DEATH AND RESURRECTION by W. A. Sweany

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 7, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 36.

DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

By W. A. Sweany

BY W. A. SWEANY.

(Concluded.)

From time to time, in various ways, this assurance was repeated to maintain and strengthen the faith of the dying sons of Adam; for faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. See Luke 20:27–38; Heb. 11:8–19; Rom. 10:17. But, in order to strengthen our faith in the assurance of His Word, God gives us illustrative, partial fulfilments thereof. So, when death had “reigned from Adam to Moses” (Rom. 5:14), God deemed it time that a demonstration of His power and of the faithfulness of His promise should be given. To this end a crisis in the great controversy between Christ and Satan, life and death, was precipitated, when Death’s right to the body of Moses was disputed by the Prince of Life. Deut. 34:5–7. Jude 9. Mark 9:1–10.

That faith-inspiring victory of the Captain of our salvation over death and the grave, in bringing Moses, the man of God, from the enemy’s land, demonstrates His ability to release all the captives. The record of this victory so thrills the heart of His people with courage that they can hurl defiance in the face of the foe.

But Satan was not yet crushed. Realizing that the success of his plans was hopeless, while the Son of God lived, he bided his time till He appeared on earth, in human flesh, subject to the power of death. Then the hosts of Satan bestirred themselves, and from infancy to manhood they dogged His steps in the unceasing effort to capture and confine Him in the prison-house of the grave! And at last, on the cruel cross on Calvary’s brow, in an agony that convulsed nature and caused the sun to hide his face, the Lord of life expired, and the fate of the race depended alone on the power of His promise.

The solemnity of heaven, and the exultation of the adversary, can easier be imagined than described, as the Prince of Life, the only hope of the dying race, was Himself laid in the silent tomb. The great stone, and the seal and the sentinels of Rome, that mightiest earthly ally of Satan, re-enforced by legions of evil angels, exhausted the power of the enemy to retain his advantage and follow up his victory.

With wonder and astonishment, mingled with amazement and righteous indignation, the holy angels, who watch with deepest interest the operation of the plan of redemption (1 Peter 1:12), beheld the fearful tragedy. When the sepulcher was sealed and the sentinels stationed, the hosts of heaven and the inhabitants of unfallen worlds watched and

waited, with an intensity of interest never before equalled, for the fulfilment of the promise that would bring to life again their loved Commander, and again demonstrate His power over death and the grave, in a manner not to be doubted, thus making sure the resurrection of the sleeping saints. Be astonished, O ye heavens, and ashamed, O earth, that mankind, of all beings most deeply concerned in the crucial crisis of Calvary, knew not its stupendous significance, nor the crowning culmination thereof, so soon to come.

And so, while the disciples mourned and sentinels slept, the hosts of hell and heaven kept ceaseless vigil over the sealed sepulcher in which centered the destiny of the universe. Consider the conditions! The Commander-in-chief of heaven’s hosts, the Creator of the worlds, the Prince of Life, prostrate and silent in death! The eyes that had flashed with royal majesty and glistened with tears of love and pity, were closed in death’s dreamless slumber. The heart that had thrilled and throbbed at the sight and touch of earth’s wo, was broken and throbless! The hands that made the worlds and formed the stars and grouped the constellations together in kindred beauty; those loving hands whose healing touch had opened the blind eyes, unstopped the deaf ears, loosed the lame joints, cleansed the leper, fed the hungry, caressed the children, and everywhere dispensed blessings to all, are now pulseless and still. Those once active hands now lie pierced and folded on the throbless breast. The feet that had trod the dusty, stony paths of earth—willing feet, tired feet, pierced feet, had reached the journey’s end. Sad scene, solemn situation, intensified by each passing, fleeting moment.

At last the pregnant hours of the second day had passed away, and the dawn of the day when He must, if ever, arise, drew near. A few more brief hours, yea, moments, must decide the fate of the race; for if the appointed time shall pass, and that silent sleeper stir not in His spotless shroud, the travail of the ages is in vain, and the world’s doom is sealed. With tense nerves and bated breath, the angel watchers wait for some sign from the eternal One, who now sat alone on the throne of the universe. And when the supreme moment arrived, Omnipotence spoke, and Gabriel, that mighty, glorious angel who has executed so many important missions to earth, sped forth on the weightiest errand ever entrusted by the Creator to a creature.

With the swiftness of thought he speeds through the abyss of infinite space, and, parting the darkness from his track, he nears the sepulcher. At the presence of his dazzling light and glory, the human sentinels fall as dead men, and Satan’s hosts retreat in fear and dismay. With majestic disregard of the imperial power of Rome, he breaks the seal and rolls away the stone. Then, with a voice thrilling with authority, infinite and eternal, he cries, “Thou Son of God, come forth, Thy Father calls Thee.” While the earth shakes and the rocks rend, the Prince of Life comes forth, and to eternity’s remotest outposts penetrate the triumphant, thrilling words, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Take courage, ye dying souls; rest on, ye sleeping saints; for “now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. . . . Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” “Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” and come quickly. Amen.