The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-06-02
THE RESURRECTION.
THERE Is NO DEATH


There is no Death. What seems so is trans
ition;
This life of moral breath
Is but suburb of the life Elysian,
Whose portal we call death.
The temperance of JESUS after death
was demonstration to his apostles and dis
ciples that he was alive and could be and do
all that he had promised. Without that
event they could not have been prepared for
their mission. They knew that he was risen,
and they rose with him to newness OF life,
believing that because he lived they also
should live with him, whatever else should
be their fortune. Receiving from their risen
Master renewal of their apostolic commits
sion, and his baptism from on high, they
went everywhere, and as they went they
preached JESUS and the Resurrection. The
resurrection of JESUS CHRIST from the dead
was the very cornerstone of primitive Chris
tianity. 1t is, indeed, the central fact In the
history of humanity. 1t is the foundation
of the eternal hope that anchors the soul to
the future and awakens aspirations for higher
and holier living. The resurrection OF the
dead by the power of GoD manifested in His
Son JESUS CHRIST is the eternal hope of hu-
manity. "Blessed be the GoD and Father
of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, who according to
His great mercy begat us again unto living
hope by the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST
from the dead, unto an inheritance moor
ruptible and undeiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who by
the power of Cop are guarded through faith
unto salvation" Il Peter i. 81.
CHE rs RISEN."-JEsus not only revived
and reappeared after death, but arose to
higher conditions of life. Before death he
was physically conditioned; after death he
was spiritually conditioned. Though his
body was re- animated it was transformed by
the glorious spirit that inhabited it. In the
earthly condition the spirit formed for itself
a physical body; in the spiritual condition 1t
transformed the physical to the spiritual.
He manifested himself in the earthly as a
demonstration not only of our existence be-
yond death, but of the condition and quality
of it. Resurrection is more that re-anima-
ton, or even life continued. 1t is living
| above. 1t is continued life risen, or rising
M. JESUS manifested not only his immor-
| tally (deathlessness), but also the condition
| of the after-death existence. He was glori-
| fed. He was changed from the visible to
| the invisible, from the earthly to the heav-
emily, from the physical to the spiritual
During the forty days between the first and
final post norton appearances, his body
may have been transformed by the powers
of his glorified spirit. He not only mani
| tested himself; he revealed the truth concern.
| ing mans Immortality. Living and dying,
and again manifesting himself, he was moi
only the revelation of the Divine in human
| ity, he was also a revelation to humanity Of
| its own inheritance and destiny. The resur-
rection of JESUS from the dead is both the
pledge and the pattern of our own. "NoW
hath CHRIST been raised from the dead the
| first-fruits of them that are asleep" Il CORN
thians XIV. 20). The frst-fruits were the
pledge of the harvest. As truly as JEsU;
now lives by the power of GoD, will al
mankind live beyond death, and be trans
formed into his glorious image by the same
spiritual law and divine power that glorifed
him. "If we believe that JESUS died and
rose again, even 30 them also that are fallen
asleep will COP bring with him."
Living, dying, and rising from the dead il
profoundest harmony with the Divine vii
| and order, through a faith, identified witt
his inmost personal consciousness, in the In
finite One dwelling in him, and in all things
animate and inanimate, CHRIST is our fulles
revelation of Cop, and of the Divine life il
| the soul of man. W. III, Fttrness, DID.
| In CHRIST we behold resurrection in the
| spiritual body, and assumption of life in the
| world to come. This is fully demonstrated
by the facts given in the gospel record, and
this is required by the exceptional pre-emi-
nence which the New Testament accords tC
| OHRIsT's rising from the dead. But one in
stance of veritable resurrection has beer
vouchsafed to our knowledge, as sure pledge
of what is to come. This Is manifest In the
risen CHRIST, who thereby "was declared to
be the Son of COP with power" (Romans i.
| 4).-Reu, J. M. Wilton, Phi. D., "The Cos
| pei of the Resurrection"