56.5 SAFETS TN THE GRAVE, CDISC.-XS. heavenly Father. " Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee," said holyJob. The command of God creates life, and gives power to the dead, to arise and speak. " I come, O Lord, I come." When Jesus the Son of God, as with the trumpet of an archangel, shall pronounce the word Which he spaké to LazarusS " Arise, and corne forth ;" John xi. 43. dust and rottenness shall hear the call from heaven, and the clods of corruption all round the earth shall arise into the form of man : The saints shall appear . at once and answer to that divine call, arrayed in a glory like that of angels ; an illustrious host of martyrs and confessors for the truth ; an army of heroes and valiant sufferers for the name and cause of God and his Son ; an innumerable multitude of faithful servants who have finished their work, and lay down at rest. How shall Adam, the father, of our race, together with the holy men of his day, be surprized, when they shall awake out of their long sleep of five thousand years ? now shall all the saints of the intermediate ages break from the beds of darkness with intense delight? And those who lay down but yesterday in the dust shall start úp at once with their early ancestors, and answer to the call of Jesus from one end of time to'the other, and from all the ends of the earth. They shall arise together to " meet the Lord in the air, that they may be ever with the Lord ;" 1 7ltess. iv: 17. Neverwas any voice obeyed with more readiness and joy than the voice or trumpet of the great archangel, summoning all the children of God to awake from their long slumbers, and to leave their dusty beds behind them, with all the seeds of sin 'and sorrow, which are buried and lost there for ever. Never did any army on earth marchwith more speed and pleasure, at the sound of the trumpet, to attend their ge, neral to a new triumph, than this glorious assembly shall 'arise to meet their returning Lord, when this lasttrum- pet sounds,' and when he shall come the second time in the full glories of his person and his offices, as Lord and Judge of the world, to bring his faithful followers into complete salvation. Refexion. " Whensoever, O my .soul, thou feelest Any reluctance to obey the summons of death, encourage thy faith, and scatter thy fears, by, waiting for the call of God to à blessed resurrection, Jesus himself lay down 5
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