Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1913 — Know Each Other [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Know Each Other

By REV. JAMES M. GRAY. D D„ Daa As Moody BMe ImAbMi, Chicago ; - a

TEXT—For what is our hope, or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, st His coming? I Theas. 3:19.

What more interesting and tender question do. Christians ever put one to another than this Shall we know each other in the life to come? The Bible nowhere definitely answers that question, but the inferences are many of an affirmative kind. .For example, there Is the universality of the belief or hope of . such recognition.

which is expressed on every tombstone and heard in the hymnody of the church in all the centuries. A belief of a few men in a few places is not a sufficient ground of evidence, but a belief of all men in all places is very different- God would seem to be the author of a belief like this, and, if so, there must-be a ground for it. In the second place, the reasonableness of the idea strengthens the conviction of its truth. For example, the resurrection of which the Bible speaks is one of individuals, but individuals are capable of Identifying themselves only as they identify others with whom they were associated. If,"ln other words, we shall know ourselves In the resurrection, then we must know others who have helped to make us what we are. But the ob-i ject of the resurrection is equally convincing, since it is to bring reward to the righteous and punishment to the wicked. These rewards and punishments are based upon the deeds done in the body, but to remember the deeds, we must remember those for or against whom the deeds were done. What the Bible Says. In the third place, while the testimony of the Bible in this respect is not definitely clear, it is inferentially so. Certainly Christ’s words to Martha with reference to the resurrection of her brother Lazarus, imply that in the resurrection they would be known one to another. Read the story in the eleventh of John to prove this. Furthermore, we have the teaching of Jesus in the parable of the unjust steward, recorded in Luke 13, where he says: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” It M difficult to interpret this in any other way than that in the life to come those saints of whom we have made friends here by our treatment of them will know and welcome us into the joys beyond. And Paul’s words in the text are to the same purport.

Possible Objections. It is no objection to this that Jesus teaches in another place, (Matthew. 22:30) that in the resurrection there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, for such relationship is not necessary to Identity nor the spiritual joy of it Some would say that in the life to come many friends would be missed who have not died in the faith of Christ, and that from such a point of view recognition and reunion would make for sorrow instead of joy. But as Bishop Mant says: "Fear not, the prospect of the realms of love Shall mar thy bliss, or thence sad Ughte. arise To blunt thy sense of heaven’s ecstasies: There. If thy heart with warm devotion glow. Meet for thy place, ’twill solace thee to know No friend of thine, mid those keen agonies In that dark prison-house of torment Iles: For none Is there but Is of God the foe. And alien thus from thee. The ties of blood. And earth’s most sacred bonds, are but a twine Of grossamer, compared with what Is owed To Him, the Lord of all’ On Him recline: He shall thy heart of every care unload. He bld thy day with cloudless luster shine." The practical effect of such a hope as thia is an extended one. In th* first place, it brings us strongly under the power of heavenly realities. In the second place, it Induces us to form only holy friendships that can be tinned through eternity. In the third place, it affords the most precious consolation to the bereaved. "As year by year we lose Friends out of sight to know How grows In Paradise our store!" Let the fact be emphasized, in closing, that we are talking about Christians and not the unbelieving people of the world. Trte Christians are those who have received Jesus Christ as their Saviour by faith, and who. regenerated by his holy spirit, are following him as Lord and master.- It is these who have this hope before them, and only these. Let us then ask ourselves with candor, as In the sight of God, whether we belong te this blessed company.