92. Two Worlds Linked
Two Worlds Linked
DEATH CONNECTS TIME AND ETERNITY.—As you take the hand of a loved one and see the light of the eye go out, you feel as though you were standing on the line between time and Eternity. I cannot believe that there is any lack of consciousness; I cannot believe that there is any lack of interest in the loved ones left behind. To me, as I grow older, the other world seems nearer, more and more of my friends are crossing. So many that took you and me by the hand in other days have crossed the river, but they may not be far from us. Are they not interested in us yet? Do they not love us still? THE DEAD LIVE.—On a day or night sad and dreary to us, the dear ones, with radiant faces kissed us, and said “Good-bye.” They were dead. Kind neighbors came and carried them out of our homes and we saw them tenderly laid beneath the earth. We returned to the vacant house which could never again be the same house. Our hearts were broken. Time moves on, but the dear ones do not return. We hear their voice no more. Are they really dead? No. They live; we cannot tell where, whether far or near; we cannot tell in what form, but they live. They are more beautiful than when we knew them, and purer, and holier, and happier. They are not sick nor weary now. They are not alone. They have joined others. They may think and talk of us. They may make affectionate inquiries for our welfare. They may be waiting for us. THE DEAD SPEAK.—They speak by their lives, by their works, by their words. The friends we have loved pass away from our sight but they live in our memory and our hearts, while their voices come back to us with a power that they never had when we saw their moving lips. Your eye may rest upon some memorial of the past: perhaps it is the little shoe that you took off once with a smile and a kiss, which shall never again be worn by the little foot now in the grave. Perhaps it is a garment that yon wrapped around a loved, form for the last time. It may be the worn cane that no longer is needed by him who has gone to the spirit world. Perhaps it is a glove that you last saw on a dear one’s hand. Anything is enough to call up memories both hallowed and sad.
HOPE FOR IMMORTALITY.—A strong argument for immortality is the earnest hope for it in the human breast. God knows the human heart. He Knows its best impulses, and will not allow them to be misdirected and baffled completely, forever. Is not the very fact that we have this soul-longing for immortality a proof that it is light and that it comes from the source of light? A belief in the soul’s immortality has ever prevailed among mankind. Never has any nation been discovered so rude and barbarous that it did not cherish the hope of a life beyond this life. Would such a desire be found in the human breast unless God had put it there?
DEATH LEADS TO REBUILDING.—When a man is about to rebuild an old and tottering house, he first sends out its occupants, then tears it down and rebuilds anew, a more splendid one. This occasions no grief to the occupants, but rather joy, for they do not care for the destruction of the old house, but look forward with anticipation to the new house which is to come, though not yet seen. When God is about to do a similar work, He destroys our body, and removes the soul which was dwelling in it, as from some house that He may build it anew and more splendidly, and bring the soul into greater joy.
GREAT CHANGE.—Our bodies must be changed. In a few years all that will remain of you will be a few handfuls of dust. Your mode of existence will be changed. Your disembodied but still living spirit will pass into a new state of being. Your place of residence will be changed. The places which know you now will soon know you no more. Other people will dwell in your houses. Other names will glitter over the mart of business, and yours will be transferred to the tombstone. When this world has lost you, another will have received you. After you are dead and forgotten here, you will be alive and happy, or miserable, elsewhere. So, as we contemplate this strange mystery of life, it seems that, when we move out of this body, we are born into some state of being that is higher.