in reality a wonderful thing that there should rise up so many who call in question the truths of the Bihle. The marvel is rather, that in a fallen world the sect of the Sadducees should he so small.
Let us take comfort in the thought that in the long run of years the truth will always prevail. Its advocates may often he feehle, and their arguments very weak. But there is an inherent strength in the cause itself which keeps it alive. Bold infidels like Porphjrry, and Julian, and Hohbes, and Hume, and Voltaire, and Payne arise from time to time and make a stir in the world. But they produce no lasting impression. They pass away like the Sadducees and go to their own place. The great evidences of Christianity remain like the Pyramids, unshaken and unmoved. The "gates of hell" shall never prevail against Christ's truth. (Matt. xvi. 18.)
We see, secondly, in these verses, what a fawurUe weapon of sceptics is a supposed case. We are told that the Sadducees brought to our Lord a difficulty arising out of the case of a woman who had married seven brothers in succession. They professed a desire to know "whose wife of the seven" the woman would be in the resurrection. The intention of the inquiry is clear and plain. They wished to pour contempt on the whole doctrine of a life to come. The case itself is one which we cannot suppose had really arisen. It seems the highest probability that it was a story invented for the occasion, in order to raise a difficulty and found an argu- ment.
Reasoning of this kind will often meet us, if we are thrown into company with persons of a sceptical turn of
LUKBy CHAP. XX. VBE. 27 40. 339
mind. Some imaginary difficulty or complication, and that connected probably with some fancied state of things in the world to come, will often prove the strong-hold of an unbeliever. — '' He cannot understand it ! He cannot reconcile it ! It seems to him revolting and absurd ! It offends his common sense ! " — Such is the language which is often used.
Reasoning of this kind should never shake us for a moment. For one thing, we have nothing to do with supposed and imaginary cases. It will be time enough to discuss them when they really arise. Enough for us to talk and argue about facts as they are. For another thing, it is mere waste of time to speculate about difficul- ties connected with the state of existence in a world to come. We know so little of anything beyond the visible world around us, that we are very poor judges of what is possible or not possible in the tlnseen world. A tiiousand things beyond the grave must necessarily be unintelligible to us at present. In the mean time it is our wisdom to wait patiently. What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, something of the true character of the saints^ existence in the world to come. We read that our Lord said to the Pharisees, '^ They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage : neither can they die any more : for they are equal unto the angels."
Two. things are abundantly dear from this description, respecting the saints in glory. For one thing, their happi- ness is not a carnal happiness, but a spiritual one. '' They