The resurrection because the life. He is the life, in that by him our souls live before God, and draw from the everlasting fulness of divine grace, and are changed into the image of our heavenly Father. He is the life that came into the world by one gate, almost at the very moment when death entered it by another. When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, Death entered in state and enthroned himself in the world, with his royal train of terrors and miseries; but Life also entered in the meek and quiet guise of the word concerning Christ; and has ever found some footing for itself from that time to the present.
Your brother is dead, you say, and buried. "Look upon me," says Christ, "and let your tears be dried; for I am the life. If your brother had life, that life is in me, my life is the pledge of his. Because I live, he shall live also. By faith perceive your brother clothed with the boundless wealth of the life that is in me. The life of your brother can only be reached through me."
"True, dear Lord, thou art the life; and he whom we mourn, as he believed on thee, must be in the realms of life and bask in the smiles of the Blessed. But his body anchored him among us; and we now have him not. All of him that was palpable and visible, all that the sun shone upon and the wind breathed upon, our breathing, speaking, hearing brother, our earthly companion, is a prey to death."
"I am the resurrection as well as the life. I am your companion; it is the privilege of believers to be present with me; your brother shall rise again. The incorruptible body of your Saviour is a pledge of the redemption of the believer's body from corruption. He that believeth on me is baptized unto the redemption of the body as well as of the soul. Faith brings to me a lost and corrupt soul; it brings me also a dead and corrupt body, and receives in exchange an imperishable, glorious body."
All that we have then to do with death, is to march through his dominions after the captain of our salvation, and issue, from the portal beyond, in body, soul, and spirit like him who is at the right hand of the majesty on high.
A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.
George H. Bowen (30 April 1816 at Middlebury, Vermont – 5 February 1888 at Bombay, India) was an American missionary, newspaper man, linguist, and translator in India. He was known as "The White Saint of India" for his resemblance in manner and dress to the Hindu holy men.
The resurrection because the life. He is the life, in that by him our souls live before God, and draw from the everlasting fulness of divine grace, and are changed into the image of our heavenly Father. He is the life that came into the world by one gate, almost at the very moment when death entered it by another. When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, Death entered in state and enthroned himself in the world, with his royal train of terrors and miseries; but Life also entered in the meek and quiet guise of the word concerning Christ; and has ever found some footing for itself from that time to the present.
Your brother is dead, you say, and buried. "Look upon me," says Christ, "and let your tears be dried; for I am the life. If your brother had life, that life is in me, my life is the pledge of his. Because I live, he shall live also. By faith perceive your brother clothed with the boundless wealth of the life that is in me. The life of your brother can only be reached through me."
"True, dear Lord, thou art the life; and he whom we mourn, as he believed on thee, must be in the realms of life and bask in the smiles of the Blessed. But his body anchored him among us; and we now have him not. All of him that was palpable and visible, all that the sun shone upon and the wind breathed upon, our breathing, speaking, hearing brother, our earthly companion, is a prey to death."
"I am the resurrection as well as the life. I am your companion; it is the privilege of believers to be present with me; your brother shall rise again. The incorruptible body of your Saviour is a pledge of the redemption of the believer's body from corruption. He that believeth on me is baptized unto the redemption of the body as well as of the soul. Faith brings to me a lost and corrupt soul; it brings me also a dead and corrupt body, and receives in exchange an imperishable, glorious body."
All that we have then to do with death, is to march through his dominions after the captain of our salvation, and issue, from the portal beyond, in body, soul, and spirit like him who is at the right hand of the majesty on high.