COL. GEORGE WASHINGTON FLOWERS 
 MEMORIAL COLLECTION 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 W. W. FLOWERS 
 
THE SPIRIT-LIFE 
 
 A 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE METHODIST CHURCH, 
 
 AT HIGHLANDS, NORTH CAROLINA, 
 NOVEMBER, 15, 1868, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICE OF JOHN M. FRANCE, 
 BY WILLIAM S. BALCH. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 GALESBURG, ILL.: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE FEEE PRESS S'XEAJi PRINTING H0Ofl£. 
 18G8. 
 
Digitized by the Internet 
 
 Archive 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/spiritlife123balc 
 
TO MARIA FRANCK. 
 
 Sister: — You- will recognize, in the following pages, little more than 
 the sentiments of my discourse at the funeral services of your late husband. 
 Having been delivered without any notes and under the peculiar impres. 
 sions of the occasion and the surroundings, it is impossible for me to 
 recall the language or the spirit which gave it so much of the merit which 
 you and the friends attach to it. I think you and they will find the sub- 
 stantial part, the doctrine of the sermon here, what it was there. 
 
 Hoping it may serve to remind you and them of the great value of the 
 doctrine of the Spirit-Life as taught by our blessed Lord, and help to give 
 cheerfulness and resignation I commit it to you, praying for the blessing 
 of God to attend and comfort you and all that mourn. 
 
 Thine fraternally 
 
 W. S. B. 
 
 P33873 
 
THE SPIRIT-LIFE. 
 
 I have come a long way, my friends, to perform a special service ; 
 to speak to you who are assembled here, the words of comfort and 
 hope. I am come at the living and dying request of one who has 
 lived among you, whom you have known and greatly respected; but 
 who is with you, in bodily presence, no more. 
 
 1 feci impressed, under these circumstancee, by a sense of duty, 
 to speak of the goodness of that Faith and Hope which blessed him 
 while living, made him a good man, a faithful friend, a kind neigh- 
 bor, an honest and peaceable citizen, and gave him peace and joy in 
 the prospect and hour of death. 
 
 I have chosen for a guide to our thoughts the words of Jesus re- 
 corded by St. John, chap, xi; 25:26. 
 
 "And Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life ; he that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? " 
 
 Lazarus, a particular friend of Jesus, was sick in ^Bethany. His 
 sisters, anxious for his recovery, sent for Jesus who was, at the time, 
 in Gallilee to come and visit and heal him. Jesus delayed his 
 coming till Lazarus had died and was laid in the tomb. 
 
 When it was known that Jesus was coming, Martha hastened out 
 to meet him, to pour her grief into his ear and obtain comfort from 
 his words of counsel and sympathy. She tells him of her confidence 
 in his power to have preserved the life of her brother, and hints 
 <; that even now whatsoever he would ask of God, God would give 
 him." Jesus assured her that her hi other should rise again. Of 
 this she professes an abiding conviction, based, no doubt, upon a doc- 
 trine which had come to the Jews from other nations, but which 
 bore no near resemblance to the doctrine of life and immortality 
 brought to light in the gospel. 
 
 Jesus proceeds to indicate, not the truth of her notions, but what 
 he means by " rising again/' " I am the resurrection and the life." 
 
 P33873 
 
He does not refer this to a physical resurrection to take place " at 
 the last day/' or at any future period. " I am the resurrection and 
 the life." So sure, so strong, so efficient was this work of grace on 
 all who received it by believing, that though one " were dead, yet 
 should he live; and whosoever lived and believed should never die." 
 
 These words cannot, by any fair use, be referred to a future resur- 
 rection of the body from the grave; for Jesus manifestly uttered 
 them to correct the misapprehension of Martha touching the doctrine 
 of a future life, and to place before her a sure foundation of hope 
 and comfort whereon to rest her weary spirit in this hour of grief. 
 
