This Christian faith in “resurrection” as ascent to a higher condition of being at death is practically borne witness to by such common expressions concerning departed friends as these: “He has gone to a better world;” “He is in a higher world than this;” “We ought not to grieve for him—he is better off than he was.” The practical sense of Christendom has taken this faith from the Gospels, though the Creeds do not authorize it. The Creeds teach that the souls of the good either sleep till a future resurrection, or are absorbed into God until then, while the souls of the impenitent descend to a lower sphere. Christ teaches that at death _all_ rise to a higher state—of life and love to the loving, or judgment by the sight of truth to the selfish; but _higher_ to all. Paul declares that “as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive,” making the rise equivalent in extent to the fall. The great change in the faith of the apostles, in consequence of the resurrection or ascent of Christ, was this: They before believed that at death all went to Hades, to the gloomy underworld of shadows, there to remain till the final resurrection. But the belief that Christ, instead of going down, had gone up, and had assured them that all who had faith in him had the principle of ascent in their souls, and were already spiritually risen,—this took the victory from Hades and the sting from death. To Christians, at least, Hades is no more anything; all who have a living faith rise with Christ; and sooner or later, each in his order, _all_ shall rise. This was the “power of the resurrection” of Jesus to destroy the fear of death, to enable them “to attain” _now_ “to the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:10), teaching that “if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.” “For it is Christ that died, _yea, rather, that is risen_, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” It was, therefore, the duty of all Christians, since they were risen in Christ, “to seek the things which are above.” § 6. Resurrection of the Body, as taught in the New Testament, not a Rising again of the same Body, but the Ascent into a higher Body. It is remarkable that those who profess to believe in the literal inspiration of the New Testament should nevertheless very generally teach that the future body is _materially_ the same as this. We often hear labored arguments to show how the identical chemical particles which compose the body at death may be re-collected from all quarters at the resurrection. Yet the only place where any account is given of the future body, declares explicitly that it is different from the present, just as the stalk which comes out of the ground differs from the seed planted. “We sow _not_ the body which shall be, but bare grain, and God giveth it a body as pleaseth him.”