seen the wonderful transformations of which it is capable; and how glorious the vilest earth may become! Even from the hand of nature, what new touches of beauty and what varied and glorious forms are given to the same elements. The same substance that begrims the laborer in the charcoal pit, when changed a little, shines with resplendent brightness in the crown of royalty. The dirt, trodden beneath our feet, and which is so offensive to our person, or in our food, after all, changed a little, becomes inviting to the taste; and changed still a little more, behold, it glows upon the cheek of beauty and sparkles in the eye of intel- . ligence. The steam, that with resistless and tireless energy propels the leviathan of the deep in the very face of the winds and waves, or with still mightier energy, upheaves the mountains from their beds; what is it but awakened energies that were just now lying dormant in the sleeping, sluggish waters of the deep? The lightning, which in its destructive course rends oaks and rocks to pieces, in its passage from cloud to earth, or from earth to cloud, is the same element that was just now sleeping gently as the baby in its cradle. At whose bidding do these dormant energies start to life? Who fashions the shapeless dust into forms of beauty? Who gives such exquisite coloring-such dazzling brightness to the sightless lump? And can not the same power cause that "this mortal shall put on immortality?" He who has marked the transformation of the rude clay into forms of life and beauty; he who has seen the rough lump of charcoal made, by a simple change in the arrangement of its particles, to flame forth in the radiant hues of the priceless diamond; he who has marked the speed of electricity, and the impenetration of heat; he who has noticed the expansibility of light and the velocity with which it travels through unbounded space-he can no longer wonder at any transformations the body may expe

rience, or any glories with which it may be invested, or any spiritual adaptations it may attain in the resurrection and heavenly state. Here the material body may prove an element of weakness and of dishonor; but there it shall possess "power" and "glory." Here it may be animal, gross and evil; but there it shall be "a spiritual body." Refined from the grossness of that which is merely animal, it shall be endowed with an elasticity of action, a rapidity and a boundless capacity of movement, and also with an imperishable nature, which will make it a fit companion of the glorified spirit. It will undoubtedly be invested with new forms; fitted with new organs; endowed with new and wondrous powers, and thus be adapted to its celestial state. Vitalized anew, beatified with its highest perfection, it shall forever shine forth with undecaying brightness in the kingdom of God.

Thus we have gone through the popular objections to the doctrine of the resurrection. Not one of them, we think we have shown, has any substantial basis or affords any solid objection to the doctrine.

We have already stated that the doctrine is purely a doctrine of revelation-though confirmed by analogies in nature and miracles in religion. God has not seen fit to reveal its processes; science has not been able as yet to discover them. Hence the deep mystery in which they lie hidden. But let no one object on the ground of this mystery. The mysteries that every-where encircle us in the natural world; the striking revelations of human science; and above all, consideration that we are connected with an inconceivablyglorious system-which is expansive, limitless as God himself-and a very little of which we shall ever know in our present state, should check our presumption, should moderate our confidence, and lead us to distrust our own reason when brought into conflict with the Word of God. Let us

the

beware how we array philosophy against the Author of all philosophy; our short-sighted and imperfect knowledge against the boundless possibilities of infinite wisdom and power. Nay, if we will not reverence because it is God who speaks, let us at least remember that as often as man has arrayed his speculations against the Word of God, so often has he suffered defeat. The terms reason, science, philosophy, are indeed high-sounding words; but they have often been used to cloak the ignorance or pamper the vanity of man. We may, then, bow to the supreme majesty and truth of the Bible, and say with the immortal Newton, "The Scriptures of God are the sublimest of all philosophy."

And, then again, this doctrine only brings to us the assured hope of a future and better life, in which our humanity shall realize the grand consummation of its being. To doubt the resurrection is to cast the shadow of unbelief over our future destiny. It is this blighting skepticism that, in the Hermit of Beattie, utters its sad lament:

"Nor yet for the ravage of Winter I mourn:

Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save.
But when shall Spring visit the moldering urn?

O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?"

But when the wanderer has been brought back to the light of true reason, he will resume the minstrel's strain.

"'T was thus, by the glare of false science betrayed,
That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind;

My thoughts wont to roam, from shade onward to shade,
Destruction before me, and sorrow behind.

'O pity, great Father of light,' then I cried,

Thy creature who fain would not wander from Thee;

Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride;

From doubts and from darkness thou only canst free.
And darkness and doubt are now flying away;

No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn;

So breaks on the traveler, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn:

See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending,
And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom;

On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending,
And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

Finally, the resurrection of the dead consummates the triumph of the Gospel. "The wages of sin is death." "Death by sin." The wasted bodies of the dead generations of the past are so many monuments of the blighting power of sin and of the universal reign of death. The triumph of Christianity over death will not be complete till those monuments are destroyed. "The death by sin" is twofold the death of the soul and the death of the body. There is a resurrection of the soul—a quickening of it to spiritual life. It is manifested in every sinner brought to Christ; for "even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ," (Eph. ii, 5;) "It is the Spirit that quickeneth," (John vi, 62;) and “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (Gal. iii, 6.) And still again, he that believeth, "shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." (John v, 24.) This is the triumph of Christ over the spiritual death produced by sin. It transforms a spirit of darkness into an angel of light; a condemned sinner it makes an heir of God. It plucks an immortal spirit from the clutches of Satan, robes it in transcendent light, and sets it forever as a gem in the crown of the Redeemer.

But Christianity will not stop here. She claims back the dust of the sainted dead. Without this her triumph is incomplete. Death shall be dethroned. It shall be driven from its usurped and dark dominion, and no vestige of its triumph shall remain. Then and then only shall the triumph of the Cross be complete. "THE LAST ENEMY THAT SHALL BE DESTROYED IS DEATH." 1 Cor. xv, 56.

O how wonderful to see

Death and Life in conflict meet!
Life hath won the victory,

Trodden Death beneath his feet.
Even as the Scripture shows,
He hath conquered all our foes;
Death was slain, but Jesus rose."

MARTIN LUTHER.

XII.

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." JOHN xvii, 24.

"And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him.” MATT. xvii, 4.

"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments; and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." LUKE xvi, 23.

"The warmest love on earth is still

Imperfect when 't is given;
But there's a purer clime above,
Where perfect hearts in perfect love
Unite; and this-is heaven."

FEW themes connected with the great hereafter so deeply concern the heart as the question of personal recognition among the redeemed. Dear ones of earth-linked to our hearts by the most tender ties have departed from us and gone away into the unknown realm. We have carefully and tearfully laid their bodies in the grave to slumber till the great awakening morning. We shall see them no more in the land of the living. And if we are never to know them in the future state, this separation-sad as may be the thought-is eternal. The hour that carries them down to the grave is the hour of final separation. If there is no personal recognition in heaven; if we shall neither see nor know our friends there, so far as we are concerned they are annihilated, and heaven has no genuine antidote for the soul's agony in the hour of bereavement.

By and by we shall go and lie down by the side of those