ces from it. What then? If they are worthy of trust,
to accept them is to rob death of half its fears and alarms. It is the
unknown that inspires terror. To know but a little more than we before
knew of the land in which those who have gone before now sojourn, is to
gather fresh courage to face it with less misgiving for them and for
ourselves. They have passed on, but they await us there. They are only
hidden from us for a little while. Their voices are silent. But their
life is as real a life as ours. No dull oblivion weighs them down. They
live and think and see and know,--know, it may be, more of us than we
think, know as much of us as it is for their happiness to know. A little
while and we also shall know as they know, and see as they see, in the
home and resting place of vision and of peace.

Footnotes:

{5} Rev. xxi. 27.

{8} 2 Cor. v. 10.

{14} Acts xxiv. 15.

{15} See Luckock, "The Intermediate State," pp. 14, 15.

{17} S. John xx. 17.

{19} The expression is borrowed from the custom among the Jews of
reclining instead of sitting at a banquet. The guest was stretched upon
a couch, his left elbow resting upon a cushion close to the table, his
feet being towards the outer side of the couch, which was away from the
table. By slightly bending back his head he could touch with it the
breast of the guest on his left hand, and speak to him in a low voice.
Thus S. John bent back upon our Lord's breast at the Last Supper to ask
Him, "Lord, who is it?" and is therefore spoken of as "he who leant upon
His breast at supper." To sit therefore, or to rest in the bosom of
Abraham, represented the happy lot of those who had passed to Paradise.

{23} Mozley, Univ. Serm., p. 155.

{24a} Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

{24b} Psalm xvi. 11.

{24c} 1 John iii. 2.

{25a} 1 Peter v. 4.

{25b} 1 John iii. 2.

{25c} Col. iii. 4.

{25d} 2 Tim. iv. 3.

{26} Advent Sermon, "The Day of the Lord."

{28} Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11 (_Revised Version_).

{34a} 1 Thess. v. 23. But the A.V. hardly brings out the full force of
the distinction. The definite article has a possessive force, as if it
were "_your_ spirit, _your_ soul, _your_ body"; as though the spirit was
as distinct from the soul as each of them is distinct from the body.

{34b} Heb. iv. 12.

{34c} 1 Cor. ii. 14.

{35a} 1 Cor. xv. 44.

{35b} S. James iii. 15.

{35c} Jude 19.

{35d} Gen. ii. 7.

{37} Mason, "Faith of th