474 RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD
to the sons of men. Or, in other words, if in the first anthem we realize the guilt of sin atoned for by t he Paschal Lamb, in the second we joyfully celebrate the power of sin crushed through the overcoming life within, and in the third we foretell the result of sin cancelled through the second Adam, who is " the Lord from heaven." All the three groups of thought find special allusion in the collect already quoted, which, from 1549 to 1552, followed two of these anthems at the head of the Easter morning service.1
III.
The Promise of the Kesurrection.
"The first-fruits of them that are asleep."
The word " first-fruits " has a very definite signification in the Scriptures. There was a commandment given to the people of Israel that when they entered into the possession of the Land of Promise, they were not to begin harvest till they had first cut down a sheaf and presented or waved it before the Lord, in thanksgiving as well as in token that they and their harvests belonged to the Lord. The circumstances connected with the offering of the first-fruits are singularly suggestive of a higher symbolism. The sheaf was offered on the third day after the Passover. In this we see Christ, the sheaf of first-fruits, rising from the dead on the third day after His Passion, the first begotten from the dead the precursor of the harvest yet to come, the proof, pledge, and pattern of the resurrection of the just.
1. The resurrection of Christ is the proof of tlie resurrection of them that are asleep. When a farmer holds in his hand the first ripe sheaf of corn he has in possession an unassailable proof that he will have a harvest. More decisive and satisfactory evidence to that effect could not be desired by any reasonable man. Long before this time the precious seed had been cast into the dark bosom of the earth, when no tokens were visible that nature possessed any power of life. But in due season the sun began to warm the sleeping world, the gentle rain from heaven fell upon the place beneath, and the winds of the south whispered of a
1 T. A. Gurney.
i CORINTHIANS xv. 20 475
coming revival. Soon there was first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear, and then the first ripe sheaf telling of a harvest at hand. Christ is the first-fruits of them that sleep, the infallible proof that we shall have a resurrection from the gloomy winter of death.
Think of one who never in his life saw a harvest or spoke with any one to whom it was a familiar thing, who was well acquainted with sowing, but an utter stranger to reaping. Suppose, further, that not one harvest had ever gladdened the earth in any corner of it, and you have some idea of the state of knowledge necessarily possessed by men of old, concerning the rising again from the dead. Men had been but too familiar with sowing ; from age to age they had committed to the earth all that remained of the fondest, the fairest, the best that they had. " Earth had been sown thick with graves," but there had been no harvest; none had ever been seen to return from the " dark portal, the goal of all mortal." Earth had swallowed up an immeasurable quantity of seed without showing any symptom of spring-time or harvest. We need not wonder that the Old Testament gives little light on £he great rising again of the people of God. The Psalms and the Prophets occasionally show that there was light, and they may have had more than we can see in their records of the old days ; but their light must have been dim and uncertain, seeing that none had ever risen from the dead to die no more. Enoch and Elijah were removed from the world in a mysterious way ; they never looked upon the pale messenger, and their feet never touched the cold waters of the border land ; but none of the sons of mortal men had ever risen from the grave to immortality.
Before the resurrection of Christ there had been instances of what is popularly termed " resurrection," as in the case of Lazarus and others whom Christ raised from the dead. In the Old Testament period, also, there had been similar cases, as in the history of Elijah and Elisha. Had the resurrection of Christ been like these earlier "resurrections," as we call them, simply the return of the spirit to the waiting body, and a mere reviving and continuance of the interrupted life, it is hard to see truth in the terms frequently applied to Christ as " the firstborn from the dead" (Col. i. 18), " the firstborn of the dead" (Eev. i. 5), " the firstfruits" (1 Cor. xv. 20, 23). We recognize the appropriate-
476 RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD
ness of such terms to Christ only when we perceive that His reappearance within the circle of the friends who had buried Him was not on a level with that of Lazarus, but in a higher mode of life than that which He had quitted. In Lazarus we behold simply the reanimation of the natural body, and the resumption of the fleshly life. In Christ we behold resurrection in the spiritual body, and assumption of the life of the world to come. This is fully demonstrated by the facts given in the Gospel record, and this is required by the exceptional pre-eminence which the New Testament accords to Christ's rising from the dead. Butv one instance of that which is indeed the resurrection »has been vouchsafed to our knowledge, as a sure pledge of that which is to come. This is manifest in the risen Christ, who thereby " was declared to be the Son of God with power " (Eom. i. 4). All the partial resemblances to this which are found on record are cases of mere resuscitation or reanimation.