NOTES DURING A SERMON by Wm. S. Foote

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 14, 1867

NOTES DURING A SERMON.

By Wm. S. Foote

The text was in Ps. xxxvii, 37. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” Here the preacher stopped, as the verse following would rather militate against his sentiments expressed afterward. The next verse reads: “But the transgressors shall be destroyed together, the end of the wicked shall be cut off.” He neglected telling us that in order to become perfect men in Christ Jesus, it is necessary for us, to try through divine grace, to keep a perfect law, but went on to relate to us what he had learned from observation and experience. Said he, “I have seen children die, and go to Heaven; I have seen young men die and go there to; and I have seen old men and old women die and go up to God!” If what he said is true, he certainly had been favored in this particular, above all other mortals, with the exception of the prophet Elisha; and as most of his hearers believe in the doctrine of immortalsoulism, his evidence undoubtedly will go far to confirm them in that belief, although the Bible is wholly silent upon the subject. After saying that the “many mansions above, occupied a space larger than the world, or earth on which we dwell, he spoke of the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked as being simultaneous; and as both were immortal, ‘one would be forever happy, and the other would dwell in endless misery. How that would agree with the verse following his text, he did not inform us.

He seemed quite elated with the idea that man is an immortal being, and of course could never die. Mother J., said he, is not here. Her spirit is in Heaven; but her body in which she dwelt is left behind to be committed to the dust.

I thought from his remarks which followed, that he knew that some S. D. Adventists were present, and that he was making quite an effort to enlighten them. Speaking of the resurrection of Lazarus, he dwelt largely upon the language of our Saviour in John xi, 25. “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.” “Shall never die,” he repeated. “Is not this language of our Saviour sufficient? Was not Lazarus really alive, while his body lay in the grave? His immortal spirit, or Lazarus himself, was in Heaven, and was called away from the society of angels to re-animate his sleeping dust.”

Where the man obtained such information we know not; as we cannot find any such testimony in either profane or sacred history. Our Lord says, with regard to the resurrection of the dead, or those who are asleep in the grave, “I would not have you ignorant, brethren,” 1 Thess. iv, 13, and we understand the order of the first resurrection to be this: At the second advent of Christ, those who have lived on the earth, and believed in him, although dead like Lazarus, yet shall they live. John xi, 26. Or according to 1 Thess. iv, 13, “Those who are asleep in Jesus will God bring with him,” i. e. bring them up from the grave, and confer upon them the glorious prize of immortality. Then those who are alive and remain at the coming of Christ, shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and be caught up together with the resurrected dead to meet their Lord in the air. 1 Thess. iv, 13, 18.

Now if this harmonizes with John xi, 26, then we need not remain in ignorance with regard to the true meaning of our Saviour, when he said, “He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” The conversation between Jesus, Mary and Martha, was about the resurrection of the dead, and he conveyed to them and to those who have and keep his testimony, Rev. xvi, 12, the idea that the Christian in his grave would rise again to immortal life. And Christians living, looking, and waiting for his coming, are not to be subject to either temporal or eternal death, “shall never die,” but be translated as Elijah was, and live and reign with their Lord forever. In Jeremiah xxiii, we read: “Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Behold I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.”

Wm. S. FOOTE.

Pendleton, O.