New England Religious Herald

The Spiritual Body.

But what is this spiritual body? I confess I cannot tell. There is nothing like it among things material. Neither I nor any one on earth has ever seen it; nor, probably, could we recognize it by any of our senses. The Apostle Paul, who, in the fifteenth chapter of the First of Corinthians, has treated on this subject more at large than it is elsewhere treated of, speaks of it as a mystery. He pretends not to describe it, but reasons analogically to show that our inability to cognize it is no proof that it does not exist. All the information which he gives is summed up in these words: "It is sown in corruption. it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

Now, with this description-if indeed description it may be called-the body borne by the Messiah, so far as we can see, corresponded. It seems to have changed all its relations to matter. The stone at the mouth of the sepulchre could not confine it. That stone was rolled away, not to allow the spiritual body of the Messiah to come forth, but to allow the weeping disciples, who had come to embalm him, to see the place where the Lord had lain. Bolts and bars could not exclude it, for when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and said unto them, "Peace be unto you"

It apparently seems to have been a body hencetofore incapable of suffering from any form of material injury. It yet bore, unharmed, the print of the nails in its hands, and that ghastly wound in the side, made by the spear of the soldier. "Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless. but believing." But these wounds created neither pain nor suffering to this glorified body. Nay, are we not taught that the spiritual body of the Messiah yet bears those scars which it received in its last conflict with our spiritual enemies? 'I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, stood a lamb, as it had been slain. And I heard the voice of many angels round the throne, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain, to receive power, and riches. and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."

This body of the Messiah seems to have been in all respects subject to the will of the spirit which inhabited it. It could, at pleasure, be present or absent, in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, or in the mountains of Galilee, or on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret. Even its outward manifestations to others seemed to depend wholly upon the volition of the spirit with which it was united. Now, the Messiah seems to his disciples as an humble wayfaring man, on the road to Emmaus; on the instant, he appears to them in his proper person, and vanishes out of their sight. Sometimes he is not only visible, but tangible so that they can have no doubt of his identity. All these manifestations are wholly inconsistent with the ordinary laws to which matter is subjected. They belong not to a natural, but to a spiritual body.

All this, I know, is profoundly mysterious. We know of nothing on earth like it. We must receive it as a matter of testimony, and we can go no farther. I do not suppose that in our present state, we possess the faculties for obtaining any more perfect knowledge on the subject. The Apostle Paul does not pretend to explain it. He, however, teaches us that this doctrine finds its analogy in the ordinary process of vegetation. We plant a seed; it decays in the ground. Soon it germinates, and appears in a form wholly unlike the grain which we had planted; "God having given it a body as it hath pleased him." So now, in the autumn of the year, a dry and unsightly seed falls and is buried in the earth. It lies for months beneath the snows of winter. At length, the sun, emblem of the Sun of Righteousness. warms it with his beams, and it rises from its lowly bed in a new and beautiful form, resplendent in color and refreshing in fragrance, to show the praises of Him who hath clothed it by an act of his omnipotent power.

Thus the body of the Messiah was laid in the grave, mortal and corruptible; but soon it appeared, clothed in the garments of immortality, prepared to ascend and take its appointed place at the right hand of the Majesty on high, where he ever liveth to intercede for us.

It was in this glorified body that I suppose our Saviour to have dwelt for some weeks on earth, showing himself alive by many infallible proofs. In this body, as he was blessing his disciples on a mountain in Bethany. "he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight." In this body he still lives to intercede for his people. In this body he will come to judge the world. For, said the angels at his ascension, "This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." When this last act shall have been performed, the mystery of redemption will have been completed; the history of this world will be closed, and the Messiah will surrender up the mediatorial kingdom unto the Father, that God may be all in all.-Rev. Dr. Wayland.