We will here introduce an example to make our argument so far plain.
Suppose you were now in ignorance respecting the doctrine of life and
immortality through a resurrection. You know you must die, and
sincerely think that death will terminate your existence forever. You
see your children one after another laid upon their dying bed, and
with distraction shake the farewell hand of eternal separation, and
with the most solemn melancholy and wo, look forward to the period
when you must follow them down to the chambers of eternal silence, and
cease to be.

In this moment of dread solemnity and gloom, suppose some kind angel
should appear at the bed-side of your expiring child, and kindly
inquire, why are you troubled? You answer, because my children have
fallen!--the last of my infant train lies panting for breath, and the
dreadful hour has come when all those silken affections, that build
our hearts love, must be rent assunder, and in the awful bosom of
death, be extinguished forever!--Suppose your guardian angel smiling
over the ruins of death, should point you far beyond these changing
scenes, and with rapture exclaim, you shall meet this darling child
again and commingle with your little fallen flock in glory! You and
they and all mankind shall be born from the dead into the kingdom of
God, and be new creatures free from sin and pain, and "be the children
of God being the children of the resurrection." Jesus your Lord "was
the first born from the dead," and you shall pass from death to life
and live forever.

Now suppose you positively believed his words; could you not say in
the scripture form of the expression that through faith you was
already "passed from death to life?"--that you was born of faith, and
by faith was in the kingdom of God? You certainly could, and it would