ject the words of everlasting life. We see therefore the propriety
of the apostles dwelling so much upon that great event, which should
witness the passing away of the types and shadows and the
establishment of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SERMON XXI
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1
Cor. xv:20.
The death and resurrection of all mankind are a theme of no ordinary
moment, and have given birth to many theories and speculations among
the advocates of Christianity. The common opinion is that one portion
of our race will be raised to immortal life and glory in the future
world, and the other to immortal damnation and dishonor--that at the
same instant the living will be changed and that the whole human
family will, in this condition, be arraigned before the "Judge of
quick and dead," and receive their irrevocable sentence for endless
joy or endless wo. Others believe, in opposition to these limited
views of the divine character, that the resurrection is the closing
scene of the great plan of salvation, and that no judgment is to
succeed it. This resurrection, they believe, will introduce the
numerous posterity of Adam into the same condition of immortal glory
and honor, being made, by the power of God, "equal unto the angels,
and be the children of God being the children of the resurrection." As
to the _judgment day_, they do not believe, that the whole human
family will be congregated in one amazing throng at one period of
time, but that the judgment of the world, by Jesus Christ, commenced
at the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Mosaic dispensation, with
all its imposing rituals, passed away, and that this _judgment_, or in
other words, this _gospel reign_ of Christ, is still progressing, and
will completely terminate before the resurrection takes place.
Notwithstanding this view of the day of judgment, yet they suppose
that the _resurrection day_ is a designated period when the cerement
of the dead shall burst, and all the slumbering nations,
simultaneously, start up from their beds of clay, the living at the
same instant be changed to immortal beings, and this countless throng,
in one unbroken strain, shout--"O death! Where is thy sting? O grave!
Where is thy victory"?
Though this scene would be full, and immortally sublime, and disclose
a grandeur which a seraph's eloquence never can describe, yet I take
the liberty to dissent from this long and fondly cherished opinion,
a
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