one is ‘sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.’  Natural decay is contrasted with immortal youth.  The one is ’sown in dishonour,’ the other is ‘raised in glory.’  That contrast is ethical, and refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in relation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to the ideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the appetites.  The one is ‘sown in weakness,’ the other is ’raised in power’; the one is ‘sown a natural body,’ the other is ’raised a spiritual body.’  Is not Paul in this whole series of contrasts thinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ appeared before him?  And had not the years which had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended Christ the prophecy and the pattern of what His servants should become?  We have further to keep in view Paul’s other representation in 2nd Corinthians v., where he strongly puts the contrast between the corporeal environment of earth and ‘the body of glory,’ which belongs to the future life, in his two images:  ’the earthly house of this tabernacle’—­a clay hut which lasts but for a time,—­and ’the building of God, the house not made with hands and eternal.’  The body is an occasion of separation from the Lord.

These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix.  For example, they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to decay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and no refreshment of sleep.  ’The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,’ suggests strength constantly communicated by a direct divine gift.  And from all these negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes.  The two young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem as young if we saw them to-day.

Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for communication with the external universe.  We know that the present body conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take cognisance of all the qualities of material things.  Microscopes and telescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range.  Our ear hears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is silence.  Sometimes the creatures whom we call ‘inferior’ seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware.  Balaam’s ass saw the obstructing angel before Balaam did.  Nor is there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in the body.  It is possible that that body which is the fit instrument of the spirit may become