequivocal, ii
is the definite contradiction of all that.
Paul, in the preface to that sublime
apostrophe to death, repeats and reit-
crates it. lest we should make a mis-
take in bis meaning.
"'There are celestial bodies 'It
is raised a spiritual body" "There
is a spiritual body" at is raised in
interruption" at is raised in glory"
1T is raised in power" Moses, too,
when he came to the transfgured
mount in glory, had as real a body as
when he went into the lonely mount
to de-"
"But they will be different from
these?"
"The glory of the terrestrial is one,
the glory of the celestial another
Take away sin and sickness and mis-
cry, and that of itself would make
difference enough"
"You do not suppose that we shall
look as we look now?"
81 certainly do. At least, I think
it more than possible that the "human
form divine" or something like it, is
to be retained. Not only from the
fact that risen Elijah bore it, and
Moses, who, If he had not passed
through his resurrection, does not
seem to have looked different from
the other,-I have to use these two
poor prophets on all occasions, but, as
we are told of them neither by para
bic nor picture, they are important
and that angels never appeared in any
other, but because, in sinl IS Eden,
God chose it for Adam and Eve. What
came in unmarried beauty direct from
His hand can not be unworthy of His
other Paradise ''beyond the stars" It
would chime in pleasantly, too, with
the idea of redemption, that our very
bodies, free from all the distortions of
guilt, shall return to something akin
to the pure ideal in which he mould
ed them. Then there is another rea-
son, and stronger"
"What is that?'
"The human form has been borne
and dignifed forever by Christ. And,
further than that, He assembled to His
Father in it, and lives there in it as
human God to-day"
The Commissioners of Hamilton,
Warren and CIermont counties have
agreed to build bridge over the Lit