WHERE ARE THE DEAD? 8
But many pratest that this is a gloomy view. It seems dread-
ful to them to think of their friends as being asleep beneath the
sod. They shudder at the thought. But is it such a gloomy
view? The grave may seem to us dark and cold; but with the
psalmist we may say, “Though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will.*fear no evil: for Thou art with me.”
Psalm 23: 4. Our God is with us, watching over us, though we
may be asleep. A mother lays her child to rest, tucks the robe
about it, gives it a good-night kiss and the little one falls asleep.
Though unconscious in its sweet rest, it is not forgotten by its
mother, and it awakes again in the morning. Even thus it is
with those who “sleep in J esus”; for “precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116: 15. God watches
over their dust. He knows just where they lie; and in His own
good time, He will call them forth again.
Which Is the Gloomier View?
But on the other hand, consider what it means if all the dead
are still alive. Many who die have not accepted Christ and His
salvation. The great majority are unprepared when summoned
by death. We read: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide
is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the
gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few .
there be that find it.” Matthew 7: 13, 14. If, then, it be true,
as is asserted, that the righteous go to their reward at death, and
the wicked go to their punishment, there must now be an untold
number of human souls in the place of punishment. And some
have been there many years, Yea, some for long ages. There is
Cain, who for more than five thousand years has been in hell, if
this doctrine is true; and still he suffers on, with ever increasing
pain, while his brother Abel, whom he slew, looks down from
the glorious heights above and views it all.
We ask, Which is gloomier,— to know that the wicked are in
their graves at rest until the J udgment Day, or to believe that
they are in punishment before their cases have been tried? We
can but think of the millions who have been called from this life
when they were not at peace with God. Perchance some friend
of ours was taken away last year when unprepared to go. Which
now would be the gloomier,— to think of this friend as being
in the grave, asleep and unconscious, or to believe that he was
plunged into the molten flame the very hour he died, and that
he has been there ever since? Which is the gloomier view? Ah,
you need not answer, for the answer is apparent.