 From ages long before, philosophers, poets and dreamers, in many 
 lands, had wandered in imagination far beyond the fields of all hu- 
 man knowledge, beyond the thick curtain which separates the present 
 from a future being. They had conjured up, in their dreams and 
 visions, states and conditions according to their own fancies, to meet 
 and answer, if possible, the natural want and longing of the soul for 
 a continued life. All of their notions were tinctured and colored by 
 thoughts and passions, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, love and 
 hate, successes and failures, desires and distinctions of the present 
 life. But so low and carnal was their estimate of the future life, that 
 the more sedate and excellent preferred to look upon death as a sleep, 
 a condition of silence and darkness, " where the wicked cease from 
 troubling and the weary are at rest/' 
 
 By close contact and frequent intercourse with surrounding na- 
 tions, especially during and after their captivity, the Jews had learn- 
 ed, and a portion of them had accepted, the crude notions of the 
 heathen as possible truths upon which to rest their expectations of 
 another life. Many of the Pharisees who thought themselves so 
 much better than others, found it not difficult to believe tliey might 
 be raised into a future state of being at "the resurrection of the 
 just"; while the more learned Sadducess rejected all such notions, 
 and believed, like the earlier Jews, in no conscious hereafter for any 
 man. 
 
 It is certain they had no treatise, no direct authority, no revelation, 
 on this subject. Their scriptures were silent respecting the fact and 
 conditions of a future life. The patriarchs thought and spoke of death 
 as a sleep, a state or place of silence, "a land of darkness, as darkness 
 itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where 
 the light is as darkness." Their later writers believed " the dead 
 
7 
 
 know not anything;" that "There is no work, nor device, nor 
 knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave-" It is generally, if not univer- 
 sally, admitted by all good students of the Old Testament, that the 
 doctrine of a future life is not taught in it. It has indications? 
 types, and shadows of good things to come J promises, purposes, and 
 plans, which to us, involve such a doctrine and cannot be fulfilled 
 without it. Thus by induction and inference ive may now learn 
 what those to whom the old revelation was given did not understand- 
 
 In the economy of God it was reserved for the new revelation 
 by Jesus Christ, to "abolish death and bring life and immortality to 
 light." The doctrine was true before, but it was not " brought to 
 light," to be believed and enjoyed by mortals on earth. Jesus was 
 the " first born from the dead,' " the first to rise from the dead to 
 die no more." He was to swallow up death in victory ; to " destroy 
 death and him that had the power of death, and deliver them who, 
 through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." 
 He is to "reign until the last enemy, death, is destroyed"; and '-there 
 shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more 
 pain; for the former things shall pass away, and all things be made 
 new ; " all things be reconciled unto God " that " God may he ALL 
 
 IN ALL." 
 
 Martha's expectations were not well founded. Jesus indicated to 
 her the true source of comfort in affliction, the sure foundation of 
 hope in a future life and a re-union of spirits, by giving her to under- 
 stand the nature and success of his work for humanity. The occa- 
 sion was a fitting one. Here were centered the strength of pure af- 
 fections; fearful anxieties, bitter anguish, terrible uncertainties, re - 
 membered kindness, disappointed hopes, rushed upon her, all 
 crushed and trembling, in the dark and silent presence of death 
 No ray of light streamed through the darkness into that sad and 
 weary, and still loving soul. No warm glow of love and re-awakened 
 hope came to dry the tears that flowed from eyes that saw no bright 
 and beautiful hereafter. It was the time and the place for just such 
 words as Jesus spake; for just such doctrine as Jesus taught; for 
 just such hopes as he inspired. It was just the time to show the 
 living presence of the spirit and its sufficiency ; the power of truth 
 over error, of joy over sorrow, of life over death, of God over all 
 things. It was just the time to make known the wisdom and power 
 
8 
 
 of God in planning and fulfilling the high destiny of man, in consti- 
 tuting the soul for a spirit-life and a blessed immortality. 
 
 What then, we may ask, was the doctrine Jesus taught in his 
 conversation with this weeping daughter of Zion ? What view 
 what insight, did he give of a spirit-life, a life beyond death ? What 
 prospect did he spread before the sad soul to gaze upon with fixed 
 regards and sufficient; while death, with poisoned arrow, had trans- 
 fixed the form of a brother beloved, already mouldering in the 
 tomb ? 
 
