"Life" does not mean here mere existence; for both will exist, and exist forever, the "evil" and the "good." But "life" means happiness, joy, rapture, bliss; in fact, it is a term so comprehensive that it needs no small time to express all that it means. As for the other, theirs shall be a resurrection to damnation; their bodies and souls will come under the condemnation of God,--to use our Savior's word, "shall be damned." We are shocked at the very sound of the word. We may well be so; we should be ten thousand-fold more shocked, if we really knew what the word fully means. It is vain for us to describe it, and we are loath to describe it. It were better for such that they had never been born, never awakened. From so terrible a portion, from Thy wrath and from evil damnation, good Lord, deliver us! We have thus seen, first, the certainty of resurrection, and secondly, the results. It remains, in conclusion, to draw one or two lessons from the text.
The first is a lesson of consolation. We are frequently called upon to stand beside opened graves; some of you have stood there lately. What comfort for our wounded spirits is such meditation: to never mourn with regard to the souls of the righteous because they are forever with the Lord. The only mourning that we permit among Christians concerns the body, and here God's Word offers us the assurance: Weep not as though you had cast your treasure into the sea, where you will never find it again. You have only laid it by in a casket, whence you shall receive it again brighter and more beautiful than before. Thou shalt look again with thine own eyes into those eyes which have spoken love to thee so often. Thy child shall see thee again. That departed friend and father and mother, having loved his Lord as thou dost, shall once rejoice with thee in the land where they die no more. It is but a short parting; it will be an eternal meeting. Forever with the Lord, we shall also be forever with each other. "Let us comfort one another," says the apostle, "with these words."
The other lesson is that of self-examination. If we are to rise, some to rewards and some to punishments, what--let each conscience ask--what shall be my position? Where shall I stand? That depends upon what your life and your life's principles have been. What has it been? To amass wealth? To procure honor? To provide for your family? If so, it has been deficient. Life's object and duty is to prepare for life, for the resurrection unto life. And to prepare for that, you must undergo a resurrection right now. There is as great a difference between men now as there will be hereafter. At present we have all living bodies, but in those living bodies, what is the state of the soul? There are in some living bodies living souls. There are in other living bodies souls that are dead. And that dead soul must be resurrected to life, or salvation is out of question; and that resurrection must take place _now_; it is too late hereafter. It takes place when you now give heed to that same divine voice that shall start the dead into life, the voice of Christ Jesus in His Gospel and Church. "He that believeth on Him hath life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."