"There is a blessed hope, More precious and more bright Than all the joyless mockery The world esteems delight. "There is a lovely star That lights the darkest gloom, And sheds a peaceful radiance o'er The prospects of the tomb." Not until the resurrection, "at the last trump," is immortality conferred upon the redeemed. Note that it is not something immortal putting on immortality; but this "mortal" puts on immortality. Mark this: there is no life after death, save by the resurrection. "If there be no resurrection of the dead,... then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15:13-18. This resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul, is not at death, but in the last day, when Christ shall come, and all His children that are in their graves shall hear His voice. Jesus says: "This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40. That is why the coming of Christ has been the "blessed hope" of all the ages. Man's State in Death Between death and the resurrection, the dead sleep. Jesus declares that death is a sleep. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John 11:11. It is the language of Inspiration throughout. The patriarch Job said: "Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more [the heavens will be rolled back as a scroll at Christ's coming], they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:10-12. This hope of the resurrection at the last day was no indistinct hope to the believer in God's promises. The patriarch continued: "If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Verses 14, 15. Job tells us of the place of his waiting for the Life-giver's call: "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13. It is thence that Christ will call His own when He comes. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29. Death is an unconscious sleep. It must of necessity be so; for death is the opposite of life. Therefore there is no consciousness of the passing of time to those who sleep in the grave. It is as if the eyes closed in death one instant, and the next instant, to the believer's consciousness, he awakens to hear the animating voice of Jesus calling him to glad immortality, and to see the angels catching up his loved ones to meet Jesus in the air. These scriptures, out of many, will suffice to show that man is not conscious in death: