A FEW weeks since, whilst engaged in my business, a middle-aged person called at my shop and requested me to visit a young man who was dying, and had expressed a desire to see me. I immediately went, and on my entering the room recognized one whom three years and a half ago I had known as a zealous advocate of the cross of Christ; but whose heart Satan had succeeded in drawing away from Jesus, and alluring it towards the world, into which he went step by step, until he grew cold towards God and to His children, and the meetings for prayer and worship which he formerly enjoyed were entirely neglected. He was sitting by the window, which was thrown up as high as it could be, wrapped in a blanket, and supported by his young wife (not 21 years of age), who was fanning him in order to give him as much air as possible. I said, “Well, Joseph, I need not ask how you are bodily, for I perceive you are a dying man; but how are matters standing between your soul and God?” “Ah!,” he said (as well as he could speak from difficulty of breathing), “I’ve been a wandering sheep, and have lost the joy of my salvation; I have sadly grieved Him who loved me unto death, and I want you to pray for me, that I may again realize the cleansing virtue of His precious blood, and be able to sing, as once I could.
“Happy day,
When Jesus wash’d my sins away.”
I knelt down, and after commending his case to the Lord, left. The following day, being Sunday, I called again, and found him in the same position, not having been in bed for several days and nights, but apparently much broken down, under a sense of his great sin in having departed in heart and ways from the good Shepherd. I felt much encouraged, perceiving he had “come to himself,” and spoke of the Father’s willingness to receive, yea, to welcome back the lost son, and the Shepherd’s love and care in seeking until He finds the wandering sheep. I also mentioned his case, for especial prayer, at the meeting of the Lord’s people that day, who pleaded earnestly on his behalf several of them remembering his having taken part in prayer at the very same kind of meeting three years and a half ago. On the Monday I saw him again, and be was then able to say, in prospect of his speedy departure, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?” and as he leant his head on my breast, I heard him repeat, slowly, but distinctly, the following touching verses―
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine,
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.
I love Thee because Thou host first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.
I will love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in the heaven of light;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I loved, Thee, my Jesus, tis now.
After a little pause he said, “I shall never have an opportunity of showing forth to the world, by my walk, what the Lord has done in restoring my soul, but I want, through His grace enabling me, to do so, by patiently bearing the sufferings of this little while, and by praising and adoring His blessed name. I asked him before kneeling down if there was anything on his mind he wished me particularly to pray for? He said, “Yes, ask the Lord, if it be His will, to spare me to see my dear christian mother.” (She was expected that evening by the 7 o’clock train.) I did so, entreating the Lord at the same time to give him that patience and submission in the midst of his great sufferings that his case needed, and to enable him to praise Him with his latest breath. About half-past 9 o’clock I called again, and found his mother had arrived in safety; thus was prayer again answered. I saw him twice the day following, but in the evening the meeting was such as I shall never forget. After his temples had been bathed with cold water he appeared a little refreshed, and said he would like to praise the Lord, if we would all kneel down. He began by expressing his thankfulness to the Lord for revealing His love to him again in Jesus; then prayed for each of his unconverted relatives, and, after commending his young wife (so soon to be left a widow) to the care of Him who has promised to be the husband of such, he turned to me with a desire that I should follow on in prayer and praise. After we had risen from our knees, and were standing around his bed, in which we had previously put him, having supplied him with a bed-chair to keep him upright, he asked us what day it was: we replied, Tuesday. He then said, with all the calmness and self-possession of mind imaginable, as though he was only going to remove from one room to another, “shall die tomorrow, and on Sunday you may bury me.” Then, addressing his weeping mother said, “Will you follow me to the grave?” She replied, “Yes,” and after arranging for me to bury him, he sank back much exhausted, but evidencing great pleasure that he had been helped to speak so much at one time.
In calling on him the following day, I found he was fast sinking, and said, “Well, Joseph you are passing through the valley of the shadow of death now. What a comfort that it is after all but the shadow of death. There is no substantia evil in it. A shadow of a serpent will not sting neither will the shadow of a sword kill. Jesus has extracted the sting out of death by dying it the believer’s stead, thus destroying him who had the power of death, being the devil, and, therefore, it is but the shadow for the Christian. Again, it is but a valley, a deep dark valley it is true, but valleys are generally fruitful, and at the valley of death itself is often productive of comforts to God’s children. Then it is a walk, a gentle, pleasant walk. It is said, the wicked art chased out of the world, but the Christian taken a walk to another world, as cheerfully as he takes his leave of this. Then what a consolation! there is no fear of being lost in the valley; that little word through is very encouraging, right on
“To the other side of Jordan,
In the sweet fields of Eden,
Where the tree of life is blooming,
There is rest for the weary,
There is rest for you.”