 It concerns us all to know the answer to questions like these; for 
 such a time is in waiting for all of us, when nothing on earth; 
 neither wealth nor wisdom, goodness, love, friends — nothing human, 
 shall be found sufficient to meet the demands of a soul departing, or 
 of mourners remaining. Something more than human, quite divine, 
 is needed to give fortitude, hope and happiness in such an hour; 
 
 when all of thought, all of love, all of power, all of everything 
 
 eternity itself, is crowded into a single conviction and is to color and 
 decide everything ; when its hold on earth is surely giving way, and 
 its holiest desires are reaching out into the darkness to find something 
 stable to rely upon. If their be a word, a sentence, a doctrine, a 
 promise, a revelation from the loving Father, it must be for such a 
 time as this. And if the claims of Christianity are real, and not a 
 cheat, they must be equal to the wants of every soul struggling mid 
 these conflicts of its imperfect being, aud about to launch from these 
 mortal shores out upon the dark waves of a shoreless eternity. 
 What did Jesus teach concerning a spirit-life ? 
 He certainly did not teach the general resurrection of the body 
 at the last day, to be followed by a general j udgement, in recognition 
 of all the distinctions and follies of the present world and an end- 
 less separation based upon them, and make a belief in such a doc- 
 trine the ground of hope and comfort in sorrow and in the front of 
 death. His words cannot be construed to give countenance to any 
 such idea. He says : ''lam the resurrection and the life ; he that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he that 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Martha had some faith 
 in the heathen doctrine of " the resurrection at the last day." 
 That doctrine he did not approve. This she did not understand in 
 its fulness. It was new, and peculiar to the gospel of Jesus Christy 
 not yet established in its spirit among men. 
 
9 1 
 
 In the next chapter Jesus says; "Now is the judgment of 
 this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, 
 if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
 
 I suppose this language refers to the same great fact in the work of 
 God for the redemption of mankind from sin and unbelief, by raising 
 them into the kingdom of God, into the spiritual life which JesuS 
 had come to reveal and establish for the comfort and salvation of the 
 world. His was a moral kingdom, a spiritual dominion over the 
 hearts of the people. His was a present work. He came to seek 
 and to save, to reform and to bless, to give a knowledge and judg- 
 ment, a faith and a hope, a confidence and a joy, not hitherto possess- 
 ed by men. He came to draw the human soul from the errors, fol- 
 lies and vices, from the low estimate and fallen condition of the age ; 
 from the superstitions and bigotries long prevalent among the na- 
 tions; to impart to it a new spirit and power of moral life; to deliver 
 it from the ignorance and slavery into which it had fallen; to bring 
 it into a new and higher state of moral perception and action than 
 the world had ever attained; to raise it into the light and loving 
 presence of God ; to reconcile it to all the ways of his providence — 
 to all the methods of his government ; to start it on its high des- 
 tiny, to obtain perfect liberty in Christ, and to possess itself of the 
 heavenly inheritance among the children of God, the saints in 
 light. 
 
 Thus Jesus was to establish the kingdom of heaven, the reign of 
 God, in the earth. He was himself to reign with God by love in 
 human hearts, to subdue and reconcile all their passions and desires 
 to the will of God, and prepare them for the glorious career of a 
 happy, blessed, and immortal life with all the redeemed of God. 
 Thus prepared, God was to dwell in them, and his Jove was to be 
 perfected in them, that they might dwell in him. Thus filled with 
 the light, and love, and presence of God, they could have no fear, 
 no distrust, no anxiety for the future. Death had no more domin- 
 ion over them, but they ''were passed from death unto life." 
 
 Now it was the object of Christ's mission to draw all men into this 
 condition of spiritual life and peace. As he was already in it, pure 
 and perfect, entirely subject to the will of the Father, he was plainly 
 what he declared himself to be, "the resurrection and the life." 
 And such a power was there in him, such a moral force did he im. 
 
t 
 
 10 
 
 part to all who believed in him, that whoever lived in the new spirit- 
 life " should never die." 
 
 The spirit, and power, and love, and will, and work of God are 
 not limited to time, nor shut up in one part of creation, and shut out 
 from all the rest. God is everywhere. His eye and his arm are 
 over all his works. What we call death is not darkness to him. 
 All is light where he is, and he is everywhere. Our sin?, our igno- 
 rance, our unbelief, divide between us and him and darken and 
 make sad the souls on which their shadows fall. But God is light. 
 In him is no darkness at all. Our sins, our ignorance, our unbelief, 
 can not remain forever ; for Jesus came to save the world from sin. 
 And he shall not fail, but finish his work. He came to fulfil the 
 new covenant, to write the laws of God in all hearts, that "all should 
 know the Lord from the least unto the greatest." — Heb. viii, 10-12. 
 And "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." God's 
 benevolent designs shall not be frustrated by man's weakness. Death 
 does not bar God from doing all his pleasure. " He will swallow up 
 death in victory," and " there shall be no more death." Be- 
 lievest thou this ? 
 
