Earlier text: NATURE OF THE CLOSING WORK.The great theme of Christian hope and promise, is the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. A distinguished English divine states, after a careful examination, that at least one verse in every thirty contained in the New Testament refers to this subject. If he had included all the allusions to this great event, the proportion would have been much greater. There are in all seven thousand four hundred and fifty-nine verses in the New Testament, and more than three hundred and twenty of them point forward with eager gesture to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. This fact is very significant, and proves to us the mind of the Spirit with regard to the prominence and frequency with which this matter should come before the minds of Christians, and be handled in our public ministrations. It was certainly one of the chief topics of apostolic instruction and early Christian hope; and it is to be taken as a serious defect in our modern Christianity that so little is made of it, and that the subject is left so much to the handling of those who make an ism out of it, and often treat it in a way very damaging to the whole cause of the gospel. Because some men abuse it, is no excuse for our ignoring it, knowing as we do that it is a vital part of our creed, and most important in all its bearings. 1. Ponder, then, the fact itself, that our blessed Lord is certainly to return again to our world. He is now at the right hand of the Father; but from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Too prone are we to think of him only as a historic personage, who lived many centuries ago, and who has long since passed away, like Pharaoh or Alexander—that all that concerns him relates to times far removed in the past, with no present reality—and that all we have to do with him now, is the observance of those institutions and precepts which he gave to the world in his earthly lifetime. We do not seem to feel, as we ought, that the grave which closed over him for a little while could not hold him, that he now lives, that he is at this moment engaged making ready for a return hither, and that he will come again, in like manner as he was seen going into Heaven. And yet, it is even so. The Lord himself, even the crucified man of Nazareth, shall descend from Heaven with a shout, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God. His feet, once torn with nails, shall stand again upon the mountains of earth; and they that pierced him shall look upon him. The terrified soldiers who saw him die, the blaspheming Pharisees who thirsted for his blood, and rejoiced when they saw it spilled, the infidel horde who have in every age insulted his name and persecuted his church, and every saint, and every one who reads these lines, shall behold him, the Son of man come down again to earth. Despisers of his word—neglectors of his gospel—false professors of his name—and resisters of his grace, who have continually turned their backs upon his calls of mercy—all shall see him. For he cometh, he cometh to judge the earth. 2. Ponder also the solemnity of that great event. It is related of a great French preacher, that he was once called to deliver the funeral address of a prince. It was an impressive occasion. All the great ones of the land were there. Majesty itself, with all its royal surroundings, sat clothed in sackcloth, and weighed down with grief. All the glory and grandeur of human greatness had shrunk away into nothingness. Only grief and dismay filled and pervaded the assembly. He arose to speak; but utterance seemed denied him. He stood abstracted and lost. A long and awful pause ensued, until breathing itself seemed to be suspended. And when every heart was thrilling, he broke the silence by a scarcely audible whisper—“There’s nothing, great but God!” The effect was overwhelming. But we will just go forward a little in our thoughts to the sort of scene that is to be enacted when the day of Christ’s return has come—to the manner in which all human greatness and glory shall wilt down before his divine presence—to the sort of feelings which shall then take possession of the great congregation of mankind. It will hardly need a great master of eloquence to thrill into our souls that “there’s nothing solemn but the Judgment!” There are, indeed, many other solemn things, and scenes, and occurrences, well fitted to move the profoundest depths of human awe; but they are scarcely to be named in comparison with the tremendous solemnity of the day of Judgment. The thunder storm is very solemn. When the quick arrows of heaven flash forth in their power—when the deep crash of the thunderbolt startles up communities—when the dread artillery of God rushes along the sky, and rumbles around the world, it is a time of awful sensations. But what is that to the far-sounding crash which shall startle the very dead in their graves, and arouse even the long-forgotten into life again. The earthquake is solemn, when cities totter without a warning, and kingdoms rend, and islands flee away. But what is that to the tremor which shall convulse our globe, and shake heaven itself, when the things which are temporal shall be all swept away! The volcano is solemn. When its cone of fire, stirred into fury by some spirit of the