After reading the Scriptures, and prayer, we united in singing that well known hymn,
Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly, While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high, Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, Till the storm of life be past; Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last!
The dying missionary endeavored to join in the singing though extremely faint, and life"s latest sun was sinking fast, for the hour of her departure had come, and she heard the voice that called her home, and at last she peacefully entered into that rest that remains for the people of G.o.d.
Three thousand copies of the "Last Hours" were printed in pamphlet form and widely scattered over different parts of the country. And the Lord has been graciously pleased to bless their circulation to the spiritual edification of those who had the privilege of reading them.
It was a singular coincidence that the last chapter read by the Elder was the same as the one selected by the minister as the Lesson of the Day, on the occasion of the celebration of the Jubilee exercises in honor of the n.o.ble and beloved Queen Victoria, in Westminster Abbey.
CHAPTER V.
THE DEAD WHO DIE IN THE LORD.[2]
"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them"--Rev.
xiv. 13.
[2] The substance of a sermon preached in the Allen Street Presbyterian Church, New York City, October 25, 1886, on the occasion of the death of Elder James Knowles, who triumphantly fell asleep in Jesus, October 23, 1886, in the seventy fifth year of his age.
Elder James Knowles is at rest--sweet, sweet rest. It is the rest for which he sighed and for which he prayed. His favorite hymn was:
O land of rest, for thee I sigh, When will the moment come, When I shall lay my armor by, And dwell in peace at home?
To keep an eye on the home above is consummate wisdom. Hence the injunction of the Holy Apostle, "Set your affections on things above."
This exercise of the heart can only be attained by first seeking an interest in the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"John looked, and, lo! a Lamb (the Lamb of G.o.d) stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father"s name (the new name) written in their foreheads, and I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the four hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth." Those who had here below redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of their sins, according to the riches of His grace. These are they who keep the commandments of G.o.d, and the faith of Jesus Christ. Concerning such is this solemn affirmation made, corroborated by the attestation of the Divine voice, that the dearly beloved John heard, saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
You know that the original signification of the word "blessed" means happy. In Christ"s inimitable Sermon on the Mount He declares, "Happy are the beggars in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." All the uninterrupted felicities of the glory land are theirs at the hour of dissolution. Their joy is augmented by the pure fellowship and friendship of the Saviour and the saints before the throne of the Eternal.
There is a broad avenue opened up to the saved of pleasing and familiar intercourse with the general a.s.sembly, and the spirits of just men made perfect. They share the attention and affection of the heavenly host, and are gladdened by the presence of Him who is the King eternal, immortal, but not now invisible, for they behold the King in his beauty.
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Death to the Christian is represented in the Scripture as a sleep. "Them that sleep in Jesus will G.o.d bring with Him." He is redeemed from the power of death. "For Christ came to deliver them, who, through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage." (Heb. ii. 15.) All believers, therefore, need not dread death--he is a conquered enemy. And so every one of us who are here to day in Christ can say humbly, but truly, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" No Christian, however weak he may be, need fail to feel with Paul, and ask the same question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princ.i.p.alities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of G.o.d, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The last great conflict is inevitable, but the secret of a triumphant departure from this life is found in the language of the "Faith Psalm,"
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." It is not really death that we have to grapple with. It is only the shadow of death. We do not fear the shadow of a sword, or the shadow of a serpent. The above verse of the twenty-third Psalm is very frequently misquoted. It is called the dark valley. But you remember that when Bunyan"s pilgrim came down to the valley it was not dark, for Jesus, the light, was with him. The sting of death is not simply concealed; it is completely destroyed by the death of Christ. He conquered the great enemy. "The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto G.o.d who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Thus understood, the Christian is truly blessed in his death. He cannot be separated from Christ, or from his symmetrically developed spiritual character. Death is not the extinction of being. We must make a distinction between natural and spiritual death. It is sin unforgiven that gives death his power. It is a fearful catastrophe to those out of Christ. Hence the holiness of others will not avail them at the hour of dissolution. "When the soul raves round the walls of its clay tenement, and runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help when no help can come,"
then the door of salvation is eternally shut. The last ray of hope is then forever faded. "There are no acts of pardon past in the cold grave to which we haste." Oh, let us not content ourselves with a mere external profession of Christianity. True wisdom consists in having the graces of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Walking day by day by faith in Jesus Christ, so that when the cry is made, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him," we go forth with joy and not with grief.
