n, it is yet incomprehensible. Is it not clear
that it only has reference to all the righteous saints in these messages
from Oct. 1844? How can it mean the literal dead? Is it not clear that the
dead know not any thing; therefore the blessing would not effect them as
this text teaches any more than to bless any other inanimate substance.
The Blessing belongs always to the living. Just look at Jesus' sermon on
the mount.--Matt. v: 3-11--"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake" &c. &c. This is now being fulfilled to the letter; see also Rev.
i: 3; xvi: 15; xix: 9; xxii: 7; v: 12, 13; Luke xxiv: 50, 51, "Blessed are
they that hear the word of God and keep it."--_Jesus._ "Blessed are they
that _do_ his commandments," they shall be saved,--xxii: 14. Also, Isaiah
lvi: 2, that keep the Sabbath; these two last are to the point, just what
they are doing in our text, 12th and 13th verses of Rev. xiv. John is here
certainly speaking of a _class_, or _company_, of living believers, and
not the literal dead. _Rest_ is opposite to _labor_. He shows that the
seraphim and cherubim, (invisible angels,) _rest_ not day, nor night, but
are continually "saying Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty."--also v: 11,
12. The sleeping saints at the resurrection have no rest, they serve God
_day_ and _night_ in his temple--vii: 15. Then the _rest_ spoken of here in
the 13th verse is of the living; resting from their labors with the world.
Once more, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." Paul said the
commandment so affected him that he _died_--Rom. vii: 9. He means that he
died to sin. Again, he says, "I _die daily_,"--1st Cor. xv: 31; "In
_deaths_ oft"--2d Cor. xi: 23; "If ye be _dead_ with Christ," &c.--"For ye
are _dead_ and your life is hid with Christ in God" &c.--Col. ii: 20; iii:
3, 4; also, see Rom. vi: 8, 11, "_Dead_ indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In all these, and much more, he uses
these terms for himself and others that were actually alive in the church.
But the general term used for such as were literally _dead_, by Jesus and
the apostles, are asleep; _they sleep_; "Our friend Lazarus _sleepeth_."
He spake of his death; the people did not understand; he explained by
saying "_plainly_ he is _dead_."--John xi: 11-14. Paul says, "they also
which are fallen _asleep_ in Christ"--1st Cor. xv: 18; "Some are fallen
_a