FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  
eath is the wages of sin, the harbinger of retribution, the seal of man's humiliation and defeat. The fear of death is a bondage under which the race of man lies, save only where Christian faith and hope alleviate the terror and inspire a superhuman courage before which all fear is banished. The extraordinary nature of Enoch's piety could not be demonstrated by any fact so imperative as this, "_He was translated_." There are three complete men in heaven. Man is threefold in his nature. He is body, soul, and spirit. He is not complete without his bodily organisation. The work of faith is not perfect, nor is the work of sin undone until at the Resurrection trump man shall stand complete in his threefold being. But of that completeness there are three specimens in heaven; Enoch from the patriarchal epoch; Elijah from the Jewish dispensation; and Christ from the Christian. The translation of Elijah was a marvellously dramatic episode. It was witnessed by Elisha and the sons of the prophets--and a heavenly equipage, lambent with supernal glow, carried him in triumph out of sight. But as to Enoch there was no such scenic display. "_He was not found, for God took him_." It was a quiet but beautifully fitting end. Moonlight rising into sunlight, the sweet calm light of a starlit sky becoming flushed with the auroral tints of a brilliant morning. Translation means promotion, and also expansion. It is _promotion_ in honour, in office, in privilege. The bishop is translated from Rochester to Winchester and thence to Canterbury, because he has pleased his party and his sovereign. It is a sign that he has won promotion by devoted service. Christ says to his follower, "_Occupy till I come_"; and after a due period of labour well discharged, he says, "_Come up higher_." The rule of the Divine Kingdom is, "_faithful in that which is least_," then, "_ruler over that which is much_." Translation to Enoch meant the elevation to higher duties and enjoyments without the wearing agonies of disease, the sharpness of death, or the darkness of the grave. It meant also _expansion_. In the passing from a lower to a higher condition, we cannot now realise the quick change which would pass over the material framework of the patriarch, but that it would be etherialised so as to be "_a heavenly body_" marvellously endowed with new powers of sense, of insight and locomotion, fit to be the instrument of a soul fully redeemed
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

promotion

 
higher
 

complete

 
heaven
 

threefold

 

expansion

 
Translation
 

translated

 

heavenly

 

Christ


marvellously

 
nature
 

Christian

 

Elijah

 

period

 

Winchester

 

Rochester

 
auroral
 

labour

 

honour


service

 

Canterbury

 

follower

 

morning

 

sovereign

 
brilliant
 
office
 

bishop

 
Occupy
 

devoted


privilege
 

pleased

 

enjoyments

 

material

 
framework
 

patriarch

 

change

 

realise

 
etherialised
 

instrument


redeemed

 
locomotion
 

insight

 

endowed

 

powers

 
condition
 

faithful

 
Kingdom
 

Divine

 

elevation