SIR DAVID BREWSTER was a distinguished scientist of the earlier part of the nineteenth century, receiving many honors and decorations from almost all parts of the world. He was remarkable, too, for his allegiance to revealed religion—that is to say, true Christianity—as the following brief account of his passing away, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, will attest.
His family had now been summoned around him, and, thenceforward, in the innermost circle of the objects of his love, his remaining hours were spent with unclouded intellect and in unclouded peace.
For the last day or two he was attended by his friend, Sir James Simpson, a man of kindred genius and of kindred Christian hopes. "The like of this I never saw," he said, as we met him coming fresh from the dying chamber. "There is Sir David resting like a little child on Jesus, and speaking as if in a few hours he wilt get all his problems solved by Him.”
In the supreme hours of dawning immortality, the great man's past studies were all associated with the Name and Person of the Redeemer.
“I shall see Jesus," he said, " and that will be grand. “I shall see Him who made the worlds," with allusion to those wonderful verses at the commencement of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which had formed the subject of the last sermon he ever heard, a few weeks before.
Thus, tracing all to the exercise of the power and wisdom of the Creator-Redeemer, he felt that there was no unfitness, even in those hours, in describing to Sir James Simpson, in a “fluent stream of well-chosen words," some beautiful phenomena in his favorite science.
“Yes," he said," I found them to be great and marvelous, and I felt them to be His.”
“I have had the light for many years," he whispered, slowly and with emphasis, “and, oh! how bright it is! I feel so safe, so satisfied." (John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12); Eph. 5:13, 1413But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:13‑14)).
And so in childlike reliance and adoring love he gently fell asleep in Jesus on the evening of Monday, the 10th February, 1868.
Dear reader, have you seen beauty in Jesus?
Has the death of Christ a claim on your heart above everything else? Are you seeking wealth, pleasure, science, fame? Or are you so convinced of the unsatisfying character of all other things that you seek Jesus for present and eternal rest and peace?