Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/46

 affection and thought—the very man himself! and what is the earthly body? but a house to dwell in, and in which man is to prepare for a higher and more glorious state of being. The death or extinction of this house is a gain, not a loss—"to die is gain!" and hence it is declared, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." (Psalm cxvi. 15.) Then, let us contemplate bodily death as it is, not as an extinction of being, but as a passing out of the world of matter into that spirit-world where every thing is real and substantial—where the risen man, in the full possession of every sense, faculty, and power, and of all that is human, enters upon undying life; there to taste those celestial joys and pleasures which will multiply and thicken around him forever! Death and resurrection are so near together, that the moment the first happens the other immediately follows. There is no chasm between them. This we find beautifully illustrated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi. 19); for at bodily death both were seen in the spiritual world as living men, though in opposite states—the one in happiness, the other in woe. How blessed, then, are the dead who die in the Lord! such death is the extinction in them of all that is evil and unheavenly; and, at the same time, it is the birth or coming forth of all that is celestial and pure. They live in Him who is the Life! and whosoever liveth and believeth in Jesus shall never die. (John xi. 26.)

Rise, then. O Christian! from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and death to thee shall lose its sting, the grave its victory, and thou shalt, while enduring "the pain of dying," "languish into life!"