"That is what we have to do in life and in death. Where can we find rest and refuge in a dying hour, but by thinking upon and trusting in _Him_ who is "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land?""
Our peace, our joy, our hope, our all in life and in death, are the results of confidence in Christ. Our dear, departed sister had heard the sweet voice of Jesus saying, "I am the dark world"s light; come unto me, thy morn shall rise and all thy day be bright." Her trust was not in this vain and transitory world, though smiling and fair, she trusted not His joy, for sorrow was there. Her faith had found an anchor--a sure abiding home; she had a strong consolation because she had fled for refuge and had laid hold of the hope set before her in the Gospel.
The sweet and tender and loving words of John were ever present to her ear: "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Hence she continually enjoyed four precious elements of spiritual life and Christian experience; viz., Union with G.o.d, Communion with Christ, Pure Fellowship with the Saints, and Constant Cleansing by the peace-speaking blood of Jesus--"That blood which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel."
The application to your hearts of the blood of Jesus by the Holy Spirit is like the dew upon the new mown gra.s.s.
Amid the great rush and roar of business, where men are pressing against each other on the busy streets, in the race for gold, her mind was constantly occupied with thoughts relative to the wants and woes of the sick and the dying. While others were daily seeking their own, not the things of Christ, she was found bringing children to the Sabbath-school--reaching out to the hearts of the parents through the little ones--bringing the blessed Bible to the bosoms of the homes which had none; circulating tracts and religious literature; visiting sad scenes of distressing spiritual and domestic dest.i.tution. And whatsoever her hands found to do, she did it quietly and unostentatiously, and unreservedly, knowing full well, "That there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave whither we goeth." She sweetly rests from her labors, and her works do follow her. And as the Gospel of the grace of G.o.d was in her a well of water, out of the abundance of her heart, so kind, calm, consistent, and courageous, there constantly flowed streams of living water of earnest, loving, prayerful toil in the Master"s vineyard.
She gathered daily jewels for the crown of her rejoicing. I have found in her diary, that this was the aim of her whole life.
Companionship with Christ is constantly manifested by love for the Holy Scriptures. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The will of Jesus is made known through His word. When the blessed Master was in Capernaum, His own city, He declared that it was the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."--John vi. 63.
There is sunshine and beauty in His words. They are practical principles for the regulation of life, and a humble, holy walk and conversation is the product. It is in His word we behold the character of Jesus. In the Mirror of the glad tidings, we behold His lovely countenance and are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.
It is no wonder that David exclaimed, "The entrance of Thy word giveth light." Hence the exhortation of Paul to Timothy, "Preach the Word."
Oh, the intrinsic value of the Word of G.o.d. It was because of Christ"s own word that the Samaritans believed on Him, notwithstanding the prejudice they entertained against the Jews and their religion.
Alas! how many professing Christians make shipwreck of faith because they neglect to read the Word. Christ is the Word. "This is that bread which came down from heaven. He that eateth my flesh shall live forever."
What Matthew Henry says of his father at his funeral, may be said with reference to the dear one who has just left us for the mansions above.
Let us then, as ever we hope to meet her with joy in the other world, _follow her with diligence now_. Having begun "in the spirit," let us not "end in the flesh,"--having laid our hands "on the plough," let us not "look back," lest our latter end be worse than our beginning.
_Being dead, she yet speaks to us to be loving and helpful to one another._ Her common and undistinguished love to us all was such that it could never be said which of us she loved the best, and it speaks to us, now that she is gone, to "_love one another with a pure heart fervently_." We know very well that our unity was the joy of her heart while living, and many a time she hath with us blessed G.o.d for it. Let it, therefore, be to the credit and honor of her family, friends, and the Church, for I find it was her dying prayer for this church and its minister, not only that we may be _built up in holiness and comfort_, but that we may be _continued in brotherly love_, and be _a bundle of arrows which cannot be broken_.
Now that we have lost her who was wont to pray for us, and to be a common helper to us, let us pray so much the more one for another, and be so much the more helpful one to another, especially in the things that pertain to the kingdom of heaven; and let all our bonds of unity be strengthened and confirmed, and let it be our constant endeavor, each of us in our place, to be mutually serviceable to each other"s comfort and welfare, and _jointly serviceable to the glory of G.o.d and to the comfort of the Church_, for Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for the Church.
When we unbosom ourselves, He lets His love stream richly and gloriously into our hearts. From day to day, our sister seemed to realize how strongly and truly Christ loved the Church, and herself, as an individual member of it. The sacrificial death of the Saviour was to her not simply an historical fact, but a living reality. The sweet peace and pure pleasure she daily enjoyed was the result of His death.
