In  the  conversation  with  the  Sadducees  as  it  is  reported
by  Luke  (xx.  35-36),  Jesus  spoke  a  suggestive  word  about
the  life  of  "  the  sons  of  the  resurrection."  He  says  that
**  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  for  neither


455  AN  OUTLTXE   OF  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY

can  they  die  any  more."  Where  there  is  immortality,
there  is  no  marriage,  —  the  idea  being,  apparently,  that
birth  and  death  are  correlatives,  and  consequently  where
there  is  no  death  there  is  no  birth,  and  no  need  of  mar-
riage, or  of  the  physical  element  in  sex.  It  does  not  follow,
however,  that  the  differences  between  masculine  and  femi-
nine spirits  vanish,  or  that  spiritual  fellowships  founded
upon  them  cease-
Concerning  the  relation  of  the  future  spiritual  body  to
the  present  physical  organism  speculation  has  always  been
busy,  —  often  more  busy  than  those  who  indulged  it  were
aware,  —  and  much  that  is  really  speculation  has  been
taken  for  revelation.  In  spite  of  Paul's  explicit  teaching  to
the  contrary,  there  has  been  an  almost  universal  impres-
sion that  the  very  bodies  that  have  died  will  be  restored
to  life.  Here  Christendom  has  parted  company  with
Paul,  and  gone  with  the  Pharisees.  That  the  deserted
body  will  be  revivified,  brought  forth  from  the  grave,  and
transformed  into  a  spiritual  body,  has  been  the  common
expectation.  But  wherever  a  good  knowledge  of  physical
conditions  has  come  in,  this  idea  has  retired  as  untenable,
never  to  return.  In  place  of  it  some  have  accepted  the
idea  that  from  each  body  a  germ  will  be  preserved  in  the
grave,  or  wherever  the  body  may  have  gone  to  decay,  to
serve  as  the  starting-point  for  the  formation  of  the  resur-
rection-body. This  fancy  was  admitted  because  there
appeared  no  other  way  of  representing  a  connection  be-
tween the  physical  body  and  the  spiritual  body  that  would
arise  ages  after  it  had  been  returned  to  the  fellowship  of
matter,  —  it  being  assumed  that  such  a  connection  must
exist.  This  connection  is  supposed  to  be  affirmed  in  Paul's
comparison  of  the  seed  and  the  harvest,  in  i  Cor.  xv.
