THE BIBLE READINGS AT BREWER'S.
By M. B. Duffie
THE Brewer family had gathered around their cheery fireside for a pleasant evening of study and conversation. The attention of Miss Mabel Brewer, a sprightly, earnest-faced lass of some seventeen summers, had been especially directed of late to a consideration of the word of God, and, notwithstanding the good-natured parries of Tom, a brother next older than herself, about her being an "old sobersides," she had, with the aid of various text-books, commentaries, etc., steadfastly pursued her investigations of the sacred writings. Several mornings before there had called at their door a mild-mannered, pleasant-faced gentleman, who stated that he was engaged in the circulation of a handsomely illustrated work, in which the various subjects of the Bible had been carefully gotten together by various authors and Bible students. While the book was sold on subscription, to be delivered at a specified time in the future, Mabel manifested so great a desire to secure a copy of the work without delay that an extra copy, which the gentleman happened to have in his possession, was left in her hands. She had been poring over its contents almost constantly ever since, even along into the still hours of the night, and now it was the first thing in her hand at the time our story opens.8 "Father," she said to Mr. Brewer, a staid business man of the place, who laid down his evening paper, and looked over his spectacles to hear what she had to say, "do you know, father, that the Bible contradicts the idea we have always held that when we die, if we have been real good, we go right up to heaven the first thing, and live there forever in happiness, and if we have been bad, why, we go to that awful hot place, and live there just as long in eternal, conscious misery?" "I know, my daughter," responded the father, "that such a doctrine has been taught, and, while I could see no particular objection to the first, or pleasant part of it, I could but think that the latter view must be in some way erroneous. I believe that horrible doctrine of an ever-punishing God has made more infidels than Christians. But what have you found, my dear, which tends to refute that idea?" "Why, here it is, pa, in the ninth chapter of Ecclesiastes, the fifth and sixth verses, which say in substance that while those who are living are aware that they will sooner or later die, those who are dead do not know the first thing, also that they realize nothing of love, hatred, nor envy." "Does the Bible say that, Mabel?" asked her mother, a sweet-faced woman, looking up from a perusal of the latest number of the Ladies' Home Journal. "Why," she continued, as she took up the family Bible from the table near which she sat, and opened to the place indicated, "I declare it does! How strange that in all my study of God's word I never had my attention called to that before!" "And did you know, pa," said Mabel, "that if you should die, and Tom and Willie should be bad boys, and get into some trouble, you would not have to mourn and worry over it? The Bible teaches, in the twenty-first verse of the fourteenth chapter of Job, that a dead man's sons may come to honor or are brought low and he knows nothing about it. See if it does not, father." Mr. Brewer took his Bible, looked up the passage, and said it would be a comfort to know that when he came to die, in case either of his dear, manly boys should turn their feet into by and forbidden paths. "I am obliged to admit," said Mr. Brewer, "that I did not know there was such a text, either, though I have not made the study of the Bible much of a life work, not as much, perhaps, as I should have done." "I fear none of us have studied it as much as its importance demands," said Mabel, "but I, for one, intend to know what it really does teach, and to make it hereafter 'the man of my counsel.' I have always supposed that when a man dies he goes away off to heaven, somewhere, and comes back home once in a while to comfort his folks, but I find this is not the case, for it says in the tenth verse of the seventh chapter of Job that when a man dies he does not return to his house." "Let me read that," said Tom, "and see if it does really say so." After Tom had rummaged all around through the New Testament in his search for Job, his sister smilingly told him that he would find that book in the Old Testament, just between Esther and Psalms. He found the place at last, and read the passage aloud. "That is certainly straight," said Tom, "and to my mind it knocks Spiritualism out." "Yes, Tommy, and here is more proof. You will find it in the fourth verse of the one hundred and forty-sixth psalm, where it says that when a man dies, and is put into the earth, every thought he ever had has perished." "The reason he don't have any thoughts is because his brain has ceased work, and a man can't do much thinking without any brains, can he?" queried Willie. "There is surely no other conclusion at which to arrive," his good mother thoughtfully replied, "but it all seems so strange after all we have heard and read to the contrary." "I have often wondered," said Mr. Brewer, "what could be the object of our Lord's return to this earth for his people, as the Bible seems to imply, if they all go to their reward immediately after death. I never could see the least consistency in such an arrangement." "They do not go there then, I am sure," said Mabel, "for their chief employ would be in praising the Lord, and I learn from his word, which cites me to Ps. 115:17, that dead people do not praise the Lord." "Well, Mabel, if we do not go to heaven as soon as we die, when do we go there?" meekly inquired her aunt, Mrs. Westmore, a widowed sister of Mrs. Brewer's and a member of the family. "I think," Mabel said, "that we shall find out how that is by turning to the fifth chapter of John, and reading the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses, where it says that there is an hour coming when all who are in their graves shall hear his (Christ's) voice, and shall arise, and come forth, some of them to the resurrection of life eternal, and some to the resurrection of eternal death." "That is surely what it says," Mrs. Westmore said, as she thoughtfully closed her Bible. "Now turn," Mabel continued, "to the last verse but one of the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, and you will see that when our Saviour comes, with all his holy angels, then is the time when every man will receive whatever reward he may be entitled to." "That is just what it says," said Tom. "How interesting this is!" said Mrs. Brewer and her sister in chorus. "Is it not singular that we never understood this question before?" "These readings have given me something to think of," said Mr. Brewer, "and I think I will ask some of those preachers down town to rise and explain, next time I meet them." "I will call your attention to only three more passages," said Mabel, "and then we will retire, perhaps with as much as we can at present digest. In the fourth chapter of the first book of Thessalonians, the sixteenth and seventeenth verses, you will find it stated that when Jesus himself comes down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, those who shall arise first are the dead in Christ. Then all those who are alive, and who have lived godly lives, will be taken up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Again, by reference to Matt. 16:27, we find that when Christ comes in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels, then is the time the rewards are to be bestowed. This is further emphasized in the twelfth verse of the twenty-second chapter of Revelation, which represents the Lord as saying that he is to come quickly with his reward to every man as his work has been." "If that is the way it is to be I want to know it," said Mrs. Brewer, as she readjusted her spectacles. Mabel found the place for her, and she read it aloud, every member of the family giving earnest and respectful attention. When she had finished reading, each face seemed to take on the expression of an astonished exclamation point. "I move," said Tom, "that we now adjourn for one week." "Hold on," said Mr. Brewer, "before you put that motion. We have found out what the reward of the righteous is to be, and when it is to be given. Now I am a little anxious to know what becomes of the other fellows. Won't you look that up, Mabel, and let us know a week from to-night what is done with them?" "I will gladly do 'so," said Mabel, and the meeting adjourned for one week, each one present declaring this had been the most interesting evening they had spent together for a long time. "It beats anything I have struck down town," said Tom, "and you can count on my being present every time."