 For l hem that believe in Jesus there is no death : " they shall 
 never die." Our brother " believed this." He did not die. He 
 "passed through" the open gates into the city of God, the holy 
 place of the Most High, into the glorious presence where purity, 
 love, and joy abound forever. 
 
 This doctrine embraces continued existence and moral character, 
 and the j ust judgment of God in rendering to every man according 
 to his works. He does so now in the earth : "Also unto thee, 0 
 Lord, belongeth mercy ; for thou renderest to every man according 
 to his works." — Ps. lxii, 12, "Behold, the righteous shall be 
 recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner." 
 Prov., xi, 31. There is no reason to expect God will in any way 
 alter the method of his government in the future life. He changes 
 not. Therefore justice and judgment, which are the habitation of 
 his throne, will be meted out to every moral being in that state as 
 truly as in this. 
 
 Our hope in the final salvation of all men rests solely on the 
 ground of their salvation from sin — that all men shall be holy ; for 
 " without holiness no man shall see the Lord." In the flesh no man 
 
11 
 
 is perfect; for " in the flesh dwellcth no good thing/' Holiness is 
 a principle, a quality, a possession, to be acquired — to be obtained. 
 It is not possessed by nature ; that is, by a mere animal existence- 
 It belongs to our moral or spiritual nature, and is obtained in it 8 
 strength and perfection through the revelation made by Jesus 
 Chiist, by whom we are called unto holiness. Ht was the last 
 Adam, made a quickening spirit." He teaches and commands in 
 the name of the Father : "Be ye holy ; for I am holy." And lie 
 is to reign till "all things are gathered together in bim — till every 
 knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory 
 of God, the Father." 
 
 If I am asked W When, and by what ways and means this glorious 
 result of Messiah's reign, designed and promised from the beginning, 
 is to be accomplished ;" I am frank to confess L do not know. We 
 know but little of the ways and meaus of God beyond what he has 
 revealed unto us. Very many of life's highest aspirations and 
 noblest attainments are the works of faith, more than of knowledge ; 
 and by far the largest and best portions of human life are lost to us 
 when faith is wanting. We walk by faith, not by sight. I do most 
 earnestly anu devoutly Relieve that such a result shall be attained " in 
 the dispensation of the fullness of times" by ways and means known 
 unto God : for he has desired it, purposed it, willed it, designed it, 
 planned it, promised it; and I believe he will do it. Patriarchs be- 
 lieved it; prophets foretold it; saints and good men pray for.it, and 
 work for it ; and to Jesus was given all power in heaven and in 
 earth that he might not fail to accomplish it. 
 
 I do not feel authorized, by any amount of knowledge yet pos- 
 sessed, to magnify hindrance's mighty enough to oppose successful- 
 ly and finally the will, plan, purpose, promise of Almighty God, so 
 as to weaken or destroy faith in Him, and in his declaration that 
 his " counsels shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." 
 
 Abraham, old and childless, with a wife past age, and everything 
 against it, believed God. He did not stagger at the promise be- 
 cause he did not see and know the ways and means of its accom- 
 plishment. Sarah did : she laughed at an idea involving so many 
 difficulties ; and when, finally, she half believed, and would, in her 
 wisdom, help God fulfil the rest, Ishmael, and not the promised son, 
 was born. Not so with Abraham. He believed God, and started 
 
12 
 
 for the promised land ; but like many in our day, he passed through 
 it, not knowing whither he went or where he was — a pilgrim and a 
 stranger, seeking a country and a city. And, like many others, he 
 wandered too far — quite over the desert beyond it — and found him-B 
 self in Egypt j whence, after prevaricating a little, — as such often 
 do, — he returned and dwelt in one corner, the narrowest and rough- j 
 est part, of the promised inheritance. Pespite the ridicule of his ! 
 wife he did not falter, but continued to believe. In due time Isaac 
 was born. The proffered counsel of Sarah to employ the help of 
 Hager did no more than suggest doubts to overcome apparent dif- 
 ficulties in the way of Infinite Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, and 
 help to array oppositions to the peaceful enjoyment of the promised 1 
 blessing. When called to the last trial of his faith, Abraham did 
 not hesitate to obey God and offer up his only child - the son of his 
 old age. He still believed, despite all darkness and difficulties, that 
 God would make all plain and right in the end. 
 