under-world, shoots to the heavens, and from its burning entrails pours out its rushing lava over whole countries, deluging cities in its course, and burning up flying populations, the scene is appalling! But what is that to the conflagration which shall consume the proudest works of man, and overwhelm the armies at which the world quaked! The funeral of a dear and honored friend is solemn. The heart throbs, and the tears flow, and the bodily powers almost refuse to do their wonted offices, under the intensity of the soul’s bitter laceration. But what is that to the obsequies of the world itself, when all this present scene of things shall go down to an eternal grave! It is solemn and affecting to hear an earthly judge pronounce sentence upon the poor convict. But what is that to the sentence of the Judge eternal which sends the impenitent to the prison-house of hell, and gives over each guilty one to death eternal! Who, who, can do justice to such a theme! 3. Ponder again the danger there is of being led astray with regard to the coming of Christ. The Saviour specially forewarns of false prophets and false teachers by which many shall be deceived, and so be taken by surprise by that day. We are continually admonished to keep ourselves in constant readiness for that day, lest it come and find us unprepared. These continual admonitions assure us that there is danger of being so overtaken. There is much also in the notions and teachings of our times which tends to heighten and increase this danger. It is a common belief that it is not possible for Christ to come in our day, because the world is first to be converted, and that the glorious millennium must first come. But this is a fearful snare, of which we need to be on our guard. Whether there is to be a millennium or not, the Scriptures give us no right to put it in between us and the day of Judgment. Everywhere is the coming of the Lord spoken of as an impending event. We are distinctly assured that it will take the world by surprise—that Christ will come as a thief in the night—that when men are crying peace and safety, the great day will break in upon them—that as a snare will it come upon all them that dwell upon the earth, and that with the suddenness of the lightning’s flash will it take the unwatched children of men. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is to be again. The people are to be going on as usual, buying and selling, building and feasting, marrying and giving in marriage, and the whole course of things running on the same as always, and not know until the crisis arrives and the trumpet blows. * 4. Ponder also the advantages of being on the safe side. Even if the day of Judgment should not come for thousands of years yet, we will lose nothing by being ready for it, and looking for it every day we live. If we die in a state of readiness, we will be no worse off on that account. Our particular anxiety on the subject will not hurt us. Our constant waiting for the Saviour to come, whether he comes in our day or not, will not damage our Christian zeal and fervency, and we need have no fear that it will rise up to condemn us when that day comes. On the other hand, such a constant expectation of Christ, and such constant guarding of ourselves that we may be found of him without spot and blameless, is the very thing to keep our piety most alive and active. It is the very thing to break the power of temptation, the delusive charms of this world’s blandishments, and the force of wicked lust. For a man to have it before him every day and hour, that Christ may come at any moment, and that just as he is, where he is, and in the very act in which he is engaged, he may be instantly called to meet his God, is so potent an incentive to purity, fidelity, and holiness, that it is the very thing above everything else to keep him faithful and impel him forward. He cannot possibly be the worse for it, even if it should turn out that he is hundreds of years beforehand with his anticipations. But very different does the matter stand in the case of him who counts that Christ cannot come in his day, gives the matter no attention, and is after all mistaken and surprised in unpreparedness. Will it be said that he loses nothing by the miscalculation? Is it not rather to be said of him that he loses everything? Jesus says of such a man that he shall be cut off from the society and portion of the church of the first-born, and that in his case there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Great, therefore, is the risk and danger to which people expose themselves by putting off the day of Christ’s coming into the remote future. They may perchance be Christians, and be “saved,” but they are not Christians according to the primitive model, and their salvation will be only so as by fire, if they are saved at all. At best, they certainly will “suffer loss.” They lose the force of a very powerful motive to constant godliness of life—to constant reference to the Judgment in all they do—and to such a disposition of themselves in their going out and coming in as not to be at any moment or in any situation surprised or unready if the trump of God should sound. They lose this vigorous stimulant to holiness and separation from the vanities and follies of this world; and they also lose much of the real