over life and death, and with these just views of the privileges of My servants, thou askest Me to restore thy brother to a life which may be passed in thy society, the immediate act of My power may justify thy faith. But any other belief of My power-any other apprehension of thy brother's present state, which may prompt thee to solicit so singular a favour, is erroneous; and I work no miracle to confirm thee in error." All this, my brethren, is certainly implied in our Lord's declaration, and in the question with which it was accompanied. It is evident, therefore, that under the notion of not dying, He describes some great privilege, which believers ONLY really enjoy. But then, the privilege here promised to the faithful, must be quite distinct from anything that may be the consequence of the general resurrection at the last day. It has been imagined, that the death from which the faithful are exempted by virtue of this promise, is what is called in some parts of Scripture the second death, which the wicked shall die after the resurrection-that is to say, the condemnation of the wicked to eternal punishment. But such cannot be its meaning. For the exemption of the faithful from the second death is a thing evidently included in Martha's declaration of her faith in the general resurrection. What may be the state of the departed saints in the interval between their death and the final judgment, is a question upon which all are curious, because all are interested in it. It is strange, that among Christians it should have been so variously decided by various sects, when an attention to our Lord's promises must have led all to one conclusion. Those who imagine that the intellectual faculties of man result from the organization of the brain and the nervous system, maintain that natural death is an utter extinction of the whole Being, which, somehow or other, he is to reassume at the last day. It is surely a sufficient confutation of this strange opinion-if that may deserve the name of an opinion which has less coherence than the drunkard's dream—it is a sufficient confutation of so wild an opinion, that if this be really the case, our Lord's solemn promise has no meaning. For how is it, that a man shall NEVER die who is really to be annihilated and dead in every part of him for many ages? or what privilege in death can be appointed for the faithful-what difference between the Believer and the Atheist, if the death of either is an absolute extinction of the whole existence? Of those who acknowledge the immateriality and immortality of the rational principle, some have feared that the condition of the unembodied soul, notwithstanding the perception ascribed to its existence, must be a melancholy state of dreary solitude. Hence that unintelligible and dismal doctrine of a sleep of the soul in the interval between death and judgment, which indeed is nothing more than a soft expression for what the materialists call by its true name-ANNIHILA TION. Thanks be to God, my brethren, our Lord's explicit promise holds out better prospects to the Christian's hope! Though the happiness of the righteous will not be complete, nor their doom publicly declared, till the reunion of the soul and body at the last day; yet we have our Lord's assurance that the disembodied soul of the believer TRULY lives-that it exists in a conscious state, and enjoys the perception, at least, of its own existence. This is the plain import of our Lord's declaration to Martha, that "whosoever liveth and believeth in Him shall never die." The same doctrine is implied in many other passages of Holy Writ -in our Lord's promise to the thief upon the cross, whom He gladdened with the tidings that he should be with Him in Paradise on the very day of His crucifixion-in the hour when He commended His own spirit, amid His last agonies, to the Father-in St. Paul's desire to be absent from the body, that he might be present with the Lord-but, most of all, we may allege the sequel of this same story. The manner in which the miracle was performed, made it a solemn appeal to Heaven for the truth of this particular doctrine. Many incidents are recorded which evince the notoriety of the death; and that natural causes could have no share in the recovery. For the corpse was too offensive to be approached, and no VISIBLE means of arousing it were had recourse to. Our Lord, standing at the mouth of the cave, called to the dead man as to one who could hear His voice. His voice WAS heard, and the call obeyed; the deceased, in the attire of a corpse, walks out of the sepulchre in the presence of his relations who had seen him expire-in the presence of a large concourse of his townsmen who had been witnesses, some of the interment of the body, and others to the grief of the surviving friends. Is it to be supposed, that He who is TRUTH ITSELF, would, by such a miracle, become a party in the scheme of imposture, or set His seal to the dreams of enthusiasm ? God forbid, that any here, my brethren, should harbour so foul a suspicion! But let us remember, that the soul's enjoyment of its separate life, is described as a privilege of true believers, and of which there is no ground to hope that an unbeliever can partake; for to them only who believe in Jesus is it promised, that they shall live though they be dead," and that "they shall never die." 66 Now to HIM who hath called us to this blessed hope of uninterrupted life, terminating in a glorious immortality-to Him, with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity-to |