physical resurrection was impossible: and, secondly, those who had inherited the Zoroastrian notion that matter is inherently evil, and therefore they did not even wish for a literal resurrection. Their notion of the future life was that it is a bodiless existence, and the only resurrection they acknowledged was the resurrection of the soul, or spiritual regeneration. This seems to have been the heresy of Hymenæus and Philetus, touching whom Paul 2 Tim. ii. 17, 13. wrote that they had gone astray concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection was past already, and were overthrowing the faith of some. It was to meet this heresy that this ever glorious Fifteenth Chapter was written. And the chapter is still needed. For the old Manichæan notion that matter as distinguished from spirit is somehow inherently evil still lingers in Christendom. The coming spiritual body is conceived to be a rarefied, ethereal, unsubstantial body: whereas, as we shall see, the spiritual body is a material body suited to the spirit. Moreover, the doubts which the modern philosophy tends to raise concerning the hereafter and personal immortality are subtly infecting society. If a man die, shall he live again? is a question asked as sincerely to-day as in the days of the patriarch Job. Heartily then may we even thank God for the doubt of the Corinthian skeptic for had there not been that doubt the Church might never have been enriched with this magnificent argument for the resurrection.

Job xiv. 14.

IV. The Argu

ment from 66

Fourth the Argument from Absurdity: Absurdity. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Verses 18-19. is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen,

then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain: yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins; then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished; if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." Such are some of the moral consequences of denying the doctrine of the Resurrection. The method which the Apostle employs is that known as the Argument from the Absurdity of the Contrary Supposition. He points out five such absurdities.

The first absurdity is this: Christ Himself is still dead: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen." For as it was Jesus as Man that died, so it was Jesus as Man that rose. But if the resurrection of the dead is an impossibility, then Jesus Himself has not risen,

15.

the suborned report of the Roman guard that His Matt. xxviii. 11disciples had come by night and stolen Him away

is true, the Sanhedrim after all is triumphant, ye are worshiping a corpse.

a Delusion. Verses 14, 17.

The second absurdity is this: the Gospel is a 2. The Gospel delusion: "If Christ is not risen, vain then is our preaching, vain also is your faith; ye are still in your sins." Appalling conclusions surely! First : "Vain is our preaching." It is as though St. Paul had said: "We Apostles have not only been proclaiming a crucified, atoning Saviour; we have also been proclaiming a risen, living Friend, with

Matt. 1. 21

Rom. i. 4.

3. The Apostles Liars. Verse 15.

But if

Whom we can hold blessed communion.
there is no such thing as the resurrection of the
dead, then we have no living, communing Saviour.
How empty then our preaching! How foolish
my visit to Corinth!" Secondly: "Vain also is
your faith."
Ye have been putting your trust
in a myth. Your blessed experience of having
been forgiven by a risen Lord, your sweet sense
of having communed with a living, triumphant
Saviour, was altogether a delusion. Thirdly: "Ye
are still in your sins." True, when the Christ
was about to be born into the world, the Angel of
the Lord commanded that His name should be
called Jesus, i. e., Saviour; and the reason as-
signed was this: "He shall save His people from
their sins." But the proof that Jesus is the Sa-
viour lies in this-His resurrection; He was with
power declared to be the Son of God by His resur-
rection from the dead. But if the resurrection of
the dead is an impossibility, then Jesus has not
been raised; and if Jesus has not been raised, then
He is not the Son of God-you have no Saviour,
your fate is still among the unforgiven, you are
still in your sins. No Resurrection, no Gospel.

The third absurdity is this: the Apostles are liars: "Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we testified concerning God that He raised up Christ, Whom He did not raise up, if so be that the dead rise not." Observe how St. Paul puts his own personal veracity and that of his fellow apostles into direct issue. It is as though he had said: We have been in the constant habit of testifying that God did raise up Jesus, and that

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we ourselves have seen the Risen Lord; but if it is the fact that there can be no resurrection of the dead, then God did not raise up Jesus, and we in testifying that He did were deliberate liars; we were not merely mistaken dupes-we were conscious, sacrilegious impostors."

Lost.

Verse 18.

The fourth absurdity is this: the saintly are 4. The Saintly lost: "Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." If it is the fact that there can be no resurrection of the dead, then Christian Morality is a failure. The Heavenly Father puts no difference between the fate of the purest, most heroic, most self-sacrificing of His children and the fate of the beasts that perish; as the one Eccl. iii. 18-20. dieth, so dieth the other; all go unto one place; all are from the dust and all turn to dust again. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Mary, John, Paul, martyrs, missionaries, pastors, Sunday school teachers, praying mothers, all lie down at last with the atheist and the blasphemer and the dog in the same destruction, annihilated the moment they die.

The fifth absurdity is this: the life in Christ 5. The Chrisis a misery: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable." It

is as though the Apostle had said: "To profess Christ means self-denial, battling with temptation, fightings without, fears within, distress, persecution, martyrdom. Moreover, Christianity awakens within us loftiest aspirations which can never be satisfied in this world. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then we Christians, exposing ourselves as we do to perpetual sorrows and perils,

tian Life a Misery. Verse 19.

V.Christ's Res

urrection the Pledge of Ours.

Verses 20-23.

Verse 20.

Rom. vi. 9.

Col. i. 18.

and fostering aspirations which are doomed to bitter, hopeless defeat, are of all men the most to be pitied."

Such are some of the unspeakable absurdities to which the denial of the doctrine of the Resurrection drives us. No wonder that the Apostle, as though shuddering at the ghastly conclusions, turns from them, and bursts into positive, triumphant affirmation.

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Fifth Christ's Resurrection the Pledge of ours: But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept; for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming." Away then with these ignoble, painful, sacrilegious absurdities! The indisputable, rapturous fact is, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. And in simple virtue of that rising He became, to use language borrowed from the old Mosaic ritual, the first fruits or pledge-sheaf of the resurrection harvest. Not that He was the first to rise from the dead; the son of the Widow of Zarephath, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus, and many others had been raised; but they died again; whereas Christ, having been raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. And in thus rising to die no more He became the first fruits of those who sleep in Him. Being Himself the Head of the Body, the Church, and being Himself the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, He