THESE words were uttered by a dying girl in a town in Sussex.
“‘Tis so dark, and I cannot go alone”— this plaintive sentence was the last the poor girl ever spoke, and we fear that those around her were unable to minister that spiritual comfort which could have assured her that, if death arrives, there is One who will never leave nor forsake those who have known and trusted Him. “He is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” It is the believer who can say, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4). Whether we would or not, death comes at all times and seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, winter are all alike to him. Often, too, he passes over the decrepit and aged, and seizes on youth and health. But what a difference there is between the end of those who pass out of this world with Christ in them, and with them, and that of those of whom the reverse is true! It is here that reality is manifested.
The Rabshakeh, acting for the King of Assyria, challenged Hezekiah, King of Judah, in his day with this question, “Now, on whom dost thou trust?” (2 Kings 18:20.) Hezekiah trusted God. His trust was not in vain, and such trust never can be. The day will come, depend upon it, dear reader, when it will be shown whether your trust is really in Jesus. When Latimer and Ridley were about to be burned at the stake for their faith in Jesus and His blood, the former triumphantly shouted to his companion in martyrdom, “Cheer up, brother Ridley; we shall light such a light in England today as shall never be put out.”
No! the way was not dark to Latimer. The path of life, and of light too, is opened to the believer in Jesus. He, having passed through death and overcome it, rose from the dead the third day, after dying for our sins, according to the Scriptures. The soldiers might say, after having been bribed by so-called religious people, that His disciples had taken away His body by night, and removed the stone from the sepulcher while they were sleeping, which was false on the face of it; but none the less true was it that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and led captivity captive, having been “made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The darkness was borne away by Him, that we might be “light in the Lord.”
“Every ray was purchased for you
By the precious blood of One
Who suffered in the darkness
That you might see the sun.”
There are many who look upon the Lord Jesus Christ merely as a martyr; but in the hour of His sufferings He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Had He been a martyr, God would have come near and sustained Him, who had so faithfully served and glorified Him. It is only as we perceive that He was bearing “our sins in His own body on the tree,” that He was in the place of our substitute, that we can understand that, “why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It is beautiful to see that Jesus Christ owns and vindicates God in forsaking Him — “My God,” He says (Psa. 22), and adds, “but Thou art holy.” This explains the forsaking.
“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
Our load was laid on Thee;
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead,
To bear all ill for me.
A victim led, Thy blood was shed:
Now there’s no load for me.
Jehovah lifted up His rod —
O Christ, it fell on Thee!
Thou wast forsaken of Thy God,
No distance now for me.
Thy blood beneath that rod hast flowed:
Thy bruising healeth me.”
People who prefer to live without Christ will find the way very dark and lonely at the end without Him. And no one can be on two roads at the same time. Happy for those who are on the narrow road, and not on the broad one which leadeth to destruction. Only today the writer was reading a letter, in which the following occurs: —
“A fortnight since, R. G — brought a letter from their son, A —, telling them of his conversion, and asking them to thank God that he was now waiting for the Lord. It appears that P― had been pointing out the difference between Job 4:18 and Psalms 16:3, and this had reached his soul. Some days later a letter was received here which spoke of A― being ill, and the doctor having said that his lungs were diseased. Nine days after that another letter came from E —, giving an account of his short illness and triumphant death. He was singing praises almost up to the moment of his departure.”
There was no darkness there! “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” (see Dan. 3:25). “For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (Isa. 43).
Reader, delay not. Procrastination is the thief of souls. To live without Christ is bad enough, but oh, the misery of dying without Him! That way is “so dark,” and those who will go that way must go alone.
W. R. C.