Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/244

240 from the field of labor, and then goes to his rest in the Paradise of God. There, he joyfully waits in anticipation of that "crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give at that day, unto all them that love his appearing." The disembodied spirit in the heavenly world, unquestionably, enjoys all the happiness that it is capable of in its separate state. But, its full and perfect fruition cannot be realized until "Christ shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Then, and not till then, shall the whole company of the redeemed exult in "the saying brought to pass" that, "Death is swallowed up in victory." This leads us to consider. 3. Another reason why the pious may be said to  'fall asleep'  in death.—Their bodies shall then be raised to a glorious immortality. Revelation teaches that at the final catastrophe of the world,