that the Lord's body was no longer there; it was not
necessary to open the portal in order to afford an exit to the
resurrected Christ. In His immortalized state He appeared in and
disappeared from closed rooms. A resurrected body, though of tangible
substance, and possessing all the organs of the mortal tabernacle, is
not bound to earth by gravitation, nor can it be hindered in its
movements by material barriers. To us who conceive of motion only in the
directions incident to the three dimensions of space, the passing of a
solid, such as a living body of flesh and bones, through stone walls, is
necessarily incomprehensible. But that resurrected beings move in
accordance with laws making such passage possible and to them natural,
is evidenced not only by the instance of the risen Christ, but by the
movements of other resurrected personages. Thus, in September, 1823,
Moroni, the Nephite prophet who had died about 400 A.D., appeared to
Joseph Smith in his chamber, three times during one night, coming and
going without hindrance incident to walls or roof, (see P. of G.P.,
Joseph Smith 2:43; also _The Articles of Faith_, i:15-17). That Moroni
was a resurrected man is shown by his corporeity manifested in his
handling of the metallic plates on which was inscribed the record known
to us as the Book of Mormon. So also resurrected beings possess the
power of rendering themselves visible or invisible to the physical
vision of mortals.

2. Attempts to Discredit the Resurrection Through Falsehood.--The
inconsistent assertion that Christ had not risen but that His body had
been stolen from the tomb by the disciples, has been sufficiently
treated in the text. The falsehood is its own refutation. Unbelievers of
later date, recognizing the palpable absurdity of this gross attempt at
misrepresentation, have not hesitated to suggest other hypotheses, each
of which is conclusively untenable. Thus, the theory based upon the
impossible assumption that Christ was not dead when taken from the
cross, but was in a state of coma or swoon, and that He was afterward
resuscitated, disproves itself when considered in connection with
recorded facts. The spear-thrust of the Roman soldier would have been
fatal, even if death had not already occurred. The body was taken down,
handled, wrapped and buried by members of the Jewish council, who cannot
be thought of as actors in the burial of a living man; and so far as
subsequent resuscitation is concerne