"He was translated that he should not see death."
That was the crowning evidence and token of the Divine pleasure. Death
is the wages of sin, the harbinger of retribution, the seal of man's
humiliation and defeat. The fear of death is a bondage under which the
race of man lies, save only where Christian faith and hope alleviate
the terror and inspire a superhuman courage before which all fear is
banished. The extraordinary nature of Enoch's piety could not be
demonstrated by any fact so imperative as this, "_He was translated_."
There are three complete men in heaven. Man is threefold in his
nature. He is body, soul, and spirit. He is not complete without his
bodily organisation. The work of faith is not perfect, nor is the work
of sin undone until at the Resurrection trump man shall stand complete
in his threefold being. But of that completeness there are three
specimens in heaven; Enoch from the patriarchal epoch; Elijah from the
Jewish dispensation; and Christ from the Christian. The translation of
Elijah was a marvellously dramatic episode. It was witnessed by Elisha
and the sons of the prophets--and a heavenly equipage, lambent with
supernal glow, carried him in triumph out of sight. But as to Enoch
there was no such scenic display. "_He was not found, for God took
him_." It was a quiet but beautifully fitting end. Moonlight rising
into sunlight, the sweet calm light of a starlit sky becoming flushed
with the auroral tints of a brilliant morning.
Translation means promotion, and also expansion.
It is _promotion_ in honour, in office, in privilege. The bishop is
translated from Rochester to Winchester and thence to Canterbury,
because he has pleased his party and his sovereign. It is a sign that
he has won promotion by devoted service. Christ says to his follower,
"_Occupy till I come_"; and after a due period of labour well
discharged, he says, "_Come up higher_." The rule of the Divine
Kingdom is, "_faithful in that which is least_," then, "_ruler over
that which is much_." Translation to Enoch meant the elevation to
higher duties and enjoyments without the wearing agonies of disease,
the sharpness of death, or the darkness of the grave.
It meant also _expansion_. In the passing from a lower to a higher
condition, we cannot now realise the quick change which would pass over
the material framework of the patriarch, but that it would be
etherialised so as to be "_a heavenly body_" marvellously endowed with
new powers of sense, of insight and locomotion, fit to be the
instrument of a soul fully redeemed from the consequences of sin, we
cannot doubt; and for thousands of generations has that soul sunned
itself in the brightest fellowships and employments of the highest
heaven.