presented the modern materialists. It is to be noted that the
question with which they approached Jesus was not one which referred only
to immortality but specifically to the resurrection of the body. They
proposed the case of a woman married successively to seven brothers from
each of whom she was separated by death; and they asked, "In the
resurrection therefore whose wife of them shall she be? for the seven had
her to wife." They hoped that Jesus would either deny the orthodox belief
as to the resurrection or would make some statement which would contradict
the Law of Moses in accordance with which the successive marriages were
made. They implied that this accepted Law was inconsistent with the belief
in a resurrection.

In his reply Jesus declared that in the resurrection life will be
regulated by larger laws than are known in this present age. Those who
will share the glory of that age, and who will experience the blessedness
of "the resurrection from the dead" will be immortal in soul and body.
Marriage, which is now necessary for a continuance of the race, will no
longer exist. The relationships in that life will be higher than even the
most sacred relationship of the present life. Those who have a part in
this resurrection will be "equal unto the angels," not in all particulars,
but in the fact that their state will be deathless. In that larger sense
they will be "sons of God" and "sons of the resurrection," for death will
have lost its power over them.

Such a reply should be carefully weighed by men of the present day who
deny miracles and refuse to believe in resurrection and immortality. Many
beliefs which are now ridiculed because they seem to contradict
established laws of science will some day be vindicated by the discovery
of higher and more inclusive laws than are now known.

In his answer Jesus already had rebuked the Sadducees for denying the
existence of angels. He next established the fact of the resurrection by a
quotation from the very Law on which they had depended to show that
resurrection was impossible. He recalled the words recorded by Moses in
reference to "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob." He then added, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
Jesus meant to establish the fact of the continued existence of the dead;
yet not merely this, but to prove the resurrection of the dead. The latter
was the question at issue. The word "living," as used by o