ecorded in the gospel of that
evangelist who was his companion in travel--"TO DEPART AND TO BE WITH
CHRIST."

Now in both these one fact is simply declared, viz.: that the departed
spirit of the faithful man is WITH CHRIST. It is as if one bright
light were lifted for us in the midst of a realm brooded over by
impenetrable mist. For who knows whither the departed spirit has
betaken itself when it has left us here? One of the most painful pangs
in bereavement by death is the utter and absolute severance, without a
spark of intelligence of the departed. One hour, life is blest by
their presence; the next, it is entirely and for ever gone from us,
never to be heard of more. One word, one utterance--how precious in
that moment of anguish do we feel that it would be! But we are certain
it never will be granted us. None has ever come back who has told the
story. Where the spirit wakes and finds itself,--this none has ever
declared to us; nor shall we know until our own turn comes. Now in
such a state of uncertainty, these texts speak for us a certain truth:
The departed spirit is WITH CHRIST.

I shall regard this revelation negatively and positively: as to what
it disproves, and as to what it implies.

First, then, it disproves the idea of the spirit passing at death into
a state of unconsciousness, from which it is to wake only at the great
day of the resurrection. If it is to be with Christ, this cannot be.
Christ is in no such state of unconsciousness; He has entered into His
rest, and is waiting till all things shall be put under His feet; and
it would be a mere delusion to say of the blessed dead, that they
shall be with Christ, if they were to be virtually annihilated during
this time that Christ is waiting for His kingdom. Besides, how then
would the Lord's promise to the thief be fulfilled? What consolation
would it have been to him, what answer to his prayer, to be remembered
when Jesus came in His kingdom, if these words implied that he should
be unconsciously sleeping while the Lord was enjoying his triumph?
Therefore we may safely say, that the so-called "sleep of the soul,"
from the act of death till the resurrection, has no foundation in that
which is revealed to us.

It is perfectly true, that the state of the departed is described to
us as "sleeping in Jesus," or rather, for the words are a
misrendering, a having fallen asleep _through_, or _by means of
Jesus_. But our texts are enough to show us, that we