Death has entered our ranks and called two of our own into the presence of the Lord. In my studies, I came across a sermon by Joseph Irons, whose wife had recently died. His text was 2 Corinthians 6:9, "As dying, and behold we live." This is an excerpt from that message he delivered on July 6, 1828. When our Lord was upon earth and going with the ruler of the synagogue to his house, there met them some who said, "Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master;" but He replied, "The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." A striking picture this, of the different views which worldlings and Christ and His flock have concerning the departure of a child of God. It is death to the worldling, in its most tremendous form; but to the Christian, death has been abolished; Christ has been its plague and destruction; He has left only the dark valley of a "shadow" of death for His children to pass through: the king of terrors (death) is transformed into a deliverer - a kind messenger, to call and fetch home the elect of grace to walk with Jesus in white, to sit at the right hand of God, to know no more sorrow, sickness, sin, or separation.
Contrast the removal of the unregenerate with the removal of one who knows and loves Christ. The removal of the one demands silent adoration of the sovereignty of God; the removal of the other, though it be dying in the world's esteem, calls forth a joyful exclamation, "Behold he lives, and lives for evermore, seated in the realms of bliss and light, where sorrow and death cannot reach, where trial and temptation are known no more." Well may we exclaim of such an one, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," rather than murmur, mourn, and repine. In my painful portion and sad lot, under existing circumstances, the anguish would have been seven-fold and insupportable, but for this blessed and precious "Behold she lives," which relates not only to the life of faith, of spiritual existence and growth here, but to the life beyond the grave, and fixes the attention of the mourning friends of the departed upon the throne, the mansion, the crown, the harp, the bliss and the glory.
"Behold she lives." This has been my consolation, the ground of my support, the relief from my distress, when the pale messenger has entered and taken away my other self.