Which Is the Gloomy Doctrine?
By John Nevins Andrews
THE sleep of the dead is often designated a gloomy doctrine, and many refuse to listen to the testimony of the Bible on this subject, choosing rather to remain "ignorant concerning them which are asleep" than to consider the stern realities of death and the grave. "Your doctrine," say they, "is chilling, repulsive, forbidding. The sleep of the dead! why the very idea is enough to freeze one. But the immortality of the soul, and the reward of the saints at death, this, this is the very marrow and fatness of the gospel; this is indeed that blessed hope." But stop, friends, a few moments. It may be that you are blinded by prejudice. Be not too hasty. If you are not willing to devote the needed time for weighing this subject in the balances of the Scriptures, will you not wait long enough to try the justice of this objection in the balances of reason? You say that the doctrine is full of gloom, and that the departed saints have experienced a bitter disappointment in being consigned to the cold grave for long ages, instead of being received into glory. You think the idea full of gloom to the living, and dreadful to the dead. But you forget that, if the doctrine be true, there is no chill, no gloom, no darkness, no disappointment, no lapse of time, no waiting through long ages, to the dead. The interval between their decease and their resurrection will be to them no time at all. The twinkling of an eye, in which the righteous will be changed to immortality, will be as long to them as the whole period during which righteous Abel has slept in death will be to him. And to him, so far as his own knowledge of the case is concerned, it will be precisely as though he entered Heaven at the very moment he was slain. You say that this helps the matter a little; but that, for all this, the sleep of the dead will no more compare in consolation with the soul's immortality and the reward at death than the desert of Sahara will compare in beauty with the Garden of Eden. Do not be too hasty, friends. You may discover facts that will change this opinion. You find great consolation in the thought that the soul is immortal, and that men are rewarded as soon as they die. Answer me a few questions. How large a part of mankind lead lives of holiness, and die with good evidence of their acceptance with God? Truth compels you to answer that a minority are all that can be said to do this. What becomes, then, of this great majority of men who have died out of Christ, and entered their reward? Oh! they have gone into266the furnace of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. What is the condition, then, at this very moment, of the greater part of the dead, according to this cheering doctrine of yours? You have to answer, They are in unspeakable torment. You admit that this dreadful fact somewhat abates the consolation you have hitherto found in this doctrine. But I want you to answer one question more. If the soul is immortal, as you affirm, how long are these impenitent ones thus to suffer? You answer again, and this time surely with a shudder, THEY MUST SUFFER TO ALL ETERNITY. Before we part, will you not own that yours is the gloomy doctrine? Is it not a relief to your mind to think that men are to be judged BEFORE they are rewarded or punished? and that till the day of Judgment men wait for their reward? And is not that doctrine best which teaches that immortality is the gift of God, and that it is given only to the righteous?—J. N. Andrews.