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CONVERSATION XXVI.

IMMORTALITY OF SPIRIT.

RESURRECTION.

Review. Jesus in the Temple, from the Sacred Text.- Dominion of Sense. Immortality of Spirit. - Theories of Corporeal Reappearance. - Revival of Reminiscence and Faith. - Spiritual and Material Reality. Transfiguration of Matter. - Subordination of Body in Death. -- Idea of Immortality.

Review.

MR. ALCOTT. What was Jesus doing, and where was he, when we left him?

ELLEN. Driving the people out of the temple at Jerusalem ; and we concluded he did it with gentleness. AUGUSTINE, And that he used the whip only to drive out the cattle.

MR. ALCOTT. Yes; that was Josiah's thought, and it seemed to please you. I have mentioned it to others since, and one person said that it was surprising that it had never been thought of before.

He then read the account of

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.

Before the

JOHN ii. 18-22.

18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

Vulgar Era, 27. Resurrection.
Julian Period,
4740.

Temple at Jerusalem.

* Matt xxvi.

19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this 61. & xxvii. 40. temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

Mark xiv. 58.

& xv. 29.

† Heb. viii. 2.

Luke xxiv 8.

21 But he spake † of the temple of his body.

22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Dominion

of Sense.

MR. ALCOTT. Why did they ask a sign? FRANKLIN. They wanted to know what he meant, and wanted some miracle to tell them.

FREDERIC. They wanted some sign that he had a right to do so.

MR. ALCOTT. What did his answer mean?

EMMA. That they would crucify him, and that he should be raised.

Immortality of Spirit.

MR. ALCOTT. Why did he say
ple"?

"this tem

LEMUEL. Because the Body is the Temple

of the Spirit.

FRANKLIN. Because he happened to be in the temple. MARTHA. The temple is the place where people should go to worship God.

SAMUEL T. The body is a temple over the spirit. ANDREW. The body is the temple. The spirit worships not the body.

MR. ALCOTT. The Jews did not know of inward worship; but of outward worship. They had no idea of any other temple than one of mortar and stone, or of wood. Forty and six years was this temple in building," said they.

FRANKLIN. After this body has decayed, it will take some new form, such as of a little baby.

SAMUEL R. The flesh decays; it becomes some other person, or remains dust.

ANDREW. If they destroyed his body, it would afterwards help to make some other body.

FREDERIC. I think those words of Jesus mean, that the spirit will be raised up to heaven, after the body is decayed, and the dust might perhaps make some other body.

WELLES. I think it meant that his spirit would go into this body and raise it up.

Theories of

Corporeal
Reappearance.

JOSIAH. Mr. Alcott, will you tell me where the spirit of Jesus was, while his body was hanging on the cross?

MR. ALCOTT. Where was your spirit before it came into your body?

JOSIAH. It was with God; but still, I do not see where his was at that time. He was going to build up his body again in three days; but if his spirit had been in his body then, it would have made it alive.

MR. ALCOTT. Could it not return to God, and after three days, reënter his body?

JOSIAH. I don't understand how it could.

AUGUSTINE. When Jesus rose from the dead, he only seemed to be a Body to his disciples. No one else saw him or could see him.

MR. ALCOTT. Do any of you think as Augustine does, that there was no real flesh at the resurrection? (No answer.)

There are some who think that if his body did not come out of the grave, Christianity is not proved. They think that the resurrection of the body from the grave is as important to the truth of Christianity as the resurrection of the Soul from the Body.

Do you think the body of Jesus rose from the grave? (Several rose.)

MARTHA and FREDERIC. I do not understand the account of the resurrection, if his body did not rise.

MR. ALCOTT. Do you think it is of small importance that his body should rise?

(All the rest rose.)

RECORDER. Did not the Evangelist mean to teach that the body of Jesus rose and left the tomb empty? MR. ALCOTT. Yes; I think that the Evangelist so viewed it.

Who think the flesh ascended?

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FREDERIC. I think the body rose from the grave. ELLEN. I do not think any flesh ascended, or even

rose.

MR. ALCOTT. Why do painters paint a body in the resurrection and ascension?

ELLEN.

Revival of

and Faith.

Because they could not paint a Spirit.

CHARLES. I think the memory of the disReminiscence ciples would be so strong in Jesus, that after he was killed, his spirit would watch over the body which he had left, and they would be so afflicted, that he would take a body again, and show himself to them.

MR. ALCOTT. Did he intend to take the same body? CHARLES. He would be there spiritually; and the memory of the disciples would be so strong that he would appear to them.

MR. ALCOTT. Do others think that it was through the strength of memory and imagination, the disciples saw him?

FRANKLIN. I think both the resurrection and ascension were in the memory and imagination of the disciples; but then they were real facts, even more real than those which the eyes perceive..

MR. ALCOTT. Which perceives the most Spiritual and Ma- real things, Memory, Imagination or the the Senses?

terial Reality.

(Their opinions were divided.)

MR. ALCOTT. What becomes of the body Transfiguration after death?

of Matter.

NATHAN. It becomes a part of the earth.

MR. ALCOTT. Does that grow?

NATHAN. Yes; it grows up in grass; and then the cows eat it; and then we drink the milk of the cow.

MR. ALCOTT. It is demonstrated by physiology that the matter of the human body is changed every few

years; and some persons think that they can perceive as often a renewal of ideas.

What builds up the body?
FRANKLIN. The spirit.

MR. ALCOTT. And when the spirit leaves the body?
FREDERIC. The body decays.

MR. ALCOTT. And perhaps becomes a rock, or a tree, or an animal. Matter is like a great sea; and the moving of matter - its universal changes is produced by a living Spirit which pervades it. This living Spirit was what Jesus called the Father.

What is meant by rising from the dead? Subordination of What is it to be dead? Is death, in spirits, or in bodies?

Body in Death.

SEVERAL.

Idea of
Immortality.

In bodies, — in matter.

MR. ALCOTT. And Spirit never dies. It is immortal. It endows Nature and the

Body with life.

Now all those may rise who think that Jesus meant by these words, that the body which was nailed to the cross, was to come forth from the grave in three days. (Several rose. The rest thought that he spoke of the resurrection of the Spirit from the Body.)

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