The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-04-17


and luminous treatment of the subject as
far as the argument extends -EDIToR.
'1t is sown natural body, it is raised
a spiritual body. 81 Cor. XIV. "A.
N7HAT is raised? How could
w the Apostle have used the
language above quoted, if the body
that is buried is not raised,-if at
least, as in the case of the seed that
is sown, some element of the buried
body is not the germ of a body that
is to rise from the grave?
This question betrays two miscon-
ceptions.
l. The first of these is con-
founding of two things utterly differ
ent,-the dead person and the dead
body. The dead person is raised;
the dead body is not raised. This dis
tinction between the person and his
body is clearly recognized by the in
quirer, whose question about the kind
of body to be expected in the resur-
rection the Apostle is here answering.
"With what body do THEY come"
It is distinction that has been be-
fore the world, at least ever since
Socrates, in speaking of his own flu
neral, said to his friends, "You may
bury me if you can catch me-"
1t is true the analogy of the seed,
which the Apostle employs for illus
tration, directly suggests the survi-
val in the spiritual body" of some
element that was present in the "nat-
ural body" But it is begging the
question to assume that this surviv-
ing element is of the body, as we'll as
n it. If Paul was thinking at all
(Which is uncertain) of an element in
the seed that passes over into the new
body to which the terminating seed
gives place, we can hardly question
that he recognized the analogous
element that passes from our present
body to our future body, as the
spirit, which is in the body but not
of it. Not to notice such proba
bility as this were to exhibit an OBJ
tuseness like that which Paul re-
buked by addressing his questioner
as 'simpleton."
But besides this, the notion of a
survival and resuscitation of the
buried body, or some element of it,
involves still another radical miscon-
ception, namely:
2. That personal identity requires,
at least so far as some germinant ele-
ment is concerned, identity of materi-
al between the body buried and the
resurrection body. But what is it
that personal identity depends on?
Surely not on the material that is or
ganized, but on the power that Or
ganizes it. l am the same person
that was twenty years ago, simply
because my body, though it has
changed in every particle twenty
times over, is organized and animal
ed by the same spirit. People who
have not seen me for twenty years do
not always know me at first sight as
the same, but after awhile they re-
cognize my personal identity in its
familiar expression. Identity of per-
son and identity of material are very
different things. The personal ele
ment is the spirit. Recognition of
identity depends on the expression
which the spirit gives to the organism
which it animates.
A thought very precious to many
sorrowing hearts is touched by the
fact just mentioned. 1t lis by no means
that, in the resurrection
state, recognition after long separa-
tion may be even more immediate
than in this world, conformably to
that more perfect power of self-ex-
preston which we may attribute to
the spirit in the spiritual body. Par
ents who have seen infant children
go before them thither may not ex-
pect that the little ones will be al
ways babes, or as babes will meet
them again. For life is inseparably
connected with growth. But that
they will know them, perhaps with
more immediate recognition than that
with which the mother in the story
beholds her long-lost sailor-boY in
the weather beaten wanderer who |
knocks for nights shelter at her
door, cannot doubt, when l reflect |
that the flesh and blood of the "natu-
raj" body, so often disguise, will
be exchanged for more plastic and |
perfect organ of self-expression in the |
spiritual" body.
AS to the recognition of friends in
.he resurrection state, it seems plainly
taught in the New Testament. Christ
said that those who had received
charity on earth would welcome their
in heaven. duke xvi. 81