sweetness of the gospel and its blessed hope. And, with all, they expose themselves to the danger of losing their entire salvation. No wise man ought ever to assume such risks unnecessarily. It is a sin against reason and self, as well as against God. A man ought always to be on the safe side of every question, when he has an opportunity to do it. * We lose nothing by looking for Christ every day; but if we rest on the belief that he cannot possibly come in our day, we lose everything. Therefore the exhortation of Christ and his apostles is, to be always ready, with our lamps trimmed and burning, and our loins girded, as those who wait for the Lord. 5. Ponder finally the comforting and composing assurances which the Saviour gives to those who earnestly observe his directions and wait for his return. Whilst others are running hither and thither in the world, finding the Christ coming in this and that, and bewildered by all sorts of deceptive theories which only draw off the attention from the true hope of the church, these are in the way of life and salvation just as they refuse to hear of any Christ, come or to come, than him whose personal return they await. No one can lead them into the wilderness to find Christ. No man can make them believe that anything is Christ but Christ himself. Jesus has told them that his coming shall be open and conspicuous, and self-manifest, as the lightning which cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west. In peaceful quiet they keep themselves and wait. They know that when their Lord comes they will know it. They know too that they need give themselves no concern about how they shall make their way to him when he comes. Where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together. And with the same instinct and power from God, where Christ is, when he comes, there they will be also. The truth is, they have nothing to disturb them. They have only to watch and wait. Christ will attend to all the rest. They are simply to occupy till he comes, doing their duty on earth with a willing mind, and looking for their Lord from Heaven. This is their commission, their attitude, and their peace. Beyond this they need be careful for nothing. If he comes soon, the sooner they will enter upon their inheritance.—Prophetic Times. Some Things you Will Not Be Sorry For.
For hearing before judging,
For thinking before speaking,
For holding an angry tongue,
For stopping the ear to a tattler,
For refusing to kick a fallen man,
For being kind to the distressed,
For being patient to all,
For doing good to all men,
For walking upright before God,
For lending to the Lord,
For laying up treasure in Heaven,
For asking pardon for wrongs,
For speaking evil of no man,
And for being courteous to all. GOOD ADVICE TO CHRISTIANS.—
1. See that your religion makes you a better son or daughter, a better clerk, a better student, a better friend, a better workman. 2. Do not set yourself up as a standard. Shun all censoriousness. Remember that each one “to his own master standeth or falleth,” and not to you. 3. Let nothing keep you from the Saviour. Never be tempted to stay away from him by unbelieving doubts, by past neglect, by present fear, by anything. Be more intimate with him than with any earthly friend. Finally. Do not be discouraged if you fail in everything. If you were perfect, what need would you have of a Saviour? The Day Line.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
BELIEVERS in the Bible as a revelation from God believe that there is a perfect harmony between nature, or the things which exist, and revelation; because the God of nature, or, in other words, the Maker of all things which exist, and the God of the Bible is the same. Hence it is held that all real science is in harmony with the Bible, and all that is called science which is opposed to its teachings, is “falsely so-called.” On the other hand, it is the object of unbelievers, out of the church and in, to make it appear that there is a want of harmony between things as they really exist and the Bible revelation, and hence that God has stultified himself, or, in other words, that the Author of created existences contradicts the Author of the Bible, and proves its teachings false. I say unbelievers out of the church and in, because there are multitudes of professed Christians who take the side of the infidel and stand precisely upon the same ground, claiming that though God has commanded the observance of the seventh day, yet that it is impossible in the nature of things, as they exist, to know which is the seventh day. They profess to believe in the God of the Bible, and yet their creed makes him stultify himself. Truly they themselves are stultified, and their teachings are ridiculous. And the obstinate determination with which unbelievers, in the church and out, hold to their position, in the face of the clearest refutation, evinces either a lack of discernment or a lack of honesty. It is not for me to say in any given instance which. These remarks are elicited by a recent conversation with some gentlemen, all strangers to me but one, on the subject of the day-line. They argued that there could be no boundary or line where the day begins and ends; and claimed that181 they could demonstrate their position and prove the absurdity of mine, from the fact that