For, "He hath made peace through the blood of His cross." And since He had made her the happy recipient of His grace, it was her daily delight to walk in the path of obedience. Christ was to her the door of salvation, and she went in and out and found pasture, in ministering to the poor and indigent and dying, and in this line of Christian toil she possessed a remarkable faculty.
She told me on one occasion, during one of my pastoral visits, that she visited a dying woman and endeavored to point her to Jesus. And when a clergyman of the Church of Rome, who happened to be present, was retiring, she suggested that they should have a word of prayer together. He replied, "That while he enjoyed her religious conversation, he could not pray with her, as she did not belong to his church."
At this remark she was deeply affected, and said, with great emphasis and deep solemnity: "I thought there was but one fold and one shepherd."
When she sent around, or rather, came herself for me, to the church on Friday, the prayer-meeting night, to come and see her dear dying husband, she seemed to be troubled when I asked him, "Are you still trusting in Jesus?" as I observed he was rapidly sinking, I put the question that I might employ his blessed testimony for my own good, and the good of the congregation. He quickly responded very emphatically in the affirmative, "Yes! yes!" and I think those were the last audible words he uttered. But she was troubled because she had such faith in the consistency of the Christian life of her husband, that she knew full well that he feared no evil, for Christ was with him.
Oh, how tenderly and lovingly she would step up to his bed-side and kiss his heated brow. When he became unconscious or rather, when his speech failed him and he would point to his parched lips to have them moistened, she would tearfully exclaim, "My dear, dear husband, can you not speak to me? Have you not a word for Esther? My dear husband, how can I live without you?"
I endeavored to console her on the sorrowful occasion, until after midnight, by reading the Scriptures, and prayer, and general conversation about heavenly things, and more especially the precious promises of Jesus concerning the many mansions, I remember reading 2 Corinthians, v. 1: "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of G.o.d, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
About midnight she became perfectly resigned to the will of G.o.d, and felt that life, even amid affliction, is the gift of G.o.d, and is a valuable endowment.
In this she was like Christ, "For me to live is Christ," seemed to be her motto to the last. I left the house about two in the morning. I called again between eight and nine A.M., the same day, after her husband"s death, to see how she was bearing her trouble. But oh, how changed! Her tears were all dried; and as she sat by the bedside where her husband suffered his last illness, her countenance wore an expression of perfect peace and Christian fort.i.tude. Like her Saviour amid the h.o.a.ry olives of Gethsemane, she could tranquilly exclaim: "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done!"
The first words she uttered when I entered the room were: "My dear husband has gone to glory." These words were uttered very quietly, and very solemnly. Ah, little did she think that in just one week and two hours from that time, she also was to pa.s.s away from earth to heaven, "To see the King in his beauty, and be forever with the Lord."
The Sat.u.r.day night after her husband"s death, she went to the store for some groceries. It was the usual custom for her husband, when he would hear the door open, to go down-stairs and carry the basket up for her; she remarked, when she returned home and experienced his absence for the first time, "No Papa to come and carry up the basket to-night!" How quickly she remembered this little act of courtesy and kindness on his part. "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful in much." Grat.i.tude to G.o.d and one another for little deeds of kindness is well-pleasing in His sight.
She fed the hungry and clothed the naked; many a loaf of bread she carried with her own hands to the necessitous. Many a poor, crying, shivering, half-clad child was comfortably clothed through her instrumentality: "He that honoreth Him hath mercy on the poor."--Prov.
xiv. 31. "The poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always."
Shall the Christian"s remembrance of these words be overlooked in the great day of reckoning? Will the dear Lord not recognize even a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple? Verily it shall in no wise lose its reward. To care for the poor is practical Christianity. The question will not be asked in the great day of account: Did you preach long, deep, and eloquent sermons? Or offer long and pharisaical prayers? No. But He will "say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed." Why? "Inherit the kingdom.... For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?... And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
As Christian workers we have constantly to remember that while we are justified by our faith here, and now, we will be judged by our works, yonder.
Henry Law, in "Christ is All," wisely remarks that, "Fruit is the sign of healthy trees, and so works evidence that we have life." "By their fruits ye shall know them." "Whoso hath this world"s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compa.s.sion from him, how dwelleth the love of G.o.d in him?"
TO DIE IS GAIN.
How frail, how short, how uncertain is human life. "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down."--Job xiv. 1. "As for man, his days are as gra.s.s: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind pa.s.seth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."--Ps. ciii. 15-16.
