The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-25


Body of the savior Which Appeared
TO the Disciples and Assembled to
Heaven.
From the New York Tribune
Rev. DR.. r. Heber Newton yesterday
morning at All Souls Episcopal Church.
In Madison avenue. preached a sermon
that Is likely to arouse much controversy
and comment. The resurrection of the
body OF Jesus Christ has been always one
Of the canons Of belief in the Christian
Church. but DR.. Newton yesterday sought
TO prove the unsubstantiality of this ac-
cepted belief. and to show that it was the
spiritual and not the physical body of
Christ which ascendcd to heaven. He
spoke with great earnestness through
out. During the service he announced
that he would preach upon the same topic
again next Sunday morning. and would
refer to the grounds upon which he based
his belief.
DR.. Newton took his text from the third
verse of the chapter Of the Acts of the
Apostles: ITO whom also he showed him
self alive after his passion, by many infal-
lible proofs" lie spoke in part as fol-
lows:
In the charming letters Of Edwin Booth
there is one written in the year 1868, some
three weeks after the death of his young
wife. which gives a pathetic account of
his loneliness and sorrow and of his long
ing for some communication with her. 1t
reads: I lie awake at night and look for
her in the darkness. l hold my breath and
listen, and sometimes fancy / can feel
her speak away in somewhere-in my
soul, perhaps, for | know if IL is possible
for her to come back, she will come to me
some night. She is in heaven, and l must
live to meet her there. l known all this
at least, as well as they know 1t; but
do need some sign from her, some little
breath Of wind, nothing more, bringing
comforting words from her /, who have
ever laughed at such things, now feel
mystihed and half believe that such things
may De. II Mary should come to me, l
feel that my soul would become purified.
l shall no longer have doubts
That expression from our greatest ira
gedian expresses one Of the deepest de-
sires of the human heart-the intense
longing for some appearance from the
spirit realm, certifying TO US that our dear
dead live and that they can communicate
with us, and a desire that from the dark
ness of the shadow of death there shall
come some ray Of light in which we shan
see the form of our beloved and know that
the dead are not always far from us,
that they may commune with US, and we
with them. ] believe that the story of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ gives the one
historic satisfaction to this longing of the
human heart. / believe that 1t was meant
to be the historic attestation that the dead
are not dead, that they can reappear
ana commune with us. | have not always
seen my way honestly to believe this.
have had my doubts, as you have had
They have given place to a strong convic-
ton into which ! would help you. Let
me in the first place make clear what 1
understand by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, and then next Sun
day, as frankly as l shall speak to-day, 1
VIII endeaVor TO show you why believe
ii.
What are we to understand by the resur-
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead?
What the church understands is plain.
Without doubt, the general belief is that
there was a physical resurre0tion--a ris-
ing from the tomb OF the very body of
flesh and bones which was laid away
there after the crucifiXion. / have held to
It's belief as long as possible, but no super
structure cam forget its foundations, and
my reasons for rejecting this belief pro-
pose TO tell you. We know now from
our fuller knowledge of the times of Jesus
Christ that the people and His disciples
themselves believed not only i'll immortal
lily, but IN an actual physical reSuTTec-
ton. l cannot accept the testimony of
the disciples. And there is the fact that
no one saw Him In the act of rising from
the tomb and passing forth in the same
identical form of His earthly body. Some
Will ask me what then became of his
body. But l am too reVerent to speculate
about what became of that sacred tenn
pie of the Divine Spirit. 1 leave all such
trreverent speculations to higher eccles-
iastical authorities.
The language of the records, it is said
implicitly implies the resurrection of
Christs physical body. Thomas, you will
recall, refused to believe the testimony Of
the other disciples without proof. The
Thomas. This is conclusive, apparently
but we must remember the possibility
of Thomas misunderstanding whatever
words We're spoken in slch a moment,
and of his misreporting them. The mo-
ment the idea of absolutely infallible rec
ord Is abandoned we can s---Longer pin
our faith TO any mere statement thar
stands by itself and that is contradictei
by the general tenor of the records. Over
against any such language there is such
a general tenor of the description of the
appearance of Jesus Those descrintionS
are of a body wholly differing in its DOW
ers from the body which we now know
at Will. They cannot pass through closed
doors There is evidently here nantes
tation of an existence on an entirely diff
ferent plane from that on which we are
now living. AS we shall see hereafter
these descripti ons correspond exactly to
what we learn from all mystic experiences
OF the new life, in which the spiritual
body is the only body.
Moreover, concerning the apparent ply
steal nature of the organization of the
risen Jesus, 1t must be remembered that
that the spirits of the dead can at times
manifest themselves in what are to us
material forms. visible, audible and tansi-
Bile. Yet further, If 1t were granted that
Jesus arose in His actual physical body,
another equally marvellous experience
must be assumed to follow this. No one
believes that He entered into the higher
life which we call heaven in the mystical
body. Some time or other, after what
we call the resurrection, that physical
body was dropped, and in His spiritual
body Jesus Christ passed into the heaven
ly sphere. Now, to assume thus, double
marvel is wholly gratuitious, and need
lessly burdensome to our faith.
Yet, again, If Jesus arose in His physical
body, there is no illustration in His resur-
rection of the change that is to pass over
US in our resurrection. Our resurrection
IS not to be a rising up from the grave
of the ody of flesh and bones laid away
there. That is clear. 1t is clear from
Pauls positive statement that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
IL as clear from the manifest impossible
1ty, according to all known laws, that
the physical body shall be reconstructed
as the house of the spirit in the future
life. Nature in discarding outworn bodies
does not go back and pick them up again.
The constituent elements in our bodies
as they crumble into dust go to form the
materials of other organizations. II is
needless to enlarge on this point Most
thoughtful people are at one here Now
If Jesus arose from the dead in His physi-
csl body, it is not as the first fruits of
cTo he Of