Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/210

204 all things else are spiritual; just as our present bodies must be material, to be fitted for service in a world of matter.

There is another kind of resurrection of which the Scriptures speak, that must not be (though it sometimes is) confounded with that which we are here considering. It is a spiritual resurrection which takes place with all the humble followers of the Lord, on this side of the grave. It is the resurrection from a natural to a spiritual state of life;—from a state of sin or moral death, to a state of holiness; from the old, carnal, selfish life, to the new life of disinterested neighborly love which is the Lord's own life and the very essence of heaven. As the old man with his affections and lusts dies or is put off, and our inner man is renewed after the image of Jesus Christ, we rise to a new and higher life—to that which is meant by "the life eternal." This is the kind of resurrection to which the Lord referred when He said: "I am the resurrection and the life;" and again: "The hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." When those who are entombed in selfishness and sin, hear (that is, obey) the voice of the Lord, they rise from their tombs to newness of life. This is salvation—"the first" or primary resurrection. Hence we read: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection" (Rev. xx. 6).