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GEORGE H. PEEKE
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THE SPIRITUAL BODY
IN RELATION TO THE
DIVINE LAW OF LIFE
REV. GEORGE H. PEfiKE
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
BOSTON
Copyright, igiz, by George H. Peeke
All Rights Reserved
THE NEW VOBK I
PUBLIC LIBRARY
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THE SPIRITUAL BODY IN RELATION TO THE
DIVINE LAW OF LIFE
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DEDICATION
WE dedicate this book to the great army of sor-
rowing souls, who in the hour of distress earn-
estly seek yet fail to find consolation through
the ordinary channels of truth presented.
Christ and Heaven are placed too far away in the dim dis-
tance of eternity. Death is so near and sorrow so deep when
we bury our dead from sight, while the sympathizing Sav-
ior is made to appear as if contemplating relief after ages
have rolled by. To the early Christian Church Christ
seemed very near, and his sustaining power enabled them to
endure their present martyrdoms with a hope of immediate
relief and admission to a Paradise without pain, in the im-
mediate presence of the risen Savior. The speculations of
a darkened Middle age Theology had not dimmed the
faith which made them equal to the cruel martyrdoms they
were called upon to endure. Theology is too much burdened
with Philosophies while the Gospel presents its facts from
life and experience. Whatever our theories we must remem-
ber that the Crucified Savior said to the penitent malefactor
on the cross "To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise" and
no evasion can avail to remove Heaven and the sympathizing
Savior, far down the centuries and far removed from the
soul dying and soon to be dismissed to the Unseen. Our suf-
fering and sorrowing humanity needs, not so much the eter-
nal Christ as the near Christ and when do we so much need
the eternal Christ as when the sublime hour of death calls
upon us to display the spiritual heroic of our common hu-
manity. Our Risen Lord still comforts his chosen with the
5
6 DEDICATION
promise "Lo I am with you alway, and if I go away I
will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am there ye may be also." "If there be any consolation in
Christ — let us think on these things." These thoughts are
the pure undimned gold of God and will never tarnish in the
using for we speak what we do know^ and testify what we
have seen. "WTiosoever will let him take the water of life
freely."
PREFACE
DURING a ministry of more than fifty years I
have oft been oppressed by the overmastering
grief of many mourners, at the passing aw^ay of
loved ones, and have wondered vv^hy the Gospel
of the Resurrection has not afforded them more consolation
under their severe afflictions. The early Christians seem to
have received the Gospel w^ith marked enthusiasm and their
courage under severe trials v^as sublime.
The Gospel which sustained and inspired them was the
Gospel of "the Resurrection of the dead." Paul and
his fellow Apostles preached it everywhere, and especially
in the great centres of commercial, intellectual and religious
influence, Antioch, Cesarea, Corinth, Thessalonica and even
at Athens, Rome and Jerusalem. Paul made his most noted
defence of the Gospel before Ananias and the Elders at Jeru-
salem, in his reply to Tertullus, in the presence of Felix, the
Roman governor. So earnest was the apostle's reasoning up-
on the Resurrection, before Festus and Agrippa, that Fes-
tus declared him a mad man and Agrippa was almost per-
suaded to be a Christian. Dr. Adam Clarke says "There is
not a doctrine of the Gospel, on which more stress is laid,
and there is not a doctrine in the present system of preach-
ing, which is treated with more neglect." For some reason
the Gospel of the Resurrection of the dead is not proclaimed
as earnestly as during the early centuries of the Church. The
Apostles made it the chief doctrine of the Gospel, the very
corner stone, the very key of the Gospel arch and without
which there is no gospel. In his address at Athens Paul
7
8 PREFACE
makes the judgment of the world in righteousness, hinge
upon the resurrection of the dead, as assured by the resurrec-
tion of Jesus Christ. The key note of Paul's preaching
always was, "I have seen Jesus my risen lord, the personal
Jesus, who spake to me from the Heavens, thus assuring
me of a personal identity beyond this life." His trenchant
utterance is "If Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye
are yet in your sins. But now is Christ risen from the dead
and become the first-fruits of them that slept."
