He does not speak of it as annihilation, destruction, or stupefaction,
but as a departure or removal from one place to another. If a person
were to depart from this place and go elsewhere, he would simply change
his home. Until he departs his home is here, but when he departs his
home is elsewhere.
Is it not exactly the same when the spirit departs from its present home
and removes to the building of God, the house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens? In this case, as in an earthly removal,
departure implies the continuance of life. Thus I rejoice in the many
passages in which death is spoken of as a departure. It was clearly the
idea in the mind of St. Paul, as when he said, “having a desire to
depart,” {29a} and again, “The time of my departure is at hand.” {29b}
When those we love are in far distant lands we see them not, but they are
there; our eyes cannot behold them, nor our ears hear their pleasant
voices, for they are far away, but that does not lead us to doubt either
their life, their intelligence, or their affection. Just so it is with
those that are gone. We no longer hear the voice, or look on the loved
countenance, but we are fully persuaded that, as spirits, they are living
elsewhere, that separation is not destruction, and that removal does not
involve the diminution of the intelligent powers of the living mind.
But if death is thus a departure, where is the place to which the spirit
goes? Over this point there is a veil thrown in Scripture. If we were
to know all about it there would be nothing in the knowledge to affect
our practical conduct, so there is no knowledge given. Nor do we require
it, for one thing is told us, and that one thing is enough. If assured
of that one thing we want no more. What, then, is that one thing so
clearly revealed to us in God’s holy Word? Where shall we find an
account of it? Let us turn to the language of the Apostle Paul: “I am in
a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.”
{30a} He knew, therefore, that in his departure he should depart to be
with Christ, in the conscious enjoyment of His perceptible and
never-ceasing love.