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THE RESURRECTION PRINCIPLE.

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 1, 1856,
BY THE REV. HENRY MELVILL, B.D.

(Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty,)

AT ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH, LOTHBURY.

"Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die."-1 Corinthians xv. 36. TAKING these words in connection with other parts of the chapter, we may consider St. Paul as intimating, that the resurrection of the body ought not to pass as incredible, just as though it were altogether without parallel. You will remember that our subject on last Tuesday* was the showing you, that the resurrection of the body ought not to be considered incredible. In the operations of nature we may find something strictly analogous to the dissolution and subsequent re-appearance of the body. It would not indeed be fair to argue, that the doctrine of the resurrection is thus either established or explained; but at least there may be found so apt and striking an illustration, that we should act most unwarrantably in rejecting the doctrine as incredible, and against possibility. The resurrection is daily imaged in the processes of vegetation. The husbandman casts the seed into the ground; this seed, after corrupting for a while and dying, in the sense of ceasing to be what it was, springs up under a renewed form, and yields increase to the sower. So that the objections against the resurrection of the body, derived from the dissolution and corruption of that body, would lie with just as much force against the shooting afresh of the corn-blade, after the change which passes on the grain. And though, as we have already intimated, there would be no correctness in inferring the resurrection of the dead from the processes of vegetation, yet we certainly have no right to question the possibility of a resurrection, with those processes continually before our eyes.

Such would seem the general drift of the apostle's argument, as introduced by the words of our text. We do not, however, purpose on the present occasion to confine your thoughts to the single matter of the body's resurrection the passage is the announcement of a great and general principle, which pervades the whole of God's dealings with men. The principle is that of a resurrection; and it runs, as we shall see, through God's natural dealings, and his spiritual dealings. If we throw aside for an instant all reference to the metaphor, we may affirm, that it is God's ordinary course of proceeding to allow apparent destruction, as preparatory or introductory to the working of this principle. It is not his course to permit the springing up, until there has been, on all human calculation, a thorough withering away. And this it is which we call the principle of a resurrection, pervading * See No. 2,553 of the Penny l'ulpit.

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the whole of God's dealings; namely, that a state of corruption, or a state of seeming overthrow and discomfiture, is made almost invariably to precede a state of excellence, or of power, or of triumph. It is to the elucidation of this somewhat singular truth, that we desire at the present time to turn your at tention. We take the assertion, that that which is sown "is not quickened; except it die ;" and we think to prove to you, that it is nothing less than a principle according to which the Creator's dealings are commonly regulated. We think to make out, that whether we survey our race collectively, or take the case of each member individually, there is just the same character in the appointments of God,-a burial and afterwards a resurrection being, so to speak, the steps of his processes. Come, then, let us follow the division thus indicated. Let us examine God's dealings, first, with our race collectively, and secondly, with man individually, and let us study in each case to show, that that which is sown is not quickened, except it first die.

