Part 2 (2/2)
Angel brother! how canst thou?
ANGEL. I will tell thee all my story; I was once as thou art now.
CHILD. When some sorrow did befall me, Or I felt some strange alarms, Then my mother's voice would call me, To the shelter of her arms.
Now what bids my heart rejoice, Clasped in arms I cannot see?
Hark, I hear a soothing voice Sweetly whispering, Come to me.
ANGEL. Yes, it calls thee from on high; Come to G.o.d's most holy mountain; Thou hast drunk the stream of life;-- I will lead thee to the fountain.”
Some dread the thought of being out of the body and finding themselves spirits. This is wholly without reason. The soul will not suffer from losing this body of sin and death; it will have as perfect a consciousness, it will know where it is, and what is pa.s.sing before it, as seems to be the case in a vivid dream when the bodily senses are locked in slumber.
As to the natural repugnance which we have to the thoughts of burial and the grave, it is probable that the soul of a redeemed spirit thinks and cares as little concerning these things, so far as painful sensations are concerned, as we do about our garments when we are falling asleep.
The vesture which we formerly wore gives us no solicitude. It is wonderful to hear the sick, long before they die, give directions, or express desires, respecting their burial. So far from thinking of the grave as a melancholy place, no doubt the departed spirit will often think of it in the separate state with pleasure, as the place where it is hereafter to receive a form like Christ's; and the thought of resurrection adds greatly to the joys of heaven.
There is something still which affects the minds of many Christians with fear as they think of dying; and that is, their appearing before G.o.d.
They cannot imagine the possibility of seeing him without distraction; his infinite majesty, and their own sense of unworthiness, make them afraid.
But who is G.o.d? Is he the Christian's enemy? Will he sit like a king on his throne, and see his subject come trembling into his presence? Is this the G.o.d who loved him? Is this the Saviour that died for him? Is this the Holy Spirit who awakened, converted, sanctified, comforted him, and promised to present him faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy? G.o.d will not have done so much to bring him to heaven, and, when he comes there, make his appearance before his throne a matter of fear and uncertainty. He who fell on the neck of the returning prodigal and kissed him, will not keep him at a distance when, with the best robe, and the ring, and the shoes, he comes into his father's house. Our first apprehensions of G.o.d will be happy beyond our present comprehension. What an image have we, in these words, of a man helping a child, by the hand, through a dangerous or dark way: ”For I the Lord thy G.o.d will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” If ”I will be with thee,” is the reason, which he himself a.s.signs why we should not be afraid, why should we fear to come into his presence?
As to a consciousness of guilt, there is no doubt that he who falls asleep in Jesus, with reliance on his blood and righteousness, will immediately, at death, receive such a consciousness of being purified from all taint of sin, as now is beyond our conception. In the language of Scripture, we shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. For the sake of Christ, in whom we trust, we shall be received and treated as though we had never sinned; we shall say, in the full a.s.surance of pardon, righteousness, and peace with G.o.d, without waiting for the question to be asked in our behalf, ”Who is he that condemneth?” ”It is Christ that died.”
And if this be so, as it surely is, why may not Christians in this world before they die, nay, from the first hour of justification by faith in Christ, triumph thus in him? Why should their remaining sinfulness, their poor, frail, erring nature, which they must carry with them to the grave, prevent them from having the same joy in G.o.d through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement? Every true believer in Jesus Christ is warranted in having the same consciousness of pardon and peace with G.o.d, now, as after death; the justifying righteousness of Christ is as powerful now as it will be then. Some tell us, ”Live a sinless life, and you may have this perfect peace.” That is self-righteousness. It will not be a sinless life which, in the moment after death, will make us to be openly acknowledged and acquitted; it will be the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is by faith; and he who has faith in that righteousness may, living as well as dying, here as well as in heaven, say, 'There is, therefore, _now_ no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.'
There are several things which may reconcile us to the thought of dying:
All the people of G.o.d since the creation, with two exceptions, have died. Of the two who were excepted, neither of them was his only begotten Son. Those whom G.o.d has loved peculiarly have not been exempted from the stroke of death. Shall we ask exemption from that which, all the good and great have suffered? Let me die the death of the righteous.
