WHAT OF THE DEAD?

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1916, Page 2

WHAT OF THE DEAD?

COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED. BISHOP AVERILL'S REMARKABLE SERMON. A sermon on a subject to which many minds have been turned of late—the present condition of the dead—was delivered by Dr. Averill, Anglican Bishop o{ Auckland, in St. Mary's Cathedral, Auckland, last week. Many people, said the Bishop, had believed that all upon the other side of the grave waswrappcd in mystery, and that to enquire as to the state of the departed was wrong and useless. The war had changed all that. Thousands of souls, most of whom had by no means attained the perfection which God intended for them had passed over, and .were passing. (People had now realised the neglected truth that the aim of the Creator was not to reward or punish man hereafter, hut to bring him to perfection in Paradise. Through the neglect of truth, the false teaching of spiritualism and theosophy had arisen to answer the deepest question of the human heart. The Bible and the..Church, howevpr, had an aswer to that question; The Cross was nothing without its sequel. "Qould we bear all the loss and suffering of this war," asked the Bishop, "without becoming hopelessly callous, if we did not have the hope.of a new and more glorious life for the individual wid for the world VHim DEAD NOT ASLEEP. In the parable of Dives and Lazarus, continued the Bishop, the two men were shown in the next world, not as asleep, annihilated, unconscious, or absorbed into the soul of the universe, not changl ed into souls or. .devils, but themselves, conscious of their earth life, and with signs of theii souls' awakening, ©ives suffered, but with the purifying pain of. a new realisation of himself. In the Transfiguration, Moses and Elias, then dead many years, were alive, conscious, and greatly interested' in the world. Christ's promise to the dying,thief—-"To-day shalt thou be. with Me in Paradise"—was a promise of progress, for the poor thief was not at.all a.perfect man. Forgiveness did not exclude .expiation, and man'* "growing pains'" in the, new world were not the pains, of vindictive punishment.' , Christ, after His diath, "went and preached to the spirits \. in. prison." He Himself was "put to deatli in the flesh, I;ut quickened in the spirit," and Fj would nqt have .preached'to the departed souls unless they were, capable of response and of being in, some, way elevated and improved. Christ, after His. resurreet'on, was "1 myself." The nature of His resurrection ■, body was,of minor importance, but it was evident that death had not changed His character. The purpose of Clod,,was, the,,perfecting, of man "until the 'day.,of Jesus Christ"—the , great, resurrection, day. Heaven was not stagnation, but service. Lives that had been useful on would be more useful hereafter, ..and Christ,: the great, comrade, would. tr»in them for" that service, .

■■■''!' *" PRAYERS JUSTIFIED. "Is it right to think that they card for us,, and pray,,for us? Absolutely right," said Dr. Averill. ''Are we right in loving them, and praying for them J Absolutely right, for they are not yet perfect. It would be inhuman and unchristian not to think of them as still part of God's family, let us thank God for the blessed hope of the Paradise life, it means everything to many a poor soul to-day, and we never know when we shall need the same comfort. He who has 'begun a good work' in the boys at the front —in the schoolroom, in the office, in the camp, in the- trench, aye, in, the stress of battle (for many have found Him there)— will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."