The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-18


they thought, go to the under world
and live there in naked or disem-
bodied condition,-sort of fitting
ghosts. At the best, life in hades,
whittier all go at death, is, they held,
far below the life on earth. Hence
death is a going down, not merely in
space, but in all the possibilities of
life. This was the doctrine of i'm.
mortality as held by the Greeks and
also by the Jews, for in the Saviour's
time their thought had come pretty
much to coincide with that of the
Greeks" only they held to a resurrec-
ton to mortality at the coming of the
Messiah. When he should come
then all good Israelites would be
raised to life again and live with him
in millennial glory here upon earth.
Now the Christian doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead is neither
the Greek doctrine of Immortality nor
the Hebrew doctrine of a resurrec-
ton to mortality. BY the dead,
''ton nekro,a" is not meant dead bod
les but those who have passed out of
the mortal body and are not now liv-
ing in that body. AS the living
means those who are yet in the flesh,
so the dead means those who are out
of the flesh. Resurrection, "anasta-
sis" does not mean rising again, or
termination of any kind, but rising
up; ascent. Hence the resurrection
of the dead means, the ascent of the
dead, their going up in all the posi-
bilities of life. The future life is a
higher life and at death we rise int
or ascend into that life; we rise out
of the material into the spiritual en-
vironment.
Now the visible ascent of Jesus
was a demonstration in symbol of
this law of the resurrection. 1t was
the showing forth of this law by Sin
fallible signs" Mathematics is a
symbolic science. We do not deal
with the realities, but with figures
that represent the realities. We do
not measure the distance of the stars
with yard stick; we figure out that
distance. So Jesus Figured" out the
law of the resurrection. He could
not show that law to mortal eyes, so
he demonstrated it in symbol.
He used his mortal body to show
to the eyes of his disciples the pro-
cess of the resurrection, to unfold the
law of the ascent of the dead. AS we
use mathematical symbols to solve
the problem of the distance of the
stars, so Jesus used his mortal body
to solve the problem, not only of the
reality of the after-death life, but of
its character and way of attainment.
He gave transitional revelation of
the rising process.
In the use of his body he gave an
object lesson in which was prefigured
the law of the resurrection of the
dead. He showed how the dead rise
When the disciples, therefore, stood
looking up into heaven after that
vanishing form there began the great
est revolution of thought concerning
the dead the world ever saw. Pre-
vious to that time death was going
down and becoming less; since that
time death is going up and becoming
more. Until Jesus rose from the
dead, death was descent in all the
possibilities of life; since that time it
is an ascent in all the possibilities of
life. The resurrection of Jesus turned
the eyes of the world upward, caused
men to look up and not down for
their dead. OF course this revolution
in thought came slowly. At first this
ascent was accorded only to the mar
tyrs. Those who lost their lives in
the cause of Christ escaped hades
and assembled to the higher life.
Then it was held that all Christians
went up and not down at death, and
now in these last days it is beginning
to dawn upon the Christian world
that death is ascent for all the dead;
that all mankind at death rise into
larger, fuller, freer life and go on
unto perfection They are coming to
see that the resurrection of the dead is
the rising of all the dead in incorrup-
ton, glory and power, even into a
spiritual body and spiritual world.
The resurrection of Jesus, there
fore, has vast significance. It is of
the very heart and core of the Gospel.
1t is the cornerstone of the faith, the
revelation of immortality and the
demonstration of the resurrection of
the dead. To give it up is to under
mine the faith, becloud the immortal
hope and turn the eyes of the world
back into hades. Whoever does that
will sooner or later turn his Christi
anity from revelation into philoso-
phy or human speculation, and his