 Do the opposers of faith in the success of God's great work 
 through Jesus Christ really think there is any weight in their limit- 
 ed knowledge — in their ignorance of God's ways and means of work- 
 ing — to lead us to doubt and disbelieve that he will execute his own 
 will, fulfil his own designs, and do all his pleasure ? Do they ask 
 us to set what they see and know, and what they do not see and 
 know, over against what God has planned, and undertaken, and sent 
 his Son to accomplish; that we shall believe that he will do what he 
 never desired or designed, willed or wished to do, — what only bad 
 men and devils would ever be pleased to have done; and his own 
 great work of redemption become a failure ? 
 
 Such should know that the limit of knowledge is not the measure 
 of out faith, Because " now we see not yet all things put under 
 Jesus," shall we believe they never will be ? The sphere of human 
 knowledge is very limited j and our perceptions of the deep things 
 of God in his eternity are not yet quite perfect, that we should 
 judge him by any human standard, and go beyond what he has been 
 phased to reveal to us of his good pleasure concerning the future 
 and final destiny of our race. We are satisfied to leave the disposal 
 of all with him; and, while we are thankful unto him, we would 
 seek to obey him, and in all things to be resigned to his most holy 
 will. 
 
13 
 
 To return. There are natural and insurmountable obstacles in 
 the way of the heathen doctrine of the resurrection of the body. It 
 is a fact established beyond controversy that the human body, like 
 the bodies of other animals, is made up of material substances, and is 
 continually undergoing changes, so radical, sure, and complete, that 
 no particle of matter composing the body at childhood remains in 
 youth, and none of youth remains in manhood, aud none of man- 
 hood in old age. Physiology teaches conclusively that the body 
 undergoes an entire change every seven or ten years. The body 
 grows, matures, declines, dies, and returns to its primordial ele- 
 ments. These elements are taken up to nourish vegetable forms. 
 Grains and grasses on battle-fields and in grave-yards are nourished 
 by the blood and flesh and bones of human bodies. These, in turn, 
 are consumed by other men and animals, and go to form parts of 
 other bodies ; and so the change is perpetually going on. What 
 constitutes parts of our bodies may have passed through many 
 other bodies before. How then can all these bodies be raised up at 
 once, and each have all the parts of its own body ? 
 
 Then, which of all our bodies shall we have ? The last ? Then 
 what shall become of the others ? Shall we have the young, rouud, 
 terse, blooming body of childhood and youth ? the strong, hale, vig- 
 orous body of manhood ? or the pale, diseased, wrinkled, decayed, 
 seared emaciated, cadaverous body we shall have on in old age or at 
 death ? The soul surely can not wear them all at the same time ; 
 and if the sick, the weak, the halt, the blind, — if these bodies with 
 all their infirmities are to be raised up and made immortal — and 
 " there is to be no change after death/' heaven will not be the 
 agreeable, beautiful, happy place it has been represented to be. 
 
 Besides, what can there be consoling and hopeful in the thought 
 that these poor bodies which have caused us so much pain and anx- 
 iety are to be raised up, and we be sent to inhabit them again and 
 forever ? The heathen world held such doctrines long before Jesus 
 was sent to abolish death and be himself " the resurrection and the 
 life." Why insist on them with such tenacity and try to prove 
 them Christian, when Christianity ignores them, and teaches an- 
 other doctrine, at once reasonable, consistent, and glorious ? 
 
 The church made a great and grevious mistake when it preferred 
 the mysterious, inconsistent, and obscure traditions of heathenism, 
 
14 
 
 to the simple, sublime, and beautiful doctrine of Jesus, and engraft, 
 ed them into the name of Christ, and made them an essential part 
 of ' ; a saving faith." 
 
