st it, to put it forward in its
acquisitions and enjoyments, we cannot resist the belief that the
addition of the new body to the soul will be a vast accession of power
and capability. If the eye and the mind can receive such aid from the
telescope here, who knows that the eye of the glorified body may not be
itself a telescope, increasing in its capability with the progress of
its being.

We may have some view of what the glorified body must necessarily be, in
thinking of it as a fit companion to the glorified spirit. The soul
having been in heaven for ages, and having grown in all spiritual
excellence, the body, to be a help to such a spirit, to be an occasion
of joy, and not of regret, must, of course, be in advance of our present
corporeal nature. What must the body of Isaiah, and of David, be, at the
resurrection, to correspond with the vast powers and attainments of
those glorified spirits? We could not believe, certainly we could not
see, how these bodies of ours could be made capable of such union, were
it not that, in the man Christ Jesus, we see our corporeal nature
capable of such transformation as to make it compatible for his human
mind, and indwelling Deity, to receive it into their ineffable union.

All this being so, we may, in some measure, conceive of the feelings
with which the souls in heaven anticipate the resurrection; and we cease
to wonder why Paul speaks of his resurrection as the great object of his
desire--not merely to be in heaven, but, being in heaven, with Christ,
to be in possession of a completed nature, like Christ's.

From the grave where it was sown in corruption, it will come forth in
incorruption; sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glory; sown in
weakness, it will be raised in power; sown a natural body, it will be
raised a spiritual body. It was "bare grain" when it fell into the
earth; but the corn, with its stalk, and leaves, and the curious ear,
with its silk, and its wrappings, the multiplication of the "bare grain"
into such a product, are an illustration of the apostle's words,--"Thou
sowest not that body that shall be;" hence, he argues, say not,
incredulously, "How are the dead raised, and with what body do they
come?" God giveth the grain a body as it hath pleased him; he can do
the same with regard to that part of man's nature which is committed for
a while to the earth. Let not the natural difficulties connected with
this subject make us sceptical. There are no mor