I Is Death a Sleep? N the Bible death is spoken of as a sleep. The following texts, both from the Old and New Testaments, corroborate this: "So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David." I Kings 2: 10. This was the sleep of death, for burial followed it. "And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father." I Kings II: 43. "And Hezekiah slept with his fathers." 2 Kings 20:21. "For now shall I sleep in the dust." Job 7:21. This refers to rest in death from his afflictions. "So man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:12. Here the death of all mankind is likened to a dreamless sleep. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to Here shame and everlasting contempt." Dan. 12: 2. death is spoken of as a sleep, and the resurrection as an awakening out of sleep. "These things said He: and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. . . . Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John II: II, 14. Here Christ uses the words "sleepeth" and "dead" as synony "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." I Cor. 15:6. That is, THE SLEEP OF LAZARUS. The following is from the pen of the poet Milton : "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." I Cor. 15: 16-18. This refers to the sleep of death. The sleep of death has such a hold upon these righteous people that if the resurrection does not occur "I Thess. 4: 13-17: 'But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.' But why should they sorrow and have no hope, if they believed that their souls would be in a state of salvation and happiness even before the resurrection, whatever might become of the body? The rest of the world, indeed, who had no hope, might with reason despair concerning the soul as well as the body, because they did not believe in the resurrection; and therefore it is to the resurrection that Paul directs the hope of all believers. "Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him;" that is, to heaven from the grave. ་་ "In such a sleep I should suppose Lazarus to have been lying, if it were asked whither his soul betook itself during those four days of death. For I can not believe that it would have been called back from heaven to suffer the inconveniences of the body, but rather that it was summoned from the grave, and roused from the sleep of death. The words of Christ themselves lead to this conclusion: John II: II, 13: 'Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep; howbeit Jesus spake of his death ;' which death, if the miracle were true, must have been real." they certainly have perished. Such a statement could not be true if they are now enjoying the rewards of heaven, according to the doctrine of natural immortality. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that are asleep." 1 Cor. 15: 20, R. V. This text finishes the argument of verses 16-18. Christ had risen from the dead, and that made the future resurrection a certainty. As Christ had risen, so those who are asleep in Jesus will be raised also, therefore have not perished. They all are sleeping until the morning of the resurrection. Then with David, who has not yet "ascended into the heavens " (Acts 2:3, 4), they will be raised to immortality and eternal life. "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 Cor. 15:51-53. "We shall not all sleep." No, some will be alive COMPARED TO SLEEP. Pastor U. Smith, editor and author, says :— on the earth when Christ comes, and will be trans- Again, death is compared to sleep, and there must be some analogy between the state of sleep and the state of death. And this analogy must pertain to that which renders sleep a peculiar condition. Our condition in sleep differs from our condition when awake simply in this, that when we are soundly asleep we are entirely unconscious. In this respect, then, death is like sleep, that is, the dead are unconscious, and without the resurrection they would ever remain so." REPRESENTED BY SLEEP. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep." I Thess. 4:13-15. Those who are asleep are dead, and the terms "asleep" and "alive" are used to represent the two conditions in which the righteous will be found when Christ comes. One class will be the living righteous; the other, those who have died in faith. The latter will be "I proceed to consider what account the Scriptures give of that state to which death reduces us; and this we find represented by sleep; by a negation of all life and action; by rest, resting-place, or home, silence, oblivion, darkness, destruction, and corruption." raised from the sleep of death and will receive their reward together with the living. This reward is immortality, everlasting life with Christ and angels, in the home Christ has gone to prepare for the faithful. See John 14:1-3. From the foregoing, what is the natural conclusion as to the condition of those who have died? Is it not that of actual death, and their resting place the grave? And, as in perfect sleep there is absolute loss of con sciousness, is it not plain that those who have died have lost all consciousness and a "For the living know that they shall die: knowledge of pass but the dead know not any thing." ing events until the morning of the neither any that go "For in death there the grave who shall resurrection? Hence the great importance of that event. "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing." Eccl. 9:5. A living soul that could enjoy the life of heaven and still "know not any thing" is an impossibility. |