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But I would not have you"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who

are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."

1Th_4:13 It is a magnificent and expressive image this by which Christianity presentsto the bereaved mind the departure of brethren in Christ. They are not dead,they are asleep. The question instantly arises-What is it which, in theexperience of the believer, has so materially changed the aspect of death?What is it that invests this solemn, this fearful crisis of our being with sosoftened and mitigated a character? What is it that throws around the pillowof the expiring saint an air of repose so sacred, so peaceful, and serene?The ATONEMENT of the Son of God alone supplies the answer. Theinfluence of His death, and the power of His resurrection, have changed, inthe case of all believers in Christ, the entire character and aspect of death.The Savior, by dying, conquered death. Plucking his pale crown from hisbrow, hurling him from his towering throne, snapping in twain his proudscepter, and with His own blood washing away the venom of his dart. Lo!Death is no more the "king of terrors" to those who believe. Entering withinhis gloomy palace-there slumbering awhile-then returning victorious the"Resurrection and the Life"-henceforward to the Christian to depart is not todie, but-to sleep!

And what is that sleep? No unconsciousness of the soul is it! Nointermediate state of dreamy insensibility-of cold, silent torpidity of spirit,waiting the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God to dissolve itsslumber. The believer sleeps; but it is the sleep of the body, and not of thesoul. "Absent from the body," in the full, unclouded, unimpairedconsciousness, intelligence, and joyousness of the spirit, he is "present withthe Lord." Death to him is but a change of place; not of state. As the naturalsleep of the body is not the extinction, nor even the momentary suspension,of the soul''s intellectual faculties-for who has not experienced that some ofthe profoundest thoughts and most sublime soarings of the imaginationhave been those which have played around the pillow of midnight slumber,like gleams of summer lightning upon the lurid night?-so, in like manner,when death has sealed in profound unconsciousness the material senses,the immaterial and the immortal is expatiating amid the glories and thewonders of the spiritual world, as it springs from star to star and from sun tosun-and thus sleep becomes the gentle and expressive emblem of theChristian''s death. They "sleep in Jesus," who is the "Resurrection and theLife;" how, then, can it be possible that the soul is unconscious, since it is inunion-personal, changeless union-with Him who, in His office as Mediator,has said, "Because I live, you shall live also"?

The death-sleep of the believer is a season of complete bodily and mental

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repose. How precious is this prospect to the child of God! lighting up eventhe grim visage of the last foe with a smile of pleasantness. We naturallyattach the idea of rest to sleep. What a rest remains even in the grave forthe people of God! "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there theweary be at rest." Who so wearied as the believer in Jesus? With him the

world is a toilsome desert-life a scene of conflict and of trial-the travel toheaven a pilgrimage arduous, self-denying, and lonely. We have to contendwith principalities and powers, to conflict with foes visible and invisible, tosubdue indwelling sin, and repel outward temptation. Then there are the"many afflictions" which belong to the "righteous," the trials peculiar andsore with which the Lord in love tries His people. In the midst of all this, andsuperadded as an element of weariness yet more potent, there is often thedrooping of faith, the chill of love, the obscured evidences, the becloudedhope, the withdrawment of the Divine presence, the suspension of thesensible comforts and consolations of the Holy Spirit; all conspiring to makethis a weary land. Thus the soul of the believer is frequently cast downwithin him because of the way. But "the sleep of a laboring man is sweet;"and such is the sleep in Jesus of the believer, the Christian laborer. In viewof this truth, how chastened and cheered should be our sorrow when visitingthe graves of the holy dead. Not a wavelet disturbs their calm repose. Nopainful sufferings, no convulsive throes, no affrighting dreams; no mentalwanderings, no confused sounds, no fantastic fancies disturb their peacefulslumber. The world is rushing on, as before, in turmoil, sin, and conflict-thewar-cry, the martial music, the sigh of sorrow, and the wail of agony areheard-but not a spent echo mars their placid rest. The body reposes in thetomb, the soul in the Paradise of God, and over their graves is heard avoice, saying, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth;yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works dofollow them."