The Contrast Will Out

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 26, 1861

The Contrast Will Out.

Popular religionists may claim with all the zeal they can command that they have the true scriptural theory in relation to man in death; but the contrast between their hope, and that held out to us by the apostles of our Lord and all the sacred writers, will manifest itself in spite of all their efforts, at almost every turn. Speaking of the death of Dr. Alfred Freeman, of New York city, the Scientific American closes its remarks thus: “He has left behind a large circle of relatives and acquaintances who do not sorrow without hope—for they believe that his spirit has gone to the better land!” The expression, sorrowing not without hope, is evidently borrowed from the consoling instruction of Paul in reference to our friends who are dead. And having thus been set upon the track of the apostle’s reasoning, the mind naturally expects to be led to the same conclusion that it is accustomed to meet with in the language of the apostle. But so suddenly are we whirled by the popular theology, as illustrated in the above extract, and switched off from the position of the apostle, and made to turn such a complete somerset in the conclusion, that it is scarcely possible to read it, without experiencing a sense of oppressive dizziness. They sorrow not because they believe that his spirit has gone to the better land! But does Paul say that this is the reason why men should not sorrow? Not by any means; but he tells the christian not to sorrow as others which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him [i. e., from the dead]. Here is our hope: we are not to sorrow as those who have no hope, not because their immortal spirits are now in heaven, but because they are to be raised again from the dead, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. Being satisfied with the hope of the gospel as explained by the apostle, we neither feel disposed to attempt to climb up some other way, nor to rest upon a foundation, which, though it has the reputation of being both scientific and scriptural, is in reality neither the one nor the other.