p. 485 | OUR HOPE

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

OUR HOPE.

ON Jesus hangs all our hope of the future. A great change has come over thought on the immortality of the soul. There were many, almost within memory, who held fast to that, though they rejected the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. In the life of Reid, the great Scottish philosopher, there is a letter which puts this with striking force. All that is fast disappearing, not so much because of battles won or lost in the field of argument, as because of the overpowering silence of the dead. Just as the faith in miracles would disappear if it were not for the continued miracle-working of the living Jesus, so the longer the dead are silent, the harder it is to believe that they live. So we come back to our fortress, the empty tomb of Christ. He rose; he ascended; and for all who have been partakers in the power of his resurrection there is the promise of a life beyond the grave. Now we lay our dead to rest, and lie down in peace when our own time comes, in the expectation of the coming to this sunlit vale of tears, of Jesus Christ with his holy angels, remembering the mighty word which has comforted so many humble and fearing souls: "This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."—British Weekly.