THE words of Jesus, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11), are just as true of every scripture as of the particular things to which He there referred. It is always the purpose of revelation to give assurance, to “make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” Christ asks us to follow Him, with a very definite understanding that we are to find peace to our souls, and offers to make us partakers of a love that casteth out fear.
That apostle who, moved by the Holy Ghost, wrote, “Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means,” was the same who, to the same end, wrote, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.” When the dear one has been laid to rest under the green lap of earth, and loving hands have performed their last possible ministry, love still lingers, longing to penetrate the mysterious veil, and discover the secrets of the grave. Here ignorance stifles hope, and speculation leads to error and confusion. But what eye hath not seen or ear heard, the Word of God undertakes to reveal. To the earnest inquiry of love the God of love responds in gentle tones, He “sleepeth.” John 11:11; see also, 1 Cor. 15:6, 12; Dan. 12:2.
“How long, O Lord, how long?” pleads the loving heart, or, like the ancient philosopher struggling with the same deep problem, inquires, “If a man die, shall he live again?” To him the solution became apparent; for in confidence came his own reply, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee.” Job 14:14, 15.
The prophet Isaiah, with sublime trust and confidence, rises above the history of the apparent defeat of fruitless Israel, and sees beyond the day of grand victory, when he declares, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Inspired with this hope, he breaks out in the joyful strain, “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa. 26:19.
One who describes Himself as “He that liveth, and was dead,” and holds in the grasp of a deathless hand the keys of death and the grave, declared in the face of scoffing unbelief, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25.
Such statements as, “If I wait, the grave is mine house” (Job 17:13), and, “So man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep” (chapter 14:12), are given to aid our faith in spanning the chasm of separation, and in taking hold upon the hope of a great resurrection day.
To the old questions, “How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (1 Cor. 15:35), another is often added, Do they come with any body at all? or is the existence beyond the grave simply that of an immaterial spirit? Here, too, we are not left in ignorance. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Isa. 26:19. “In my flesh shall I see God.” Job 19:26, 27.
In the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11); in the opening of the graves of the many saints who slept, and returned to life at the resurrection of Christ (Matt. 27:51-53), as well as in the resurrection of our Lord Himself, “the first-fruits of them that slept,” we have examples of the resurrection. In each case the existence is material and in a form to be recognized by friends. To the Corinthians, this rising again was presented under the figure of seed-sowing: “Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain;” but in its growing, that is, in the resurrection, “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.” So is the resurrection of the dead. “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” 1 Cor. 15:37, 38, 44.
The passage opening with the words, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,” ends with, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:13-18. Perhaps the apostle Paul, himself so often brought into contact with heathen philosophy in its speculations concerning the future state, could appreciate better than we can what blessed peace and comfort might flow to his Corinthian converts from plain, direct teaching on this important subject.
A Scene from Our Window, looking down Pearl River.
In China one sees the Satanic falsehood, “Ye shall not surely die,” in full fruitage, and comes to be devoutly thankful for the clear, definite statements of God's Word regarding the future life and the means by which we are to attain to it. For the theory of a conscious-spirit existence has bound upon the Chinese race a burden grievous as it is heavy to be borne.
One of their sages wrote to the effect that of the several kinds of unfilial conduct the most unfilial is to leave no posterity. Why?—When the family male descent becomes extinct, there is no one left to offer incense and minister to the spirits of ancestors, who, thus beggared, pine in helpless neglect, or turn vicious in revenge.
Out of this teaching grows concubinage, with its long train of domestic ills; the infanticide of girls; the alienation of married daughters; the ill treatment of wives who bear daughters when sons are desired; the sale of girls from families where they are in excess; the sale of boys into families where male posterity is wanting, and the theft of boys for this purpose. By a process of their own, a living woman may be married to a dead man, and adopt a son to rear up as his heir; or, when expediency demands, two corpses may be as easily united in wedlock, and a son adopted to bear the family name they leave. Good spirits that are well supplied with food, clothing, and incense (these latter are transferred by burning), stay at home, and do no mischief, so their theory runs; but neglected spirits are guilty of no end of trouble wherever they go, and they go anywhere, everywhere, to work out their mischievous devices.
A Buddhist Temple in China.
All sorts of inventions are devised to keep them out of the houses and away from the persons of those who fear them. Paper traps are fastened to the door-frames to entangle them; pictures of armed watchmen are posted on the two-leaved doors to frighten them away, and a screen is set inside the door to prevent direct entrance. Seeing queer bunches of sweet flag sold in the street in large quantities, I inquired if this was used for medicine. “O, no,” replied an intelligent native, “You observe the leaf is shaped like a long, pointed sword. The people tack these to the door and window-frames, to pierce the spirits that seek entrance.” The spiny branches of the prickly-pear cactus are used for the same purpose.
With the enemy in flesh and blood, on equal terms of wit or strength, there is hope of successful conflict; but with such as these, that creep through a crevice in the eaves, a cracked tile in the roof, or a torn pane of the window, where no more convenient entrance is available, the native feels his one resource is pacification, and thus it comes to be that their religion consists in the worship of demons.
Soon after our arrival in this city, a certain woman of over fifty years came to be a constant, almost daily, visitor at our home. She seemed possessed of a burning desire to learn the Gospel, and here spent most of her leisure from the family where she was employed as cook. “I do not believe in idols,” she said, “I want to enter your church.” “You must be patient, and learn the Gospel first,” I replied.
Some days later she learned that missionaries employed elderly women to act as Bible women, and requested to be taken into our home to be trained for this service. Food and clothes was all she13needed or desired. How a woman who did not know characters could be trained for Bible work, was a question, and could it be hoped that a woman of such ordinary intellect could learn characters at her age? Clearly, I was not down to the bottom of this matter; but, unwilling to quench any kindling spark, I encouraged her to believe that all who love our Lord in sincerity are privileged to be His co-workers, at the same time emphasizing the importance of a good individual experience as a preparation.
One day a few weeks later, she seemed quite absorbed in her own meditations, while I was trying to instil some simple Gospel truth into her mind. Finally she broke out, quite disconnectedly, to inquire, “Do you expect to care for your church members when sick? Will you buy coffins for those too poor to provide for their own burial? and, Will you burn incense to their spirits?”
Here was a clue, and questions brought out the full secret. She had no relatives; never had been married; had no child, adopted or otherwise, and was too poor to adopt one. But the loneliness and poverty in which this life had been spent were as nothing in comparison with the agony she anticipated as a vagabond spirit throughout eternity.
And yet, who shall impugn her? Certainly she is “ignorant concerning them which are asleep;” but, even so, may it not be that her heart is blindly feeling after God? Remember the poor demonic who, when he would call for healing, was constrained to say, “What have I to do with thee?” and yet he was healed. May we who have the light prize it as the light, and not be as those whose foolish hearts were darkened, because they were not thankful. May we learn to say, “Thy Word was the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
