A MAN WHO NEVER HAD A MOTHER.
By J. Bartlett
When I was preaching in Onawa, Iowa, in January, 1879, a young minister of the M. E. Church spoke on the soul question, and ridiculed the idea of the resurrection of the body. He claimed that our bodies pass away every seven years, and wanted me to tell him which one of my bodies would be raised. In concluding his remarks he took occasion to extol his mother very highly, dwelling upon the excellences of that good woman. When I came to reply I told him that I could prove, according to his own premises, that he never had a mother. There was, to be sure, a woman, many years ago, who had a son to whom she gave the name of Albert Russell. But in seven years that son had passed away, and that woman had passed away also; and several different bodies had succeeded each other since in the organization of both of them. Now, according to his position, he is not the same person who was born of that woman years ago; neither can he point to any woman and say that she is, or ever was, his mother. Moreover, on the same ground, he never had a father. “Without father or mother”—a veritable Melchisedec! I told him that if he would tell me which one of the different bodies referred to was his mother, I would tell him which one of my bodies would be raised.