the sun constantly enlightens one half of the earth’s surface, and that the enlightened part is unceasingly changing, as the earth steadily and constantly rolls upon its axis. I admitted this fact, but told them that they did not apprehend the point in question; and that I could demonstrate my theory, which I proceeded to do. But from the pertinacity of their opposition I was tempted to tell them that, though I could demonstrate my position, I could not find brains for them to comprehend it. But this, I am glad to say, I did not do; for if men are willfully blind, it would only irritate them and do no good; and if they really cannot comprehend the point, far be it from me to taunt them. The statement of the question at issue, and the demonstration by facts in the case, as I set it before them, were as follows: To all the located inhabitants of the earth there is a constant succession of days, which they number as the first, second, third, &c., days of the year, month, or week. And from the eastern coast of Asia to the western shore of America there is a perfect harmony in the numbering of the days; so that a person may travel a whole life-time from east to west, and from west to east, over both continents and the Atlantic Ocean, and never gain or lose a day, or, in other words, get out of harmony with the located inhabitants of the whole earth in the numbering of the days. If he does not cross the Pacific Ocean, all is harmony; but if he crosses that ocean, even where it is narrowed to a few miles in distance, at Behring’s Straits, he will find himself out of harmony with the people of the continent on which he lands in the numbering of the days, or, in common parlance, he has gained or lost a day. This proves that in crossing the Pacific, and nowhere else, the traveler passes out of one day into another, as reckoned by the inhabitants of both continents. This is the statement of the real question at issue; and the bare statement of it contains the proof that in the Pacific Ocean lies the boundary between successive days, as known and numbered by all the located inhabitants of both continents—by all the inhabitants of the entire globe who have not deranged their reckoning by crossing that line. Is the question understood? It is not whether the light of the sun is unceasingly revolving around the earth. This is admitted. But the question is, whether there is a dividing point between the days as they are known and numbered by the whole world. To illustrate it, we will suppose that you start at noon on Sunday, Jan. 1, from the eastern coast of Asia, or off the Japan Islands, travel westward with the apparent velocity of the sun, and thus make the entire circuit of the globe. As you pass you ask the inhabitants of the time, and in every place they tell you it is Sunday, Jan. 1, at noon. On the meridian of Yeddo, Canton, Calcutta, Constantinople, Rome, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake, San Francisco, and all other places, the answer is Sunday, Jan. 1, at noon. But you pass on and cross the Pacific, and, on arriving at Yeddo, you inquire the time, and the reply is, Monday, Jan. 2, at noon. And their answer is true. This proves that, somewhere in crossing the Pacific, you passed a point where you passed from noon of one day into noon of another day; for it has been noon to you all the time. It was not a gradual change, spread equally over ten thousand miles of travel, for if you, instead of crossing the broad Pacific, should go far enough to the north to cross the straits of Behring, which, at your rate of travel, you would accomplish in about ten minutes of time, it would be the same. Within that ten minutes you pass from noon of Jan. 1, to noon of Jan. 2. Now these are facts; and instead of proving that days cannot be distinguished, and harmoniously numbered by mankind universally, they prove that they can and are; only with the exception of the few that have ignorantly crossed that line, as the Alaskans, who, in attempting to bring Sunday across that line on an eastern passage, fell back upon Saturday, which, in their muddled condition, as it is reported, they keep for Sunday. It is also proved by the facts in our illustration that days are not reckoned as absolute but relative time, and that two days exist upon the earth at the same time. Each day begins at the setting of the sun. Suppose the sun to set at six o’clock, as it does at the equinoxes. Our traveler with the sun passes out of one day at twelve o’clock into another day at twelve o’clock. The day that he leaves lacks six hours of its completion at sunset, and the day that he enters has advanced eighteen hours, from sunset till noon, and lacks just six hours of being complete. Some seem not to comprehend how each day is forty-eight hours in completing its circuit round the globe; but if they will consider that the beginning of the day is twenty-four hours in making the circuit, they may see that the ending of the day, being twenty-four hours behind the beginning, must occupy twenty-four hours more in coming to the same point. Therefore, though the day is only twenty-four hours long at any given point, yet each day exists on the earth for forty-eight hours; and two of them exist and are going their round at the same absolute time. God, the Maker of the Heavens and the