 The declared object of Jesus' mission was to save sinners, to over- 
 come evil, to destroy death, and restore all men to holiness and 
 happiness. This was to be done by raising or elevating the human 
 soul out of the depths of vice and ignorance and corruption into 
 which it had fallen, into the light and knowledge of truth, love,- 
 and God. 
 
 St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, exhibits the doctrines of 
 Jesus in a very clear and forcible manner. I have not time to quote 
 what he says. You may read at your leisure the fifth, sixth, 
 seventh, and eighth chapters, where you will see clearly stated and 
 fully argued the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. The same 
 may be found in both his letters to the Corinthians, (I Cor., xv ; II 
 Cor., iv-v.,) and in other portions of his writings. 
 
 The substance of what he teaches may be summed up in few 
 words, thus : Man was created a human being, and made subject to 
 a system of laws which regarded his whole existence, and contem- 
 plated his highest good. Being subject to vanity, and not knowing 
 good and evil intuitively, he was left to the force ot temptation, 
 appealing to his physical or carnal feelings, which he lacked the 
 spiritual or moral power to resist. The penalty of transgression was 
 death. " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He 
 yielded to temptation; he sinned; he died. "To be carnal minded 
 is death." "The wages of sin is death." All men sinned, and po 
 death passed upon ail men. Jesus Christ came into the world to 
 save sinners : by raising them out of the dominion of sin and death, 
 giving them the spirit of truth, that they might " be risen with him 
 and walk in newness of life." " To be spiritually minded is life 
 and peace." « The gift of God is eternal life." " As many as are 
 led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." "You hath he 
 quickened (raised up) who were dead in trespasses and sins." 
 " And you, being dead in your sins, hath he quickened (raised up) 
 together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." — Cor., ii, 12 
 -13. " Awake, thou that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and 
 Christ shall give thee life," " We know that we are passed from 
 death unto life." — John, v, 25 ; I John, v, 13. 
 
L5 
 
 Passages might be multiplied without number which prove what 
 was the especial work of Jesus with mankind * that he came to raise 
 human hearts above the dominion of sin, by leading them, by his 
 Father's spirit of wisdom, truth, and love, in ways of holiness they 
 had not known : that they should be holy as he is holy, in all meek- 
 ness and godly conversation, loving one another and doing no evil ; 
 that the life they should henceforth live should be by the faith of 
 the Son of God — God dwelling in them and his love being perfected 
 in them 
 
 Now Jesus sought to impress this great truth upon the Bad heart 
 of Martha that she might feel her soul drawn out in love and sub- 
 mission to the will of God. He represented hitnself in his true re- 
 lation to humanity : "the T&f urrection and the life ;" the represen- 
 tation and embodiment of the spirit-power of God over sin, death, 
 and the grave; that they all were subordinated to his divine and 
 glorious purpose to '■ w T ork out a far more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of glory : while we look not at the things which are seen, but 
 at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are 
 temporal, but the things which are nut seen are eternal." 
 
 If it be still insisted that Martha did not comprehend this doc- 
 trine, I have only to reply that it was because Jesus was not yet 
 risen to prove it, and make it plain beyond all controversy. In this 
 case, as in others, Jesus asserted what was not yet understood, what 
 the world could not. knoir, but might believe, without the striking ev- 
 idence to be afterwards given. Hut he did strike the central fact of 
 the new revelation, — the power of the quickening spirit over the 
 lusts of the flesh, whereby it obtained an insight iuto the wise aud 
 benevolent designs of God in his government and providence over 
 the imperfections and weaknesses of this mortal life, preparatory to 
 the entrance upon the lull joys and blessedness of immortality. 
 
 When Jesus was risen from the dead many things were made 
 plain to his disciples which they did not comprehend before. Among 
 others was the certainty now felt that there is help and strength for 
 the struggling spirit of man to obtain the ascendancy over the body, 
 and to live iu a higher and nobler form of conscious being, when the 
 dust shall have returned to the dust as it was, and the spirit to God 
 that gave it. 
 
 Faith in this power of the spirit became the strength and hope aud 
 
16 
 
 comfort of the believers, and sustained and cheered them in their 
 toils and sufferings, and made them conquerors and more than con 
 querors through him who loved them and gave himself for them. It 
 was the anchor of their souls, sure and steadfast, amid all perils. 
 They relied upon it for themselves, and commended it to others as 
 sufficient for all trials and sorrows — a safe support in every netd. 
 They dwelt upon it with utmost confidence and satisfaction. It 
 shed a light and lustre over all the conditions of life, removed the 
 sting of death, and dispelled the victory of the grave. They did 
 not die. 
 
