Death is not the normal condition of the child of God. Life-in all its manifestations, both in this world and elsewhere-is what God gives. "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." "In Him we live and move and have our being." He is the "living God," and death in itself means only separation from Him. So we read, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." It is the dark accompanying shadow of sin. "The wages of sin is death."

We need not remind the reader that the death spoken of in the scriptures quoted is something more than bodily dissolution ; nor of the blessed fact, as we shall see later, that, for the child of God, the sting has been taken from death and the victory from the grave. We are simply premising this fact-that death is an abnormal thing, an interloper, if we may so speak, into God's fair creation where He pronounced all "very good; " and that now for the child of God it is not the final goal toward which he is tending, nor is the state of the blessed dead that in which they will spend eternity.

The " blessed hope " of the believer is not to spend a long and useful life in this world, then to lie peacefully down in the grave, and as to his soul, to be in heaven happy forever;-

"An honored life, a peaceful end, And heaven to crown it all."

Nowhere in the New Testament is death mentioned as the hope of the child of God, or as the inevitable close of his earthly course. He may have a desire to depart and be with Christ, as being far better than his present surroundings; he may be both confident and willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But death is not what he looks forward to; rather life, life untrammeled, in its fullness. True he meditates much upon death, but it is the death of his Substitute, who "abolished death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel." He looks back at Calvary, and sees death, his death, as he deserved to undergo it, borne by Christ; and now he looks, not at the tomb, but "steadfastly up into heaven " through the vail, which has been rent in twain. He waits, not for death, but for the Lord, who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore, who will come in person and take all His redeemed ones up away from even bodily death. '' We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, .in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Even the semblance of death shall not be tasted. This is the "blessed hope " (not an uncertain thing, but, as being future, something to be looked forward to) which the child of God is privileged now to enjoy.

"But," it is said, "Christians do die." Certainly, and as long as the time of Christ's patience and the long-suffering of God wait, they will continue to do so. But how soon all this may change! Who can say when the Lord will come for His own ? His own words are, " Surely I come quickly." If the adverb at the beginning of that brief sentence establishes the certainty of His coming, so the one at the close impresses us with the nearness of that coming. Not another saint may fall asleep, not another day may pass, before the "shout" shall be heard, and we shall be "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven."

And what a blessed hope this is! Can we conceive of any thing which could be added to it which would really increase its brightness ? If we know this to be true, let it be our aim to let our lives feel the power and manifest it.
But it is of this intermediate state that we would now speak, in the hope that a repetition of truths familiar perhaps to all, may soothe some grief-burdened heart, for the Lord has sorrowing people here, and few have lived on into maturity some years who have not felt the pang of parting from dear ones, and yearned for true comfort. How good it is that in the precious Word of God we have the amplest comfort. He who is "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort " meeting the mourner, and ready here to "wipe away all tears" for faith, as He will actually do it in the day of His power.

"Absent from the body" gives us the negative side, upon which we will first dwell a little. The body is the mortal, and the only mortal, part of man:'' your mortal body " reminds us of the word to Adam, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." He was dust as to his body, not as to the spirit which God breathed into him, and which made man a "living soul." Until sin came in, there was no hint that the body was mortal, and it would never have come under the power of death had man continued unfallen. Sin, and death by sin, is the order, reminding us of the terrible folly of man in departing from the living God,-a folly which God has overruled in grace, and brought in by redemption greater blessings than we lost in Eden. So when we speak of a mortal body, we are reminded of the sin that made the body mortal. This is the connection in the words quoted- "Let not sin reign in your mortal body." (Rom. 6:12.) To be absent, then, from the mortal body means to be absent from the presence of sin. Here we have one of the greatest blessings brought by death. To be sure, even now faith should so enter into the reality of Christ's death that we should "reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." But when a child of God is absent from the body, he no longer reckons himself to be dead to sin; he literally is, and so is away from its presence. Apart from Christ's death, by which He "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," it is needless to say that the death of the child of God would give no deliverance. Through grace, the believer may and should enjoy deliverance from the power of sin in this life. But who is there who must not say with James, "In many things, we all offend "? and with Paul "buffet the body and bring it into subjection,"-by the Spirit mortify its deeds? But at death this is all changed. The body is left, and no longer needs to be watched and kept in subjection. The old nature which lurked in that body, "the flesh,'' named from its dwelling-place, is laid aside too, and the spirit is at length perfectly free from the power and the presence of sin. To the one who longs for likeness to God, to be absolutely conformed to the image of His Son, what joy does death bring! The world may look upon it with horror, but the believer can say, as one did, "How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend! "

