DEATH is a very solemn thing. It is dreaded by the stoutest as well as the frailest heart. All, from the youngest to the oldest, seek to banish it from their thoughts. As a topic of conversation it is unwelcome everywhere. Incidentally referring to it once in a mixed company, several instantly protested, saying, “Oh! do be quiet, it is so unpleasant!”
But, whether unpleasant or not, nothing stays death’s progress. Its icy hand is laid upon the greatest in the land as well as the meanest, upon the rich and poor, upon the young and old. The death of the beloved Queen of this country is still fresh in our minds. Her exalted position did not exempt her from its power. When death comes she must go.
The words at the head of this paper came from the lips of a young girl who was dying. The pathetic story was told me by a friend. Poor thing! she loved the world; it was all fair and attractive to her; she thought not about death. One night at a ball she caught cold, from which she never recovered. Oh! how she fought against the feeling of weakness that gradually grew upon her.
The doctor came, and looking gravely at her, he said, “My dear young lady, you will never get better; you are dying!”
“Oh, no!” she replied, “I cannot die! I will not die!”
Oh, reader, that poor girl died, and there was not one in the house who could speak a comforting word to her, or point her to the One who would have given her life.
Death, which she so dreaded, was her just portion, because she was a sinner. “Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). But Christ, the Son of God, has died that poor lost sinners may have life. He has died a sacrifice for sin, and borne the wrath and punishment due to the sinner. But He has not only died, He lives again, having obtained eternal redemption for all who believe in Him, and God has set Him forth a mercy seat through faith in His blood, “to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins... that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25,2625Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:25‑26)). While on the one hand “the wages of sin is death,” on the other “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
The sinner who comes to Christ has eternal life, and not only in this world, but beyond death, and instead of shrinking from death may be filled with joy at the thought of it. Further, the believer does not necessarily expect to die, for the Lord Himself has promised to come and take us home (see John 14 and 1 Thess. 4). We are often reminded that death is in the world by the streams of funeral carriages wending their way to the various cemeteries. All who have died have either died lost or saved. Reader, how is it with you? Are you lost and afraid to die, or are you saved and glad to go to be with the Lord?
W. G.