 St. Paul is very lucid and distinct in his treatment of this sub" 
 ject. He says : " We know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
 nacle were dissolved (if the body were decomposed), we (the inner 
 man) have a building of God, an house (spiritual body) not made 
 with hands eternal in the heavens : for we that are in this taber- 
 nacle (body) do groan, being burdened ; not that we would be un- 
 clothed (rid of life because of suffering), but clothed upon, that 
 mortality might be swallowed up of life." 
 
 In his first letter, Chap, xv, he treats the subject more at length, 
 and shows most conclusively that the body we now inhabit is not to 
 be raised, is not the body we are to have, any more than the grain 
 that dies in the ground. The germ, the spirit-life, is to start into a 
 higher life and be clothed with such body as God shall give it, re- 
 taining its own personality, because God shall give to every seed his 
 own body. 11 It is sown a natural (earthly) body ; it is raised a 
 spiritual body, — and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we 
 shall also bear the image of the.heavenly." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Christianity reveals the great glad truth 
 that man shall not die, but continue to live in a higher and purer 
 state of being, though the earthly house of this tabernacle be dis- 
 solved. It was in the office of Christ to reveal and make prominent 
 this doctrine of life and immortality. He stood forth separate and 
 distinct from all who had come before him in his advocacy of it as 
 the antidote of sorrow, the ground of hope, and strength, and j >y, and 
 life, for all who believed it. He did not come to create it, or make it 
 possible for them who might believe. He came to reveal it as a 
 truth, as a fact of God, hidden for ages and generations, but now to 
 be made manifest by his resurrection from the dead, whereby as. 
 
17 
 
 surance was to be given unto all men that, as he lives, we shall live 
 also j for he will swallow up death in victory and wipe away tears 
 from all faces and take away his rebuke from all the earth. 
 
 Let us consider this glorious truth on the individual heart in the 
 presence of death. Jesus gives it a power sufficient to remove the 
 thought of death from the believer's mind so effectually that death 
 had no more dominion over it, "for whoso believeth in him shall 
 never die." Jesus felt the power of this great truth as he stood there 
 talking with the weeping sister, and when at the grave of his friend 
 Lazarus. He was sustained by it when treading the wine press alone 
 in the garden, in stern conflict with duty and the cross on one hand 
 and self-will and disobedience upon the other. He conquered though 
 he fell. He won a victory for humanity the world had never 
 known ; for through suffering, he was made perfect that he might 
 succor others and be for salvation unto the ends of the ends of 
 the earth. 
 
 St. Paul felt the power of it when the time of his departure was 
 at hand. Having fought the good fight and kept the faith, he had 
 no fear of death. He was ready to be offered — to depart and be with 
 Christ in the still more intimate relation of a perfect spirit-life. He 
 did not die ; he " passed through" the dark valley to the better 
 land. Peter and John and all the disciples and martyis for truth 
 did not die ; they went home — tl passed through" into the immortal 
 home. 
 
 I think this subject must be plain, very plain, to all who will ex- 
 amine and reflect upon it, and bring the teaching and spirit of Jesus 
 right home to their own hearts as a life power and a guide to the 
 truth. I think it was very plain to our dear brother's mind while 
 he lay there so calm, so humble, so childlike, so perfectly resigned 
 to the will of the loving Father that no murmur of complaint ever 
 escaped his lips. Perfectly conscious that the hour of his departure 
 was near, he made all preparation for it, that coulu be made, by ar- 
 ranging his earthly affairs in wisdom and prudence for the good of 
 others, giving such directions and advice as seemed important and 
 practical • then waiting patiently for the angel of God to come and 
 guide him to the heavenly inheritance, to the beloved in the bosom 
 
18 
 
 of the Father. He saw no death. He felt no fear. He believed in him 
 who " is the ressurrection and the life;" that he had abolished death 
 and brought life and immortality to light in the gospel. He did not 
 die. His last words, whispered to his beloved and faithful wife who 
 was leaning over him, were, " I am passing through." 
 
