Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1914 — BROOKLYN TABERACEIE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BROOKLYN TABERACEIE

BIBLE-STUDY- ON

THE RISEN CHRIST dark 16:1-8; Matthew 28:11-15—Dec. 6. "Why seek ye the Living amonyst the deadf He is not here, but riven." —Luke 6 CHE resurrection of the dead will be the greatest manifestation of Divine Power ever mad«* to angels and to men.—Tbe a wakening of Jairus’ daughter, of the widow of Nain’s son, and of Jesus' friend Lazarus are nowhere styled resurrections of the dead; they were merely awakenings, the last of these being the most wonderful, because Lazarus bad been dead four days and putrefaction had set in. Tbe resurrection promised in tbe Bible will bring back the personality and tbe consciousness of billions of humanity who have died under the Divine sentence, “Dying, thou shalt die,” “Dust thou art. and unto dust shalt thou return.” There could be no resurrection—no escape from that Divine sentence —except in the way that God has arranged; namely, that our Lord Jesus took tbe place of the original sinner, Adam, purchasing him and all his race back from the death state. Fallacious ideas have gone abroad to the effect that it will be merely the body tbsit will be resurrected—that God will collect from tbe four winds every particle of dust which once composed the body, and will reorganize the race out of tbe same particles which formerly composed it. The absurdity of this thought grows upon us as we consider that the bodies of the dead have more or less gone into vegetation, etc. The difficulty has been that we lost sight of the Biblical declaration that it is the soul that dies. (Ezekiel 18:4, 20.) Our bodies are changed every seven years. It is the soul that dies, that has been redeemed and that is to be resurrected. Our Lord No Longer Human. Christ, hs tbe Logos, was a living soul, being, on a high spirit plane. For man’s sake He humbled Himself—“took a bondsman’s form.” (Philipplans 2:7, 8.) As a human soul, or being, He died—“poured out His soul unto death,” “made His soul an Offering for sin.”—lsaiah 53:10-12. It was Jesus tbe soul that died, but He was raised from the dead a soul of a higher order At that time, as He foretold, He ascended where He was before: that is. He was put to death in

flesh, but quickened. or made alive, in spirit. (1 Peter 3:18.) He took the human nature merely for the great purpose of giving man's redemp-tion-price; and after He had laid down that ransom-price by giving Himself up

te deatb, the Father raised Him up to glory, honor, immortality—far above angels, principalities, powers. Because after His resurrection Jesus was so different, we are prepared from this viewpoint to understand why He conducted Himself so differently after His resurrection—He appeared and disappeared. we read. Never before had He done this. After His resurrection He appeared in different bodies, different forms, different clothing. To Mary He appeared as the gardener; to the two walking to Emmaus, He appeared as a stranger. His clothing had been parted amongst the soldiers How evidently He was put to death in flesh, but quickened in spirit! It was the Spirit Jesus who showed Himself, assuming different human forms and clothing, as best suited the occasion. This Spirit Being came Into the assemblies of the disciples when the doors were fastened for fear of the Jews. He created or materialized a body and clothing in their presence; and after a few minutes He vanished, dissolving the body’ and the clothing, while He. the Spirit, remained invisible. Thus He was with the disciples for forty days before He ascended; yet they saw Him not. except for a few minutes at a time on seven different occasions Those forty days were very necessary to teach two great lessons: (1) That He was no longer dead, but alive; (2) That He was no longer a man but a spirit-2 Corinthians 3:17 The Importance of the Resurrection. These facts are clearly established >y St. Paul’s narrative of his own ex perlences. He explains that it was necessary that the twelve Apostles should be able to bear witness to Je-

sus’ resurrection. There could have been no Gospel Message of hope of Divine favor through a dead Savior. Had Christ not risen who would es tablish the Ales sianic Kingdom and call forth from the tomb the sleeping, bii

lions of the dead'/ All this the Apostle forcibly calls to our minds.—l Cm 15:12-19. Evidently St Paul in no way shared the views of those -who unscripturallyclaimed that Jesus while dead was really alive, and that the resurrection of the dead Is a mere formality, quite unnecessary to the carrying out ot God’s Plan. The Divine teaching is that “the dead know not anything.* and that the resurrection is absolutely necessary to any future life.

“He is Risen."

Priests Taking Counset.