To many it is chilling, repulsive, forbidding.
But the immortality of the soul, and the reward of the saints at death,—this is declared to be a great joy, the fruition of the “blessed hope. Titus 2:13.”
But stop, friends, a few moments. Be not too hasty.
Wait long enough to try the justice of this objection in the balances of reason.
You say that the doctrine is full of gloom, and that the departed saints
would experience a bitter disappointment in being consigned to the grave for long ages, instead of being received into glory at death.
You think the idea full of gloom to the living, and dreadful to the dead.
But you forget that, if the doctrine be true, there is no chill, no gloom, no darkness, no disappointment, no lapse of time, no waiting through long ages, to the dead. The interval between their decease and their resurrection will be to them no time at all.
The twinkling of an eye, in which the righteous will be changed to immortality, will be as long to them as the whole period during which righteous Abel has slept in death will be to him. And to him, so far as his own knowledge of the case is concerned, it will be precisely as if he entered heaven at the very moment he was slain." J.N. Andrews
