River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-04-08


of Divine revelation. st. Paul explains
this, saying, The natural man receiY-
eth not the things of the Spirit Of God,
neither can he know them. because
they are spiritually discerned." The
Apostle proceeds to tell US that all
men are natural men except such az
have been begotten again by the Holy
Spirit. All natural men will, in their
resurrection. receive earthly. or human
bodies; while all spiritual ones, New
Creatures in Christ. will receive spirit
bodies, as st. Paul explains in our con-
text.-Verses $3.50.
Not all Of my hearers can appreciate
this-only such as have received the
begetting of the Holy Spirit Others,
| therefore, | will ask to consider what
| say and to hold it, if they please,
tentatively. until such time as in Gods
providence they may be begotten OF
| the Spirit, and thus be enabled to un-
derstand spiritual matters, such as this.
Another class who have difficulty on
this subject are spirit-begotten. but
have been entangled in their reasoning
by the declaration Of the creeds re-
speeding the resurrection of the body.
| 1t is difficult to unlearn error. When
visiting foreign lands and learning OF
the hold Of superstition upon the heath
en-. | said to myself, | believe that we
| Christians experience just as much diff
| ficulty in unlearning our errors as these
| heather do in getting free from theirs.
Cannot Understand Spiritual Problems.
! Coming to the point Of what is to be
| Lord appeared in q body of flesh. and
! showed the disciples the print Of the
nails and the hole made by the spear.
But we, perhaps, failed to note that
only twice did He thus appear and
only for few moments each time.
| His other six or seven appearances
during these forty days were also very
| brief, and were in various bOdieS-Once
as q gardener, another time as tray
eler. q third time as a stranger on the
shore To Saul Of Tarsus He appeared
as a Spirit Being of more than angelic
| brightness, shining above the bright
ness of the sun" at MONDAY. We over
looked the fact that His various APP
pearances before His ascension, if all
put together. would probably not have
exceeded four hours out of the entire
| forty days in which He tarried with
His disciples after His resurrection.
When we overlooked these things. we
were not critical, and we forgot to ask
ourselves why these things were SO.
| Now we see more distinctly why our
| Lord did us He did. His disciples were
natural men, and therefore could not
appreciate spiritual things Further
more, they could not receive the guiding
Of the Holy Spirit until the Lords as
cension and appearance in the presence
Of the Father on behalf of His Church,
to make satisfaction for their sins and
to make them acceptable joint-sacri-
ficerS with Him. Meantime, had Jesus
not tarried those forty dayS-had He
assembled Immediately after His resur-
rection-the disciples, stunned and be-
Wildered, would have had no assurance
! of His resurrection. They would have
| found it impossible to tell the people
| that He had risen from the dead when
! they had no proof to this effect.
Even if Jesus had appeared to them
as He did to Saul of Tarsus, above the
bright shining of the sun, this would
not have been convincing and SatiSfac-
| tory. They might have said, Here is a
| phenomenon; but how can we positive
ly associate it with the life and the
death of Jesus? With Saul of Tarsus
matters were different He needed
something to arouse him thoroughly
and to teach him for all time, and 9th
erS through him, that the risen Lord is
not man, but that Spirit" Besides,
some of the disciples who already be-
lieved were able to give Saul Of Tarsus
assurances Of what they already knew
respecting the resurrection of Jesus
and His ascension.
The Lord adopted the only reasonable
way of helping His disciples to under
! stand that He was no longer dead
! that He had risen from the dead, and
| that He was no longer human, but had
been glorifed and had become a Spirit
Being. The two things were necessary,
and they were done at the same time
Even on the occasions when our
Lord appeared in body like unto the
one which was cruciied, He took care
that the manifestation should be under
! such conditions as would positively
| prove that He had become a Spirit
Being. He came into the room where
| they were while the door was shut,
and after a few words with them van
ished from their sight, as no human be-
ing could have done and as He never
had done during His earthly career.
That the Apostles caught the thought
is we'll evidenced by St Paul's argu-
ment on the subject set forth in our
text and its context. In the Bible
there is no foolish suggestion about
Jesus having fleshly body in Heaven.
| All that is in our creedS and our hymn
books, prepared for US by our we'll
meaning but mistaken forefathers, who
used to burn one another at the stake
if they failed promptly to agree on