The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

Jeremiah and Jesus wept over the sins and calamities of Jerusalem; tears of persecuted
innocence, tears of contrition and penitence for faults and crimes against the goodness and
majesty of heaven; tears of disappointment and neglect; tears of yearning for what cannot
now be ours; these and whatever others ever course the cheeks of mortals shall then be
dried forever.
"Death no longer exists. O the reign of death! Whom has it not touched! What circle has it
not invaded! What home has it never entered!
"There is no flock however watched and tended,
But one dead lamb is there!
There is no fireside howsoe'er defended,
But hath one vacant chair.
"Around our churches lie our graveyards, and all the highways are lined with cemeteries
and depositories of the dead. We can scarcely open our eyes without seeing the gloomy
hearse, the funeral procession, the undertaker's warehouse, the shop full of mourning
goods, or the stone cutter chiseling epitaphs. Every newspaper we pick up has its obituary
lists, and every week brings forth its bills of mortality. On the right hand, on the left hand,
before us, behind us, around us, beneath us, in all seasons, in all climes, everywhere, is
death. We ourselves are only waiting, not knowing what day or hour we shall fall beneath
its stroke. Physicians are sent forth by hundreds and thousands every year from our
colleges and universities, and myriads of hands are ever busy collecting and preparing
medicines for the sick; and yet there is no check, no restraint, to the career and reign of
death! But, at length, an end to his fell dominion comes. The time will be when death itself
shall die; not by the power of man, not by mortal skill or earthly medicines, but by the
great redemption of God. When the sunlight of the New Genesis dawns upon this stricken
world, the grand thanksgiving shall ring out over every zone, from the equator to the
poles, that 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' Never another dying-bed shall then be seen
again. Never another grave shall then be dug. For 'death shalt no longer be.'"
The poet who has derived his inspiration from pondering over and meditating upon the
glorious prophecies that portray these scenes of joy and blessedness that follow the
destruction of death, has grasped more clearly their significance than most theologians:
"Oh, scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refreshed with foretastes of the joy!
"Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance; and the land once lean,
Or fertile in its own disgrace,