Scripture assures us, I believe, that the dead in Christ are now in
full, conscious enjoyment of His presence, and of all the blessedness
that to dwell in Christ can bring to a spirit. All, then, which we
have been saying applies to the present condition of those who sleep
in Jesus. As concerning toil and trouble they take rest in sleep, as
concerning contact with an outer world they slumber untroubled by its
noise; but as concerning their communion with their Lord they, like
us, 'whether we wake or sleep, live together with Him.' But we know
too, from Scripture, that the dead in Christ wait for the resurrection
of the body, without which they cannot be perfected, nor restored to
full activity of outward life in connection with an external creation.
The lesson which we venture to draw from this text enforces the
familiar teaching of Scripture as to that body of glory--that it
cannot decay, nor grow old. In this respect, too, eternal youth may be
ours. Here we have a bodily organisation which, like all other living
bodies, goes through its appointed series of changes, wastes in
effort, and so needs reparation by food and rest, dies in growing, and
finally waxes old and dissolves. In such a house, a man cannot be ever
young. The dim eye and shaking hand, the wrinkled face and thin grey
hairs cannot but age the spirit, since they weaken its instruments.
If the redeemed of the Lord are to be always young in spirit, they
must have a body which knows no weariness, which needs no repose,
which has no necessity of dying impressed upon it. And such a body
Scripture plainly tells us will belong to those who are Christ's, at
His coming. Our present acquaintance with the conditions of life makes
that great promise seem impossible to many learned men amongst us. And
I know not that anything but acquaintance with the sure word of God
and with a risen Lord will make that seeming impossibility again a
great promise for us. If we believe it at all, I think we must believe
it because the resurrection of Jesus Christ says so, and because the
Scriptures put it into articulate words as the promise of His
resurrection. 'Ye do err,' said Christ long ago, to those who denied a
resurrection, 'not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.' Then
knowledge of the Scriptures leads to belief in the resurrection of the
dead, and the remembrance of our ignorance of the power of God
disposes of all the doubts which are raised on the supposition that
His present works are the pattern of His future ones, or the limits of
His unexhausted energy.
We are content then to fall back on Scripture words, and to believe in
the resurrection of the dead simply because it is, as we believe, told
us from God.
For all who accept the message, this hope shines clear, of a
_building_ of God imperishable and solid, when contrasted with the
_tent_ in which we dwell here--of a body 'raised in incorruption,'
'clothed with immortality,' and so, as in many another phrase,
declared to be exempt from decay, and therefore vigorous with
unchanging youth. How that comes we cannot tell. Whether because that
body of glory has no proclivity to mutation and decay, or whether the
perpetual volition and power of God counteract such tendency and give,
as the Book of Revelation says,' to eat of the tree of life which is
in the midst of the paradise of God'--matters not at all. The truth of
the promise remains, though we have no means of knowing more than the
fact, that we shall receive a body, fashioned like His who dieth no
more. There shall be no weariness nor consequent need for
repose--'they rest not day nor night.' There shall be no faintness nor
consequent craving for sustenance-'they shall hunger no more neither
thirst any more.' There shall be no disease--'the inhabitant thereof
shall no more say, I am sick,' 'neither can they die any more, for
they are equal unto the angels.'
And if all this is true, that glorious and undecaying body will then
be the equal and fit instrument of the perfected spirit, not, as it is
now, the adequate instrument only of the natural life. The deepest
emotions then will be capable of expression, nor as now, like some
rushing tide, choke the floodgates through whose narrow aperture they
try to press, and be all tossed into foam in the attempt. We shall
then seem what we are, as we shall also be what we ought. All outward
things will then be fully and clearly communicated to the spirit, for
that glorious body will be a perfect instrument of knowledge. All that
we desire to do we shall then do, nor be longer tortured with
tremulous hands which can never draw the perfect circle that we plan,
and stammering lips that will not obey the heart, and throbbing brain
that _will_ ache when we would have it clear. The ever-young spirit
will have for true yokefellow a body that cannot tire, nor grow old,
nor die.
The aged saints of God shall rise then in youthful beauty. More than
the long-vanished comeliness shall on that day rest on faces that were
here haggard with anxiety, and pinched with penury and years. There
will be no more palsied hands, no more scattered grey hairs, no more
dim and horny eyes, no more stiffened muscles and slow throbbing
hearts. 'It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.' It is sown in
decaying old age, it is raised in immortal youth. His servants shall
stand in that day among 'the young-eyed cherubim,' and be like them
for ever. So we may think of the dead in Christ.
But do not forget that Christian faith may largely do for us here what
God's grace and power will do for us in heaven, and that even now we
may possess much of this great gift of perpetual youth. If we live for
Christ by faith in Him, then may we carry with us all our days the
energy, the hope, the joy of the morning tide, and be children in evil
while men in understanding. With unworn and fresh heart we may 'bring
forth fruit in old age,' and have the crocus in the autumnal fields as
well as in the spring-time of our lives. So blessed, we may pass to a
peaceful end, because we hold His hand who makes the path smooth and
the heart quiet. Trust yourselves, my brethren, to the immortal love
and perfect work of the Divine Saviour, and by His dear might your
days will advance by peaceful stages, whereof each gathers up and
carries forward the blessings of all that went before, to a death
which shall be a birth. Its chill waters will be as a fountain of
youth from which you will rise, beautiful and strong, to begin an
immortality of growing power. A Christian life on earth solves partly,
a Christian life in heaven solves completely, the problem of perpetual
youth. For those who die in His faith and fear, 'better is the end
than the beginning, and the day of one's death than the day of one's
birth.' Christ keeps the good wine until the close of the feast.
'Such is Thy banquet, dearest Lord;
O give us grace, to cast
Our lot with Thine, to trust Thy word,
And keep our best till last.'