Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/135

 cent, and lived as angels do; if their delights were heavenly, and their knowledge of spiritual truth were clear and certain, they would look forward with satisfaction to their deliverance from the trammels of mortality, and regard death as an orderly means of increasing their enjoyment. This is the reason why, even now, the death of the righteous is observed to be tranquil and resigned, and also why we are taught to pray for an end like theirs.

But will the body which death lays aside be at some future day resumed? This is a very general belief; it is associated with the idea that God never designed the separation which death effects; that this separation was intended as one of the punishments of sin; and that God will, at least, in part, carry out His original purpose by the future resurrection of the body, and so effect its perpetual reunition with the soul. But as the premises are erroneous, the conclusion cannot be maintained.

The resurrection of which the Scriptures speak is that which takes place immediately after the death of the body. It is the passage of the soul from the world of men to the world of spirits, there to undergo its judgment, which will be determined by the nature of the faith that has been loved, and the quality of the works which have been done. "It is appointed unto all men once to die; and after that the judgment." This passage does not contemplate any