Scriptural facts concerning death go to show that it is not an unimportant event. To the soul who is found clothed not in his own righteousness which is of the law, but with the righteousness of the Redeemer, to die is gain, for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (or holy ones). It is then the refining process is thoroughly completed. They are ready to be offered. The honor and favor of the Father is now about to be received. The union formed on earth is at death gloriously ratified in heaven.
The obedience of Christ"s death is fully realized to be laid to their account. The life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel is then permanently enjoyed. The clouds and mysteries that cl.u.s.ter around this earthly life are then dissipated. The full communion of the populace of glory is wonderfully experienced without interruption or restraint. The "conflict is over, and the prize is won." "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." It is then we view the Divine glory, for this was a part of Christ"s prayer: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory."
You see, then, how the believer is ushered into the beauties and blessedness of the beatic state. There is, therefore, nothing to be dreaded by the approach of the last enemy. For, says the prophet, He "will swallow up death in victory: and the Lord G.o.d will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of the people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it." It is by a realization of his security in death that the believer in Jesus can calmly meditate on the hour of dissolution--that he is blest with longings for home; that he is soon to be delivered from the present evil world; in short, that he is completely const.i.tuted an actuality in the Church triumphant. He is at last brought into intimate alliance with Christ, not now by faith but by sight, not by prayer, but by praise; not by earthly circ.u.mscribed antic.i.p.ation, but by the power of unfathomable and constraining grace, and a deep sensibility of soul which springs from the knowledge that he is forever with the Lord; now the strugglings of faith are ended.
When Peter, James, and John beheld Christ transfigured on the summit of the mount, and as they gazed upon the glory of the scene, they said, "It is good to be here." It was a sight of Moses and Elias that enraptured their soul. That was only a transitory sight. But at death the Christian is admitted into endless glory. It is day without a night. It is to be admitted into the House of the Lord. "The house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens." Through much tribulation they enter into the kingdom. Soon shall close their earthly mission; soon shall end their pilgrim days; hope shall change to glad fruition. G.o.d is continually guiding our feet to those mansions above, where flowers that never fade do deck the heavenly plains. Where our loved ones gone before shall meet us and greet us on the golden strand. Many are the voices so sweet and tender, and true, who are calling us away to join the holy ones, that no man can number, who stand around the throne clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. The angels beckon us away to join their ranks. Truly blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.
In the Treasury Hymnal there is a Pilgrim Song by Dr. Horatius Bonar, and the music is from Beethoven; it is very sweet and cheering in this connection:
A few more years shall roll, a few more seasons come, And we shall be with those that rest asleep within the tomb.
Then, oh, my Lord, prepare my soul for that great day, Oh, wash me in my Saviour"s blood, and take my sins away.
We truly spend our years as a tale that is told. But in heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear. How precious is this thought; though friend after friend depart, "For who has not lost a friend?"
What though the storm of bereavement and affliction howl without?
Still, amid it all, the unbounded, uncomprehended love of G.o.d changeth never.
Though our days are determined, and the number of our months are with G.o.d; "though He hath appointed the bounds that He cannot pa.s.s, yet He will hide us in the grave; He will keep us secret until His wrath upon the unG.o.dly is past." We read, however, His power to redeem and deliver His elect, even amid the wreck and ruin of years and the gloom of the grave, for Christ is the resurrection and the life.
There is rest, yonder; only just across the river. It is only a narrow stream. "This is not my place of resting; mine"s a city yet to come; onward to it I am hastening; on to my eternal home." "I go to prepare a place for you," said Jesus. No threatening danger or death there. It is no desert dreary. It is freedom from pain and weariness, from sin and sadness, in the dominions of the Bridegroom. For He says, "I have betrothed thee unto me forever; I have betrothed thee in righteousness, in the judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercy, and in faithfulness."
"_In the Lord._" How significant the words. It is to have the infinite arms of love and power encircling us. It is not to receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. It is to rise above the uncertainties of this life to the realities of that land where congregations ne"er break up, and Sabbaths have no end. Linked to the eternal, never broken chain of G.o.d"s goodness, what can affright? Can the consolation of G.o.d be small with those who are His, when we are informed that He will ransom His people from the power of the grave? Shortly it will be all over with you in your pilgrimage journey. Watch and wait, therefore, for the coming of the King.