I. Now, we know well enough, that over the earth which we inhabit there has passed a vast change, in consequence of human transgression. This globe is not now the glorious and richly enamelled thing which it was when God looked approvingly on his workmanship, and pronounced it very good; the spoiler has been let loose on its surface, and though there remains much of what is fair, and noble, and beautiful, yet on all the grandeur, and on all the loveliness, may be marked the foot-prints of the destroyer; so that we might rather describe our planet as a splendid wreck, than as a perfect specimen of the might and the skill of the Creator. But we yet further know, from the intimations of Scripture, that a season approaches, when, after a baptism of fire, this earth shall re-appear in richer than its long lost splendours, and then the creation which through many centuries has "groaned and travailed in pain," shall be "delivered from the bondage of corruption," and glowing with a brighter than its first beauty, move in a freer than its first companionship with the radiant worlds which throng immensity. And we fasten on this restoration of all things, following as it does on the continued devastation, as illustrating the principle whose workings we are seeking to trace. A state of dissolution and decay introduces one of stability and incorruption. The earth, thrown first of all in magnificence on the field of the firmament, has been for ages shrouded, as it were, and sepulchred, so that its original features have been worn away by the disorganization and the decomposition which sin has produced. But if the earth have yet to arise from these disasters, and walk a brilliant course, after this long and dark entombment, then the resurrection principle is as applicable to our globe as to the grain of corn and the body of man. Intending to make its ruin introductory to its most glorious state, God might have said of it, when first cast on the spreadings of space," That which is sown is not quickened, except it first die;" and beyond question, that which holds good of the dwellingplace, holds good as accurately of the inhabitants. It cannot be doubted that they unto whom the virtues of Christ's death are savingly applied will ultimately be unspeakably advantaged by the transgression of Adam. There is such efficacy in the work of mediation, that more is procured by our second representative than was lost by our first. Those for whom Christ died will through all eternity belong to Christ by a nearer and dearer relationship than can link him to others who never needed so vast an interposition. Elect angels shall never experience this most rapturous and overpowering of all feelings-God so loved me, that he sent his only begotten Son, to fight my battle and to bear my punishment;' and without insisting on the superiority of the blessedness of a redeemed creature, as compared with that of an unfallen, we have enough for our argument in the unquestioned fact, that after descending into a state which is literally that of a death in trespasses and sins, a way is opened for our race, through which they may emerge into a state of bliss and immortality.

What, then, is the general history of mankind, but a mighty development of that principle of a resurrection, which we have inferred discernible in the dealings of God? The soul, was a noble seed, having within it the germ of a glorious eternity; but the human race almost instantly degenerated, and was

given over to corruption and decay. Thus it went not onwards, from the day of its being first cast upon the earth, to a goodly stature, as a cedar of the Lord; there has intervened, on the contrary, a protracted season, during which the seed has only mouldered away, and grown continually more and more decomposed; but God has so ordered his dealings, that this long burialtime is to issue in a splendid renovation, so that the race which has thrown itself into the darkness of the charnel-house, shall start from the grave, and walk in the lustre of a close communion with himself. And if it be thus by passing through a corrupted and degraded state, that human nature enters on that of its richest purity and its noblest exaltation, and if in place of causing it to spring up at once to its perfection, God permitted it to go down into pollution, and to wither and to waste, designing all the while to make the dying preliminary only to a more illustrious living, it is only fair to contend, that the resurrection principle was running through the whole of his dealings with mankind, and that the Almighty has acted towards our race on this settled and well-defined rule-" That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die."

And if we pass from these general declarations to others less extensive in their range, we shall not be the less struck with the occurrence of a resurrection. We have not perhaps sufficient material for making out a proof, that God follows the supposed law in his various dealings with nations and individuals. We may, however, bring forward sundry instances in which the principle is discoverable; and the inference would then be fair, that if we had larger data, we might effect a more thorough demonstration. We observe, first of all, that the history of Christianity is little more than a record of the alternatious of burials and resurrections. We do not merely mean that after a declension has come a revival; we mean that, as with the casting of the seed in the ground, the declension, whatever has been its cause, has actually proved the means of producing a wider harvest of faith and of obedience. In proof of this assertion, your own thoughts will at once recur to the wars and the persecutions to which at its outset Christianity was exposed, when the fury of the Roman emperors had exhausted itself in hunting down the followers of Christ, so that when to all human appearance religion was on the point of being exterminated, it was always found that a more flourishing season than ever was at hand, so that the more the ear was crushed, the deeper struck the root and the wider spread the boughs of Christianity. So accurately, in short, did the history of our faith, when thus assailed by the fire and sword of the heathen, exemplify the workings of the resurrection principle which is under review, that the proverb to which persecution gave birth couched itself in the very language of our text. The proverb, as you know, was, "that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" and what shall we say of this proverb, than that it affirms disaster to have been productive of triumph, and that the religion of Christ made way through the being trampled on and bruised? The church seemed to die in her martyrs and confessors; but this dying-time proved nothing more than a seed-time. New converts rushed eagerly on, to fill up the thin ranks of the faithful; the more fearfully the persecution mowed down the harvest, the more thickly stood the corn on the blood-bought fields; and thus as Christianity went forward, contending against the might and the malice of the evil spirits of men, God caused that her march should form a standing proof of this principle of his government-"That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die."

