THEY ARE SILENT by T. E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 10, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 45.

THEY ARE SILENT.

By T. E. Bowen

It is often said in the pulpit that when men die, they at once enter upon their reward in heaven. At funerals the virtues of the deceased are discoursed upon, and it is asserted that such persons are worthy of heavenly bliss. What is said of their good qualities may all be true. They may have worshiped God, and lived an exemplary life among men; but who said they immediately entered the courts above, to continue their praise and worship? God, through the inspired psalmist, says they are silent. Yes, even those who are in the habit of offering praise: “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Ps. 115:17.

Surely the wicked would not be likely to praise God; praise is expected only of the people of God. Yet the Lord in speaking of them says they “praise not the Lord. Why?—Because they are silent, and can not. This certainly is sufficient reason.

Again, instead of going up, as is commonly taught, this passage says they go down into silence. This silence is the silence of the grave. “If I wait,” says Job, “the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness.” Job 17:13.

If the righteous are silent in the grave, what about the wicked? Again the psalmist answers: “Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon Thee; let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.” Ps. 31:17.

Unconscious, like the sleeping man, of what is occurring about them, the dead rest quietly in their graves until their change comes. “But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”

“His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14:10–12, 21.

T. E. BOWEN.

Newburg, W. Va.