Revelation 21 by T. L. Waters

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 7, 1872

By T. L. Waters

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” These words, to those in sorrow and affliction, are full of consolation. In this world the reign of God is as universal as it is appalling. The young in their beauty and loveliness, and the old in their maturity and wisdom, are swept away. Dear ones of earth, linked to our hearts by the most tender ties, have departed. We have tearfully laid them in the grave to slumber till the great awakening. We shall see them no more in the land of the living. Worldly thoughts, and cares, and passions, disturb them no more. “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” whither they have gone. Their very bones may turn to ashes, and their dust be scattered and wasted. The monumental marble that marked the resting-place of human hearts once beating as warm as ours may have crumbled, and the name and all pertaining have gone to oblivion. And yet, at the mandate of Him who holds the countless worlds in their courses, they shall spring forth to life again.

Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? How can we doubt when we behold how glorious the vilest earth may become? The same substance that begrims the laborer in the charcoal pit when changed a little shines forth with resplendent brightness in the crown of royalty. The dirt, trodden beneath our feet, and which is so offensive to our person or in our food, changed a little becomes inviting to the taste, and changed a little more—behold! it glows upon the cheek of beauty and sparkles in the eye of intelligence.

The steam that with resistless and tireless energy propels the leviathan of the deep in the face of wind and waves, or with still mightier energy upheaves the mountains from their beds—what is it but the awakened energies that were just now lying dormant in the sleeping, sluggish waters of the deep?

The lightning, which in its destructive course rends oaks and rocks to pieces in its passage from cloud to earth, is the same element that was just now sleeping as gently as the babe in its cradle. At whose bidding do these dormant energies start to life? Who fashioned the shapeless dust into forms of beauty? Who gives such exquisite coloring, such dazzling brightness to the sightless lump? And cannot the same power cause that this mortal shall put on immortality?

He who has marked the transformation of the rude earth into forms of life and beauty, he who has seen the rough lump of charcoal, made by a simple change in the arrangement of its particles to flame forth in the radiant hues of the diamond, he who has marked the speed of electricity, and the impenetration of heat, he who has noticed the expansibility of light, and the velocity with which it travels through unbounded space, such an one can no longer wonder at any transformations the body may experience, or any glories with which it may be invested, or any spiritual adaptations it may attain in the resurrection and heavenly state. Here the material body may prove an element of weakness and dishonor; but there it shall possess power and glory. Here it may be animal, gross, and evil; but there it shall be a spiritual body. Refined from the grossness of that which is merely animal, it shall be endowed with an elasticity of action; with an imperishable nature; and vitalized anew, beautified with its highest perfections, it shall shine forth anew with undecaying brightness in the kingdom of God.

And we shall know and recognize each other there. Friendship is not confined to this present state. “Go where you will,” says Dr. Berg, “and we find the sentiment that friendship is perpetuated beyond the grave. It is enshrined in the heart of our common humanity. The Bible teaches it; and the Vale of Tempes, the Hesperian Gardens, the Elysian Fields, the Islands of the blest, and the Great Hunting Grounds, are only so many forms in which the pagan faith has by a blotted copy, expressed the great expectation of re-union and recognition in another life.

“We read of the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre, of the killing of slaves, subjects, and friends, that they might accompany the souls of the departed and sustain to them relations kindred to those sustained in this life. These cruel practices have been almost co-extensive with heathenism itself. They now exist, or formerly existed in nearly all the vast and populous empires of Asia, in the benighted regions of Africa, among the Indians of both North and South America, and upon nearly all the populous Islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans.

“These brutal practices have their bright, as well as their dark, side. They are the darkened soul’s expression of the conviction of another life, and that the friendships formed here are perpetuated there. As we said before, they are but blotted copies, illustrating the truthfulness of that expression of St. Paul, Rom. 1: 21, ‘Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.’ But in the sacred book of God all is clear. The expressions of Job 19: 25–27: ‘For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.’ Isa. 26: 19, ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.’ Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.’ Dan. 12: 2, ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ The reply of Jesus to Martha, John 11: 23, 24: ‘Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ The expressions of Paul, Rom. 6: 5: ‘For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;’ Phil. 3: 21, ‘Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.’ The transfiguration and recognition of Moses and Elias by the disciples; and the parables of our Lord illustrating the kingdom; all these each a distinct recognition of each other.”

Our loved dead are still linked to us, not only by the cords of memory, but by the ties of affection. The monuments carved to their memory, the flowers that blossom above their sleeping dust, and the tears that bedew their graves, are so many living testimonies of our undying affection to them, and the yearning of the heart for a reunion with them. “She goeth unto the grave to weep there,” is the record, not merely of Mary, but of the heart yearnings of humanity in all ages. This human feeling finds its consummation only in a recognized personal reunion; and in response to that craving our funeral hymns take up the blessed strain and whisper it to our hope in sweetest melodies.

Yes, “We shall know each other there;” and all tears will be wiped away by the hand of Jesus. He has the keys of the great charnel house, and the time is close at hand when he will unlock its doors, the sweet, silvery tones of that voice that once called forth the sleeping Lazarus and restored him to his friends, will soon be heard from Heaven again.

Oh! are we ready and waiting to receive the consolation promised at the head of this article? Let us be diligent in making search for our individual sins, both of omission and commission, and may the Lord grant us grace at last to overcome.

T. L. WATERS.

Mecosta Co., Mich.

Revelation 21.