earth, not only set in motion the vast machinery that causes successive days, but numbered the days and blessed and sanctified the seventh. His word will stand. All pretended science reared up to oppose it will fall and come to naught. It will be found to be falsely called science. Whoever opposes his own knowledge to the knowledge of the Creator of all things, will find in the end that his wisdom is folly. “Weighed in the balance and found wanting,” will be true of all this vaunted science. And the professor of faith in the God of the Bible who, to make null and of no effect the commandment of God, takes infidel ground, attempting to stultify and defeat the Almighty in the numbering of days, sailing, in his imagination, round and round this terrestrial globe to find some means by which to accomplish this end, so desirable to him, will find at the last that he has run in vain and labored in vain. Oh, that such would forsake their folly and be truly wise in accepting of the wisdom of God and obeying his word! Let all be assured that the Maker of all things knows more of science than any other being in the universe; and that all who would evade his law by attempting to derange his arrangement, stand upon infidel ground, and, unless this ground is abandoned, must share the infidel’s fate. We beseech all to accept of God’s arrangement and be saved. As CLEARLY as the human race have been taught by the experience of six thousand years that death is their common lot, so clearly are we taught by the word of God, and by some notable exhibitions of divine power, that all who have gone into their graves shall come forth again to life. The words in the New Testament which express this fact are anastasis, egersis, and exanastasis. The two latter occur but once each, the first in reference to the resurrection of Christ, in Matt. 27:53, the last in Phil. 3:11, where Paul expresses a desire to attain to a resurrection out from among the dead. Anastasis occurs forty-two times, being the word which is invariably used in the N. T., with the exceptions just named, to express the resurrection. This word is defined by Robinson to mean, literally, a rising up, as of walls, of a suppliant, or from a seat. Specially in the New Testament, the resurrection of the body from death, the return of the dead body to life, as, first of individuals who have returned to life on earth, Heb. 11:35; secondly, of the future and general resurrection at the end of all things, John 11:24. It is often joined to the word, dead; as in the expression, the resurrection of the dead. From these well-established meanings of the word it is evident that that which goes down will rise again. That which goes into the grave will come up again out of the grave. The rising again of the body is certainly assured by this word, and the manner in which it is used. This resurrection is a future event: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29. Paul said, when disputing with Tertullus before the governor, I “have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” Acts 24:15. And he tells us in chapter 26:7, that unto that promise the twelve tribes hope to come. If, then, this is a firmly-established fact, that God is to make such a mighty manifestation of his power as to re-animate the scattered dust of these whom the grave has consumed from time’s earliest morn, there must be some cause for such an action. This great event has a tremendous bearing on the question of the intermediate state, and all views of that state must be adjusted to harmonize therewith. If any view is entertained which virtually renders such an event unnecessary, it must be shown that the resurrection as here defined is not taught in the word of God, or it must be admitted that the doctrine which nullifies it, is unscriptural. The important inquiry now arises respecting the popular view, If the real being, the intelligent, responsible entity, ceases not its life and consciousness at death, but continues on in a more enlarged and perfect sphere of existence and activity, what need is there of the resurrection of the body? If the body is but a trammel, a clog, to the operations of the soul, what need that it should come back and gather up its scattered particles from the silent tomb, and re-feather itself with this material robe? Wm. Tyndale, defending the doctrine of Martin Luther, that the dead sleep, addressed to his opponent the same pungent inquiry. He said:—
“And ye in putting them [departed souls] in Heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the argument wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. . . . If the souls be in Heaven tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be? and then what cause is there of the resurrection?” Andrew Carmichael (Theology of Scripture, Vol. ii, p. 315) says:—
“It cannot be too often repeated: If there be an immortal soul there is no resurrection; and if there be any resurrection there is no immortal soul.” Dr. Muller (Ch. Doc. of Sin, p. 318) says:—
