n 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 its means of knowing more deeply, thinking
more wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely,
remembering more firmly and jud