False Philosophies had not yet dimmed and confused the
Gospel of the Resurrection, the dominant facts prevailed,
they believed the Jesus they had known and loved had risen
from the dead and ascended to Heaven; his loving words
still lingered in their ears "If I go away I will come again
and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be
also." The well remembered words of the Master to the
dying thief, cheered and consoled them — "To-day thou shalt
be with me in Paradise," and the vision of Stephen, in his
dying moments, as he looked up and saw Jesus on the right
hand of God, assured them of personal identity in the
eternal kingdom of the Most High.
If the doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead was once
so central, in the Gospel system, the reasons which made it
so dominant must still exist and our endeavor is to assign
this doctrine its true place, that it may continue to exercise
Its all-conquering power for the inspiration and consolation
of the people of God. Many and varied attempts have been
made during the past centuries of the Christian era, to
exalt minor doctrines of the Gospel, but they have all been
negatived by the supreme declaration of Paul "If there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, and if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
PREFACE g
faith is also vain."
The influence of these minor doctrines and false Philoso-
phies of past ages, have served to mislead the mind of the
church of Christ and to misintrepret and misrepresent the
true and vital significance of the resurrection of the dead.
The doctrine as Paul and his fellow Apostles preached it
changed the whole moral condition of the Roman world,
until the early Christians would accept no deliverance, from
any form of torture, in order that they might obtain a better
resurrection : In their minds the Heavenly Paradise lay just
before them, where they expected to be immediately at home
with Jesus and the great family of God forever. They be-
lieved that the compensations for all their trials were imme-
diate and abundant and therefore welcomed all their severe,
trying martyrdoms.
During nineteen centuries of the Christian Church the
great doctrines of the Gospel have been discussed by leading
minds and certain forms and philosophies of doctrine have
been set forth as final, absolutely deterring the most earn-
est thinkers from suggesting a change but a new era has
dawned, the spirit of the age demands the whole truth and
will have it at all costs. Theology sets forth a system which
is mystical unscientific, full of contradictions, which con-
stantly calls for apologies and has very little of the human
helpfulness seen in the Gospel as it came from the mind of
the great Teacher. This is pre-eminently true of the doc-
trine of the resurrection of the dead as set forth in the Gos-
pel. The Apostles preached the resurrection of the dead in
some form which won the Heathen world but the gross
form in which that doctrine has been presented during the
later centuries of the Christian Church has made the doc-
trine far from welcome. The resurrection of the dead has
10 PREFACE
been made to mean the raising up of the material body as the
same body, so called, of the resurrection. William Tyndall
In his translation speaks of the resurrection from death,
which suggests continued life, without discussing or suggest-
ing the sameness of the material body, which Is simply the
twisting of the Greek words to enforce an Impossible inter-
pretation. Recently a number of advanced thinkers have ap-
peared who have attempted to relieve the supreme doctrine
of the resurrection of its setting and thus win the world to
Its acceptance. A sorrowing world Is earnestly waiting to
welcome all the light and consolation which the Gospel of
the resurrection affords.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
/ The Divine Order of Life 1 3
// The Resurrection and the Divine Order. . . 21
/// The Human Soul a Revelation of the Divine
Order 28
IV The Words of Inspiration Interpreting the
Divine Law of Life 42
V Historic Opinions on the Divine Law of Life 58
VI Growth of Modern Opinions on the Divine
Law of Life 68
VII Heathen Views of the Divine Law of Life 75
VIII The Teaching of Jesus on the Divine Law of
Life 82
IX PauVs Inspiration Illuminating the Divine
Law of Life 93
X The Immediateness of the Resurrection Ac-
cords With the Divine Law of Life. . . . I02
XI The Problem of Death Illuminated by the
Divine Law of Life 109
XII The Divine Law of Life in Relation to the
Spiritual Universe I17
XIII The Spiritual Body as Related to Humanity
and the Divine Law of Life 124
II
12 CONTENTS
Chapter Page
XIV Modern Views of the Resurrection as Related
to the Divine Law of Life 132
XV Rejuvenescence Essential to the Resurrection
and Divine Law of Life 143
XVI spiritual Development the Expression of the
Divine Law of Life 151
XVII Personal Identity Asserted by the Divine Law
of Life 158
XVIII Future Recognition a Blessed Factor in the
Divine Law of Life 165
XIX The Voice From the Cross Revealing the Di-
vine Law of Life 173
XX The Spiritual Body Corresponds With the Di-
vine Law of Life 183
XXI The Horizon of the Future as Revealing the
Divine Law of Life 189
XXII The Divine Law of Life in Modern Poetry 200
XXIII Paradise in Latin Poetry Accords With the
Divine Law of Life 205
The Spiritual Body in Relation
to the Divine Law of Life
CHAPTER I
The Divine Order of Life
THE present age is vety critical. During the
nineteenth century the human mind has made its
greatest advances along every line of knowledge
presented, and still the universe of eternal mystery
lies open demanding investigation. Earnest students are
knocking at the door of every science and the secrets of
nature and religion, hovs^ever sacredly regarded, are scrutin-
ized and criticised as never before. The day has long since
passed, w^hen a doctrine is received as true because taught
by the church or embodied in a system of religious formula.
