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to w it, th e redemption of the body.” God loves th e body; He made it, and m eant it to serve a noble purpose.. God cares for all His creatures, even th e sparrows on th e housetops, and they as well as we are fearfully and wonder fully made. W hat a beau tifu l con stru ction is the body! it is th e fairest visible temple on earth , and in th e Christian is th e abode of God in th is world. How holy, then, th e body is! "Know ye not th a t ye are the temple of God, and th a t th e Spirit of God dwell- eth in you?” "Know ye not th a t your bodies are th e members of C h rist?” . If you trace P au l’s - teachings about th e body, he shows th a t God loves it as much as the soul; and why should He not? You love your body. No man ever tru ly h ated his own flesh, unless he had made it a wreck w ith sin. A body is only vile when we have in some way .or o th er m arred its beauty by sin. My argum ent, then, is because God has re deemed th e body and we love our bod ies, they will rise again. If th ey do not, th en th e sufferings Christ bore to redeem th e body have been in vain. Of, again, if you say th ere is no bodily resurrection, you make th e fu tu re life altogether one of sp irit; and if th a t were so, th e re would be no need' of a fu tu re resurrection a t all, because the moment a sp irit dies it goes straig h t to God: “Absent from th e body, pres ent w ith th e Lord.” We never lay a sp irit in th e grave; you cannot pu t a sp irit in a coffin. A complete man is body and spirit, a half man is spirit. Bo you see if you say th ere is no literal resurrection then we would be only p art of ourselves in th e next world, and th a t altogether independent of resurrection. The teachings of Christ ought to con vince any one of us of tile g reat tru th for which I am now contending. In John 5:28, He says. “Marvel not at this: for th e hour is coming, in th e SO RUN THAT YE MAY
nized by some, and it is possible there may have been a slight difference in His appearance. As, for instance, to Mary Magdalene, who, when she first saw Him, t h o u g h t H e was a gardener. I suppose th a t would be a man who cut th e grass, pruned th e trees, and looked afte r th e flowers in th e garden. Jesus, however, soon pu t Mary’s fears to rest by calling her by name, and a t once she recognized the Master. ■You see now where we are in our plea for a literal body. Christ when He arose from the dead was in every way like th e man who kep t th e garden in which He was buried. The same though t can be de duced from th e incident in th e walk to Emmaus. Two men were walking, and they were joined by a th ird , who looked much the same as themselves. He walked on His feet, He ta lk e d freely of Moses and th e prophets, w ith real lips and a genuine hum an voice, and when - they arrived at a certain house He went in w ith them and in a memorable mo ment a t supper they discovered th a t the eloquent strang er who had walked by th eir side Was th e risen Christ. He walked and talked ,w ith them in cor poreal, tangible form : a Christ w ith flesh and bone th e same as H e had been during all His life among men. If th a t were not so, you impair, vitiate, and destroy th e importance and the ac tu a l fact of th e resurrection. P rom what I have said, and I th ink the proof is convincing enough, He rose w ith a lit eral body. Our resurrection shall be literal. In support of thfs statem en t I m ight plead what I have already said, as a proof th a t we shall literally rise again, but I begin by arguing from th e g reat faet Of redemption: When Christ saves a man, He does so body and soul— not soul alone. The body is as valuable to God as th e soul; hence we read in Rom. 8:23. “W aiting for the adoption,
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