THE RESURRECTION ILLUSTRATED. 



131 



Thunder-storms and tempests contribute to the 

 purification of the atmosphere ; and volcanoes 

 are converted into funnels for vomiting up those 

 fiery materials which produce earthquakes, and 

 which might otherwise swallow up whole pro 

 vinces in one mighty gulf. In the ordinary 

 course of things, such phenomena are more ter 

 rific than destructive ; and are calculated rather 

 to rouse an unthinking world to consideration, 

 than to prove the instruments of human destruc- 

 lion. Compared with the miseries which men 

 have voluntarily inflicted on one another, the 

 destructive effects of the elements of nature 

 dwindle into mere temporary and trifling acci 

 dents. We have reason to believe, that a much 

 greater destruction of human beings has been 

 produced by two or three of the late battles in 

 modern Europe, such as those of Waterloo, 

 Borodina, and Smolensko, than has been pro 

 duced by all the electrical storms, earthquakes, 

 and volcanic eruptions, which have raged for the 

 space of a hundred years. It has been calcu 

 lated, that during the Russian campaign of 1812, 

 including men, women, and children, belonging to 

 the French and Russians, there were not less 

 than five hundred thousand human victims sacri 

 ficed to the demon of war. It is probable, that 

 the destruction produced among the human race, 

 by the convulsions of nature, since the com 

 mencement of time, (the deluge only excepted,) 

 does not amount to above four or five millions of 

 lives; but were we take into account the de 

 struction of human life produced by ambition, 

 tyranny, oppression, superstition, wars, devast 

 ations, murders, and horrid cruelties, in every 

 period of the world, it would, doubtless, amount 

 to several hundreds of millions. So that, amidst 

 the most terrible displays of the displeasure of 

 God against the sins of men, mercy is mingled 

 with judgment ; and while man is the greatest 

 enemy and destroyer of his own species, bene 

 volence is the prominent feature of all the ar- 

 -angements of the Deity in the physical world. 

 For &quot; his tender mercies are over all his works.&quot;* 



III. The discoveries which have been made in 

 the system of nature, illustrate the doctrine of 



the RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



The doctrine of a resurrection from the dead, 

 at first view, appears to involve in it a variety 

 of difficulties, and apparent contradictions. That 

 a complex organical machine, as the human bodv 

 is, consisting of thousands of diversified parts 

 for the performance of its functions, after it has 

 been reduced to atonic, and those atoms dispersed 



*The facts stated in this section are expressed 

 for the most part in the author s own words, for the 

 sake of compression. His authorities are, Gold 

 smith s &quot; Natural History,&quot; Humholdt s &quot; Travels,&quot; 

 Brydon s, &quot;Tour,&quot; Sir W. Hamilton s &quot;Observa 

 tions,&quot; Raffles &quot; History of Java,&quot; Ency. Brit. Art. 

 Etna, Volcano, Earthquake, Antioch, Cloud; The Li- 

 Icrary and Scientific Journals for 1822, &c 

 41 



to &quot; the four winds of heaven&quot; should be again 

 reared up with the same materials, in anew and 

 more glorious form is an idea which seems to 

 baffle the human comprehension ; and, in all pro 

 bability, would never have entered the mind of 

 man, had it not been communicated by divine 

 revelation. Accordingly we find, that the phi 

 losophers of antiquity, though many of them be 

 lieved in the doctrine of a future state, never 

 once dreamed, that the bodie s of men, after they 

 had been committed to the dust, would ever 

 again be reanimated ; and hence, when the apos 

 tle Paul proposed this doctrine to the Athenian 

 philosophers, they scouted the idea, as if it had 

 been the reverie of a madman. And, indeed, 

 without a strong conviction, and a lively impres 

 sion of the infinite power and intelligence of God, 

 the mind cannot rely with unshaken confidence 

 on the declaration of a future fact so widely dif 

 ferent from all the obvious phenomena of nature, 

 and from every thing that lies within the range 

 of human experience. &quot; If a man die,&quot; says 

 Job, &quot; shall he live again ? There is hope of a 

 tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, 

 and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man 

 dieth and wasteth away ; yea, man giveth up the 

 ghost, and where is he?&quot; When the mind, 

 however, is frequently exercised in contempla 

 tions on the stupendous works of the Almighty, 

 it must feel an impressive conviction, that &quot; no 

 thing can be too hard for Jehovah.&quot; When we 

 endeavour to draw aside the veil which conceals 

 many of the scenes of nature from the vulgar 

 eye, we perceive a variety of operations and 

 analogies, which tend to assist us in forming a 

 conception, not only of the possibility of a resur 

 rection, but also of the manner in which it may 

 probably be effected, when the power of Omni 

 potence is interposed. 



The transformations of insects afford us a 

 beautiful illustration of this subject. All the 

 butterflies which we see fluttering about in the 

 summer months, were originally caterpillars. 

 Before they arrive at that highest stage of their 

 existence, they pass through four different trans 

 formations. The first state of a butterfly is that 

 of an egg; it next assumes the form of a loath 

 some crawling worm ; after remaining some 

 time in this state, it throws off its caterpillai 

 skin ; languishes ; refuses to eat ; ceases to move , 

 and is shut up, as it were, in a tomb. In (his 

 state, the animal is termed a chrysalis ; it is co 

 vered with a thin crust or shell, and remains 

 sometimes for six or eight months without mo 

 tion, and apparently without life. After remain 

 ing its allotted time in this torpid condition, it 

 begins to acquire new life and vigour; it bursts 

 its imprisonment, and comes forth a butterfly 

 with wings tinged with the most beautiful co 

 lours. It mounts the air ; it ranges from flower 

 to flower, and seems to rejoice in its new and 

 splendid existence. How very different does il 



