that they will be in the resurrection of the dead. At that time all men will be changed, made pure, holy and happyfrom the grave they shall walk forth into glorious immortality and bliss. The resurrection of the dead, evidently, will require the exertion of the physical power of God, and if the soul is changed and prepared for glory by the resurrection, then the exercise of this power must effect it. But holiness consists in character conformed to the moral law of God, resulting from the operations of grace and truth upon the judgment, affections and the deeds of life. Forgiveness of sin, and supreme love to God, and a holy life are pre-requisites to enter heaven; yet these are not the productions of physical power.

2. Their reasoning leads to Materialism, and the unconscious sleep of the soul, from the day of death unto the hour of the resurrection. If the soul is changed, made holy and happy by the physical power which raises the dead, then the soul must be a material substance; for all physical power operates on matter, but moral power on spirit. It not only leads to Materialism; but also vindicates the unconscious sleep of the soul in the intermediate state. If the physical power of God raises and changes the soul, then the soul of man must have been as actually dead and unconscious, as the body. If the soul is prepared for heaven by the resurrection-power of God, then the soul must be a material substance, and if a material substance, then it must repose in unconscious sleep in the intermediate state. These doctrines are all intimately and inseparably connected-they stand or fall together.

3. They deny the resurrection of the literal bodies of the dead. This point, we have shown in the preceding pages. Their mode of interpretation and the principles they cherish, lead legitimately to the idea, that God will prepare a body at the resurrection, distinct and entirely separate from

that in the grave-a spiritual body-and thereby they intimate a new creation rather than a resurrection of the dead. If God gives new and distinct bodies, there will be a new creation by the physical power of God, and not a resurrection of the dead; therefore the opinions of Universalists, when definitely and properly carried out, place a denial upon the common and generally received ideas of the resurrection.

Let us now enter into an investigation of 1 Cor. xv. as thoroughly as our limits will admit.

1. To whom Paul addressed this epistle. He directed it to the church of God at Corinth, and it was addressed to all christians at Corinth, to all who are saints and sanctified in Christ Jesus, and to all who in every place call upon his (1 Cor. i. 2.)

name.

2. The object he had in view. To correct abuses and errors, and teach them the will of God clearly and emphatically. The fifteenth chapter was written to prove and vindicate the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and, obviously, the resurrection of believers in Christ, and all those who had fallen asleep in Christ Jesus. If the resurrection of all the dead is taught, it is aside from the main object and introduced incidentally. The christian is addressed in this epistle, and particularly in this chapter, which is evident from the first and last verses of the chapter. The subject therefore is, the resurrection of the dead, the resuscitation of the bodies of the saints, and their change to glory and immortality.

3. The drift and force of the apostle's argument. The Apostle proceeds to prove (verses 3-11.) the fact of the resurrection of Christ by the prophetical Scriptures and the unquestionable testimony of living witnesses. Though some, who had been well acquainted with the resurrection of Christ and could testify to its truthfulness, had gone to

the silent mansions and slumbers of the dead, yet others were still living, whose evidence was equally credible.-If then the resurrection of Christ was based upon testimony sufficient to prove any other event, how is it, inquires the apostle, "that some declare that there is no resurrection of the dead?"

Paul shows, (verses 12, 13.) that the resurrection of Christ is an infallible and triumphant proof of the truthfulness of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; and that if the dead rise not, then it is equally certain, that the resurrection of Christ is false and a gross mistake. He bases the resurrection of the dead solely on Christ's-they are linked in inseparable union.

From verses 14-19, the apostle portrays the gloomy and horrid consequences of a denial of the doctrine of the resurrection. Well might the same apostle aver, that Hymeneus and Philetus had erred and overthrown the faith of some, by maintaining that the resurrection was already past. (2 Tim. ii. 17, 18.) He, in this epistle, teaches the Corinthians, that if the dead rise not, then the doctrine of Christ's resurrection is a sham, the preaching of the gospel is vain, and all the apostles were false witnesses of God; the faith in which christians rejoiced and gloried, is falsehood and hypocrisy, and they are still polluted and incumbered with their sins; all those who died with an assurance of heaven by faith in Christ, found their hope blasted by trusting in utter delusion, and have finally perished; and those who are living, hoping and trusting in Christ, denying and suffering for the sake of his gospel, are of all men the most deserving of pity in their wretched choice. At all these sad conclusions, the mind of Paul was startled, shrunk back and returned, with an assurance redoubled in vigor and confidence, to assert the basis of the hope of all christians,

that Christ had actually risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.

The apostle, having proven the resurrection of the dead and the importance of the doctrine, proceeds to answer questions, confute philosophical objections, point out the author, and give the doctrine of the resurrection its practical and glorious application.

4. The apostle proceeds to show (verses 20-23.) the fact, the author, the extent and order of time, of the resurrection of the dead. With an unwavering and triumphant assurance, he declares that Christ had actually risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. As the Jew was commanded to bring the first sheaf of grain as an offering of the Lord, and which should be a pledge of the coming harvest; so the resurrection of Christ was first in dignity and rank, and became a pledge to the world, that the dominion of death was broken, and would be completely demolished in the resurrection of the whole harvest.

The Lord Jesus became also the author of the resurrection of the dead. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." These two passages form the strongest among the strong arguments of Universalism. Take away these from the foundation of their fabric, and their hope will lose its key-stone. We shall show, that they themselvess attempt to destroy and disbelieve an important truth asserted by Paul in these passages. He teaches that death came by man, that by the act and agency of Adam, the first man, all were made mortal-"by man came death,” “in Adam all die." Do Universalists believe this? Do they not fearlessly, and in every place, where they hold forth, proclaim that God created man mortal? That the original transgression did not procure mortality and death, for man would have died,

had our primeval parents never sinned, because God implanted mortality in the constitution and nature of man? What say, A. B. Grosh, A. C. Barry, Ballou, Balfour and others? Why destroy their own arguments? Paul evidently teaches that death was brought into the world by one man, and not by every man, nor by God; and as one man, namely Adam, was the procuring agent of mortality, so likewise one man, namely Christ, procured the resurrection of the dead-Christ became man to restore the ruin of the fall which was effected by one man. As Adam procured, by his willful disobedience, the curse of natural death, being the first of the human race on the earth, he entailed its blighting influence over the entire race. A correlative proof is seen in the other effects of the curse. Adam was doomed to eat his bread with the sweat of his brow, and thorns and thistles should grow up from the earth, all mankind feel the effect of this doom. The woman was doomed to travail in pain and distress, and the same curse abides upon all her daughters. The sentence of death was passed upon Adam-inasmuch as his body was formed from the dust, it was doomed to return to dust. Matter of fact declares, that all die, and that none are exempt, which is therefore a corroboration of the word of God.

In verse 22, the extent of death is seen to affect all mankind, and the extent of the resurrection to make alive, is commensurate with the death of all. In number and extent, the last all will balance the first all-to make alive is the antidote for death. However, two important ideas should be carefully kept in mind.-1. that the text refers exclusively to natural death-the death of the body.-2. And to make the body simply alive again by the resurrectionpower of Christ, including no other condition, qualification, character, or hope. If every other feature of the curse pronounced upon our first parents was literal, (Gen, iii. 14—19)