Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-04-11

"ui uoes not pretend to exhaust his sub
Ject = seen from his words. Behold.
sHo" YOU mystery-we shall not an
sleep We snail all be changed, in a mo-
ment, HI the twinkling Of an eve az the
tast trump Tor the trumpet shall sound
afld 1he oeaa shall be raised incorruptible
and we Shall be CHANGED
INTO TINS misery. then. in so far as we
are abie, let us look that We may know
at least where we may fix the bounds be-
yond winch We may enter only BY specu-
latlon what do We know of the Res,1r-
reetion, untrammeled py speculation?
FIRST we know the fact that we shall rise
agaIn-We know il is possible, because
Christ has demonstrated TIA fact ~ HE
own resurrection. We know it is sure
because we have His promise IL FRAT af-
feet. Second. we know that ou- state in
the future life is determined By orr life
in this world. He who is ingraf te6 into
Christ here will be with Him there. He
who has confessed Him here him win He
also confess before His Father which is
in heaven.
The doctrine of a final Judgment in ac-
cordance with our life here IN earth u
clearly taught throughout the New Tes-
lament.
I'VE know that life with Christ will be
happiness and that life apart from Him
will be misery. III what that happiness
or misery Will consist is purely specula-
tive and dependent upon the character of
the resurrection body. The fire and
birthstone, the everlasting fire. the de-
talieu horrors OF Gehenna IN the tropical
language of the East signify misery
cla ~ htr-
that, and SO the golden streets of ever
fasting hymns Of praise, the light and
glory of heaven. signify happiness. But
as to the character Of that happiness. we
can only speculate, for az before. It Is
dependent upon the character of the res
direction body
Third, we know that our bodies shall
rise again-that we shall all be changed.
and that our natural body viii become a
spiritual body. But what is a spiritual
body? These are hard words BY ex-
perienced we have always associated the
word body with matter. 1t is hard to
think of body as anything but material
and it may be that the spiritual body is
material, but in that case. matter must
be capable of impregnation with spirit.
How. we can not tell, as experience does
not help US here. Any yet we might sug-
gest an anaiog3--ft is not harder to be-
lieve in matter impregnated with spirit
than matter impregnated with life. The
union of our natural body with soul is
az much a mystery and as hard to under
stand as the union of matter with spirit.
And 50 it may be that our resurrection
body Is ma terial. In that case it would
seem that heaven were a place. for by
a necessity Of thought, we naturally
predicate matter to place One Of the
great English statesmen. / believe, spoke
of the stars as great reservoirs of matter
/ from which We're to be fashioned
the new heavens and new earth.
This is brilliant generalization
and possibly true, for we Won
der al such a seemingly useless tax
upon the principle Of economy, unless the
stars Of heaven are to be used for some
such purpose But this is mere conject-
ure. for if the spiritual body be not ma
terial, then it Is hard to see wherein
matter vii have any place in the glory OF
heaven
But whether material or not. we
know that our spiritual bodies, whatever
they may be, though changed and glori-
fled. will rise again.
IOuitl- we KNOW lnaI We SIdH TecO2-
nize one another in heaven. This fact
has lead some TO argue that we shall
therefore have the same form, glorifiedt
and beautiful indeed. but resembling it
sufficiently to establish recognition. This
may be true, but it does not necessarily
follow from the bare fact of recognition.
Here on earth. with our present faculties,
recognition depends upon the senses.
-ierI,+ ~
out one Of them at least, we can hardly
understand how recognition would be
possible. But the senses pertain to the
natural body-whether they are essential
to q spiritual body | know not. 1t may
be that new faculties win be given US
whereby pure soul can recognize pure
soul, but this, too, is conjecture with even
less foundation than the other Of one
thing only are we assured and that is the
fact Of recognition We know then that
our bodies, changed indeed, but never
theless our bodies SHAH rise again: that
our condition in the future life. whether
bissfu or agonizingy via be in accord
with our life here
we know that We shall not start as we
did in this world with a void behind US.
but that we shall recognize those who
were dear to US here.
Does the how and the why make very
much difference. and should we. like the
perverse and foolish Corinthians, add1ce
our ignorance in these matters as reasons
for challenging the truth of the facts
themselves? Why we do not know more
of heaven and its mysteries is because We
know 50 little of earth and its mysteries.
Answer me correctly and fully the
question:, what is life and | Will tell you
what is the new life. Answer me, what is
matter. what is force. what is being and
what is personality and what body and
what is necessary to each. and ] will tea
you whether the spiritual body is mater
ial on not and whether heaven be a
place or a state-what will be the charac-
ter of recognition there and wherein our
pleasures or suffering will consist
Until I know more Of the mysteries
mysteries Of heaven.
But some Of you may have remarked
upon my having omitted abiding TO that
which is often made the basis Of treatises
on the resurrection body-namely, the
risen body Of our dear Lord. the body
which has been with us from Easter to
Ascension. 7 have done so purposely for
Christ's resurrection body was not neces-
sarily the gloriticd. assembled body en-
throned upon the right hand of the Father
in heaven. His resurrection body may
not have been the glori6ed body and so
we NAV not reason too far frnrn tic