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WHERE ARE THE DEAD? ; 3
Resting in Quietness and Silence
Where are the dead? — They are asleep. They dwell in the
dust; for we read, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake.” Daniel 12:2. “Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth -
shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:19. To be asleep is not to be
awake. To dwell in dust is not to be with God. This is evident.
They are at rest. They go down into silence; for thus it is writ-
ten, “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down
into silence.” Psalm 115:17. “Why died I not from the womb?
why did I not give up the ghost? . . . For now should I have
lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at
rest, with kings and counselors of the earth, which built desolate
places for themselves; or with princes that had gold, who filled
their houses with silver: or as an hidden untimely birth I had
not been; as infants which never saw light. There the wicked
cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the
prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from
his master.” Job 3:11-19. How clear is this language! How
unmistakable are these statements! The dead are asleep; they
are at rest; they are still and quiet; they have gone down into
silence.
Where are the dead? Are they still alive? Do they know
more than they did before they passed away? This may be the
belief of many, and may be taught by learned men; but let us
turn to the living Word, the Book of books, for an answer to the
question. What does the Bible say? — “The living know that
they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they
any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also
their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;
neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that
is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6. “His breath goeth
forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts
- perish.” Psalm 146: 4. “The grave cannot praise Thee, death
cannot celebrate Thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope
for Thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as
I do this day.” Isaiah 38:18, 19. Thus the Word states that
the dead know not anything, and that they have no portion in -
anything that is done under the sun. They are unconscious.
They are asleep. They are at rest until the resurrection. These
are the plain statements of the word of God, which we cannot
change, and would not contradict.
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