Theology a Little Confused.
By Editor
An eastern paper lately contained the following item: “I am young, but I must die;
In my grave I soon shall lie;
Am I ready now to go,
If the will of God be so?”
“Ah! that was the last Sabbath sweet little Nellie ever spent there. Two Sundays thereafter she was sleeping in Jesus, with the angels of Heaven singing the praises as her soul reposed in holiness.” To those who are well-informed on the teachings of the Bible in reference to the state of man in death, the above extract speaks for itself; to those who are not, we propose to speak for it. The poetry expresses what is to many a great and solemn truth, and is in sentiment correct. But how is it with the few lines of comment that follow? We think it would be difficult to get a greater number of inconsistencies, to use no stronger word, into so small a compass. The writer first launches out upon the expression, “sleeping in Jesus,” which is Bible, and so far all correct. But he goes on, “with the angels of Heaven.” What! are the angels “sleeping in Jesus?” We have not been accustomed to contemplate Heaven as a place where such a state of things existed. We have supposed that the angelic inhabitants of Heaven were all alive with a conscious and joyful activity, not silent and still in inglorious sleep. But the writer continues, “singing the praises.” Here he draws largely again on our astonishment; and we are compelled to ask in wonder, Do people sing praises while they are asleep? We believe it is not usual. We think there would be too much uncertain sound and incoherent sense. Some people, we know, are accustomed to talk in their sleep, and such, now-a-days seems to be a great share of the popular talk concerning man in death; but singing in that state is still more rare; and we cannot believe it is the plan of Heaven to look for praise to beings in such a condition. It may be said that it is the body only which sleeps in Jesus, the soul being conscious and singing the praises. But the writer stops up that crevice by his next declaration which is, “as her soul reposed in holiness.” The poor body cannot be brought in to free the matter from difficulty here; for the soul is said to be reposing, and hence could not at the same time be singing praises. So whether it is the soul or the body to which the writer refers, it is either asleep in Jesus, or reposing in holiness, and at the same time singing praises with the angels of Heaven, whom we must infer from his manner of expression, are asleep in Jesus also. We showed the above extract, a few days since, to a staunch believer in the popular, but unscriptural doctrine of consciousness in death, with the inquiry if there was not a little discrepancy between the ideas of sleeping in Jesus, and at the same time singing praises. He said it was difficult to express the whole idea upon this subject, in one sentence; and in this we agree with him exactly, that is, understanding by the whole idea the popular view. The idea is, he continued, that the body was sleeping in the grave, while the soul was praising God in Heaven. We suggested that then the poetry was a little out of joint: “In my grave I soon shall lie;” for the pronoun “I” must refer to whatever there was about the person that was intelligent or conscious. He said no more; but we hope he will examine this subject till he is led to embrace a view for which he can, in the language of Peter, give a reason with meekness and fear. To carry out the full idea as generally entertained, which our friend thought so difficult to express in one sentence, the poetry should read something like this: “I am young, but my body must die;
In the grave, my body, while
my soul is conscious and soars
away to sing praises with the angels
in Heaven, soon shall lie.”
We confess that this does not materially help the poetry, nor indeed the truthfulness of the sentiment. Why will not people come to the Bible on this question? Why will they not believe what Solomon said, when contrasting the living and the dead, he declared that the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything. If Solomon has told us the truth, that which has knowledge when a person is living, knows not anything when the same person is dead. There is no evading this declaration; and what can men require more plain, simple or direct? But we must be patient. The agitation is going forward; we will be thankful for this. We hold no views, but such as challenge examination. And while we urge the truth upon our friends, let us do it with gentleness, meekness, and a Christian spirit, and pray that it may be blessed to the enlightening of professors, and the conversion of sinners; for it is only through the truth, upon this as well as all other subjects, that a person can, after the light has come forth upon them, be sanctified and saved.