Fallen Asleep

Writing concerning the brethren who had seen the Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection and of whom “above five

hundred” were present at one time, Paul said, at the date when he was writing this Epistle, “the greater part” remained

alive, “but,” he added, “some are fallen asleep.”

We might have thought that God, in great mercy, would have preserved the lives of those 500 brethren to an extreme

old age, that, in every part of the globe, there might be extant, as long as possible, someone who would be able to say, “I

beheld the Son of God when He was upon the earth. I heard Him preach. I saw Him die on the Cross and then I looked

upon Him again after He had risen from the grave.” Every one of these witnesses would have been worth his weight in

gold to the Christian religion! Wherever such a man lived, he would have been, under the blessing of God, the means of

convincing many people of the truth of our glorious faith! Yet, dear Friends, it does not appear that these invaluable

brethren were spared the shafts of death. These witnesses of Christ’s Resurrection died as other men did. They had no

immunity from death and no extreme old age was granted to them, for the Apostle, writing not so very long after the

event, said, “Some are fallen asleep.”