On earth, here and now, those who die in the Lord have attentively listened to His kind remonstrances, concerning reconciliation and entire renunciation of every false hope of heaven only through faith in the name of Jesus. They realize that G.o.d"s methods of mercy are peculiarly calculated to impart peace in the hour of sickness and death. They see the city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is G.o.d, where the inhabitants say, "I am sick, I am weary no more."
They know that their Redeemer liveth, and though worms may destroy the body, yet in their flesh they shall see G.o.d. They know there are realms where
The voices of song never cease "neath a burden of tears, And the music falls sweet from those radiant spheres.
G.o.d"s children on earth are remarkable for their love to Christ and His Church, and delight to meditate on the glories of heaven. Hence when death comes they are prepared to enter upon their purchased possessions, for which they habitually awaited with bright antic.i.p.ations, knowing full well that He that had promised is able also to perform.
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." "For to be carnally minded is death (death eternal), but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
Henry says, "The _Providence_ that removes G.o.d"s saints has a loved voice which crieth in the city to the survivors. The death of the saints speaketh the evil of sin." It is owing to that they die, for "the body is dead because of sin." It speaks the vanities of life, and of all its delights and enjoyments; for if the favorites of heaven are dying daily, and going out of this world it is a sign that the things of this world are not the best things, else those whom G.o.d loves best would not be taken soonest from them. It speaks that all things come alike to all, and that one event happeneth to the righteous and to the wicked, "so that none knows love or hatred by all that is before him in this world."
But he that would know it must look before him into the invisible world.
Lay your ears this day to the coffins and graves of departed saints, who though they do not pray for us, yet preach to us in the words of Christ, "Be ye also ready." (Matt. xxiv. 44.) They are gone, and we are going; their gla.s.s is run out, and ours is running; and therefore it concerns us to daily die unto sin, and be alive to holiness, standing on the watchtower, like the sentinel, with "loins girt," and "lamps burning,"
knowing that it is not the stroke, but the sting of death from which the imputed righteousness of the Redeemer delivers.
G.o.d"s saints are like a green olive-tree, in the house of G.o.d, because they trust in His manifold mercy. They are like trees planted by the rivers of water, and whose leaf shall never fade. While death can lay his cold and icy hand upon the Christian"s body, yet his soul he can never touch. While G.o.d destroys the wicked at death, and plucks him out of his dwelling-place, and roots him out of the land of the living, yet to die in the Lord is to sing with the Psalmist, "I will not be afraid," "I will render praises unto thee, for thou hast delivered my soul from death," "and thou shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth."
Heaven is propitious. Streaming love flows from the fountain of Divine compa.s.sion. "G.o.d so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Oh, this constant untiring love of our kind heavenly father.
"Scarcely," says Paul, "for a righteous man will one die: yet, peradventure, for a good man some would even dare to die; but G.o.d commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." If we would _die in the Lord_, we must get a sight of Calvary. He has died that we might live. We must behold His pierced hands and feet and side. It is this sight that saves.
Not all the blood of goats and bulls, On Jewish altars slain, Can give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, Takes _all_ our guilt away.
It is the free gift of grace that, through saving faith, that will hold us until this short life is past, and then when we come to the river of death, like our dear Elder, we will reach our home safely. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto _eternal life_ by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Are we all who are here to-day to this funeral _in the Lord_--"I in them and thou in me?" Perhaps, some have been living at a distance from Him.
Others may have been grieving the Holy Spirit. The Master has come (by this death) and calls for thee. He is standing to-day at the door of thy heart knocking and saying, "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." No friend so forgiving, so gentle as he. Oh, wilt thou let Him depart? Patiently waiting, earnestly pleading, Jesus thy Saviour knocks at thine heart. Is there some idol that you are cherishing? Is there some secret, darling sin to which you are clinging? Oh, what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan without an interest in the atoning work of Jesus? Are you still slighting the Saviour? He waits for thee. How tender the look. He says unto you as he said to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not."
Christ alone is our true Shechem, our City of Refuge. He is the living well of Jacob and the rifled tomb of Joseph. Isaiah says, "A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." What boundless resources are found in Christ. We are guilty, but He atoned for our guilt; He paid the ransom price; He engaged in the great work of paying the penalty due to our sin, for He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of G.o.d in Him. "We could never have been saved without Divine interference, save from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom," was the declaration of the stupendous wealth of G.o.d"s free love. For it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the very chief.
The mysteries of redeeming love are solved at Golgotha.
Listen to the sweet singer of Israel as he surveys the administration of mercy seen antic.i.p.atively at the Cross: