MY brother was in his nineteenth year. Strong and healthy in body, spirited and vigorous in mind, we never expected that he would be the first to make a breach in the family circle. Much less did he think that he was so near his end. But so it was.
Death stays not its claims for the young. The babe is taken from its mother’s breast; the youth is cut down in the prime of life; the father or mother succumbs beneath its stroke leaving a family to mourn their loss. It enters into the dwelling of the rich and of the poor, of the king and of the peasant. Oh! the cruel hand of death.
In a few weeks my brother was brought to its very door. By letter I was informed that he was in a critical condition, but what was worse, the same letter intimated that as yet he had made no confession of Christ. A few days later a telegram summoned me home immediately. There was no hope. I thanked God that if there was no hope for the body there was hope for the soul. I felt assured that he would be saved before he died.
After a weary journey of the greater part of a day I reached my destination. A few hurried words to my parents, who said that he was still unsaved, and in a few moments I was standing by the bedside of my dear brother. I quietly asked all to leave the room so that we might be left alone. What a solemn moment it seemed to me! The sufferer lay in intense agony of body. I felt as if I were in the presence of death. I spoke a little about his condition, and that he might soon be called hence. “Now,” I said, “what about Jesus?”
His answer filled my heart with joy unspeakable. It ran as follows, “Jesus has been with me while I was lying here. No one knew it, but as I lay in quietness He came to me, and spoke to me, and showed me all about it, and now I am ready to die.”
“And what did Jesus show you?” I asked. “All about my sins,” was the reply, “because He Himself bore them all on the cross.”
The more I questioned him, the more I became convinced that God had saved his soul. No servant had been sent with the word of salvation, but in sovereign mercy God had come in to point him to Jesus, and to give him faith to accept that same Jesus as his Saviour.
We spoke together afterward about God’s righteousness being unto all and upon all them that believe (Rom. 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22)). The result was that God would not impute sin to the believer but righteousness. Jesus had accomplished atonement and redemption on the cross, and now righteousness was reckoned to the believer in Jesus on the Basis of faith and not works (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). Thus the apostle could say, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
My dear brother grasped these wondrous truths. They placed his feet on a sure foundation. From that moment until the Lord took him home to glory, his soul was filled with peace, and his heart was so full of heavenly joy that his great desire was “to depart to be with Christ, which is far better.” Jesus so commanded his love that every other attraction dwindled into insignificance. The things of time affected him not, because in spirit he was already in another scene.
The Lord graciously allowed him to remain with us a few weeks longer. To the surprise of all he seemed to recover a little, and the doctor informed us that, in a few months he would be well again. On hearing this he affirmed that the doctor was wrong, and he added, “I know the Lord is going to take me.”
“Besides,” he continued, “I don’t want to remain down here, I want to go to be with Jesus.” The One who had died for him, and washed away his sins, had won his heart.
He continued, however, to improve in body, but as he himself foretold, the Lord did take him. Peacefully he passed away to be absent from the body but present with the Lord. The desire of his heart was granted. Sorrowful friends might weep over his corpse, but he had gone to the land where all tears are forever past.
After his conversion, the subject that interested him most was the coming of the Lord. For hours he would lie listening with the deepest interest while his sisters would picture to him that blessed hope. He was aware of the fact that death was at hand, and he rejoiced at the prospect of going to be with the One who loved him and gave Himself for him. But then Jesus might come before he died. If not, he would be among the sleeping saints who would be raised incorruptible when Jesus should come. His great concern was to get into the presence of “You lovely man in the glory”— Jesus. Death had no terror for him, for Jesus had been there. He had extracted the sting of death. But more, it was by going into death that Jesus had given expression to His love. Oh, the blessedness of being able to look at death and say, “It not only speaks of the existence of sin, but also of the boundless love of the Father and the Son.
“By sin came death,” ‘tie true, but further, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). How beautifully it is expressed in the lines―
“Love that on death’s dark vale
Its sweetest odors spread,
Where sin o’er all seemed to prevail
Redemption’s glory shed.”
My reader, let me ask you, in all affection for your soul, Where would death land you? In heaven or hell? I know you are hoping to reach heaven at last, but I wonder when that “last” will come for you. It may be as you read this paper, that death’s clammy fingers will stop the beatings of your heart. Should this be so, what about your soul? Would you be with Jesus in glory or in the regions of the damned, which? Oh, don’t be careless about that which is infinitely more important than anything else.
“To lose your wealth is much,
To lose your health is more,
To lose your soul is such a loss
As no man can restore.”
How good God is! We deserve eternal banishment from His presence, but instead of that He has opened up a way of blessing for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Ile was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. God could not have given a greater gift, and He could not have given a less. He could not have given a greater, because there was none greater than the One who could say, “I and my Father are one.”
Neither could He have given a less, because no other was capable of taking up the question of sin and settling it. Man could not touch the question. He could not purge it out of his own heart. “The heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things” (see also Matt. 15:1919For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: (Matthew 15:19)). That describes your heart and mine.
Nor could angels have undertaken the mighty task. Many of them have been unable to maintain their first estate (Jude 66And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6)). No less a one than God’s beloved Son could take up the question. Blessed be God, He has met every claim of a holy God against the sinner who trusts Him. How then are you going to treat the Christ of God? Are you going to accept Him as your Saviour or reject him? The greater the gift, the greater is the responsibility in refusing it. God’s desire is to bless you. His heart is full of love towards you. But turn your back on such a God now, and one day you will take your place in judgment before Him (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)).
The lowly Nazarene, the rejected Saviour, will soon rise and shut the door, and then every ray of hope for the unsaved soul will be gone forever. Now, He lingers over a guilty world, not willing that any should perish. Never is a cry from a penitent heart unheeded. As in the case of my brother, Jesus will meet you just where you are, whatever be the circumstances in which you are placed. Won’t you trust Jesus now? “Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.”
J. T. C.