rose from the dead in that same body which was taken down from the cross, had been obliged to say that Christ's resurrection body had no blood, as Alford teaches, and could pass, an impalpable, shadowy substance, through closed doors and barred gates, their message would have been received with scorn and ridicule.

4. Another consideration in favor of the view that Jesus rose in his natural body is, that after his resurrection he remained on earth forty days, having interviews with the apostles, and instructing them in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He appeared to them eleven different times, and once to five hundred brethren together. We do not know where he was most of that time, nor the manner of his life. But it is reasonable to suppose that in his intercourse with the apostles for so long a time he would appear in the same body which they had seen in the three years of intimacy with him, rather than in one totally different. Among the interviews with the disciples was that tender one with Peter concerning his love for the Saviour. Is it not unreasonable to suppose that Jesus had that long, familiar conversation with the apostle in a spiritual, intangible, glorified body? Moreover, if it were necessary, in order for Christ to hold intercourse with men during his three years of ministry on earth, it was equally necessary for him to retain that nature in his intercourse with the apostles during his sojourn of forty days. But this is not all. The work for which the apostles were to be qualified, was to go forth and testify that Christ, the very one they had known in a human body, had risen in the same body. They had been "slow to believe." The report of the women that they had seen him, seemed as "idle tales," and they disbelieved the testimony of those returning from Emmaus. But when Christ showed them his hands and feet, and told them to handle him, and see that it was not a bodiless specter before them, they believed that he had actually risen. But these interviews before going into

Galilee were few and brief, and the impressions they had received of his personal identity, might have been effaced, had they seen him no more, or had he appeared to them in an ethereal, impalpable form, rather than in his natural body. To prevent this, and fully prepare them to be witnesses of his resurrection, it was necessary that they should have frequent interviews with him. And this was their privilege during those forty days. As they listened to the familiar voice, beheld the same lovely features, and heard his gracious words, not the shadow of a doubt did they have that he was the very same Saviour whom they had seen, loved, and followed.

In closing this part of the subject, it is proper to notice a peculiar view held by some concerning the change in the body of Christ. While admitting that he rose in his human body, they think that his body was gradually changed. This is the view of the German scholars Hahn, Olshausen, and Hengstenberg. They regard the process of transformation of the Lord's body from human flesh and blood into the glorified state as commencing with the resurrection, and going on gradually through the forty days, until completed at his ascension.

On this, Dr. Robinson remarks: "In respect to the idea of a gradual process of glorification going on in our Lord's risen body, for forty days, it is enough perhaps to say that there exists not the slightest warrant for it in any part of the Scriptures, not the slightest hint, which logically or philologically can be wrested to sustain such a position. It is an airy hypothesis, without foundations, without necessity, without utility; and as unsound in its philosophy as it is without analogy in the providence and Word of God. It asserts of the body of our Lord just what he himself took pains to contradict; and what assuredly it never afterwards entered into the hearts of his disciples and apostles to conceive."

The evidence presented from Scripture in this discussion

concerning the nature of Christ's risen body clearly establishes two conclusions: one, that Christ endeavored in various ways to convince the disciples that the body which they saw was the same body of flesh and blood they had seen crucified and laid in the tomb; the other, that the disciples were convinced from the acts and words of Christ that his body was, after he rose, that very identical body, and not a shadowy, spectral, impalpable form, as they had supposed.

While fully believing that the body which rose was the same material, fleshly body that was crucified and buried, it is not questioned that there may have been some peculiar manifestations at times in his external appearance. The two views are consistent. Such was sometimes the case before his death, and it may have been so after his resurrection. Thus, for instance, at his transfiguration on the Mount his appearance was wonderfully changed. The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his face did shine as the sun. From this it appears that his body was capable of passing from one state to another without losing its identity. There was here no change in the bodily substance of the Lord, no destruction of the proper attributes of a body. He came down from the Mount in the same body in which he ascended, and in it mingled freely with the people as before. In the same body he afterward toiled and suffered. So, while affirming that his body had not been changed to the glorified condition, there may have been at times a marked change in his visage and general appearance from what it was before his passion. But no change in his visage or manner of life can invalidate the arguments presented from Scripture that the body which rose from the dead, and was seen and handled by the disciples, was the very same that had moved about in Judæa, was taken down from the cross, and was laid in Joseph's tomb.

ARTICLE VII.

PROFESSOR PRESTWICH1 ON SOME SUPPOSED NEW EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE.

BY PROFESSOR G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.

IN scientific circles the name of no geologist carries more weight than that of Joseph Prestwich, late professor of geology in the University of Oxford, and author of one of the most elaborate and comprehensive treatises on geology which have ever been published. In England Professor Prestwich's position is very much such as that of the late Professor Dana was in America. His descriptions of the geological facts which have come under his own observation are generally set down to be as nearly perfect as it is possible for a human observer to make them. It is worthy also of note, in connection with the present subject, that Professor Prestwich was the first English geologist fully to recognize the evidence of glacial man in the gravel deposits of Northern France and Southern England. For nearly forty years he has been foremost in the investigations establishing the great antiquity of paleolithic man in Western Europe.

1" The Raised Beaches, and 'Head' or Rubble-drift, of the South of England: their relation to the Valley Drifts and to the Glacial Period; and on a late Post-glacial Submergence." From the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. xlviii. pp. 263-343. London, 1892.

"The Evidences of a Submergence of Western Europe, and of the Mediterranean Coasts, at the Close of the Glacial or So-called Post-glacial Period, and immediately preceding the Neolithic or Recent Period.” [From the] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Vol. 184 (1893) A, pp. 903-984. [Plate 33.] London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, and Co., 1893.

"A Possible Cause for the Origin of the Tradition of the Flood.” Author's copy. Pp. 38.

The scientific papers from which the present summary is made, are the result of observations extending over a lifetime; but the facts were of such a nature as long to resist all ordinary attempts at explanation. It was only as a last resort that the distinguished author applied to them the theory, that since the advent of man there has been in Western Europe a subsidence of the land to the extent of between one thousand and two thousand feet, from which it subsequently rose in a succession of earthquake shocks. In the opinion of Professor Prestwich this theory, and this only, adequately accounts for all the phenomena, which he details, and thus brings into the view of science an event closely corresponding to that described in Genesis, which is recorded to have been so destructive to the life both of men and animals. We will endeavor to compress into a few pages the more salient points in the evidence; but to receive an adequate impression of the arguments one must consult the original papers with their abundant illustrations. It should be noted, also, that the facts dwelt upon all relate to regions outside of the glaciated area, and have been carefully distinguished from the many anomalous gravel deposits which have been so diligently studied in connection with the direct evidences of glacial action.

The evidence is classed under three heads, namely, The Rubble-drift of Southern England and Northern France; The High-level Loess of France and Central Europe; and The Ossiferous Breccias of the Continent.

The Rubble-drift.-At numerous places over the southern counties of England and on the south side of Dover Strait, in France, there are deposits of angular gravel, bearing no relation to the present drainage systems of the country, and containing paleolithic implements and the bones of extinct animals associated with prehistoric man. This drift is found as far inland as the vicinity of Oxford, and at an elevation on the Cotteswold Hills of about nine hundred feet. It differs in important respects from all ordinary gravel, such as