But the present figure gives us no intimation of any such difference of constitution. It speaks of a change of element from a lower to a higher, but is silent on the change of faculties which must qualify for the higher. The body which is uplifted into the air has undergone no alteration of structure in leaving the water. But this further intimation we shall obtain as we prosecute our researches.

(3.) The next analogy which shall be noticed is that adduced by St. Paul in the 15th chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians-the analogy of the seed and the flower. The question discussed in that wonderful chapter is the Resurrection of the dead,-a doctrine which it appears had been called in question by some members of the Corinthian Church. In answer to a cavil brought by a supposed objector against this doctrine, the Apostle observes that the dissolution of an organised structure is no argument against-yea, rather is a necessary condition of, its reappearance in another form and under a higher law of existence. We have but to cast our eyes round upon the objects of nature to behold an illustration of this truth. The appropriate sphere of the seed, which in itself has neither form nor comeliness, is the dank dark soil, after reposing in which for a season, out of the reach

of the genial sunshine and the wandering breeze, it dies or is dissolved. This dissolution, however, is in order to the developement of the seed, according to the law of its being, into a higher condition of existence. Certain of its accretions mouldering away, the germ is unfolded, gradually springs up, and appears above the soil, and ultimately presents itself in the new form of an ear or a blossom. The element of the developed seed (or flower) is the air, as that of the undeveloped was the earth. Though it still hold of earth,-imbibing through its stalk the juices of the soil,—it lives and moves and has its being in an higher sphere. It is fed with the gentle dews and fanned by the gentler gales of heaven;-it opens its bosom to the light, and expands its perfumed petals under the genial influences of the bright and warm sun. Such is the substance of the argument contained in those weighty and conclusive words "Thou fool, that "which thou sowest is not quickened, except it "die 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." It will be conceded that the Apostle in these words proposes to us the development of the seed into the

flower, as an analogy supplied by Nature to the Resurrection process.

h

And this analogy drawn from the vegetable economy has led men to seek for others in the animal kingdom. The transmutation of the insect into the moth, after it has lain dormant for a long period in its chrysalis state, has often been adduced in illustration of the Resurrection process, as an instance of analogy parallel to that which the Apostle proposes. And, the parallel being a very exact one, this new analogy may be adopted and relied upon, although it have not the sanction of an inspired pen. Here too we have the development in a new form of a substance which had previously lain in a state of torpor and dormant vitality-here too we have the adaptation of that living substance to the conditions of a new sphere-its endowment with the painted wings which qualify it for moving in another element. Here too we have the throwing off of a certain shell or husk which is no longer serviceable in the new form; for the husk is deposited by the insect in the course of transmutation just as the accessary particles fall off from the living germ of the grain.

By the consideration of these analogies we gain a new idea, over and above that supplied by our h See Appendix to Lecture I. Note C.

examination of terms-an idea which sufficiently differences Resurrection from mere reanimation of the mortal and corruptible frame. According to this new idea, Resurrection is a process of development, a process of transition through death into a higher state of existence,—in the course of which the person or thing which undergoes the process drops it may be certain properties not essential to its personality, and acquires others which qualify it for a higher sphere. The reanimation of the natural body is evidently quite a distinct process from this. It is simply a restoration of animal functions which had been suspended,-a reinstatement in the same condition-a renewal of the same circumstances, in which the risen person was placed previously to death. It is as if the once developed germ, immediately after dropping its accessary particles, should again agglomerate them to its own substance, and fold itself up once more into the seed; as if the torpid insect should clothe itself again in its cast off shell, and creep along the earth as heretofore, instead of soaring in the air.

(4.) But an analogy, yet more definite and precise, remains to be considered. And it is well to observe that this is not adduced by the writers of Scripture as an illustration-it is inwoven into

the very texture of the expressions which they employ on the subject. Our mode of pointing out a close and complete analogy naturally differs from that in which we indicate a rough and general illustration which does not hold good in every point. Our cast of language indicates that the latter is only an analogy-the former we rather inweave into the subject illustrated than place in parallel columns with it. And this last is the case with the analogy we are now about to examine.

Resurrection is a process which has as yet only passed upon one member of the human species, even upon the Man Christ Jesus. Now, when the Apostles designate the Lord according to his risen humanity, what language do they employ? By both St. Paul and St. John he is designated under this aspect as ὁ πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν a phrase which our translators have rendered differently in the two passages in which it occurs, giving us as its equivalent in the Epistle to the Colossians the words "first born from the dead," -in the Book of Revelation the less accurate

"first begotten from the dead." The idea conveyed by this designation is expressed more at large in St. Paul's address to the members of the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia. "We declare unto you," says the Apostle in the course of that