If he must find the grave, there will I be buried. We would not go to heaven but in the way which prophets, apostles, martyrs trod. The footsteps of the flock lead through the valley; we will seek no other, no easier, way.
Surely we should be willing to follow our great Forerunner. He tasted death for every man; and he could enter into his triumph only by dying.
We should be more than resigned to follow our blessed Lord into the tomb. Christ conquered death by dying; we shall be more than conquerors in the same way. If we suffer great pain, we cannot suffer more than Christ suffered on our account. Sufferings borne in the spirit of Christ are counted as sufferings borne for Christ. ”If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” ”If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Death is a part of the penalty of sin. We should, therefore, submit to it, giving up our bodies to be destroyed, in fulfilment of that sentence which we have so justly incurred--”and unto dust shalt thou return.” He who hates sin, and condemns himself for it, and is willing to have fellows.h.i.+p with Christ in his sufferings for it, as it is most graciously represented that we may, will bear the execution of G.o.d's righteous sentence with a willing mind.
Death is the perfecting of our redemption. It is the last act of redeeming grace. When the Saviour, who says, ”I have the keys of--death,” (i.e., no one can die but at the time and manner prescribed by me,) takes us out of the world, it is to finish the work of our personal salvation. All the circ.u.mstances attending it will be as deliberately appointed, and as carefully watched and directed, as the first great act of grace towards us in our regeneration. He, too, who has provided such pastures and streams for us here, in removing us to living pastures and to living streams, will, of course, see that we go safely through the valley which must be pa.s.sed to reach them. It will not be a new thing to Christ to see us die. He has watched the dying beds of millions of his friends, he has had great experience as a Shepherd in bringing them through the valley.
See that chamber in yonder mansion, where all the comforts, and some of the luxuries, of life, have contributed to prepare for some mysterious event. The garden of Eden failed to possess such joys as are there in antic.i.p.ation, and are soon to be made perfect. Every thing seems waiting, with silent but thrilling interest, for the arrival of an unknown occupant. And there is raiment of needle-work, and of fine twined linen, and gifts of cunning device, from the looms of the old world, and from graceful fingers and loving hearts here, every want being antic.i.p.ated, and some wants imagined, to gratify the love of satisfying them. And now G.o.d breathes the breath of life, and a living soul begins its deathless career, amidst joys and thanksgivings, which swell through the wide circles of kindred and acquaintances.h.i.+p. The Holy Spirit, in the process of time, renews and sanctifies the soul through the blood of the everlasting covenant; and having, through life, walked with G.o.d, the day arrives when the spirit must return to G.o.d who gave it. You saw how it was received here, at its entrance into the world.
You have seen what the atonement, and regeneration, and sanctification, and providence, and grace, have done for it, and with what acc.u.mulated love the Father of Spirits, and Redeemer, and Sanctifier, must regard it. And now do we suppose that the shroud, and coffin, and the funeral, and the narrow house, and the darkness, and the solitude and corruption, and the whole dreary and terrible train of death and the grave, are symbols of its reception into heaven, the proper pageantry of its arrival and resting place within the veil? Believe it not! If G.o.d prepared in our hearts such a welcome for the infant stranger, that even its helpless feet were thought of and cared for, surely when those feet, wearied in the pilgrimage of the strait and narrow way, arrive at heaven's gate, it must be, it is, amidst rejoicings and ministrations of love to which earth has no parallel. Let kings and queens prepare a royal room for the new-born prince: ”In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Could we look into that place, as it stands waiting for its occupant from earth, we should behold sights which would instantly clothe even death with beauty, and make it seem now, as it will seem then, a blessed thing to die.
To miss of dying would no doubt be a calamity. Dying will be an experience to the believer which will be fraught with inestimably good things; that is, the act of dying, and not merely the being dead. It is no doubt as necessary to the nature of the soul, to its psychology, its soul-life, as the changes of the worm, chrysalis, and b.u.t.terfly, are to the insect. And thus, as in all other things, where sin abounded, grace much more abounds, and even death, like a cross, is turned into a ministration of infinite blessing.
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