Robert Ingersoll, an atheist, paid tribute to his deceased brother, Ebon C. Ingersoll, in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 1879. He said,
Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for a return of health, whispered with his latest breath, “I am better now.” Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas and tears and fears that these dear words are true of all the countless dead.
Contrast Ingersoll’s baseless longing for hope with Peter’s words to Christians confronting persecution.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).
The word “blessed,” according to Thayer, means “praised.” God is particularly to be praised because of his great mercy that leads to men being born again (John 3:1-8). Christians are born into a hope that lives with promise because Christ is alive from the grave (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).
The Christians’ hope is an inheritance since they are born as children into a family (Romans 8:13-17). It is undefiled because no impurity will be allowed in heaven. It never fades, like a flower perpetually in beautiful bloom. It is “reserved,” like being guarded by a military guard, kept for those who faithfully pursue God’s will (1 John 2:25).
Christians are guarded by God as long as they remain true to the faith and keep it constant until the last time when the ultimate salvation in heaven will be revealed.