“The Christian faith in immortality is indissolubly connected with a promise of a future resurrection of the dead.” We now propose to show that the resurrection is a prominent doctrine of the Bible; and if this can be established, it follows, upon the judgment of these eminent men, that the immortality of the soul cannot be true. We need not stop to notice that palpably and groundless theory which makes the resurrection take place immediately at death, by supposing it to be the rising of the soul from the earthly house of this tabernacle, and its entering at once into its spiritual house, this to be inhabited, and the former abandoned, forever. For in this case there is no resurrection; since the soul lives right on, and does not die at all. The resurrection which the Bible brings to view is a resurrection of the dead. It cannot be applied to anything that continuously lives, however many changes it may pass through. A person must go down into a state of death before he can be raised from the dead. Hence this theory is no resurrection at all, and so is at war with all the Bible says about the resurrection of the dead. Moreover, it is utterly impossible to harmonize this with the many references to the general resurrection at the end of the world. We return to the Bible doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, the literal resurrection and resuscitation of our natural bodies, and affirm that the Bible makes this resurrection necessary, by representing the dead to be in such a condition that without this event they can have no future existence. 1. Death is compared to sleep. There must then be some analogy between a state of sleep and a state of death; and this analogy must pertain to that which renders sleep a peculiar condition. Our condition in sleep differs from our condition when awake, simply in this, that when we are soundly asleep we are entirely unconscious. In this respect, then, death is like sleep; that is, the dead are unconscious. This figure is frequently used to represent the condition of the dead. Dan. 12:2: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Matt. 17:52: “Many bodies of the saints which slept arose.” Acts 7:60: After Stephen had beheld the vision of Christ and was stoned to death, the record says, he “fell asleep.” In 1 Cor. 15:20, Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept; and in verse 57 Paul says, “We shall not all sleep.” Again Paul writes to the Thessalonians, 1 Thess. 4:13, 14, that he would not have them ignorant concerning them which are asleep. In verse 14 he speaks of them as asleep in Jesus, and explains what he means, in verse 16, by calling them “dead in Christ.” And the advocates of the conscious state cannot dispose of these expressions by saying that they apply to the body merely; for they do not hold that the consciousness which we have in life (which is what we lose in death) pertains to the body merely. Job plainly declares that they will not awake till the resurrection at the last day. “Man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” If, therefore, there is no resurrection, these dead are destined to sleep in unconsciousness forever. 2. The dead are in a condition as though they had not been. So Job testifies; for he affirms that if he could have died in earliest infancy, like a hidden untimely birth, he would not have been; and in this respect he declared he would have been like kings, counsellors, and princes of the earth who built costly tombs in which to enshrine their bodies when dead. To that condition he applies the expression which has since been so often quoted, “There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.” Job 3:11–18. If, then, a person when dead is as though he had not been, without a resurrection to release him from this state, he will never be, or exist, again. 3. The dead have no knowledge. Speaking of the dead man, Job says (14:21), “His sons come to honor and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not of them.” Ps. 146:4. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Solomon was inspired to speak to the same effect as his father David: Eccl. 9:5, 6: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything. . . . Also their love and their hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Verse 10: “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” Evidence like this can neither be mistaken nor evaded. It is vain for the immaterialist to claim that it applies to the body in distinction from an immortal soul; for they do not hold that the thoughts, (διαλογισμός, thought, reasoning) which David says perish in death, belong to the body but to the soul. And according to Solomon, that which knows when the man is living, does not know when he is dead. Without a resurrection, therefore, the dead will forever remain without knowledge. 4. The dead are not in Heaven nor in hell, but in the dust of the earth. Job 17:13–16: “If I wait the grave is mine house.” In chap. 14:14 he said, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.” The change referred to, must therefore be the resurrection, and he describes his condition till that time, in the following language: “I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister, . . . when our rest together is in the dust.” Isa. 26:19: “Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they rise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Is it possible that the phraseology of this text can be misunderstood? It speaks of the living again of dead men, of the arising of dead bodies, and of the earth’s casting out the dead. And the command is addressed to them thus: “Awake and sing.” Who? Ye who are still conscious, basking in the bliss of Heaven and chanting the high praises of God? No; but, “Ye who dwell in dust;” ye who are in your graves. If the dead are conscious, Isaiah talked nonsense. If we believe his testimony we must look into the graves for the dead; and if there is no resurrection, there they will forever lie mingled with the clods of the valley. 