It is evident that man falls to a state of insensibility in death, and remains in sleep while the spiritual body is forming out of those subtle materials, that at death pass into hades; and when the reorganization is completed, the new being is born into the kingdom of immortal glory.  A drowning man, we know, falls to a state of unconsciousness.  Fainting—­yes, even a night’s sleep proves that the mind is susceptible of falling into insensibility, or suspending its mental operations, and disproves the notion of its entering a future state, only through a resurrection of the dead.  This fact is not only substantiated by reason, but it is the doctrine of Revelation.  The wise man says, “the dead know not any thing.”  Paul, in the xv.  Chap. 1 Cor.  Predicates the truth of our resurrection on the fact that Christ rose from the dead; and on this ground he reasons, that if there be no resurrection, then preaching is vain, faith is also vain, the christians were yet in their sins, and they that were fallen asleep in Christ were perished, and concludes by saying, “let us eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.”  Suppose a christian should this moment die, and, according to common opinion, enter immediately on an immortal existence.  Could we now say—­if there be no resurrection, he is fallen asleep in Christ and perished?  No, because, instead of being perished, i.e. Annihilated, he would remain in infinite happiness and glory, even if there should, never, be any resurrection.  So you perceive that Paul did not believe any one could enter eternity only through a resurrection.  He believed, they would fall asleep in Christ, and in that sleep remain till in Christ they were made alive.  He embraces the whole in the following words—­“Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”

When the sentence of death was pronounced upon Adam, which was to pass upon all men, the promise of a Saviour then made, was, it appears, not understood.  Their posterity looked forward for a temporal king, and had no idea of an immortal existence beyond the “narrow house.”  Death the king of terrors, was not yet disarmed of his sting by the resurrection of our triumphant Redeemer.  This truth was not yet revealed to men.  Here the human family were without hope, and trembling at the darkness—­the seven fold darkness of the tomb.  No ray of light and joy beamed from that cheerless mansion to ease the aching heart, or dispel that melancholy gloom, which pervaded the parental bosom when gazing for the last time upon the struggles of a dying child.

Here was a world born into existence under the certain sentence of death, and groaning in the bondage of corruption, without any hope of being delivered from it, by an immortal birth, “into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”  In this period of anxiety and distress, the glad tidings were proclaimed to the shepherds on the plains of Judea, announcing the birth of the Saviour of the world.  A new birth, which is not mentioned in the old Testament, was at length proclaimed by a Saviour in the new.  He died on the cross, and was “the first born from the dead.”