Page:Anastasis A Treatise on the Judgment of the Dead.pdf/6

Rh Psalms the righteous, who shall flourish as the palm tree; the upright in their hearts; the seed to be accounted to for a generation; the excellent in the earth, in whom is all His delight; those who regard His works and the operation of His hands; His people; His inheritance; them that reverence Him; the blessed, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, to whom Yahweh imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile; the broken of heart and the contrite of spirit; they who shall inherit the earth and dwell therein for ever; the meek, who shall delight themselves with abundance of peace; the saints, who are preserved for the Olahm, and shall shout aloud for joy, when they execute the judgments written; the perfect, whose end is peace; His lovers and His friends; the fellows of the King, and princes in all the earth; those under whose feet the peoples and nations are to be subdued; the Man styled by Paul "the One Body"; the prisoners of Yahweh; His servants, who take pleasure in the stones of Zion; the heavens who declare His righteousness; those who keep His covenant, and remember His commandments to do them; the seed of Abraham His servant, the children of Jacob His chosen; the priests of Zion clothed with salvation; the kings of the earth, who shall sing in the ways of Yahweh. These have been sleeping the sleep of death for ages; but, inasmuch as that many of the things affirmed of them by the Eternal Spirit, are no part of the estate of the poor and needy during their sojourn among the living, it follows that, as not one jot or tittle of the divine word shall fail, by implication David inculcates their resurrection to execute the judgments written against the kings and nobles of the nations; to take possession of the earth, and to dwell therein for ever.

This, then, is the teaching of the Old Testament scriptures that there shall be an awakening and standing up of certain of the dead—not of the dead universally; and that, after this, there shall be judgment. But this awakening from the sleep of death is not taught there simply by implication. It is directly testified. In the book of Job, the most ancient section of the word, the patriarch says, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth; and, after I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see ; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger" (xix. 25). This was the hope of those who held the true faith in the days of Job, and of Moses. They expected to awake from the sleep of death, and, after the destruction of the body in Sheol; and again to be bodies of flesh capable of beholding the Redeemer. This