5. The dead, even the most holy and righteous, have no remembrance of God, and cannot, while in that condition, render him any praise and thanksgiving. Ps. 6:5: “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” Ps. 115:17: “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Good King Hezekiah when praising the Lord for adding to his days fifteen years, gives this as the reason why he thus rejoiced: Isa. 38:18, 19: “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Modern doctors of divinity have Hezekiah in Heaven praising God. He declared that when he was dead he could not do this. Whose testimony is the more worthy of credit, that of the inspired king of Israel, or that of the theologians of subsequent ages of error and confusion? If we can believe Hezekiah, unless there is to be a resurrection, the righteous dead are nevermore to praise their Maker. 6. The dead, even the righteous, are not ascended to the Heavens. So Peter testifies respecting the patriarch David: Acts 2:29, 34, 35: “Men and brethren let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.” We call the especial attention of the reader to the whole argument presented by Peter, beginning with verse 24. Peter undertakes to prove from a prophecy recorded in the Psalms, the resurrection of Christ. He says, verse 31, “He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades, the grave], neither did his flesh see corruption.” And how does he prove that David speaks of Christ and not of himself? He proves it from the fact that David’s soul was left in hades and his flesh did see corruption; and his sepulcher was with them to that day. For David, he says, has not ascended into the heavens. Now if David’s soul did live right on in consciousness; if it was not left in hades, no man can show that David, in that psalm, did not speak of himself instead of Christ; and then Peter’s argument for the resurrection of Christ would be entirely destroyed. But Peter, especially when speaking as he was on this occasion under the influence of the Holy Ghost, knew how to reason; and his argument entirely destroys the dogma of the immortality of the soul. But if David has not yet ascended into the heavens, how is he ever to get there? There is no other way but by a resurrection of the dead. So he himself says, Ps. 17:15, “I shall be satisfied when I awake [from the sleep of death], with thy likeness.” 7. And finally, Paul in his masterly argument in 1 Cor. 15, states explicitly the conclusion which is necessary from every one of the texts which we have quoted, that if there is no resurrection, then all the dead, even those who have fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. Verses 16–18. “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are PERISHED.” As we read this testimony, we pause in utter amazement that any who profess to believe the Bible should cling with tenacity to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul which so directly contradicts it. If the souls of the dead live right on, are they perished? What! perished? and yet living in a larger sphere? Perished? and yet enjoying the attendant blessings of everlasting life in Heaven? Perished? and yet at God’s right hand where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore? Perish, amid the ruins of the heathen mythology from which it springs, that theory which thus lifts its dead men on high, contrary to the teachings of the word of God! Paul speaks of the whole being. As in Adam we die, so in Christ shall we be made alive. Is it conceivable that Paul drops out of sight the real man, the soul which soars away to realms of light, and frames all this argument, and talks thus seriously about the cast off shell, the body merely? The idea is preposterous to the last degree. After stating that if there is no resurrection we perish, he assures us that Christ is risen and that there is a resurrection for all; then he takes up the resurrection of those who sleep in Christ, and tells us when that resurrection shall be. It is to take place, not by the rising from this mortal coil of an ethereal, immaterial, essence when we die, but it is to be at the great day when the last trump shall shatter this decrepit earth from center to circumference. The testimony on this point is well summed up by Bishop Law who speaks as follows:—
“I proceed to consider what account the Scriptures give of that state to which death reduces us. And this we find represented by sleep; by a negation of all life, thought, or action; by rest, resting place, or home, silence, oblivion, darkness, destruction, or corruption.” This representation is abundantly sustained by the Scriptures referred to; and by all these the great fact is inscribed in indelible characters over the portals of the dark valley, that our existence is not perpetuated by means of an immortal soul, but that without a resurrection from the dead, there is no future life.