DEATH, THE LAST ENEMY, SHALL BE DESTROYED.
DEATH is an enemy—a terrible enemy. He is "the king of terrors," and men have always shrunk back from him in fear. Nor can we wonder that they have done so; for he breaks in pieces and crumbles into ruins the body which God himself so fearfully and wonderfully made, and compared with which all that human skill ever contrived is the rudest bungle. Then, how terrible his approach! Most commonly he is heralded by feebleness and suffering, by weary days and sleepless nights, and towards the end, by dependence as helpless as that of an infant. What separations he makes—wife from husband, parent from child, friend from friend! . . . Death is an inexorable enemy. Other enemies can often be propitiated. They relent as the man humbles himself before them, and weeps and entreats, or when others plead for him; but neither tears nor entreaties ever avail to stay the hand of death. Unmoved by either, he presses on steadily to his purpose, laying his relentless grasp on his victims, one by one, and shutting them up in the gloomy prison, the grave. Death is a universal enemy. He is the enemy of the mighty as well as of the feeble, of the rich as well as of the poor, of kings and subjects, of the learned and the ignorant, of the church and the world. Of only one is it said that "he walked with God, and was not, because God took him;" and of only one that he was borne in a chariot of fire to Heaven. The rest, including even Jesus, the great Lord of life, have all submitted to death. He is the enemy—the victorious enemy—of all mankind. But to the Christian, death is the last enemy. His whole life is a battle. His enemies are the world, with its evil maxims, its varied seductions, its hatred of God's truth, the flesh, the passions of his corrupt nature, and the devil, who is ever seeking to tempt and to destroy him. Yet, clad in the armor of light, watchful, studious of God's word, prayerful, he daily secures fresh victories over all. Heartily and thankfully he can say, "I am more than conqueror through him that loved me." Still there awaits him another foe when life is done, and he must grapple in mortal conflict with death, his "last enemy." Yet this is his comfort—to know that he is "the last," and that the day is coming when even he will be destroyed; for the apostle Paul says, "The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death." The great Conqueror by whom death is to be destroyed is Jesus; and the secret of his power to put an end to death, is to be found in this; that he himself consented to die for us the cruel and shameful death of the cross. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage." "The sting of death is sin;" but because Jesus died, if we believe in him, our sins will be all forgiven. He can give us, besides, his Holy Spirit to change our hearts. . . . In the day of his glorious appearing Jesus will finally "abolish death." "Them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Wherever they "sleep," whether in the burial-place of their fathers, or in the desert sand, or in the depths of the sea, his voice of love and power will break their slumbers, and he will raise them up again in life and beauty. "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Then, when the bodies of all his saints are raised, glorious and immortal, the last enemy will be destroyed. What a joy it is to know that when death is thus vanquished there will not remain for the Christian another foe! No enemy awaits us beyond the grave. For evermore there will be in Heaven no tempter, no pang of sickness, no death; but throughout eternity all will be unbroken security and peace. Do we mourn the loss of beloved Christian friends? Let us sorrow not, even as others which have no hope; for Jesus will thus break for them the power of death and the grave.—Buds and Blossoms.