Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/155

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sometimes follows, the mind is awakened to many experiences before unknown. It is somewhat similar with death and the resurrection; death lays down the natural body to an eternal sleep, and the soul rises up into a condition of spiritual wakefulness. The natural body is for the uses of this world; the spiritual body is for those of the next: the one dies, the other is immortal. The natural is as a tabernacle in which the spiritual may be educated, and when the end is accomplished the means are no longer necessary. That which is natural can no more enter into the spiritual, than a stone can be thrust into the mind. When the natural body dies it is consigned to its kindred elements, and we, who remain on this side of the eternal world, call it death; but by this death the soul is liberated from the trammels of mortality, and they who dwell upon the other side behold it as the resurrection. It is thus that we pass from death unto life: "And they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." The Lord said, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."[1]

  1. Rev. xxii. 11, 12.