SIXTH NIGHT.
“It is a long time,” said Emma, running to her grandmother’s side, “since you were last able to tell me those nice things about Bible doctrines. I have been longing much for you to be able to speak to me again about them.”
“I feel better and stronger now,” said old Mrs Allan, who had been for many weeks laid aside, “and I am as happy as my little Emma can be, to find myself once more in my old oaken chair, with her at my knee.”
“Thank you, grandmamma,” said she, clinging affectionately to her withered hand; “and what are you going to speak to me about to‐night?”
“Our last conversation, my child, if I remember well, was on the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus. I think you would like to hear me speak of the final great act of His mediatorial reign, when He will come at the |The Resurrection and Judgment.| resurrection to judge the world.”
“Oh, yes!” said Emma; “I should like much to hear of that awfully glorious day. I often tremble when I think about it.”
“It has no terrors, my child, to God’s own people. It is to them a very joyful day—the happiest of all their lives; for then they shall be brought to the full enjoyment of God for ever.”
|Souls of Believers at Death.| “But, dear grandmamma, I thought, when believers die, they go to heaven at the very moment of death; that the angels of God are waiting by their pillows to carry them into Jesus’ bosom.”
“True—most true, my child,” replied the aged lady; “the moment the saint closes his eyes on this world, he opens them in heaven. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory. You perhaps remember some of the things the Apostle Paul said in the prospect of death?”
“Yes,” said Emma; “‘Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better;’ ‘Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’ I remember, too, of Stephen, when his wicked murderers were stoning him, how he cried out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”
“Quite right, my dear; and that other saying of the Saviour to the poor thief on the cross is more to the point still, when He said to him, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To‐day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’”
“But then, from all these verses,” said Emma, “is not heaven begun at the hour of death?”
“It is, my child,” replied her grandmother. “I have already told you that, at the moment of death, the soul of the saint is made perfectly holy, and happy too, beyond what we can now conceive; but its state of final and complete glorification will not take place until the day of judgment.”
“What is it,” said the little inquirer, “which will then add to its state of glory and blessedness?”
|The Bodies of Believers.| “You know, my dear,” was the reply, “that the body of the believer is not taken to heaven at the hour of death. It is laid in the tomb. You remember too well that sad day when your little brother was laid in his grave in the churchyard. His happy spirit, I believe, is now in heaven, joyful in the presence and love of God; but his full state of glory and blessedness will not be complete until his body is raised again on the resurrection morning. Perhaps I should tell |Purchased by Christ.| you that the body, as well as the soul, is part of the purchase of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every particle of the saints’ dust is redeemed by His blood. The Apostle speaks of ‘our bodies and our spirits’ as ‘not our own,’ but ‘bought with a price.’”
“But how can this be?” inquired Emma; “do you mean that the bodies of those who have been buried for ages will come all to life again, and the soul be once more united to these?”
|Raised from the Grave.| “Yes, my dear, it is indeed a wonderful thought. But what cannot the power of God do? He has said that He will raise us up at the last day. Do you remember any of the words of Jesus about this?”
Emma thought a little, and at last turned up her Bible to the verses, and read them: “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” “But how,” continued she, when she had finished, and once more repeating her question of surprise—“how, grandmamma, can this be?—does not the dead body crumble into dust? How can the particles that have for hundreds and thousands of years been mixed with the earth come together again?”
“God can do anything, I answer once more,” was the reply of the other. “We should always remember that what is impossible with man, is possible with God. We are not without examples, my child, in the natural world, of the wondrous changes which the power of God can produce in smaller |The Doctrine of the Resurrection probable from Analogy.| things; and this shews us (from what is called analogy) that we have no right to question the doctrine I am now speaking about, however strange and apparently impossible it may seem to be.”
“What instances, grandmamma,” said Emma, “may I ask, do you refer to in the outer world? I should like to understand better what you mean.”
“I like to hear you asking for more information, dear Emma, and I shall try to give it to you. Well, then, I know you have often seen the bright and beautiful butterfly with its golden wings and rings of silver. Can you believe that that lovely insect was once a little grub or caterpillar? I see you are astonished, my dear, at what I now say; but it is the case. During winter, these little worms lie in what is called a chrysalis state. During this time there is nothing in the least beautiful about them—I would say rather the reverse; but all at once, when the summer sun shines out, the little insect bursts its coating, and is changed into a lovely butterfly or moth, with expanded wings, flying up into the blue sky, or ranging at large amid the garden flowers.”
“Oh how wonderful is this!” exclaimed Emma; “and I see now, grandmamma, what you mean. This little creature teaches me to understand how the same mighty power of God, that changes the caterpillar into a butterfly, can bring about the still more wonderful change in raising our vile bodies from the grave.”
“You are right, my child,” said her grandmother. “I am glad you have understood me; and if I had time, I might give you other instances of a similar kind. You have seen, for example, the farmer put the little grains of seed into the ground; could you ever have expected that the small pickles thrown into the earth would spring up into the rich fields of yellow corn you have seen waving at harvest time?”
“Oh no,” replied Emma; “I have often thought how curious this is, and also that the little annual seed I sow in my own garden‐plot should spring up such lovely flowers. The seed looks so small and withered like, and the flowers are so beautiful in colour, and have such a sweet smell.”
“Well, my dear, does not God give us proofs in these smaller things of what He can do in greater things. The body laid in the grave is like the seed laid in the ground, ‘it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.’ I should like you,” continued the old lady, “to take your Bible and read all that striking and beautiful passage of the Apostle Paul on |Testimony of St Paul.| this subject.” Emma immediately opened to the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, 42d verse, and read aloud as follows:—“It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.... Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (for the trumpet shall sound); and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“What a wonderful scene that will be!” said Emma, as she closed her Bible. “Dear grandmamma, can you tell me when it will take place?”
|When the Resurrection will be.| “No, my child,” replied she; “the Bible tells us that ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not even the angels that are in heaven.’ God seems purposely to keep us in the dark about the time of the coming of Jesus, that we may be always ready for it. It matters little how long or how short it may be, provided we are now living as we would wish we had done when we hear the trumpet sounding.”
“And what sort of bodies,” said Emma, “will they be that will then rise from the graves?”
“All that I can tell you,” replied her grandmother, “is, that they will be glorious |Glory of the Resurrection Body.| bodies, fashioned like unto Christ’s glorified body. They will be no more subject to decay, and weakness, and disease, and death. It is said of them, ‘They shall be like Him’ (like Jesus), and also, ‘Neither shall they die any more.’ And surely no blessedness can be greater than this—to be like Jesus, and never to die.”
“Oh, grandmamma!” exclaimed Emma, “I feel as if I would not be afraid to go to the grave, after all that you have been now telling me.”
“True, my child, the lowliest grave in yonder churchyard, if it be the grave of a true believer, is holy ground. Perhaps angels are watching over it, and Jesus himself counts its dust precious. The grave of the wicked is a prison house, where they are detained in captivity until the day of awful vengeance; but the grave of the saint is a casket holding a precious jewel. It is a bed of rest, where he gently and peacefully ‘sleeps’ till awakened on the happy morning of immortality.
“But I must here, my dear, pause for to‐night. We have been speaking so much about this wondrous doctrine of the body’s resurrection as to render it necessary that I should wait till another Sabbath to speak as I promised about the day of judgment.”