p. 5 | WHAT IS DEATH? by G. W. Draper

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jan 20, 1904

WHAT IS DEATH?

By G. W. Draper

BY G. W. DRAPER.

OUR first knowledge of death comes usually in childhood. We are led into its grim presence, and shrink away in shuddering terror from the ghastly form which was once a human being, and for some time after a mysterious horror presses upon us whenever we think of this dreadful blight upon the bright and beautiful world we have hitherto known. The passing years may make us more familiar with the experience of death, until we can view it with a somewhat tranquil mien, and it is only when the fatal blow falls upon some one who is near and dear to us that we for the first time realize all the horror, the anguish, and despair of having a loved one torn from us by that dread fiend. With sinking hearts we stand beside the dying one; our own hearts seem dying within us as we realize our helplessness in the presence of the destroyer; and when the last breath is yielded up we cry with unavailing anguish, for all the brightness and sunshine of life seems to have gone forever. And when the lifeless form is carried to the tomb, we stand without the portals, and cry for some message of consolation, for some token from the other side. We strain our ears in vain for the whisper which never comes, for a word of hope to relieve our breaking hearts; but the silence of the tomb is never broken.

Death is not a natural phenomenon. The first knowledge of it always comes as a shock. Even the lower animals sometimes become strangely excited at the death of one of their own kind. It is recognized as an intruder and an enemy. So evidently unnatural and abnormal is death that all mankind of every age and race have refused to recognize it as final, and have sought for some evidence, or laid hold of some hope, false or true, of a future life.

Upon this foundation—man’s inability to recognize the reality or the finality of death—has been reared all the false religions of the world. That a living, thinking, human being, full of desires, hopes, aspirations, should suddenly cease to be and crumble away into nothing, is so incredible it makes such a mockery and such an enigma of life, that almost any theory of a future life seems reasonable in comparison. So, grasping at hope, however unfounded, and following the tradition received from the first deceiver (Gen. 3:4, 5), men have held that the human spirit survives the death of the body and rises into a higher state of existence. This teaching, grafted from the pagan systems of religion upon the church of the Dark Ages, has become the inheritance of even the Bible-reading Christians of to-day, and colors their interpretation of the inspired Word.

And thus it is that death, that foul destroyer, whose reign has devastated the earth through all the ages, is lauded in Christian pulpits and from Christian lips, as an angel of light, a messenger from God, a gateway into heaven.

All that human art and ingenuity can devise has been invented to throw a glamour of beauty and dignity over the hideousness of death. Wealth is lavished in display; flowers are strewn; soul-rending strains of music pierce the hearts of those who mourn; the bodies of great men are held lying in state for days to impress the people; graves are adorned to make them beautiful, and monuments are reared to commemorate the virtues of the dead, and their entrance upon their reward.

But it is all a deception—a deception welcomed, however, by the human heart in preference to the reality. Death is not beautiful; it is hideous. It transforms a living, sentient creature into an object of horror. When death lays his corrupting touch upon the fairest and loveliest of earth, how quickly they become a mass of corruption, which even fondest affection hastens to bury from their sight.

Neither is there aught that is noble and dignified about death; it is an ignominious execution of the penalty of broken law. It is not a victorious entrance into heavenly joys; it is a defeat, a total surrender, a cessation of all effort and all struggle. It is man’s final confession and demonstration of his corruptible nature, and his utter inability to save himself.

Is there, then, no hope of a life beyond the grave? Are our loved ones gone forever, and must we also cease to hope and sink into the blackness of nothingness? Mourning ones, look up! There is a light beyond the tomb. There came One into the world who claimed power over death, saying, "I have power to lay it [My life] down, and I have power to take it again." In proof of this assertion, He, on several occasions, called back the departed breath and robbed the grave of its victim. And giving this evidence of the truth of His claims, He said: "I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in Me, tho he were dead, yet shall he live [at the last day, John 6:39, 40]; and whosoever liveth [at the last day] and believeth in Me shall never die." John 11:25, 26.

That is the true hope of a future life and a reunion with the departed—by means of a resurrection from the dead. That event takes place at the coming of the Lord. 1 Thess. 4:13–18. With joy we hail the tokens of the approach of that glad day.