the power of God." Who knows where the principle of the organic life of the body is ? It may be in the soul, which when the time comes may unfold itself into a new body, gathering or regathering its materials according to its own law ; just as the jjrinciple of vegetable life in the seed unfolds itself into some gorgeous flower, gathering from surrounding nature the materials for its new organization. The identity between the present and future body is implied in the apostle's illustration. But it is his object neither to assert that identity, nor to ex- plain its nature. The latter is a very subordinate point. The Bible clearly teaches that our bodies hereafter are to be the same as those which we now have ; but it nowhere teaches us wherein that sameness consists. In w^hat- sense is a sprouting acorn the same with the full-grown oak ? Not in substance, not in form, not in appearance. It is, however, the same indi- vidual organism. The same is true of the human body. It is the same in old age that it was in infancy. But in what sense ? The materials of which the body is composed change many tunes in the course of an ordinary life, yet the body remains the same. We may rest assured that our future bodies will be the same with those which we now have in a high and satisfying sense, though until the time comes we may be as little able to explam the nature of that identity as we are to tell what constitutes the identity of the body in this life. The same body which is sown in tears, shall be reaped in joy. To doubt the fact of the resurrection, because we cannot under- stand the process, is, as the apostle says, a proof of folly.
37. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other (grain) :
The first clause of this verse stands, as it were, absolutely. And as to that which thou sowest — thou soioest not the tody that shall he. That is, you do not sow the plant, but the hare grain^ i. e. the simple, naked grain — it may he of loheat^ or of some other grain. The point of the illustration is, that what comes up is very different from that which is deposited in the ground. You sow a seed, a plant appears. You sow a natu- ral, corruptible body ; a spiritual, incorruptible body appears. Nature itself therefore teaches that the objection that the future body must be like the present, is of no force.