There Will be Two Resurrections.
By Sarah J. Wakeling
LET us take a walk in yonder silent graveyard, and muse awhile upon the certainty of death, and the narrow house which is the silent abode of so many of the sons and daughters of Adam. Here we see the graves of the young, the middle-aged, and the old. Those who lived many years upon the earth, and have gone down into their graves with their silvery hair; those, too, who were folded in death's cold embrace while in their prime, while all their powers were active, and in their full development. We see also the graves of the youth, to whom life looked pleasant and desirable, but death cast over them his sable mantle and they sank into the tomb; also the tender infant, a beautiful flower nipped in the bud. And when we see all this, and permit our thoughts to dwell upon it, and ourselves to realize, that we, too, may some day lie in the cold and silent tomb, how naturally arises in our mind the question, Is this to be our end? Will we never arise from that final resting place? or shall "the dead arise," as it is said. Is the sleep of the dead an eternal sleep? a sleep that shall know no waking? Death is not such a sleep. Jesus our Saviour will come with his holy angels, and he will look upon the graves of the sleeping saints, and bid them arise, and they shall "wake in his likeness." There will be a great earthquake, and the graves will be opened, and the earth shall shake out the bones, and "bone shall come together to his bone," and the flesh and the sinew shall come upon them, and the Lord shall cause his wind to blow upon them, and the breath of life shall re-animate those bodies, and they will arise a great multitude, and be borne away by angel hands, while the living saints are translated, and caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. But do the wicked never have a resurrection? Yea verily. The rest of the dead lived not again, until the thousand years were finished; then the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, comes down like a bride adorned for her husband, and rests upon Mount Olive, which parts and forms a great plain. Then Jesus and his saints enter into the beautiful city, and with an awful voice he calls upon the rest of the dead, who come forth from their graves to hear the dread sentence, "Depart from me," which, by their own deeds they have brought upon them. Still they are rebellious. They come up on the "breadth of the earth" with the Arch-Deceiver at their head, whose number is as the sand of the sea, and they encompass the city to make war against it and to overcome it. But Jesus and the saints ascend to the top of the city, and the wicked then behold them in all their glory, and realize that they are forever barred from enjoying the bliss of Heaven. Then fire descends and consumes them. Their end is death, eternal death! and the fire which consumes them goes on and burns up every remain of the curse, and earth, "In Eden robes shall bloom again." There shall then never be any more death, and sorrow and sighing shall find no place. But throughout its wide extent shall be joy, peace, happiness and love. The righteous shall safely dwell in mansions of light, and live in the bright presence of their King. The Lord will comfort Zion, and restore her waste places, and make her like Eden, like the garden of the Lord, and joy and gladness shall be found therein.