The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-06-06
WHAT HAPPENS TO
YOU after DEATH
DR. III. ID. c. NIACLACHLAN FORE
CASTS SOME OF THE PROBA-
BILTTIES OF SOULS STATE.
RICH NJ OND. yA-speci,

r 1 c H NJ o n d, VA-Special-
Taking for his subject the theme
The First Five Minutes After
Death" Rev. II. d. c. MaclachIan.
pastor Of Seventh Street Christian
Church Sunday night preached a sug-
SestiVe and speculative sermon in
which he dealt with some of the
probabilities of the state, sensations
following the death of the body.
DR.. MaclachIan said in part:
Death, my friends, is coming to us
all. Sooner or later the mourners will
go about the streets for you and me.
Just last week one Of the little boys
who attends our Boys Brigade, see
ing the sign outside the church an
nouncing this sermon, asked, is there
any one i'm there dead?' No. we
told him; there is no one dead But
We might have told him that soon
there might be; that very soon the
chancel might be draped in flowers.
and some one Of the 500 members of
this church be borne forth by loving
hands to their last resting place in
GODS care. Then what? Aye, there's
the rub. Man dieth and wasteth
away; he, giveth up the ghost, and
where is hep
Time Is Over.
In the first place, IL is reasona BILE
certain that when the soul leaves the
body there must Immediately come
upon 1t such a sense Of finality as
it has never known before. Eternity
has begun.
Can you think of anything more
terrible to the soul that has neglect
ed its moral and spiritual opportuni-
ties here than this sense Of utter
finality-of the thing done or left
undone forevermore? No future in
which to repair the wrong, No op-
portunity to retrace our steps, TO put
things back as they were! No chance
to uproot the weeds we have sown
and to plant flowers in their stead
But, thank God, there is another
side Of the picture. For those who
have been striving, however. feebly,
| to do their duty here, while there
may be some regrets and some re-
morse, yet the prevailing feeling Will
| be surely that satisfaction that the
| past, with its struggles and tempta-
tons, and it's awful possibility Of de-
feat, even at the last moment, is gone
forever; that the victory is finally
won, and rest has come at last. This.
1 think, is what Jesus meant when
He cried on the cross, Tt is finished
No More AgonieS.
mo more misunderstanding; no
more ceaseless vigilance against cum
ming foes; no more agonies in the
garden; no more betrayals; no more
piercing pains on the cross. This, too.
is what Frances Ridley HaverGal
must have meant when at the near
approach Of death she exclaimed:
How beautiful! 1t seems too good
TO be true
May your sense Of hnality in the
first five minutes after death he OF
that kind and not the other. May
your retrospect, If not fiawless, he at
least that of a life sheltered under
the shadow Of Gods wing and crowned
with His mercy in Jesus Christ.
1T seems certain that upon the
soul after its release from the body
there must come new strange sense
of having no secrets hid, that not
only from God, but from all spiritual
existence. I believe this or some
thing like II to be the meaning Of that
terrible word in the Bible: And the
books were opened In this present
world. our real life IS more or less a
sealed book. Our neighbors can see
the cover and read the title page, per-
haps, but the real heart is hidden
from their view. We can hear the
spoken word and see the deed and
tves that lie at the back of these?
Who can tell the thoughts that never
shaped themselves in word?
Record Is Kept.
After death, secret deeds shall be
revealed. In every life there is a
book, in which is kept the record of
many deeds. good or bad. Of which
the world knows nothing. That book
shall be opened. Many a good deed
that is hid on earth shall be revealed
But not only Will every secret deed
be revealed, but every secret motive
also. In this life. motive is the hard
est thing to gauge. We can see the
act, but we cannot read the motive
that prompted il.
Il believe that under certain con-
ditions, but only under these. is there
recognition after death. If. as We be-
lieVe, the life of the soul in the other
world be one of progress. then il de-
Ponds upon what stage OF progress
we have reached and upon what stage
our loved ones have reached. whether
we shall recognize them at once or
at some future period. But I do be-
lieve that when we reach the same
mansion as they, then there viii be
recognition, and heart Will leap to
heart as in days of old. Husbands Will
know their wives then. Wives Will
know their husbands. No wonder that
some of them will cry on the rocks