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THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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But we may take a wider view of the action of this apparently calamitous event, in promoting the union of good men. And here we have to deal not so much with probabilities as with facts. Here we have to view a most instructive, as well as a most delightful, phenomenon. It is the effect which has been wrought by that event upon the entire body of our nation. Surely, if two nations ever had reason to be united in bonds of sympathy and love, or to be mutually desirous to stand by and assist each other, the two Atlantic nations have that reason. Nursed in the same cradle, speaking the same language, living under practically parallel institutions, working for the same objects, and engaged in the same pursuits.-surely two such countries should ever consider each other as brethren, linked together by the most tender ties of relationship and mutual interest. And we New Churchmen have a still dearer reason to desire the strict union of America and England; for these are the true lands of the New Church, and we feel ourselves shared out between the two. If, therefore, we are actuated by that lofty charity which transcends even the love of our country (I mean the love of our Church), we shall be disposed to hail with the deepest thankfulness and joy every manifestation of sympathy, and every strengthening of the natural union which exists between our respective countries. And probably no possible event could so have called forth that sympathy, and thereby strengthened that union, as that which the Divine Providence has now permitted to take place. One universal feeling of grief and horror pierced our national heart, and every man, whatever side in the late war he may have espoused, was at once united with every other man in that grief and consternation. The consequence has been such a national message from us, sent across the Atlantic, as will deeply touch the heart of our sister country, and no doubt greatly soften the bitterness of her grief; for there is no time like the period of affliction for the power of heavenly sympathy to be felt, and hearts that have before been utterly estranged are often united in the presence of some common calamity.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity." It is good for nations, as well as for individual men, that they should sometimes "be afflicted." Have we not, therefore, every reason to hope that from this time a new leaf will be turned over in our national relationship, and the two nations, which both have in them the capacity for such noble progress and momentous achievements, will henceforth stand side by side, willing to assist as well as to be assisted by each other, each willing to learn from the other as well as each willing to teach-willing to see that the progress and welfare of the one involves the progress and welfare of the other,

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and each willing, therefore, to dread and to avert disaster from the other, because its own disaster would thereby be insured. If this sad but memorable event, then, be the starting-point of so glorious a result, have we not reason to acknowledge in this dispensation, as in all others to acknowledge even with gratitude and joy-the action of that Divine Hand of Love and Wisdom which is ever operating, with infinite solicitude, for the welfare of the creatures it has formed? And can we not all truly say of the great and good man who knew how to wield power with gentleness,-who could detest and destroy principles of death, at the same time that he could treat the men who maintained them with mercy,-who gained the respect and love of all men, and who knew how to speak kindly of his enemies, can we not say of him that "the dead which he slew at his death were more than they that he slew in his life"?-the dead and death-dealing principles of slavery, of dis-union, and of discord among nations.

RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH.

THE doctrine of the Resurrection of the Flesh being one of great antiquity, it is very possible that it emanated from a gradually induced blindness to spiritual things, until at last all knowledge of a spiritual body ceased. That a man lives a man after death, might be known from the story of the witch of Endor and Saul. It may be said, that as Samuel was raised from a grave, such is rather a proof of a resurrection of the natural body; but on second consideration, we find that Samuel had on a mantle, which certainly no person would say had been once worn by him in the natural world. Again, there is the rich man in the parable, who, we are told, had, after his departure from the natural world, a tongue and eyes, which no person would say were those he used in the natural world. Indeed, from the numerous accounts of supernatural existences appearing in the human form, the wonder is that the resurrection of the spirit has not been taught in all Churches.

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The first and leading text from the New Testament in favour of the resurrection of the flesh is taken from Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians,-"If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen." But, as the flesh of Christ could see no corruption, what analogy can there be between His resurrection and that of corruptible flesh? From all that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead, nothing appears to insinuate a resurrection of

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the flesh; on the contrary, he speaks of a spiritual body and a natural body, but no where of a resurrection of the natural. The language of Paul would appear to the simple reader as running in the present tense, and clearly intimating that the resurrection of a spiritual body follows immediately on the death of the natural body. In contradiction to this, it may be said that Paul speaks of the sounding of a trumpet, at which the dead shall be raised incorruptible. True; but he speaks of this as a mystery which could not be applied to a resurrection of the flesh, the belief of which involved nothing of mystery, in manner or effect, at the time Paul wrote; and as he speaks of a spiritual body existing at the time he wrote as an incorruptible one, and as flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, it follows, as a consequence, that the incorruptible spiritual body can alone be capable of hearing the trumpet spoken of. In Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians there is also something mentioned of the dead in Christ rising first, and of others being caught up to meet the Lord in the air; but it is very gratifying to find that all this has been wisely contested, as having no connection with the bursting open of graves; and as Paul speaks in the first person, it cannot surely have been his belief that his own natural body would be elevated to some unknown region in infinite space, especially as he speaks elsewhere of the dissolution of his earthly tabernacle.

