A CHRISTIAN, hoping to awaken serious thought in the mind of a young infidel, said to him, “What comes after death?” The young man sneeringly answered, “A funeral.” And his reply is often sadly true in a different sense than was intended.
When an unconverted man dies, before the body is interred a funeral, unseen by human eyes, has taken place: the unsaved soul has been buried in the depths of a lost eternity.
Incarcerated in the prison-house of Hades the impenitent await the tribunal of the Great White Throne, when the wicked dead shall, in resurrection bodies, be judged according to their deeds.
But for Christians death is robbed of its terror. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The departed saints await in the presence of Christ the resurrection morning, when, in bodies of glory, they shall shine in the image of God’s Son.
Reader, have you, as lost and guilty, fled to the Saviour? Are you trusting in the blood of Christ? Then listen to the words of the Son of God—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).