The age is crying out in the language of Pilate — "What is
truth?"
The age-criticism is manifested in the character of many
books recently issued with an earnest desire to express the
truth, as an antidote for the universal distrust, which is
destroying the morality of the nation. The character of these
writers is beyond suspicion, embracing such names as "Nat-
ural Law in the Spiritual World" by Drummond, "The
Reign of Law" by the Duke of Argyle, "Christ and the
Eternal Order" by Buckham, "The Gospel for an Age of
Doubt" by Dr. Henry Van Dyke, "The Mind of the Mas-
ter" by Maclaren, etc., and the number of earnest seekers
after final truth is daily multiplying and leading us to hope
for a true revival of religion, with deeper consecration,
13
14 THE SPIRITUAL BODY
through a better understanding of the Gospel. It is certain
that the old methods of Gospel presentation do not win nor
hold the masses and the age is drifting away from the
church.
Against no doctrine of the church have more objections
been raised than the resurrection of the material body. It
has lost its former place and power. In the Apostolic age
the risen Christ was the key-stone of the arch. During the
past centuries the resurrection of the material body has been
substituted for the risen Christ. The resurrection that Paul
preached was the resurrection of the dead or the release of
the spirit as a process towards the evolution of an endless
life. He says emphatically of the wheat, "How shall it be
quickened except it die?" In his mind death was the open
gate towards a larger life. He does not place his stress
upon the thought that the physical body of Christ rose again,
but upon the fact that the same Christ rose again and was
seen of many. He makes death a part of an eternal order
of Life.
Nature unfolds a material order of life, while the Gos-
pel reveals a spiritual order, eternal as the life of God, which
Jesus proclaimed when he said "I am the resurrection and
the life" and the Apostle in Hebrews calls this order "The
power of an endless life." To comprehend this spiritual or-
der is to understand the law of the resurrection which the
Gospel seeks to proclaim for the consolation of struggling
and sorrowing humanity.
The problem of life is so vast and involved, that the wisest
of Philosophers have stood speechless before the mighty mys-
tery. Many minds doubt God and the spiritual realm and
become blank Materialists. Others accept the Bible as a
revelation from God but are constantly perplexed with the
THE DIVINE ORDER OF LIFE 15
infinite problems presented. The Philosophies of the ages
have traveled in a circle and the most earnest Christian
thinkers have found it difficult to cast aside material theories,
in their endeavors to explain spiritual mysteries. A new
Gospel for an age of doubt is earnestly demanded.
How perplexed is the mind with the simple question
* What is life?" Bichat defines life as "The sum of the
functions by which death is resisted." Coleridge said of this
definition it is but a circuitous way of saying that life con-
sists in being able to live. Dr. Fletcher says, "Life consists
in the sum of the characteristic actions of organized beings,
performed in virtue of a specific susceptibility, acted upon
by a specific stimuli." Herbert Spencer declares "The
broadest and most complete definition of life will be the con-
tinuous adjustment of internal relations to external rela-
tions." All these definitions deal with the mere phenomena
of life. All recognize the presence of an all pervasive power,
acting according to well defined laws and reaching towards
well ascertained results. Because these laws of life in na-
ture are so well defined, human life and progress are made
possible and human governments are ordained. In the spirit-
ual realm of God's government, divine, unerring law must
also prevail.
