16 The Living Dead!
The Living Dead!
"Whoever lives, and believes in Me, shall never die!" John 11:26
"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body!" 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 "Because I live — you shall live also!" John 14:19
"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in Heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling." 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him!" 2 Timothy 2:11
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory!" Colossians 3:1-4 The very slender hold which Christ has taken of our life, is nowhere shown so much as in the wantonness of our grief at the death of our saved beloved ones. Why should they not die? Were they given to us that we might them here on earth forever? Does no one else love saved beloved ones but ourselves? Are we to employ our love as chains and bonds, that we may bind them forever to the earth? Shall we restrain them here on earth with our selfishness?
They were sent into life as into a war — and shall we mourn that the battle is quickly fought, so that it is victorious? They were sent into life as scholars and apprentices — and shall we mourn that their apprenticeship is soon ended, and their indentures broken; and they are so soon graduated, and their diplomas awarded?
I have never seen any man hanging death-crape upon trees, because the blossoms had fallen, that the fruit might swell. But I see people putting crape upon their doors, and upon their persons, because summer has come sooner to their godly companions than they thought. The advance of summer is not terrible to the natural world — why should the advance of Heaven be terrible? What is dying but blossoming? All the winter long the blossom-bud was hidden in the tree. The spring brings it forth. And, while we live in this world our real life and beauty are hidden. While living, we are buds which, from the chilliness of the air, cannot open. When men have lived long, and outlived strength and activity — we do not marvel that they die — but we think that early dying is mysterious. That God might enfold the year, and leave not one moment without a blossom — He has appointed flowers for every period. Some things are made to blossom in earliest spring — and some in later spring; some in early summer — and some in midsummer. Multitudes are appointed for the autumn — and some God sets to put wreaths on the very brow of winter. In like manner, there are different periods of blossoming out of life. We do not know what is the secret work that goes on within. Nowhere else is our ignorance of the spiritual realm, and of the relation of our inward life to it more apparent — than in judging of men’s fitness to live or die. The conditions of life hereafter rule mightily; many who to us, would seem ripe and ready to go, are kept back — while many that seem to us unfinished and unfit for spiritual glory are transplanted. But the relations of each particular nature to the future state; their susceptibility to the influences that then shall surround them; their aptitudes to moral goodness and harmony; their power of assimilation; their impressibleness under other circumstances — we do not know, and do not even suspect. And to judge of these things by any earthly tests or rules of experience, is most surely gross and blundering folly. Often the young have more true symmetry of spirit in them, than old men. Many seem less fit to die — the further they are removed from childhood. The very data upon which judgments are formed in these matters, are not within our reach. We have no tools even for a calculation. In respect to our earthly relations, observations and experience may make us wise; but our relations to the invisible and the future — must always be tenuous, mysterious, hidden.
We mourn as those who have no hope — whereas our mightiest griefs should be embosomed in hope and joy! With what frantic sorrow do we beat ourselves — only because our heart companions are suddenly translated into all honor, and nobleness, and purity, and ecstasy of joy! When the golden gate is opened, and our loved ones pass through, we may be sad that we are left in the dreary wilderness — but not that they have entered the city of their coronation! We may mourn that we are alive — but not that they are dead. Living is death — dying is life. The holy dead are the truly living! We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles — on that side, we are Heaven’s citizens. On this side of the grave we are orphans — on that side, we are beloved children of God. On this side of the grave we are disguised and unknown — on that side, we are revealed and proclaimed as the sons of God!
If we could but break down by faith and imagination the barrier which our senses interpose; if we could but move through the celestial air, beholding the fulfillment of God’s promises; if we could but assure ourselves of the lustrous beauty, the glorious largeness and liberty, the wonderful purity and joy of those whom God has called and crowned with immortality — then unless we were petrified with selfishness, we would lay aside our sorrow, and break forth with thanksgiving.
Since only days and weeks are between us and those who have gone before; since joy and sorrow alike, and the whole course of earthly experiences are bearing us straight onward to the same abode — it would seem the very abandon of unregulated grief, the very fantasy of earthly folly — not to find consolation and patience, yes, and a sobered gladness, that we are known in Heaven by our forerunners. Our departed loved ones are the hands by which we take hold of Heaven. By these tendrils, we clasp it and climb thitherward. And why do we think that we are separated from them? We never half knew them. Until they die, men are not in a condition to be known. That which belongs to men does not come to them in this world. We are kept from each other, while yet we live together in life.
We are all of us traveling, then, to the land of eternal acquaintanceship. We are not unpopulating our houses; we are not sending our saved friends away from home. We are all traveling to that realm where we shall know even as also we are known. We move faster as every cord is loosed that bound us to earth — faster as every heart that we loved draws upward. Let us rejoice.
And, as in autumn, the very earth prepares for death as if it were its bridal, and all the sober colors of the summer take higher hues, and trees and shrubs and vines go forth to their rest wearing their most gorgeous apparel, as ending their career more brightly than they began it — so let our hearts cast off somber thoughts and sable melancholy, and clothe themselves with all the radiance of faith, and with every hue of heavenly joy. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!"
"Holy Father, take me into deathless union with Yourself; grant me the fellowship of Your Spirit; quicken my soul into a more divine and glorious life, and perfect in me Your most blessed will! Amen."