After speaking more fully of the surrender of "the kingdom" to the Father, and of the tendency of the doctrine which he is opposing, like other "evil communications," to "corrupt good manners," the apostle returns to consider more particularly the objection of the philosophic Corinthians. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" When the body has been decomposed, and mingled with common earth; when parts of it have fertilized the fields, grown up into vegetables, been devoured by animals, and become, by digestion, a part of their bodies, and perhaps of the bodies of other men, how can it be raised? How can that body be recovered and reconstructed? This is the great objection; the main hindrance to the reception of the doctrine. The apostle has already shown this objection to be unchristian. He now proceeds to show it to be unphilosophical. "Thou fool! That which thou sowest, is not quickened, except it die." The death of a body, its decomposition and the dispersion of its elements, do not annihilate

the principle of life. On the contrary, when the seed has come to its full maturity, it ceases to grow; and you must bury it in earth, and it must be decomposed and suffer the dispersion of its elements, that it may be "quickened ;” in order that the living process may be started anew, and may go on. "And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." This translation, though perfectly correct, is not so clear to some readers as it might be. The meaning is, that in sowing, you do not put into the earth the future plant, but a "bare grain," a naked seed, whether of wheat, or barley, or any other plant; and God gives to this seed, by means of its death and decomposition, a continued living existence in the plant that springs up from it. "And to every seed his own body." The living principle which was in the former plant, which was arrested and ceased to act, but not to exist, in the seed when it came to maturity, lives again

in the future plant, which is indeed the dead seed raised to life again, and living anew in a body properly "its own." We may not infer, owever, that the resurrection of the human body is in all respects like the germination and growth of plants from the seed. Yet they are alike so far as relates to this objection. In both cases, the death and decomposition of the body are not only consistent with its future life, but are the natural and ordinary preparation for it.

More effectually to remove the difficulty, the apostle goes on to show, that the body, after the resurrection, though it still retains its identity, differs in some important respects from the body as it was before death. In order that the body be the same, it is not necessary that the same particles of matter should compose it. Physiologists tell us, that the particles which compose our bodies are continually passing off by insensible perspiration and in other ways, and that our food supplies other particles that take their places; so that all the particles in our bodies are

changed, some say as often as once in seven years; and yet our bodies remain the same. There is a story of a ship, from which defective pieces were removed and sound ones substituted for them, till not a timber or a bolt remained that was in her when new; and yet she was still the same ship. And every one may see that her masts and sails might have been taken away, and boilers and engines and wheels might have been added, and she might have become a steam ship, and still she would have been the same ship. She would have had a continued existence, corresponding, in all essential points, to the same idea. Still less could we doubt its identity, if it were a living ship, moving according to its own will, and if we knew its motions to be guided and governed by the same intelligent soul, during and after all its changes. So the numerous and important changes that take place in the human body, do not destroy its identity. At first, it was "made in secret," and the eyes of God beheld its substance, "yet being imperfect ;" and according to his

design all its members "in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them." Afterwards, it saw the light, acquired the use of its senses and powers, and grew up to maturity. Then it decayed and died. Now it lies in the grave. As in the first stage of its existence, it is removed from human observation, and is undergoing changes of which it, apparently, knows nothing. During all these changes, it has been and still is the same body. At the last day, it shall a second time come forth from darkness to light; again wake to consciousness and voluntary action, having undergone still other changes, such as are needed to fit it for its new condition. Yet, after all its changes, it will still be the same body. The apostle illustrates: "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another