As we observe nature, three things seem essential to life,
viz. Vital stimuli, food and proper adjustments of atmo-
sphere. By these we see certain laws of action and re-action,
producing the mysteries and diversities of life. Through
these creation unfolds all the beautiful variety called life,
as the divine panorama is constantly unfolded to human vi-
sion. Today studied and labored attempts are being made
to give diversity to the products of nature and doubtless here
is a wide field for study in tracing out the larger scope of
1 6 THE SPIRITUAL BODY
vegetative life, for the uses of humanity. Casting a back-
ward look through the centuries, we can perceive the vast
strides made through studying out the laws of cereals and
the subtle laws of vegetation, as aids towards higher living.
Mankind has found the eternal laws of vegetative life re-
liable and calling for a better understanding.
Beyond this is the remarkable fact that the age is noted
for wonderful advances in interpreting the higher laws of
the Universe. Modern inventions are hardly less than mira-
culous and a few centuries past would have subjected the
inventors to the discipline and scourge of the inquisition.
They would have been regarded as wizards rather than dis-
coverers of higher laws of God. Miracles are no longer re-
garded as violations of law but as manifestations of the oper-
ations of God's higher laws. The sun no more stands still
at the command of any Joshua but God's sunlight continues
to shine and dispel darkness, while his intellectual heroes
march on towards decisive victories.
As the realm of nature has unfolded its mysteries to earn-
est minds, so is it in the spiritual realm, and we may confi-
dently expect clearer visions from the spiritual universe. To
find the divine pathway of law is the task which always
confronts humanity. About us we behold the laws of na-
ture in all their mystery but the far deeper laws of the Spirit
constantly call for interpretation. At present we are con-
cerned to know how the law of death is related to the mys-
terious law of life. That death ends all, has been coined in-
to a proverb, but how little insistence has there been upon
the fact that death is the essential factor of life. While it
is true that life leads to death, yet how eminently true is it
that death constantly leads to life. Mankind has for ages
been oppressed by the fact that death reigns, while they should
THE DIVINE ORDER OF LIFE 17
be far more Impressed with the fact that death is brief and
comparatively powerless as compared with the overwhelm-
ing force of life. Life Is not a mere factor of death but
death Is a constant factor In life and an Indispensable aid for
its unfolding.
All through nature the decay and death of certain material
elements opens wide the gates of life and leads towards
fuller life and expansion. This is Paul's wise explanation
of the spiritual life and expansion. The life of humanity is
like the life of the wheat. Except the kernel of wheat decay
and die, how shall It be quickened or live again to bring forth
Its hundred fold? To unfold this mysterious law is to un-
derstand the unfolding power of an endless life. What rela-
tion has the spiritual body to this wide and wonderful realm
of Immensity is the ever recurring question? The modem
Christian world Is demanding an adequate reply.
What is life, and what the nature of the future life, are
questions as old as humanity. The Roman world with all
its vices and crimes was transformed into a Christian Empire
through the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. All the
Greek Philosophies and surmises upon Immortality had failed
to transform Pagan Rome from beasthood into manhood;
but certain features of the resurrection, as proclaimed by the
Apostles, wrought a mighty change and Introduced the dom-
inant factors of a Christian civilization. The dominant
theme of the Apostles was the resurrection of the dead and
this preaching was the Initiative of modern Christian civil-
ization.
The Apostles did not assert the resurrection of the ma-
terial body but most strenuously insisted upon the resur-
rection of the living Christ. The very figure upon which
Paul relies to illustrate the resurrection, assumes that the
i8 THE SPIRITUAL BODY
life principle continued, is the true resurrection and that the
material body has no vital relation to eternal life. It is the
dead that rise and not dead bodies. According to Paul it is
the spiritual body which rises, after casting o£E the Physical
body, and this spiritual body is the factor of power and glory
in the unfolding life of the future. The eternal order of life
is abundantly manifest in nature and the vital question for
humanity is — what is the character of this order beyond this
present life?
