The Late Brig.-Gen'l Ransom

Excerpt from The Late Brig.-Gen'l Ransom: A Sermon, Preached in St. Paul's Church, Chicago, Sunday Morning, November 13, 1864

It 'is melancholy to reflect what gloomy ideas have prevailed in the Christian world, on the subject of death. In all languages it has been described as a terrible fact which ought to fill humanity with apprehension and dread. Instead of being presented, as it is in the Gospel, in a cheerful light, surrounded by hopes, and leading to glorious results, all the gloomy words, and dismal pictures which the imagination can invent, are brought into prominence, and applied in describing the agonies of this king of terrors. How unlike this repulsive statement of the office of death, which treats it as a calamity in the universe, is the cheerful representation from the writ ings of the apostle Paul, which regards death as an institution of God, - an event in the progress of the soul~ordained by the same mercy that blends sorrow with Joy ln human life For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex ceeding and eternal we1ght 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 not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a build ing of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor. Iv. 17, 18.

One of the most beautiful and significant symbols employed by our Lord during his earthly ministry, to illustrate the office andnature of death, occurs in connection with the sickness of a little girl about twelve years of age, the daughter of a ruler of\ the Jews, named Jarias. The father, having faith in Christ, went out in search of him, and meet ing him not far away, urged the Master to accompany him home, as his child was dan gerously ill. They moved forward with quickened step, but before they reached the bed-side of the child, a messenger communi cated to the father the sad intelligence of his daughter's death. His words are Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But Jesus went on, and entered the home where the child lay. Imagine the scene. The body of the dead child. The members of the household gathered round it in the agony of their great sorrow. Tears flow cut of broken hearts, as flow they will and should. And in the midst of the group, standing up in the confidence of his great trust and com prehensive sympathy, is the Son of God. Weep not, says Jesus, she is not dead, but sleepeth. Was that mourning group comforted by this announcement? Nay; it is recorded that they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. The figure of death as a sleep was new to them - they did not see the force of his words But when,i'n a moment after, the Savior took the hand of the little girl, and said, by authority of Him whom he came to honor, Arise l and the young sleeper arose and stood up beforethem, the body re-animated by the living soul, we may well suppose that the sorrow of the household was turned into Joy, and that the force of the new metaphor was clearly apprehended: She is not dead, but sleep eth. This is the Christian idea of death.

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