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

the Scriptures in fgurative sense.
Life is used to denote, not existence,
but state or condition Of existence;
not life, but kind or state of life.
So death is used not to denote the
cessation of existence, not to signify
the dissolution of the body, but a
| condition of the SOUL When we read
of being dead in trespasses and sins
the meaning is not that one is dead
as to the body, but as to the soul;
that his soul is dead to the highest
and best things-dead to God and
goodness. This figura,ive use of the
terms life and death in the Bible is
very common. Wevery often read of
the dead when the literal dead are
not meant, but the morally dead; so
we read of life, or the living, when not
literal life or living, but the moral is
meant. One denotes state out of
Christ,-the other a state in Christ.
One signifies a condition of sin and
unbelief, the other a condition of
faith and righteousness. One is a
condition of moral and spiritual I'M
consciousness,-the other condition
of moral and spiritual consciousness.
The moral resurrection is also used
in fgurative sense. Literally this
word means the passage of the soul
from the world of the flesh to the
world of the spirit. 1t is the going
out of the body to be clothed with
the spiritual body, "that house not
made with hands eternal in the
heavens" 1t is the ascent of the
immortal part into the life of "the
great beyond" 1t is the rising
of the soul out of the limitations
of the flesh into the freedom of
the spirit. When the body dies
the soul ascends into the world of
the spirit, is clothed with, or re-
allies itself in, spiritual form and
begins to live in spiritual environ
ment. This is the literal resurrec-
ton.
The moral resurrection is the pas
sage from moral death to moral life.
1t is the process whereby we rise out
of the condition of death in sin to
life in Christ. It is the ascent of the
soul from the state of unbelief and
disobedience into a state of faith and
obedience. When one believes in
Christ he passes from death into life;
he experiences the moral resurrec-
ton.
Hence, to this resurrection there is
no fixed time. The time of the liter
al resurrection is fixed. 1t comes at
death and never comes before or af-
ter. When the body dies, then the soul
rises into the spiritual world, and it
does not and cannot so rise until the
body dies. But the moral resurrec-
ton may come any time before or af-
ter the death of the body. This res
direction depends on faith and
obedience; hence whenever faith and
obedience are exercised this resurrec-
ton comes. When we believe in
Christ we rise into the life of
Christ Observing this distinction
between the literal and the moral res
direction, we shall know how to read
Understandings many passages of
, Scripture.
Thus Jesus says unto Martha, 81 am
the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in me, though he we're dead
yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die" "
Evidently this is the moral resurrec-
ton and life. Jesus is the type of
the moral or spiritual life and of
the way of that life. II am the way,
the truth and the life" Faith in
Christ raises one into the life of
Christ. Whosoever believes in him
experiences the moral resurrection.
Christian faith is necessary to this res
direction, but tits not necessary to the
literal resurrection. Men experience
the literal resurrection, that is, rise in
othe life beyond, whether they believe
in Christ or not. Neither does this
faith exempt one from literal death
Physical death comes to the believer
just the same as to the unDeliever
But moral death does not. He who
believes in and obeys Christ dies no
more morally. He has passed from
moral death into moral life.
Again, where two resurrections are
spoken of in the Scriptures the resur-
rections are moral, not literal. In
Daniel a resurrection of those "who
sleep in the dust of the earth" and in
John, of those who are in "their