The Duke of Argyle expresses the reign of Law as follows
— ''The question has often been raised, whether there is any
law of growth, of progress, and of decay prevailing over
nations, as over individual organisms. There is a condition
prepared always by ignorance or neglect of some moral or
economic laws, and determined by long continued perse-
verance in a corresponding course of conduct. Then the
laws which have been neglected assert themselves, and the
retributions they inflict are indeed tremendous. In the last
generation and in our own time, the Old and the New
Worlds, have each afforded memorable examples of the reign
of law over Political events. Institutions maintained against
the natural progress of Society have foundered amidst fanatic
storms. Other institutions upheld and cherished against
justice, and humanity, and conscience, have yielded only to
the scourge of war."
"The Laws of nature were not appointed by the great
Lawgiver, to baffle his creatures in the sphere of conduct,
still less to confound them in the region of Belief. As parts
of an Order of things, too vast to be more than partially
understood, they present indeed, some difficulties which per-
plex the intellect, and a few also, it cannot be denied,
which wring the heart. But, on the whole they stand in bar-
r.
THE DIVINE ORDER OF LIFE 19
monious relations with the human spirit. They come visibly
from one pervading mind, and express the authority of one
enduring kingdom."
The reign and extent of Law is nobly expressed by Dr.
Buckham — "God is the author and End of the kingdom of
Christ and God in Christ is the soul of it. It is he who oc-
cupies the throne of the kingdom, not in God's stead, not as
his representative, but as the revelation of himself, in his
human aspects and kinship. Serving this king, one serves
not only the king of kings, but the king of all kingdoms,
earthly and celestial. The beginnings of the kingdom reach
far back of history, of humanity, back into the heart of
eternal love, creating all things, purposing all things, before
all time, through the Eternal Word of Wisdom. Each one
who obeys the Divine will, the Eternal Christ within him,
makes his contribution to the great structure which has risen
through the ages and in its completion shall be gathered
within it. For the kingdom is humanity's kingdom and the
Christ is humanity's Christ."
Maclaren speaking of the old traditional ideas of the New
Jerusalem says "They were the vindication of a Trapist
Monastery — and from it we turn to Jesus with his doctrine
of continuity. It follows upon Jesus' suggestion of the next
life — the continuation of the present upon a higher level —
that it will be a continued progress, and Jesus gives us fre-
quent hints of this law. When he refered to the many man-
sions in the Father's house. He may have been intending
rooms, places where those who have been associated together
on earth may be gathered together; but He may be rather
intending stations in that long ascent of life that shall ex-
tend through the ages of ages. Jesus heartens His followers
by an assurance that not one hour of labor, not one grain
20 THE SPIRITUAL BODY
of attainment, not one honest effort, on to the moment when
the tools of earth drop from their hands but will tell on the
after life."
The sage Isaac Taylor says "It is surely a frivolous notion
that the vast and intricate machinery of the universe, and the
profound scheme of God's government, are now to reach a
resting place, where nothing more shall remain to active spir-
its through an eternity but recollections of labor, anthems of
praise, and inert repose. All the practical skill — as well as
the highest virtues which we are learning every day, may well
find scope in a world which is rationally anticipated, when
we think of Heaven as the stage of life, which is next to fol-
low the discipline of life." All these thinkers agree in as-
suring us that as spiritual beings, w^e belong to an eternal
kingdom under the rule and laws of the Most High God,
who has ordained all in righteousness and truth and holi-
ness.
CHAPTER II
The Resurrection and the Divine Order
DURING long centuries the church of Jesus
Christ has made her confession, "I believe in
the resurrection of the body" which the mass of
believers have received as teaching the resurrec-
tion of the material body, as the general consensus of the
church. As late as the early part of the nineteenth century,
sermons by prominent divines prove that they held to the
doctrine of a material resurrection and sought to establish
it by the direct teaching of the Gospel. Viewed in the light
of the present as illuminated by reason, science and Scrip-
ture, this is one of the saddest perversions of the Gospel of
Christ. The apology for this perversion lies in the fact that
the subject is so vital, and so related to the sorrows and hopes
of humanity, that every device has been used to establish a
material resurrection, as the only real assurance of a personal
identity beyond death.
The great procession of death never ceases. From the