And we may derive yet further illustration from the history of Christianity. It might have seemed to us a thing to have been altogether expected, that when redemption had been effected, the whole world would have been speedily evangelized, and the knowledge of a Saviour rapidly diffused to the farthest outskirts of the human population. Age after age the earth had seemed abandoned of its Maker; there had come no communications from the Lord of the land, except to an inconsiderable and scarcely known tribe, who sent not forth the tidings to men of other districts; the great body of mankind was left to the finding out God by unassisted wisdom; and this was

leaving them to all the follies of an egregious superstition; and when the Almighty in his mercy interposed, and acted on this ruined creation by the awful instrumentality of his Son's death and passion, it might, we think naturally have been looked for, that the tidings would have passed rapidly into every province, and been eagerly received, and that scarcely any interval would have elapsed, between the two events of Christ's dying for the world, and the world falling prostrate and hailing him as their Deliverer. And yet the fact is, that there has never been more than a partial and scanty diffusion of Christianity. The melancholy truth is, that at no time could a Christian take into his hand the map of the nations, without being compelled to mark as idolatrous more territory than he could claim as evangelized. What can be affirmed now-now that we perhaps touch the very boundary of the dispensation? What can be affirmed, than that, after a series of vigorous and well-directed efforts to plant the cross on every section of the globe, after sending out our missionaries to carry on a war of faith, and of prayer, and of teaching in behalf of Christianity,-what can be affirmed, than that there has been made but inconsiderable progress towards the overthrow of falsehood? Why, very often the increase, amongst the nations of Christendom, of infidelity and scepticism would almost warrant the theory, that were the balance struck between the advancement of Christianity through the conversion of idolators, and the decline of Christianity through the backsliding of its disciples, it would appear as if in place of making progress its empire had been going back. But every student of Scripture will find, that prophecy prepares men to expect such a catastrophe. The picture of a gradually disseminated gospel, of a world evangelized bit by bit, till through the workings of an existing mechanism every tribe, and tongue, and people be brought under the banner of Christ-such a picture can never fairly be drawn from the statements of the Bible. The scriptural representation is rather that of Christianity just keeping, if we may so speak, the head above water, until Jesus shall come in his majesty, and set up that kingdom which is to rise from the wreck of the colossal image that in a vision of the night was seen by the prophet. In place of true religion advancing, as the time of the end draws nigh, it is clear from Scripture, that upon the very threshold of the millennium atheism and infidelity will stand proud and dominant; that the herald of the Saviour's approach will be the bolder scoffing of the impious, and a more determined endeavour to sweep all knowledge of Christ from the earth-a fiercer struggling of the Man of Sin, and withal such a cooling of the love of disciples, and such a shrinking from the torrent of assault, that Jesus seemed almost to question whether his religion would not have wholly disappeared, for he asked, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?" But if the triumphal state of Christianity is thus to be preceded by so depressed a state, which as the end draws nigh is assuredly to grow worse, then we hold that the history of our faith is a most accurate exhibition of God's adherence to the principle of a resurrection. It is indeed appointed that Christianity should be the religion of the whole world. A noble period is marked out by prophecy, when "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea;" but this appointment does not take place, this period does not arrive, until Christianity shall have passed through centuries of adversity, and its opponents have almost seemed to gain the upper hand. Then I ask you, under what imagery can we describe the long depression, and then the sudden and unlimited sovereignty of the religion of Christ, if not by speaking of that religion as of a seed sown in the earth, apparently dying, ere it yield a due return to the husbandman? The tree shall yet arise, mighty in its trunk, and glorious in the spreading of its foliage; and there shall not be a lonely spot on the surface of the globe, which is not overshadowed by the branches of the produce of the mighty grain of mustard seed. And forasmuch as until the dawning of the millennium there shall be but inconsiderable shoots, and those too, oftentimes stripped of their leaves, and bent and broken, we do justly in describing the present time as a season during which, by processes of decomposition, the seed is made ready to germinate, and pointing

