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THE

EVANGELICAL REPOSITORY.

FOURTH SERIES.

No. I.-SEPT. 1866.

DEATH VIEWED FROM A LOFTY STANDPOINT.

OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST

HATH ABOLISHED DEATH,

AND HATH BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT
THROUGH THE GOSPEL.

2. TIM. I. 10.

THERE is something very grand and glorious in these words. They refer to what has been accomplished by the most wonderful Being who ever lived on our earth-"Our Saviour Jesus Christ." They touch subjects which come home with especial power and interest to every human heart,-"life," "death," "immortality." They thus touch the most practical of all subjects, and yet the most mysterious. Thus attach themselves, moreover, by their inherent effulgence, to the bright side of things. They have to do with what illumines and makes glad.-"Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." They are not only on the side of what is cheerful as well as holy; they seem to carry us to the very summit of holy cheerfulness, and to furnish us with the means of bidding away, and keeping away, every species of despair and despondency and discontentment and gloom.-"Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

And yet, grand as the words are, there is something in them that is to many minds exceedingly perplexing. Were it not that it was a pre-eminently great and wise and good man,—an inspired man, who spake them, some would almost venture to think that there was a dash of extravagance in them. "What can the apostle mean," they ask, "when he says that our Saviour Jesus "Christ abolished death? Surely it is not true, as a matter of "fact, that there are any on earth who never die. Surely it is No. 1.]

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[Vol. 1.

"true that there are multitudes who do die. Has not then the

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"apostle spoken rather strongly? Has he not spoken some"what unadvisedly. If he had contented himself with saying "that our Saviour Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality "to light through the gospel, we could have understood him, "and we could have appreciated his observation: Had he added "that our Saviour, in virtue of bringing life and immortality to "light, had dissipated much of the gloom that had through the ages settled over death; or had he affirmed that our Saviour "has given us the means of triumphing over death; or had he "simply asserted that he had disarmed death of its deadliest "element-its sting-we could have understood him. But when "he says that our Lord abolished death, does he not seem to be "stretching his representation really too far? Do the facts of "the case warrant the assertion? It is, to say the least of it, "exceedingly astonishing to us."

Such we presume to be the state of many a mind in reference to the apostle's expression. And yet nothing can be more certain than that his words need no apology. They are, beyond all doubt, "words of truth and soberness." They are literally true, -though at the same time transcendently glorious, so glorious, that if the reality which they describe were apprehended, it could fill, and would fill a whole worldful of hearts with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

What, then, does the apostle mean? Of course he knew, as

well as any of us, that death was in the world. There was, in his time, just as there still is, something abroad among men, making havoc of the human race, and carrying lamentation and woe into innumerable homes and hearts. This the apostle could not deny. This he did not attempt to deny. This he did not wish to deny. On the contrary, he maintained it. "By one man," he says elsewhere, "sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned.” The apostle, then, admits the reality of death. He admits its prevalence. He distinguishes it from sin. He regards it as the penalty of sin. And wherever he turned his eye so as to let it range over the state of the myriads of the earth's population, he saw death's dreadful ravages. He saw, moreover, that these ravages were continuing all around him long after the accomplishment of the decease of Christ. He saw them at the very time that this epistle was written. There were men, almost everywhere, then, as now,-either dying or dead. What then could he mean when he says,- "Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel"?

The truth is, that the apostle saw a great deal more death in

the world that men in general were noticing. Men in general were noticing, under the notion of death, only that peculiar destruction of self-enjoyment and of the power of enjoyment, which occur when the eye becomes glazed, and the lips are sealed, and the breathing ceases, and the hands lie motionless, and the whole frame grows cold and stiff, and by and by putrid. Men in general were noticing that when these things occur, and especially when they occur together, something is destroyed. And this destruction they called death. It is still called death by men in general. It is not that the glazing of the eye is, in their estimation, death. No; that is but a common precursor and accompaniment of death. Neither is it the cessation of breathing which they reckon to be death. Often there is for moments a cessation from breathing, and yet no death. Sometimes there is a cessation for minutes, sometimes even for hours and for days; and in rare and strange instances there is a cessation for weeks and months; and yet no death. Neither is it the coldness and the rigidity of the limbs that is regarded as death. Coldness and rigidity may occur apart from death. And when they occur in connection with death, as they always do, they are but the accompaniments and consequences of death. And so the condition of putridity itself. It is not death: it is the result of death. What, then, is death? What, then, is death? What is it that is generally regarded as death? The two questions are in some respects but one. For the word death is just the name that men give to that which they regard as death. And what is it, then, that men in general regard as death?

Penetrate to the essence of the idea that is generally entertained on this subject, and you will find that it is when a sentient being ceases to have self-enjoyment, and the power of self-enjoyment, that he is regarded as dead. It is not enough, indeed, to constitute death, that there be a cessation of actual self-enjoyment. There must, in addition, be the extinction of the power of actual enjoyment. But when this extinction takes place, death is recognised. Look at the lower animals ;-they are said to live while they have some power of self-enjoyment. But when their system is in that condition which implies the extinction of this power, then, though only then, are they said to be dead. So is it with the individuals of the human race. They are not said to be dead when they sleep, or when they are in a state of stupor, or when fainting has occurred, or when they are merely mangled or maimed:-for in all these states there still remains the power of rising into enjoyment. But the moment there is evidence of the cessation or extinction of this power, death is said to have occurred.

Such is the general idea of death. And such, consequently, is