He  uniformly  taught  his  disciples,  that  he  must  die  and  rise
again  before  his  religion  and  his  own  character  could  be
fully  revealed,  and  before  his  kingdom  could  be  erected  and
understood.  An  essential  part  of  his  religion  and  reign,
was  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  a  future  existence
and  judgment,  based  upon  his  ov/n  resurrection  and  pow-
er. The  natural  world,  under  God's  sentence  of  death
for  sin,  contained  no  provisions  or  principles  for  reviving
the  dead.  The  sun  and  the  rain  which  cover  the  tomb
with  verdure,  send  no  vital  influence   to  the  mouldering


248  BAPTISM,

body.  If  man  is  to  live  again,  he  is  not  to  live  through
any  known  laws  or  powers  of  nature,  nor  by  any  union
with  the  first  sinful  mortal  man,  but  by  a  power  alto-
gether supernatural,  and  by  a  union  with  the  second  Adam,
who  is  the  Lord  from  heaven,  and  is  the  resurrection  and
the  life.  Of  this  he  would  be  ignorant  unless  informed  and
assured  of  it  by  supernatural  revelation  and  miraculous
works.  Christ  was  to  ascend  his  throne  through  his  own
death,  by  which  he  v/as  to  abolish  death,  and  enter  into
the  holiest  by  his  own  blood,  which  was  shed  for  the  re-
mission of  sin.  And  when  exalted  as  Lord  of  all,  and
seated  as  King  upon  Jehovah's  holy  hill  of  zion,  the  hea-
then were  to  be  given  to  him  for  his  inheritance,  and  the
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession ;  they  were
all  to  be  made  one  in  him.  The  Gospel  was  to  be  the
moral  instrument  of  his  great  spiritual  power,  bv  which
the  world  was  to  be  subdued  to  the  obedience  of  faith  un-
der him.