onwards to a day, when by a wondrous uprising there shall proceed from one stem a firmament, as it were, of boughs, overshadowing the nations. We appeal to God's appointment in respect to the progress of Christianity, as shaped most accurately in accordance with the principle laid down in our text: "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die."

Now, it is further deserving of remark, though we have only space for a passing hint, that God adheres to the resurrection principle in the mechanism, so to speak, by which this final establishment of Christianity shall be effected. We know from abundant Scriptural testimony, that the Jew will be the great missionary to the Gentile, the evangelizing of the world following as a consequence on the restoration to Judea of its long exiled tribes. Thus the Jews are to be regarded as the true missionary-seed, from which in directly as well as directly shall spring the amazing harvest which shall cover the earth's fields under a new dispensation; yet has this seed been rotting for ages and corrupting in the ground; the Jews for successive centuries have been an injured and trampled down people; who that should gaze on the seed would not pronounce of it, that the germ was destroyed, and it were hopeless to look for future vegetation? But taking Scripture for our guide, we know that the case of the Jew is just a fresh proof that God is only working on that principle which we designate the resurrection principle. The seed is sown, but the seed is not quickened, except it first die. The Jews are now in a state of death: but this is only preliminary to a state of life; and with so much fidelity does the imagery of the Bible keep in view the resurrection principle, that when St. Paul describes the effects of the restoration of the Jews, he goes straightway to this principle, for he says, "What shall the raising of them be but life from the dead ?"

And we yet further observe, that in all likelihood, if we could systematically examine those plans and undertakings which God ultimately crowns with his blessing, we should find that they are ordinarily subjected to the very law which we are now occupied in tracing. They do not succeed at first; but after being apparently frustrated, they rise into prosperous working. We cannot, indeed, from the nature of the case, prove to you that such is invariably God's course of proceeding; but we may give you a pertinent instance, and leave you to find out its parallels. The glorious work of the Reformation-a work for which we can never be sufficiently thankful unto Almighty God-was commenced in this country in the reigns of Henry VIII. and his son. Vigorous advances were made towards shaking off the trammels which the Papal despotism had fastened on the nation; but so illustrious a deliverance could not be perfected without an interruption; the work must be completed by resurrection, and therefore it must die before it could be matured. Queen Mary arose, and the fires of persecution blazed high through the land; during her reign the Reformation was not only at a stand still, but progress was made towards enchaining more firmly than ever the almost emancipated country. But a better time was at hand; the sceptre passed from Mary to Elizabeth, and Protestantism in its strength and in its glory was finally established as the religion of the land. And thus the seed which had been sown, as it were, in the days of Henry, and which died under the tyranny of Mary, sent up a full harvest when Elizabeth ascended the throne. Have we not right, therefore, to affirm, that the work of the Reformation exemplified God's adherence to this principle of a resurrec tion ? That which was sown could not have been quickened except it died. We should not perhaps be warranted in saying, that it invariably holds good that success is not allowed until disasters have been experienced; but the more widely you observe, and the more attentively you examine, the more disposed you will be to conclude, that those enterprises on which ultimately God specially smiles seem ordinarily the first to languish under his frown. And this is exactly what we should expect, if the resurrection principle is maintained-discomfiture, according to that principle, being the high road to mastery.

We would only further remark, in reference to this portion of our subject, that the redemption of the world was a signal instance of apparent defeat

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