dead: but what did he say? "Concerning them
that are asleep." And again--"Even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him." He did not say, Them that have died. Still
again--"We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent them that sleep." Here, too, he did not say--Them that are
dead; but a third time, bringing the subject to their remembrance, for
the third time called death a sleep. Concerning Christ, however, he did
not speak thus; but how? "For if we believe that Jesus died." He did not
say, Jesus slept, but He died. Why now did he use the term death in
reference to Christ, but in reference to us the term sleep? For it was
not casually, or negligently, that he employed this expression, but he
had a wise and great purpose in so doing. In speaking of Christ, he said
death, so as to confirm the fact that Christ had actually suffered
death; in speaking of us, he said sleep, in order to impart consolation.
For where resurrection had already taken place, he mentions death with
plainness; but where the resurrection is still a matter of hope, he says
sleep, consoling us by this very expression, and cherishing our valuable
hopes. For he who is only asleep will surely awake; and death is no more
than a long sleep.

Say not a dead man hears not, nor speaks, nor sees, nor is conscious. It
is just so with a sleeping person. If I may speak somewhat
paradoxically, even the soul of a sleeping person is in some sort
asleep; but not so the soul of a dead man; that is awake.

But, you say, a dead man experiences corruption, and becomes dust and
ashes. And what then, beloved hearers? For this very reason we ought to
rejoice. For when a man is about to rebuild an old and tottering house,
he first sends out its occupants, then tears it down, and rebuilds anew
a more splendid one. This occasions no grief to the occupants, but
rather joy; for they do not think of the demolition which they see, but
of the house which is to come, tho not yet seen. When God is about to
do a similar work, he destroys our body, and removes the soul which was
dwelling in it as from some house, that he may build it anew and more
splendidly, and again bring the soul into it with greater glory. Let us
not, therefore, regard the tearing down, but the splendor which is to
succeed.

If, again, a man has a statue decayed by rust and age, and mutilated in
many of its parts, he breaks it up and casts it into a furnace, and
af