this: His power is underived from any other being or beings; while that of all other beings is derived from HIM as the originative Source of power. The apostle elsewhere says, and with express reference to governmental power, "There is no power but of God; the powers that are are ordained of God." So when Jesus claimed plenary power for the accomplishment of His work, he said, "All power is given to me," which is manifestly acknowledging that even His power was not from Himself. 1

As with God's potency, so with his immortalness, its uniqueness or oneliness consists in at least the fact that His immortality is underived. All other immortals are so by His power, while HIS immortality is from Himself. Of Jesus even, it is affirmed that "GOD raised him from the dead"; and not merely this, but also in regard to his continued existence in the heavenly state, it is declared expressly, "He liveth by the power of God." 2

In what other respects, or whether in any other, the immortality of the Uncreated One is specifically unique, or differs from that of any created being, is a subject which I shall not now discuss. I will however suggest that it almost certainly differs also from ours in not having reference to bodily organization.

In the passage which speaks of God's immortality, the word "only" is first an adjective, then an adverb. The same is true of the Greek word monos, there rendered "only." Probably this word was once a fair rendering of monos in that text; but now, since its "only" sense, as an adjective, or as an adverb, is an exclusive and noncomparative one, the substitution of an other word or words seems to have become not "only" proper, but actually necessary.

1 Rom. xiii. 1; Matt. xxviii. 18. 2 Acts xiii. 30; 2 Cor. xiii. 4.

I translate the passage thus:

"The blessed and unique Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; the One having immortality uniquely, dwelling in light inaccessible," &c.

In a certain Scripture wherein is professedly given an express revealment of the fact of the ultimate cessation of human mortality,

The verb to be changed (, Greek allassomai, from allasso, to change, or to exchange,) has, in two texts, a special sense. The change is thus announced and described, according to the Common Version:

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on," &c. 1 Cor. xv. 50-54.

From this passage, taken in connection with others, it appears to be a Scripture doctrine that at "the end" of Christ's reign, all who shall be then alive on the earth, will, in an instant of time, become incorruptible and immortal without dying,* that is, in the proper sense of that term, which supposes the corporeal system to have either suf fered violence, or to have been diseased, or to be worn out. And this leads to an other remark, which may, perhaps, as well be introduced here as elsewhere, namely, that

If it could be proved- but how can it be?that as the spiritual body succeeds the animal one, so a more-than spiritual body will succeed the spiritual, and that be succeeded by one of a higher and more advanced grade, and so on, even above * See last chapter of this work.

and beyond the over-extra-ultra-hyper-super-pretertranscendental spiritual, such proving would by no means invalidate the Scripture doctrine of immortality, that is, of non-liability to death. The actual occurrence of the series of changes supposed, would not necessarily involve the presence of the wearing-out process, nor of destructive violence, nor of deadly disease.

The following definitions are designed to be illustrative of the text, "The Father raises the dead, and quickens them:"

The resurrection of the dead into the after-death life, which is to say their rising and their being raised into that life, is, specifically, their being invested with bodies proper to that mode of life. the new embodiment arises, by the appointment of God, from the unfoldment of a spiritual germ-, so to speak, infixed in the constitution of man's nature.

The quickening of the physically dead, as also of those having undergone a change equivalent to physical death, seems to be the imparting of spiritual or celestial life to the super-earthly organization.

Note. From the words of the Saviour relative to the Father's raising and quickening the dead, it seems unquestionable that the quickening process, as applicable to the hereafter life, always accompanies (or follows) the raising of a human being into that life; and- no doubt the same or a similar process will accompany (or follow) the change which the Scriptures reveal as being to take place in "the end" of Christ's reign on the earth. But the Scriptures, in speaking of our transition to the hereafter life, do not always mention our being quickened. That seems to be considered as necessarily and unmistakeably implied.

CHAPTER V.

SCRIPTURAL DEFINITIONS.

CONTINUED.

FROM various considerations I induce the conclusion that the resurrection, in the Scriptural or true Christian sense, or rather that actuality of which rising is a figure, is an indispensable, invariable preliminary to the after-death life. Thus, from what was said to Moses at the burning bush, Jesus claims to prove, scripturally, that "the dead are raised." But he proves their resurrection only by proving that the so-called dead are really "living;" and having done this, he offers no further evidence. (See Luke xx. 37, 38, and the parallel passages.)

In Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle, arguing against some in that church who said that "there is no resurrection of the dead," specifies certain consequences which would result from the fact, if fact it were," that the dead rise not ;" and among the consequences stated by him is the following: "Then those also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." It seems scarcely possible to avoid seeing that this text teaches, by implication, that the resurrection, or an equivalent process, is actually indispensable to future existence. The little word "also," as employed in this text, is clearly a term of great and grave import, it having reference to the hypotheti

cal fact implied in the sequence, "your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."

The passage containing the text alluded to, when more properly translated as to the tenses, reads thus:

"If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. Then those also have perished who have fallen asleep in Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 16–18.

In the commencement of the chapter, the apostle announces that he is declaring the gospel which they had received, and by which, says he, "ye are saved,. . . . unless ye have believed in vain." And his afterward telling them that upon the hypothesis assumed their faith was vain, &c., is, to me, as if he had said, "You have believed in Christ, but then He died long ago; and if there is no resurrection, he perished at death. And if he has perished, there is no Saviour; and if there is no Saviour, you, of course, are not saved, and your faith is utterly valueless."

If in the passage in hand, the apostle did not intend to give the idea, "If the dead are not raised then Christ has perished, why did he add, "then those also have perished who have fallen asleep in Christ?" And what is all this but arguing plainly and unequivocally that if there is no resurrection there is no after-death life?

If it shall be asked why the future life is thus as it were dependent on the resurrection, the writer of this will only say, Because our Father thought proper to have it so. Nor should the reader be surprised at this answer, since it is substantially the only one which an enlightened philosophy can give in regard to the reason of some of the commonest facts in nature. Matthew xi. 26, has an extensive appliancy.