No more sin, no desire, or the least motion toward it; that is what the believer gets at death. As the shorter catechism says, "The souls of believers are at death made perfect in holiness;" and while we desire no creed to mold our faith, it is well to recognize the faith of those who wrote that sentence.

But absence from the body suggests other thoughts. The body is our link with this world-a world full of groans and sorrows. If the saint is to "rejoice in the Lord always," he is also sorrowing. God's fair world has become a place of signs. "The whole creation groaneth;" we, who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan too. Unless we blind our eyes and harden our hearts, there is enough misery here to make the heart ache from sheer pity. Then our individual sorrows-and the heart knoweth its own bitterness,-all these things are voiced in that word, " We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." To be absent from the body means to be free from these sorrows. It means to be free from the surroundings of earth and earth's circumstances.

But those who are absent from the body have left its infirmities and pains behind. It is sad to see the limitations which hamper so many-a frail body, oft-recurring pain and sickness, and the infirmities of old; age. To leave the body is to leave all these infirmities and pains; and while we should and do get good out of such trials, what a relief it is to be beyond the need and so beyond the fact of having them!

But we have been only looking at the negative side of death-at what we leave. We come now to dwell upon the positive side-at what we reach. It is summed up in one word-"Present with the Lord." That means every thing. '' In Thy presence is full-of joy." Death is a gloomy thing to those here, but to the one who departs it is fullness of joy. Stephen met death by stoning,-that was the earth-side view. He looked up into heaven and '' saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." That was the heaven-side view. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"-he is "absent from the body and at home with the Lord." What an exchange! the blessedness of the Lord's presence for the cursings and stones of the Jews. No wonder that he could say, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

Do we know Christ ? Then we know something of the blessedness of being with Him. Redemption, as made known by the Spirit, fills the heart with peace and joy. With Christ, its fullness will be more deeply known. The person of the Lord, as known now, is most precious. With Him, He becomes better known, and therefore more deeply loved. The limits here are removed there, and the whole time is taken up with Him. If one hour of communion here is so sweet that the savor of it lingers, what shall we say of that uninterrupted fellowship with the Son-learning the depths of His love, the wonders of His grace ? If it seems a sort of blank to us, does not that tell how little we enjoy Him here ? Little wonder was it that Paul, whose whole heart went out in love to Christ, and his whole life in service, could say, "Having a desire to depart and be with, Christ, which is better." How such words as those silence at once the suggestion that death is unconsciousness, a sleep of the soul. Would it be far better for Paul, who enjoyed Christ as he did, in the midst of trial, to become unconscious, to be practically extinct ? Never. It was far better to die, because he would then be with the One he loved, and away from all else, at leisure to enjoy Him as he sought to enjoy Him here.

And now, as we realize the blessed portion of those that are asleep, can we not give God thanks that they are with the Lord, in heaven, for He is there and they are with Him ? As bereaved we mourn, but we arc not to sorrow "as others who have no hope." We can look at death and say, "O death, where is thy sting ?" Christ has taken away the sting, which is sin. We can look at the grave and say, "O grave, where is thy victory?" Christ has won the victory, and by His resurrection has left us an open grave with the way out. May not all God's sorrowing people learn to rejoice at the blessing which the sleeping saints enjoy ? And would not this spirit of joy and praise be as a tonic to enable them to pick up afresh the duties of this life, and to go on, with firmness and progress, in the path appointed. And it is only a very little while. The Lord Himself will soon come. There will be no more mourning then; but now is the time of trial and of opportunity, to suffer and to do for Him, who suffered and did so much for us.

" When the weary ones we love
Enter on their rest above;
When their words of love and cheer
Fall no longer on our ear;
Hush! be every murmur dumb,
It is only 'till He come.' "