"All flesh is as gra.s.s, and all the glory of man as the flower of gra.s.s. The gra.s.s withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you."--1 Pet. i. 24-25.
These very solemn pa.s.sages of Scripture reveal to us two distinct lines of thought: First, The mutable; and, secondly, the immutable. If a man die, shall he live again? Ah, it is here, amid the ravages which death makes, that we hear Christ"s blessed words, "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me though he were dead, yet shall he live."
While it is true that this body must droop and die, and return to dust, yet death cannot touch the soul. It is immortal, it has been created in the image of G.o.d. He is a spirit, and a spirit is indestructible. The essence of the soul is spiritual. From the hour of the new birth, the soul of man begins to ripen for glory. All its powers and capacities are gradually developed and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
This preparation for Heaven is the work of the Holy Spirit. By providences, by sermons, by the word of truth, and by prayer, G.o.d prepares His servants for the heavenly home on high. Looking, then, at this life as a state of danger, difficulties, and trials--a life of probation--we must say with Paul, that when the great conflict is over, "To die is gain." "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day."
But remember he said, _now I am ready to be_ offered.
It is only when we are ready to be offered, that to die will be gain.
Oh, are you ready? Jesus says, "be ye also ready."
There are some here, perhaps, who are still unsaved, unprepared for death. Oh, if G.o.d should call for you to-day, where would your soul go?
You know that G.o.d out of Christ is a consuming fire. It will not be gain for you when you die, unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, come to Him while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation.
There is no time to be lost in this important matter, for death is upon our track. While G.o.d invites how blest the day. While the Holy Spirit is speaking and saying, "Prepare to meet thy G.o.d." Oh, resist not entreaties, yield to His power. How is it possible for a soul to be ready for death, and judgment, and a coming eternity, without conversion?
"Verily, verily," said Jesus to Nicodemus, "I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of G.o.d." "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." How is it possible for any to be ready to meet G.o.d in peace unless they are washed in Christ"s blood, and clothed in His spotless and justifying righteousness.
Paul said, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."
There are some, however, who do not believe this comforting doctrine.
They debar the Christian from the enjoyments of Heaven during the intermediate state between the hour of death and the resurrection. This condition they call the unconscious state of the dead. They are soul-sleepers, and generally believe in the pernicious error, namely, the annihilation of the wicked. A pleasing thought no doubt to the workers of iniquity, as they shall escape the punishment due to their iniquities. This is about as dangerous a doctrine as the new school theology of reformatory punishment, namely, that G.o.d is so good and so full of universal benevolence, that He cannot consistently, with His attribute of mercy, consign His creatures to everlasting punishment. It is true that G.o.d is full of love and tender mercy; but He never appeared as a merciful G.o.d excepting through a mediator. He can only be just, and the justifier of those alone who believe in Jesus. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given under Heaven or among men whereby we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus." To those, we believe, He is precious at the hour of death. It is then the believer is ushered into the presence of the King eternal, immortal, and invisible. In view of the greatness and glory of the transition from earth to Heaven, the Apostle exclaimed, "I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." For it is _then_ that we really begin to live; now we see through a gla.s.s darkly; now we know only in part, but then, oh, what a change, "Beyond the smiling and the weeping."
"Let not your heart be troubled," said Jesus; "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." It is for these mansions we were begotten. "Heirs to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away."
Sister Knowles had the blest a.s.surance of this Heavenly home, she knew this a.s.surance was attainable, and on earth she enjoyed it, and now she is reaping the rich reward, and its innumerable and unutterable advantages. In her dying hour she could triumphantly exclaim, with Simeon in the temple, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." And, like Moses, her eye was not dimmed, nor her natural force abated. Oh! the gain, the bliss of thus dying.
Heaven as our home is worthy our deepest contemplation. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." It is a place of perfect rest. Oh, how comforting is this thought to the poor, way-worn, toiling pilgrim.
Oh, land of rest for thee I sigh!
The important discovery of this land of rest will nerve our arm for the great conflict of life. It will inspire us to work more earnestly and more incessantly for Jesus. It will sweeten every bitter cup of trial and tribulation that we have to encounter here below. It will distil a desire and a loftiness of aim in life, that we may at last reach the rest that remains for the people of G.o.d. The struggle with inbred sin will be more easily overcome, and every l.u.s.t and evil pa.s.sion will be completely conquered by keeping the eye steadily fixed on those glittering mansions,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, And the weary are at rest.