at they should tell no man _what things they had
seen_," &c. See also Luke ix. 36. Here it is made certain that it was
not an appearance in a dream, but a real and visible sight of three
persons whose names are given. Consequently Moses and Elias were there
as certain as was Jesus Christ. If so, they must have been raised from
the dead, for man can have no conscious existence hereafter in a
disembodied state. The scriptures teach that the resurrection is our
only hope of a future conscious state of being. As to the translation
of Elijah we shall not here notice it.

Phil. i. 23, 24. "_For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire
to depart and be with Christ which is far better; nevertheless to
abide in the flesh is more needful for you_." To depart and be with
Christ must, I conceive, mean in the resurrection world, for in no
other sense could he be with Christ so as to render his condition "far
better." Nothing can be _good or bad_ for a man in a state of perfect
insensibility, any more than for a man unborn--Neither could he be
with Christ in such a State, any more than before he existed. Between
the condition of a man in non-existence [pardon the expression] and in
life, no comparison as to enjoyment or suffering can possibly be
drawn. The apostle therefore draws a comparison between his present
condition of conscious existence with his brethren, and his future
condition of conscious existence with Christ which was far better.

That Paul has reference, in the above, to an immortal existence in the
resurrection, is evident from 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3, 4.

"_For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being
clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life_."

If the above do not prove that the apostle expected to be clothed upon
with his house from heaven shortly after his earthly tabernacle were
dissolved, then I must acknowledge my ignorance of his meaning. He
desires not to be unclothed so as to be found naked at the coming of
Christ. By this I understand that between death and the resurrection
there is a state of insensibility of several days duration