goes to Purgatory or to Paradise; or with Spiritualism, that it

would there be any singing of praises after he had cease to "have

goes elsewhere.

any being". Why? Because "princes" and "the son of man" are

The prayer in I Thess. 5:23 is that these three (body, soul, and

helpless (Psalm 146:3,4). They return to their earth; and when

spirit) may be found and "preserved ENTIRE...at the coming of

they die, their "thoughts perish": and they "know not anything".

our Lord Jesus Christ" (R.V.): i.e. preserved alive as a "living

This is what God says about death. He explains it to us

soul" till (or "at") that coming; and not to die and be separated

Himself. We need not therefore ask any man what it is. And if

before it. Hence the importance of Resurrection as the great

we did, his answer would be valueless, inasmuch as it is

doctrine peculiar to Christianity; and known only by revelation.

absolutely impossible for him to know anything of death, i.e. the

All man's religions end at death, and his only hope is "after

death-state, as we have no noun in English to express the act of

death". Christianity goes beyond this, and gives a hope after the

dying (as German has in the word "sterbend"). This is

grave. Scripture shuts us up to the blessed hope of being reunited

unfortunate, and has been the cause of much error and confusion.

in resurrection. This is why the death of believers is so often

We find the answer is just as clear and decisive in Psalm

called "sleep"; and dying is called "falling asleep"; because of

the assured hope of awaking in resurrection. It is not called "the

sleep of the body" as many express it; or "the sleep of the soul".

"Thou takest away their breath (Heb. spirit), they die,

Scripture knows nothing of either expression. Its language is,

And return to their dust:

"David fell on sleep" (Acts 13:36), not David's body or David's

Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created:

soul. "Stephen...fell asleep" (Acts 7:60). "Lazarus sleepeth"

And thou renewest the face of the earth".

(John 11:11), which is explained, when the Lord afterward

speaks "plainly", as meaning "Lazarus is dead" (v. 14).

With this agrees Ecc. 12:7, in which we have a categorical

Now, when the Holy Spirit uses one thing to describe or

statement as to what takes place at death:

explain another, He does not choose the opposite word or

expression. If He speaks of night, He does not use the word light.

"Then shall the dust RE-turn to the earth as it was:

If He speaks of daylight, He does not use the word night. He

And the spirit shall RE-turn unto God who gave it".

does not put "sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet" (Isa. 5:20).

He uses adultery to illustrate Idolatry; He does not use virtue.

The "dust" was, and will again be "dust": but nothing is said

And so, if He uses the word "sleep" of death, it is because sleep

in Scripture as to the spirit apart from the body, either before

illustrates to us what the condition of death is like. If Tradition

their union, which made man "a living soul", or after that union

be the truth, He ought to have used the word awake, or

is broken, when man becomes what Scripture calls "a dead

wakefulness. But the Lord first uses a Figure, and says "Lazarus

sleepeth"; and afterwards, when he speaks "plainly" He says

Where Scripture is silent, we may well be silent too: and,

"Lazarus is dead". Why? Because sleep expresses and describes

therefore, as to the spirit and its possibilities between dying and

the condition of the "unclothed" state. In normal sleep, there is

resurrection we have not said, and do not say, anything.

no consciousness. For the Lord, therefore, to have used this word

Scripture says it will "return to GOD". We do not go beyond

"sleep" to represent the very opposite condition of conscious

this; nor dare we contradict it by saying, with Tradition, that it

wakefulness, would have been indeed to mislead us. But all His