Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-12-18

down to sleep at night expecting to
awake in the morning, so may we lie
down TO die expecting that the body
which loses consciousness shall awake
in the morning of the resurrection.
Jesus said to his disciples: Our
friend Lazarus is fallen asleep, but
l go that | may wake him out of
Sleep" So our Lord will one glad day
say to the angels in heaven: Our
friends on earth have fallen asleep.
Let us go and wake them out of their
sleep" | see grassy mounds heaving
and marble shafts tumbhng as the
waking sleepers throw off their cover.
ing. From beneath those grassy
mounds and tumbling shafts the bod.
les of saints are rising, reused from
their sleep by the touch of God
1t was no poets fancy, but biblical
teaching, which led Bryant to write.
By an unfading trust, approach thy
grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his
couch
About him and lies down to pleasant
dreams.
"Not Dead But SIeepeth."
When Jesus said: THE maid is not
dead, bat sleepeth," the mourners
laughed him to scorn. They knew
that she was dead and death to them
was a hopeless finality, but to Jesus
raising the dead was as easy as wax
ing one out of sleep. And so with
Jesus at all times the impossible is as
easy as the commonplace. The death
of our friends is 20 the eye of sense.
a hopeless inality, but to Jesus rails
ing the dead is as easy as waking out
of sleep. He will say: Arise" and
their bodies will come forth
1t is plain, however, that the soul
does not sleep with the body in the
grave. an
Dust thou art to dust returneth
Was not spoken of the soul.
An Incongruous Doctrine
THAT the thinking, loving, worship
ing part of us, though unconscious,
should be compelled to remain chained
in darkness to the decaying body is,
to say the least, incon 5ruous. And yet
there are come who persiSt in believ-
ing and teaching this grewsome doc
trine. When the body of Adoniram
JUdson is buried at sea, eaten by fish
and its particles scattered, just what
portion of it the soul will remain with
or whether the soul will distribute
itself among the scattered fragments,
we are not informed. And when the
body is cremated and only handful
Of ashes remains, will the soul sleep
in this bed of ashes or rove through
the air with particles that have gone
up with the smoke?
l rejoice that we are not called to
answer these puzzling questions, for
the symbol of sleep does not exhaust
the Biblical definition of death. For
the body, death is a sleep, but for the
soul it is a departure" Just before
Stephen fell asleep he looked up and
said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"
Death was a yielding of the spirit to
Jesus. And this prayer of Stephen
was the echo of the words of Jesus on
the cross. Father, into thy hands
l commend my spirit" Jesus and
Stephen were going out of their bod
les. Our Lord took another with him,
as We learn from his words to the
penitent thief: This day thou shalt
be with me in Paradise"
The aged Simeon, after he had seen
the infant Jesus, exclaimed: Nov
lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace" To this aged saint death was
a going somewhere. AS l stood by
the bedside of a dying child, just be-
fore the last breath, he reached out
his hand and said "Good-by." He
knew he was going somewhere.
The sum of it all is that the Chris
tian's death is a sleep for his body
and a continuance of happy existence
for his spirit, as expressed in the
words: Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord from henceforth.'
(Rev. 14:13).