And the best of all is, as dear old John Wesley said in his last moments, “God is with us.” Ah! he said, as he lifted, up his eyes, “Therefore, I will fear no evil.” I went to see him again in the evening, when he appeared very near his departure, but peacefully waiting the Lord’s time. He wished me to turn him on his right side, and exclaimed at the same time, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?” in which position he soon after sweetly fell asleep in Jesus.
“The Shepherd sought his sheep,
The Father sought his child:
They followed over vale and hill,
O’er deserts waste and wild.
They found him nigh to death,
Famish’d, and faint, and lone;
They bound him with the bands of love,
They saved the wandering one.”
His remains were carried to the grave on the next Sunday, when the following remarks were made on the Scripture, “Prepare to meet thy God.” (Amos 4:1212Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4:12).)
Beloved friends, if there is one voice more solemn and loud than another, sounding forth from the open grave of one who but a short time since was in the bloom of youth, it is “Prepare to meet thy God.” And if there is one thing neglected more than another, it is this very preparation. There are few persons (comparatively speaking) in the present day who do not in some way or other (either by insuring their lives, or joining some society) make what provision they can for those who may possibly survive them; but alas! God is not in all their thoughts. “What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?” is the all-absorbing consideration; and if their mind should happen to be exercised about this solemn meeting, Satan immediately tempts them to believe that for a few short hours, when all hope is removed from them of living any longer in this world, will be quite sufficient to make the necessary preparation for meeting God. But, beloved fellow sinners, the devil is a liar, he was one from the beginning; and one of his most successful delusions that he practices at the present time is procrastination; it is the snare of youth the illusion of mature life, and the delusion of hoary age. Oh! my friends, do not be thus deceived; “God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”
It is recorded of a certain nobleman, who kept a fool, that he once so amused him with his wit that he gave him his cane, and told him whenever he could find a greater fool than himself to bring it back to him. In process of time the nobleman came to die, and, sending for his attendant, bid him farewell. “Where is your lordship going?” asked the fool. “I am going to another world” was the reply. “And when shall you return?” “Oh, I am never to return.” “No!” said the man; “then has your lordship made any preparation for the journey?” “Alas! I have not.” “Then take back your cane,” said the man, for never could there be folly so great as that! And, dear friends, are there not many such, surrounding this open grave at this time, who are in the same condition as the nobleman was? “unprepared,” because unwashed in the precious blood of Christ, and, therefore, exposed to all His righteous wrath, not knowing but that the very words that were uttered to the rich man of old, may be said to someone in our midst this afternoon, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Then, friends, it will be too late to prepare. Oh, do not delay an’ longer. “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Verily, every man (the youngest as well as the eldest) at his best state is altogether vanity.” The lawyer will not lose his term, the will waterman will not lose his tide, neither will the husbandman lose his season, and wilt thou lose thy soul, fellow sinner? Oh, prepare at once then, to meet thy God.
And now, dear friends, a word or two about the preparation that is needed to meet God What is it? Is there anything to do?
“Nothing, either great or small,
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.”
The blessed Lord has made all the necessary preparations on His part for the sinner’s meeting God, by taking the sinner’s place on the cross thus appeasing God’s wrath and satisfying His justice, by dying there as the sinner’s substitute and shedding His blood. In consequence of which He has opened up a “new and living way” for the poor sinner to meet God, not with shame and confusion of face, but with joy and rejoicing of heart. So that the sinner has nothing at all to do on his part but to believe. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Then will God grant you the full benefit of Christ’s work on the cross. Oh, undone sinner, believe God’s word, and gladly avail yourself of that precious blood “which cleanses from all sin.” Thus meeting God it this world on the ground of the blood of Christ and knowing Him as a reconciled Father it Jesus, there will be no dread of meeting Him it the other; but the soul which has made such a preparation will be able to sing, in the happy consciousness of his being ready, whether thy Master sends for him (as in the case of our departed friend) or comes Himself to fetch him―
“Jesus, the Lord, my Righteousness,
My beauty Thou, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who ought to my charge shall lay?
While by Thy blood absolved I am,
From sin’s tremendous guilt and shame.”
J. A. V.
It is easy enough to say that I belong to the heavenly places. Many have been learned in the doctrine. Confessing that we belong to the kingdom to come, because we are in the place of it, and look to dominion over it, after the Judgment on it, would provoke all Satan’s wrath.