Correspondence.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4998, 19 January 1885, Page 2

Correspondence.

These columns are open to all correspondence of public interest, but we do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of writers. Correspondence must in all 3ases be authenticated by the real name and address ■>l the writer—not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

[To the Editor of the Evening Star.]

Sin,—l humbly beg space iv your liberal journal for the following :—There are at least ten different denominations on the Thames who profeas to be followers of Christ in accord with the Scriptures, yet cannot agree. The mind of the hearer beojmes confused by the conflicting state-; ment3 of the so-called rererends. I have just read a statement by Rev. J. Brown <n a very important subject—"The .Resurrection." He says the corn you reaped ia not the corn you sowed ; yet it ia cura as real'y as what you so* ed—like

it, yet not it. The seed jou sowed docayed and perished, but out of it grew seed precisely like it. He goes on to say, the body is laid in the grave and a body will rise from the grave-a real body, though differing widely from that which was buried. Further, he says nothing can be clearer than that the body will be as real, material, substantial then as it is ' now; that that self-same body will take its place in heaven or hell. Now, Mr Editor, if my knowledge of Scripture is not at fault, I am not in accord with Mr Brown. Let us ask the farmer, doth he expect a crop of wheat from the feed he sows, if that sown has decayed and perished ? I believe the farmer will answer no. Lefc us compare with Scripture, and we find in Matthew, 13c, that man is called wheat, and in the parable in John, 12c, 24r. It is clearly shown, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die (not perish) it abideth alone, but if it die (sleep) it bringeth forth much fruit. Jesus died, but his body neither decayed nor perished, yet both his soul and body irent to hell (the grave); but God did not lipafe his soul in hell, nor suffer his body to go to corruption, and this soul was delivered from that pit, as written in Isaiah—" Behold for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivored it from the pit of corruption," and in the Psalms—"For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell." The grave is the chamber of souls, say the Scriptures. Can it be said of any other than Jesus, whose bodies have been put in the grave, that they have or will not go to corruption, so decay and perish. But as the germ or life within the shell of wheat doth not perish—it only sleeps or lays dormants until the season, when it shows life by sending forth a blade, but the shell in which that life or germ had dwelt gees again to earth (dust) —so it is with man who dies. The soul, or life, with the body, are put in the grave; the body, like the shell of wheat, returns to dust, and the soul (life) only sleeps in the *!ust until the resurrection, then the spirit will return and quicken or awaken that soul out of sleep, which will become a body for the spirit, and will then be a spiritual body as an angel, like what appeared to Mary (shadow). She thought it was the gardener that she saw, when it was the soul and spirit only of Jesus, showing the resurrection* but when Christ, with the spirit and soul of Jesus united with the body, stood in the midst where the eleven were assembled with closed doors, He showed a tangible immortal body (substance), which could be handled, not as argels are (shadow). Paul says, "Corruptible shall put on incorruption; mortal shall put on immortality"—a clear distinction. I understand that man is mortal in hit present state. Should he die and ;the body go to corruption it is no longer mortal, therefore cannot put on immor* tality; but those who are to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ will not die. God says be will cleanse their blood; they will then be as Jesus was when mortal. Afterwards he will thoroughly wash away their blood, and preserve spirit, sou], and body alive blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and will then be made immortal, exempt from death, like Enoch and Elijah. There are three living states shown in Jesusmortal, immortal, immortality. He is the only one which hath attained to the glory of immortality, and no one whose body goesto corruption will be an heir of that glory. Reader, what is here written is Scripture doctrine, not the doctrine,.or yet the commandments, taught by the precepts of men. There are too many proofs in the Bible to appear in one letter, so end this —I am, Ac, '■: . I Biblist.