of the saints" is said "to be precious in the sight of the Lord." Whatever is precious in his sight is a pleasure to him. The Creator's pleasure is the creature's good. Life and death, as Scripture terms, relate not to the body, but rather to the soul—not to the animal, but to the man. Hence the Scripture, in describing the everlasting state of the evil and good, speaks of the one as death and of the other as life. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 4.) "Hear, and your soul shall live!" (Isa. lv. 3.) The death of the saints is the extinction in them of all that is vile, sinful, and false: this extinction opens heaven in the soul, and, by giving birth to the angelic life, becomes the creature's everlasting good; therefore it is precious in the sight of the Lord. On the contrary, the death of the sinner, hardened and confirmed in evil, is the extinction in him of all that is pure, heavenly, and righteous. This state is one of living death—it is the creature's sorrow in which devils rejoice, angels weep, and the Lord has no pleasure. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die. O house of Israel?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee." (Psalm v. 4.) Death, to the good man, is as a life-gate that opens to him the bright dawning of an eternal day. Some of the ancients (according to Strabo) considered the present life as corresponding to the unborn or embryo state, and death as a new birth to a true life. And is it not just to suppose that when we go out of this world by death, we may
Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/204
