When we gaze upon the lifeless corpse'

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From the cradle to the coffin, affliction and sorrow are
the appointed lot of man. He comes into the world with 
a wailing cry, and he often leaves it with an agonizing 
groan! Rightly is this earth called "a valley of tears," for 
it is wet with them in infancy, youth, manhood, and old 
age. In every land, in every climate, scenes of misery 
and wretchedness everywhere meet the eye, besides 
those deeper grief's and heart-rending sorrows which lie 
concealed from all observation. So that we may well say 
of the life of man that, like Ezekiel's scroll, it is "written 
with lamentations, and mourning and woe." 

But this is not all. The scene does not end here! 

We see up to death, but we do not see beyond death. 

To see a man die without Christ is like standing 
at a distance, and seeing a man fall from a lofty 
cliff—we see him fall, but we do not see the crash 
on the rocks below. 

So we see an unsaved man die, but when we gaze 
upon the lifeless corpse, we do not see how his soul 
falls with a mighty crash upon the rock of God's eternal 
justice! When his temporal trials come to a close, his 
eternal sorrows only begin! After weeks or months of 
sickness and pain, the pale, cold face may lie in calm 
repose under the coffin lid; when the soul is only just 
entering upon an eternity of woe! 

But is it all thus dark and gloomy both in life and death? 
Is heaven always hung with a canopy of black? Are there 
no beams of light, no rays of gladness, that shine through 
these dark clouds of affliction, misery, and woe that are 
spread over the human race?

Yes! there is one point in this dark scene out of which
beams of light and rays of glory shine! "God did not 
appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation 
through our Lord Jesus Christ."  1 Thessalonians 5:9

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