^ M. Maeterlinck, RuyshroecTc and the Mystics, 84. 2 H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John, 187.
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2. The state of good men who died before the coming of Christ appears to be always spoken of in the Old Testament as one of true, but very imperfect, blessedness; a period, not indeed of unconsciousness, but of dim expectation. It was scarcely looked forward to with joy by those who trusted confidently in the power and love of God. At the best they would be but " prisoners of hope " still, waiting for their appointed change — for the morning which, after an unknown length of night, would usher in the day of restoration. But when Christ came, when He had accomplished His work, when the blood was shed which atoned for all repented guilt, when His body had hallowed the grave, when His Spirit had burst the bars of the pit and preached to the spirits in Hades, a mighty change was effected — the prison became a palace. The future restoration, though not as yet effected, was anticipated ; and while all the great spirits of old, who in darkness and trembling had passed into the shadow of death, were filled with a new joy, henceforth all who departed this life united to Jesus entered at once into a state of conscious blessedness, knowing, like St. Paul, that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord — present with Him in no dim visionary region, but present in paradise. "To this end Christ died, and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." Since His resur- rection, the dead are placed under Christ's lordship just as much as the living ; therefore " from henceforth," after Christ's resurrec- tion, those who die in the Lord are blessed, inasmuch as He will be the Lord of their destiny, and will be their security that it shall be one of " glory, and honour and immortality."
^ Union with Christ finds its consummation in the heavenly destiny which it opens up before the believer. However we may speculate on the mysterious problems of the future, in this respect, at least, the Christian can feel no misgiving. By death Jesus escaped from the power of death and can die no more. So those who are one with Him participate in His deathless life. They cannot be less immortal than He is. His existence and theirs are twined together at the roots. Their life is hid with Him in God, but the secret forces which are withdrawn from the gaze of men will be revealed when they enter into possession of their glorious inheritance. It is with no tawdry splendours that we would imagine it bedecked. But all for which the heart most hungers, all to which the pure spirit most aspires, the satisfaction of love's
254 THE DEAD IN CHRIST
longing, the attainment of the loftiest ideals — these are the saints inheritance awaiting them in the realm of light.^
If The Book of Revelation casts the gleam of final victory in the future over many troubled scenes, always becoming clearer till all things are made new, and the material and spiritual, body and soul, earth and heaven, are reconciled. There is a divorce of these now, and death is the expression of it. The resurrection is the expression and consummation of reconcilement. God, who is the Creator of the material and spiritual — the Former of bodies. Father of spirits — has united them to each other in Him, and both to Himself in close eternal union. Is not this credible, probable, true, because godlike and grand, — an end to the universe worthy of our highest thinking and of its Author ? This reconcilement of the material and spiritual in Christ is not merely a prophecy and pledge of the end but the means of it. " I am the Eesurrection and the Life." All flows from this as streams from a fountain, light from a sun, life from God, for He is constituted the Head of the regenerated universe.^
^ Dr. Young of Kelly (the famous chemist who was first to discover parafi&n oil in shale) died on 13th May, 1883. On the Simday following his funeral. Dr. Eobertson preached at the evening service in Skelmorlie United Presbyterian Church, Dr. Goold of Edinburgh preaching in the forenoon. Mr. Boyd, the minister of the church, writes :
" In the course of his sermon Dr. Goold insisted strongly that the doctrine of immortality is taught in the Old Testament, and quoted a number of passages in support of his position. Dr. Robertson had arranged to preach in the evening from the text, ' Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel,' and the psalms, hymns, and anthem had been chosen with this text in view. But after the forenoon service he came to me in anxiety and said, *I must change my subject. If I preach the sermon I intended. Dr. Goold will vhink I am controverting his teaching.' All afternoon he was restless, evidently thinking over other sermons, but unable to fix on one. When the hour of evening service had come, he told me that he was still undecided. I replied, ' Keep to your subject ; the choir cannot now change the hymns.' He consented to do so. It was evident that he had taken the position that immortality was not clearly taught in the Old Testament. With great tact he succeeded in avoiding the appearance of contradiction between him and the morning preacher, by saying in well-chosen words, which I cannot reproduce, some-