The following morceau in explanation of Paul to the Thessalonians, taken from the catechism of the Council of Trent, is very remarkable:"The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive who are left shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. to meet Christ in the air. In that very taking up death shall anticipate, as it were, by a deep sleep, and the soul having gone forth from the body shall instantly return; for those who are alive when taken up shall die, that coming to the Lord they may receive their souls from his presence, because in the presence of the Lord they cannot be dead." When the above had been put forth as the teaching of an infallible Council, imagination must surely have taken the seat that reason should have occupied. There is one thing, however, that the Council has been silent on, namely, the position the soul occupies in the meantime. Another passage of Scripture adduced in confirmation of the resurrection of the flesh is our Lord's disputation with the Sadducees. Now, to any impartial and reflective reader, the words of our Lord will indicate nothing of a simultaneous rising; on the contrary, they would seem to show a continuous rising again of the

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dead, at which rising they who die are as the angels,-in confirmation" of which he introduces Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as being of those who have participated in such a resurrection. Well, indeed, might the multitude be astonished at this doctrine, which was so much at variance with the received opinion of their day; and it is still more astonishing that after all the late criticism on the Scriptures, the simple truth of a resurrection immediately after death has not appeared to the learned.

Lest an idea should occur respecting how those are to rise who have been born without, or have lost some of their members, the Council of Trent has put forth the following, to satisfy the minds of the faithful:

"Not only will the body rise, but it will rise endowed with whatever appertains to the reality of its nature, and to the symmetry and ornament of man. In St. Augustine we read a fine testimony to this effect:-‘There will be then no corporal deformity; if some have been overburdened with flesh, they shall not resume the entire mass of the body; whatever exceeds that proper habit shall be deemed superfluous. On the other hand, in whatsoever the body has been wasted by disease or age, as for instance, should some have been thin through emaciation, it shall be restored by Christ through His divine power, seeing that Christ will not only restore the body unto us, but also whatever shall have been taken therefrom through the wretchedness of this life."

In another place the same author says

"Man shall not resume the hair he once possessed, but such as will become him according to that saying-The very hairs of your head are all numbered,' which shall be restored according to the divine wisdom. In the first place the members, because appertaining to the integrity of human nature, shall altogether be restored, for they who from nature were blind, or who lost their sight through some disease, the lame, the maimed, and those paralysed in any of their members, shall rise again with an entire and perfect body; for otherwise the desires of the soul, which is so strongly inclined to an union with the body, would be far from satisfied; and yet we are convinced that in the resurrection its desires shall be fully realized. Besides it is sufficiently evident that the resurrection, like the creation, is clearly to be numbered amongst the principal works of God. As then at the beginning of creation all things came perfect from the hand of God, we must affirm that such shall also be the case at the resurrection."

Nor are these observations to be restricted to the bodies of the martyrs of whom St. Augustine beareth witness—

"As that mutilation could not but prove a deformity, they shall not be without those members, otherwise they who were beheaded would rise without a head. The scars, however, which they received shall remain shining with a brilliancy more refulgent than that of gold and precious stones, even as the scars of the wounds

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of Christ. This fact also applies most truly to the wicked also, although their members may have been lost through their own fault. For the greater the number of members which they shall have, with so much greater pangs of torments shall they be worn out; and therefore, this restoration of members will serve to increase not their happiness, but their unhappiness and misery, as merit or demerit is ascribed not to the members themselves, but to the person to whose body they are united. For to those who shall have done penance they shall be restored for the purpose of reward; but to those who shall have contemned the same, for punishment."

Who that reflects on the above can fail of seeing the bold production of authority mingled with much that is imaginative? It is indeed a circumstance to be much wondered at why those who passively receive such teaching do not inquire from what source persons born without some of their limbs are to obtain that which they never had, at the resurrection of the flesh. But from all this is it not gratifying to turn to the light that Swedenborg has thrown on the resurrection, which above all other dogmatic teaching had been so universally received as that of the natural body? How consoling to think of an immediate resurrection after death, instead of that vague and uncertain hope of a happy resurrection hid in the unfathomable tomb of time, the secret of its consummation being, we are told, only known to the Father. There can be no doubt that the doctrine of the resurrection now revealed is destined to upset one stone at least in the proud fabric of infallibility and dogmatism; and as the hearts of men become more open to spiritual things, other doctrines which are of such vital importance to eternal life will appear in all their fulness, and that happy kingdom where all shall know the Lord will in due time be developed,-old things must pass away and all things become new. J. B. C.

GENERAL CONFERENCE.

THE ensuing General Conference will be held, by appointment, in the church, Henry-street, Bath, and will commence on the 8th of August next. Societies having information to convey should take an early opportunity of communicating with the Secretary. The Secretaries of the various Committees appointed by the last Conference, and which have to report to the next Conference, are requested to forward their Reports, at an early date, to the Secretary of Conference.

F. PITMAN,

20, Paternoster-row, London, E.C.

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