The Resurrection.

Bro. Richards, of Ohio, while reviewing a report of Bro. Howry, of Missisippi, said, "We confess to some surprise on reading in his preface the following as a part of his creed: 'We believe in God, the resurrection of the body, and the immortality of the soul.' The resurrection of this frail, worm-eaten body, after it has lain for years—nay, centuries—until the last remnant of flesh, bone and sinew, has mingled with its kindred dist? Incredible! Possibly we do not understand such things; but we give the plain English of it, and that is the best we can offer. Bro. Vincil answers his objection thus: "We confess to some surprise on reading the 'surprise' of Bro. Richards over the part of the creed quoted from the report of the venerated and erudite Howry. Bro. Richards writes as though the doctrine of the 'resurrection of the body' was 'some new thing' he had just met with. He reminds us of the 'philosophers' at Athens, when the great scholar and thinker of that age proclaimed the doctrine Bro. Howry inserted in his creed. The surprise' of Bro. Richards and the Athenian philosophers belongs to the same family. They 'mocked' and he cries 'incredible!' And we think if he had said 'impossible' it would have expressed no more than he felt and believed. The other language used is equivalent to impossible. He evidently discards and scouts the 'resurrection of this tail, worm-eaten body, after it has lain for years—nay, centuries—until the last remnant of page 342 flesh, bone find sinew, has mingled with its kindred dust.' 'Incredible.' We express no 'surprise' that the philosophers of Athens 'mocked' when they heard, for the first time, the doctrine of Bro. Howry's creed. But we must express some little 'surprise' that a good Mason like Bro. Richards should expunge the doctrine of the 'resurrection of the body' from the Masonic 'creed.' We think he believes a physical 'resurrection' impossible. It must be so or he would not say 'incredible.' He judges the docrine in the light, and by the laws of nature. His postulate is the one common through the ages—'Resurrection is a miracle.' 'Miracle is contrary to the laws of nature.' 'Therefore resurrection is impossible'—'incredible.' Is there no God in your creed, Bro. Richards? Do you ackowledge the God of the Bible? Then, we ask, 'Why should it be thought a thing 'incredible' with you that God should raise the dead?' The God of Nature must be above and superior to the laws He gave to nature, or else he is subordinate to His own works. Will you so affirm? Then the laws of nature are not in the way of God when He would perform a miracle, admitting that 'the resurrection of the body' is a miracle, per se. Is there nothing prophetic to Bro. Richards in the struggle going on between the life-principle and the death tendency in the universe? In the huge grapple between the law of life and the law of decay; does he hear no 'speaking voice' or 'bathkol,' prophesying of the ultimate triumph of the vital force, called life, over decay? Does not life, springing out of death, everywhere in nature, tell him, there must be a time when the mightier force shall prevail, and nature under the direction of the Lion of the tribe of Judah—creation's Head—wheel into line and harmony with the Original, Normal-law of the universe, when the grand acclaim shall be raised, 'There shall be no more death.' Candidly, Bro. Richards, do you not believe that the life power is mightier than the decaying and dying condition in the vast empire of being? If not, death would over-run all things and all life would become extinct. The life power holds the law of decay in check, and the struggle must end by the weaker antagonist yielding to the stronger. Life is the normal law of the universe. God lives and He is the life of all things. The law of decay must yield and universal life be restored and become the ruling condition, as in the glorious morning of time. 'There shall be no more death,' is a prophesy of nature in its vernal glories and floral beauties, and this prophesy is affirmed by the revelatious of God_S and inculcated in the lofty lessons of Masonry. If Bro. Richards accepts the Bible a from God, and believes in the religion of Nature, or natural religion, he will revise his' creed and incorporate therein the declartion of the able jurist and conscientious Masone Judge Howry, of Mississipi, whose last writings on earth declared: 'I believe in the, resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.' Our venerable Bro. Howrye since formulating the above creed, has passed to the realm of the living and beyond th, scene of the dying. He has tested the soundness of his creed. By a pure and godly life he won peace and hope here, and lost nothing by such a life, if there be no future for him hereafter. So, Bro. Richards, you and your brother correspondent, must soon meet similar conditions and destinies. The creed of Bro. Howery is not unworthy our intelligence and nature, and will do us no harm here and may serve us admirably hereafter. 'I speak as unto wise men. Judge ye what I say.'" In Bro. Vincil's report we find much more which is well worth reproduction, but the foregoing must suffice now.