A New Construction

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 26, 1858

A New Construction.

The text of discourse through Mrs. Townsend's mediumship at the funeral of Mrs. Cushman of Hartland, Vt., on the 16th inst., was: "This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality." The spirit said these words did not convey the right idea. It should rather be, "This immortal has thrown off mortality, and this incorruptible has thrown off corruption."

Without stopping to question whether this form of expression would be a correct rendering of the scripture, it is certainly more in consonance with a true spiritual philosophy, and with the genius of christianity. While the former reading throws but a dim and obscure ray athwart the grave, the latter is radiant with a living light that penetrates the mourner's hear with an assurance sweeter than hope itself.—Spiritual Age, July 31st, 1858.

It is no wonder that the spirits wish to change the rendering of 1 Cor. xv, 53. It could not be expected that they would willingly leave unchanged a declaration of sacred writ, so fatal to their false pretensions. Why is it that the present reading casts so "dim and obscure a ray athwart the grave?" It is because the doctrine of the condition of the dead, and the future state, has been falsified and corrupted by the Mother of Harlots; and with the wine of her fornication all nations have been made drunk. But the sacred pillars of tradition must not be shaken nor moved! and whatever portion of the word of God looks dim and obscure, viewed in its light, must either be denied "in toto" or essentially changed.