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Note and Comment

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 22, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 51.

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Note and Comment

Is Death a Friend or an Enemy?

If we seek an answer to this question in the popular theology of the day, we shall be led to conclude that death is the greatest friend of the Christian. In old-time hymnology it was declared that “death is the gate to endless joy.” And in the large majority of funeral sermons we hear it stated that the spirit of the departed is already in the courts of glory, or in the companionship of angels, and is looking down with sympathy upon the scene of sorrow. In direct line with this teaching are the words of Chas. M. Sheldon in the Christian Herald of December 7:— “Let us not fear Death. He can not harm us. Life is the only thing to fear. Life is what does things. Death does nothing except emphasize life. What a friend this is to humanity! Some of us would live for years without a sober or happy thought of God if Death did not now and then beckon some one we know out of our presence into his. Then, as this acquaintance, this friend of ours, that baby, that child, that life companion, goes in through that glory gate, we look, and God is there, and we have to think of him for a while. The money-making, the pleasure-seeking, the power-craving drop their clutches off of us for another brief moment, and God has a chance at us again. Death has reminded us of him.”
It is true, as Mr. Sheldon says, that the experience of death may emphasize the importance of life. It may lead men to think of God; but it is not the doorway to celestial glory. This view of death does not accord with the declaration of Holy Writ. The apostle declares, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The hope of the Christian bridges this yawning chasm. It leaps from the life which now is to the life beyond the tomb, to the glorious resurrection at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that day and through that event will the righteous dead enter upon their blessed reward. See 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Thess. 4:16-18.