 Yes, he did not die. He was only " passing through" to the 
 blessed land, to the house not made with hands, to be clothed upon 
 with the spirit-body and dwell with God, and Christ, the angels, and 
 ransomed spirits evermore ; to bask in the clear sunlight of truth 
 and love; to wander at will amid the trees of paradise and bathe in 
 the river of water of life, mingling his heart's purest devotions with 
 a ransomed world ; in songs of ceaseless praise to Almighty God in 
 everlasting gratitude for his great goodness and for his wonderful 
 works to the children of men. 
 
 May we not, friends, learn lessons of wisdom and have confidence 
 in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, when we see such efficacy in 
 the power of Christian Faith, such blessedness in Christian Hope ? 
 We are all of us mortal, in our earthly being; and all of us have 
 spirits which have need to be touched and trained to the love and 
 life of God, that the lives we now live may be by the faith of the 
 Son of God and in hope of joys to come. We have need to learn of 
 Jesus, who was meek and lowly of heart, that we may find rest unto 
 our souls. It will not do to trust in an arm of flesh. Nothing earth- 
 ly can abide us in times of our greatest need. Our hearts must be 
 staid on God. The doctrines of men, of sects, are not enough. 
 They partake too much of the spirit of this world, of its selfishness, 
 of its pride and folly. They will not abide us when standing naked 
 before God. Our souls must be absorbed into his love and light 
 and life, as revealed by Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and 
 life. We must believe in him, live in him, walk by faith, and we 
 shall have the life of God renewed within us. We shall live in con- 
 stant preparation, in full assurance of the immortal life. We shall, 
 indeed, have it now, — "shall have everlasting life, and not come 
 into condemnation, but be passed from death unto life." " God is 
 not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him." — 
 Luke, xx, 38. We have need to know this truth; to feel it as a 
 conviction, a power abiding within us, guiding our hearts, control} 
 
19 
 
 ing our passions, shaping our conduct, forming our characters, and 
 preparing us to enter into the joy of our Lord to go no more out 
 forever. 
 
 A living faith in Jesus Christ as the great Teacher and loving 
 Saviour sent of God to represent his divinity and our humanity, and 
 show us how his spirit in us — " the inner man of the heart" — should 
 be raised into a rightful supremacy over the flesh, " the outer man," 
 and make us the willing subjects of God's most holy government, 
 established over all for good and not for evil, that we should "purify 
 our souls in obeying the truth through the spirit, unto unfeigned 
 love of the brethren, loving one another with pure hearts fervently ; 
 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
 the word of God that liveth and abideth forever." We must con- 
 sent to be led by his holy spirit; " for as mmy as are led by the 
 spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The old man with his 
 lusts must be crucified and passed away; and we must put on the 
 new man which after God is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness. 
 
 This result of a living faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the 
 world, will impart to the soul a conviction, a power, and a presence, 
 which no fear can disturb, no sorrow darken. It accepts the hand 
 of God and feels itself drawn into the realm of love, purity, and 
 peace. It leans on the arm of God and finds support through all 
 trials, sickness, sorrow. Death can not weaken it- It looks up to 
 God through shadows and tears and sees him who died for our sins 
 -and rose again for our justification, that we might live with him, and 
 be glorified together. 
 
 Let us, my brethren and sisters, examine our own hearts, learn 
 our own minds, prove our own feelings, and see whether we be in 
 the faith, rooted and grounded in Jesus, and growing up into him 
 who is the head in all things. Our lives, our hearts, our thoughts, 
 our whole being belongs to God. He made us ; he preserves us ; 
 he feeds and clothes us. In him we live, and move, and have our 
 being. "Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." 
 " Whether therefore we eat or drink, or whatever we do, let us do 
 all to the glory of God," 
 
20 
 
 With such a faith we shall be prepared to live, to rejoice and be 
 glad all our days. With such a faith we "shall never die/' but like 
 our good brother, we shall " pass through'' to our happy, glorious, 
 immortal home, to dwell with those we have loved, with all the pure 
 and holy; and, with every creature in heaven, on ear h, under the 
 earth, in the sea, and all that are in them and join th; universal an- 
 them of deliverance from sin, of victory over death, of salvation and 
 praise ; " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." 
 
S75.6 Z99C 1850-79 v. 1 Ncs. 
 
 1-25 Pldi86 
 
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