THE Word of God teaches that through transgression the sentence of death was passed on man and paradise was forfeited. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans vi. 23). “Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return” (Gen. iii. 19). The graves and cemeteries all over the world verify the above statements.
What a consoling and precious truth it is that the Saviour has brought life and immortality to light through His resurrection from the dead. And He has robbed death of its sting and the grave of its victory, with the result that believers are given the hope of a glorious immortality. There is no peace to the wicked but the Christian has eternal peace at last.
The writer noticed on the tombstone of a Roman Catholic in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, where many of Christ’s witnesses lie at rest till the resurrection, the following inscription:—
“Sweet Jesus, Mercy!
Mary, Help!”
A cry from the grave. How pathetic and futile!
This implies that Catholics can be saved in eternity, and after doing penance in so-called purgatory enter glory. The help of the Virgin Mary is sought to bring this about. How contrary all this is to the teaching of God’s Word! What a comfortless and poor religion that has nothing better to offer than purgatory to a sinner even should he be a faithful Catholic when he leaves this world!
Now here is a remarkable contrast. On the gravestone of Professor James Miller, at one time Professor of Surgery in Edinburgh University, and evidently a firm believer in Christ as his Saviour, there is to be seen the words—
“He took me from a fearful pit,
And from the miry clay,
And on a rock He set my feet,
Establishing my way.”
He being dead yet speaketh and gives his testimony to the saving power of the Grace of God as the Psalmist did when he wrote these words in Psalm xl, verse 2.
How consoling and satisfying the Gospel doctrine is that believers at death do immediately enter into Glory and are made perfect in holiness. “To-day,” said the Saviour to the dying thief, “Thou shalt be with me in paradise.” It is in this world that sinners are saved, not in eternity.
—D. M. MacD.