their waiting wearied them. "How long?" they cried. They
were not in the flesh, their bodies had been slain. They were absent
from the body and present with the Lord, with Christ, as the crucified
thief is still with Christ, in Paradise.

The consummation for them is yet to come. They are waiting for it. It
is postponed. GOD'S work on earth is yet uncompleted. The number of the
elect is not yet made up. The Second Coming of Christ is yet delayed.
All things are not yet ready. A little while longer must they wait, that
they without us may not be made perfect.

III.

"To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace."--ROM. VIII. 6.

So far we have examined the witness which the Bible affords in support of
the truth that there is such a sphere as the Intermediate State, in which
the spirit dwells alone, apart from the body, awaiting the Day of
Judgment. We have now to see what can be known as to the condition of
the spirit in that disembodied state. It is one thing to be assured on
good grounds that there is such a life, and quite another thing to be
assured what sort of life it is. Can we fully understand what is meant
by the life of the spiritual part of our being when it is separated from
the body? We cannot. We cannot understand that of which we have had no
experience. In speaking, therefore, of the disembodied spirit, we are
speaking of that which we cannot explain. Yet it does not in consequence
follow that it is impossible to believe it to be. For we are bound in
reason to be assured of many things of which we can form no conception.
Reason compels us to be assured of the reality of space, of eternity, of
the creation of the universe out of nothing, and, perhaps we may add, of
the being of GOD; the being of GOD, I mean, considered apart from His
nature and attributes. Yet we cannot form any intelligent conception of
these realities. We cannot shape to our apprehension the faintest
rational conception of the Personality of GOD, of His Omniscience, of His
Omnipresence. Yet we are able, and indeed are forced to believe, as
Christians, in these attributes of His Nature, although we cannot
comprehend them.

In the same sense, we can be reasonably sure that the spirit can still
live after it has left the body, even though we are unable to form to our
minds any clear conception of the existence of the disembodied spirit. We
can do more. On the assumpti