132 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



appear in this state from what it did in the pre 

 ceding stages of Us existence ! How unlikely 

 did it seem thit a rough, hairy, crawling worm, 

 which lay for such a length of time in a death 

 like torpor, and enshrouded in a tomb, should be 

 icanimaled, as it were, and changed into so 

 beautiful a form, and endowed with such powers 

 of rapid motion ! Perhaps the change to be ef 

 fected on the bodies of men, at the general resur 

 rection, may not be greater, nor more wonderful in 

 its nature, than are the changes which take place 

 from the first to the last stage of a caterpillar s 

 existence. In such transformations, then, we 

 behold a lively representation of the death and 

 resurrection of a righteous man. &quot; A little 

 while he shall lie. in the ground, as the seed lies 

 in the bosom of the earth ; but he shall be raised 

 again, and shall never die any more.&quot; 



There is another illustration, taken from a 

 consideration of the chymical changes of matter, 

 which has a still more direct bearing on the doc 

 trine of a resurrection. We know, that sub 

 stances which are invisibly incorporated with 

 air, water, and other fluids, and which seem to 

 be des royed, may be made to reappear in 

 their original form by the application of certain 

 chymical agents. For example ; put a small 

 piece of solid camphor into a phial half filled 

 with alcohol or spirits of wine ; in a short time 

 the camphor will be dissolved in the fluid, and 

 the spirit will be as transparent as at first. If 

 water be now added, it will unite with the ardent 

 spirit, and the camphor will be separated and 

 fall to the bottom of the phial. In this way the 

 camphor may be nearly all recovered as at first ; 

 and, by distillation, the alcohol may also be se 

 parated from the water, and exhibited in a sepa 

 rate state. I have already noticed, that carbon, 

 which forms an essential part of all animal and 

 vegetable substances, is found to be not only in 

 destructible by age, but in all its combinations, 

 which are infinitely diversified, it still preserves 

 its identity. In the state of carbonic acid it ex 

 ists in union with earths and stones in unbounded 

 quantities; and though buried for thousands of 

 years beneath immense rocks, or in the centre of 

 mountains, it. is still carbonic acid ; for no sooner 

 is it disengaged from its dormitory than it rises 

 with all the life and vigour of recent formation, 

 not in the least impaired by its torpid inactivity 

 during a lapse of ages. The beams of the the 

 atre at Herculaneum were converted into charcoal 

 (which is one of the compounds of carbon) by 

 the lava which overflowed that city, during an 

 eruption of Mount Vesuvius ; and during the 

 lapse of 1700 years, the charcoal has remained 

 as entire as if it had been formed but yesterday, 

 and it will probably continue so to the end of the 

 world. In addition to these facts it may be 

 stated, that provision has been made for the re 

 storation of the fallen leaves of vegetables which 

 ot upon the ground, and, to a careless observer, 



would appear to be lost for ever. It has bee . 

 shown by experiment, that whenever the soil be 

 comes charged with such matter, the oxygen of 

 the atmosphere combines with it, and converts 

 it into carbonic acid gas. The consequence 

 of which is, that this very same carbon is, in 

 process of time, absorbed by a new race of ve 

 getables, which it clothes with a new foliage, and 

 which is itself destined to undergo similar putre 

 faction and renovation to the end of time.&quot;* 



These facts and others of a similar description 

 which might have been stated, demonstrate, that 

 one of the constituent parts of animal bodies 

 remains unalterably the same, amidst all the revo 

 lutions of time, and all the changes and decompo 

 sitions which take place in the system of nature-, 

 and, consequently, that though human bodies 

 may remain in a state of putrefaction for ages, 

 in the earth and in the waters, yet their compo 

 nent parts remain unchanged, and in readines* 

 to enter into a new and more glorious combina 

 tion, at the command of that Intelligence Jo 

 whom all the principles of nature and all their 

 diversified changes are intimately known ; and 

 whose Power is able to direct their combina 

 tions to the accomplishment of his purposes. 

 Though such considerations as these may have 

 no weight on certain unreflecting minds, that 

 never meet with any difficulties in the economy 

 either of nature or of redemption ; yet, the 

 man of deep reflection, who has frequently had 

 his mind distracted with the apparent improba 

 bility of the accomplishment of certain divine 

 declarations, will joyfully embrace such facts in 

 the economy of nature, as a sensible support to 

 his faith in the promises of his God ; and will 

 resign his body to dust and putrefaction, in the 

 firm hope of emerging from the tomb to a future 

 and more glorious transformation. 



IV. The discoveries of science tend to illustrate the 

 doctrine of the GENERAL CONFLAGRATION. 



We are informed, in the Sacred Oracles, that 

 a period is approaching, when &quot; the elements 

 shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth, and 

 the works that are therein, shall be burned up.&quot; 

 Science has ascertained certain facts in the con 

 stitution of nature, which lead us to form some 

 conception of the manner in which this awful 

 catastrophe may probably be effected, and also 

 of the ease with which it may be accomplished, 

 when the destined period shall have arrived. It 

 was formerly stated, (pp. 35, 104,) that the 

 atmosphere, or the air we breathe, is a com 

 pound substance, composed of two very different 

 and opposite principles, termd oxygen and ni 

 trogen. The oxygen, which forms about a fifth 

 part of the atmosphere, is now ascertained to 

 be the principle of flame ; a lighted taper im 

 mersed in this gas, burns with a brilliancy too 



Parkes s &quot; Chym. Catechism,&quot; p. 266, an the ad 

 ditional notes. 



