ith
miserably imperfect thoughts, and in words still more imperfect than
our thoughts. We are obliged to employ earthly images to set forth
heavenly things. The revelations of Scripture itself are made through
a medium of man's invention, and are bounded by our limited
vocabulary. But then it will be so no longer. The Apostle compares our
seeing _here_ to that of one who beholds the face of his friend in a
mirror of metal, sure to be tarnished and distorting: and our vision
_there_ to beholding the same face to face,--the living features, the
lips that move, the eyes that glisten. That spirit which has but now
passed away, knows the love that passes our knowledge; contemplates
things which God has prepared for them that love Him, such as eye has
never seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man
to conceive.

Therefore, beloved, let us be of good cheer concerning them that have
fallen asleep through Jesus: and let us be of good cheer respecting
ourselves. Good as it is to obey and serve God here, it has been far
better for them to depart and to be with Christ; and it will be far
better for us, if we hold fast our faith and our confidence in Him
firm unto the end. If to us to live is Christ, then to us to die will
be gain.

II.

WE stand to-day at this point in our consideration of the state of the
blessed dead. They depart, and are with Christ. "This day," the day of
the departure, they are consciously, blissfully, in His presence.
Their faith is turned into sight: their misgivings are changed for
certainty: their mourning for joy. Yet, we said, their state is
necessarily imperfect. The complete condition of man is body, soul,
and spirit. The former of these three, at all events, is wanting to
the spirits and souls of the righteous. They are in a waiting, though
in an inconceivably blissful state. Of the precise nature of that
state,--of its employments, if employments it has, we know nothing.
All would be speculation, if we were to speak of these matters.

Our concern to-day is with the termination of that their incomplete
condition. When shall it come to an end? We have this very definitely
answered for us by St. Paul, in a chapter of which we shall have much
to say, and in a verse of that chapter which we will take for our
text, 1 Cor. xv. 23. Notice, he is speaking of the resurrection of the
dead: and he says, "BUT EVERY ONE IN HIS OWN ORDER: CHRIST THE
FIRST-FRUITS: AFTERWARD THEY THAT A