Bliss in Dying.

“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.”—Rev.xiv. 13.

Bliss in Dying.

My Soul! is this blessedness thine in prospect? Art thou ready, if called this night to lie down on thy death-pillow, sweetly to fall asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? It is sin. Is death, then, to thee, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents of pardoning love, “Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee?” If thou hast made up thy peace with God, resting on the work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested of all his terror, and thou canst say, in sweet composure, of thy dying couch and dying hour,—“I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, because Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety!” Reader! ponder that solemn question,“Am I ready to die? Am I living as I should wish I had done when that last hour arrives?” And when shall it arrive? To-morrow is not thine. “Verily, there may be but a step between thee and death.” Oh! solve the question speedily,—risk no doubts and no peradventure. Every day is proclaiming anew the lesson, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” Seek to live, so that that hour cannot come upon thee too soon, or too unexpectedly. Live a dying life! How blessed to live,—how blessed to die, with the consciousness, that there may be but a step between thee and glory!

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”—Gal.vi. 9.

A Due Reaping.

Believer! all the glory of thy salvation belongs to Jesus,—none to thyself; every jewel in thine eternal crown is His,—purchased by His blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the ascription of all eternity: “By the grace of God I am what I am!” But though “all be of grace,” thy God calls thee to personal strenuousness in the work of thy high calling;—to “labour,” to “fight,” to “wrestle,” to “agonize;” and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the earthly sowing: “He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully!” What an incentive to holy living, and increased spiritual attainments! My soul! wouldst thoube a star shining high and bright in the firmament of glory?—wouldst thou receive the ten-talent recompense? Then be not weary. Gird on thine armour for fresh conquests. Be gaining daily some new victory over sin. Deny thyself. Be a willing cross-bearer for thy Lord’s sake. Do good to all men as thou hast opportunity; be patient under provocation, “slow to wrath,” resigned in trial. Let the world take knowledge of thee that thou art wearing Christ’s livery, and bearing Christ’s spirit, and sharing Christ’s cross. And when the reaping time comes, He who has promised that the cup of cold water cannot go unrecompensed, will not suffer thee to lose thy reward!

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“The days of thy mourning shall be ended.”—Isaiahlx. 20.

An End of Weeping.

Christ’s people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin—their own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is dishonoured—need we wonder at their tears?—that they should be called “Mourners,” and their pilgrimage-home a “Valley of Tears?” Bereavement, and sickness, and poverty, and death, following the track of sin, add to their mourning experience; and with many of God’s best beloved, one tear is scarce dried when another is ready to flow! Mourners! rejoice! When the reaping time comes, the weeping time ends! When the white robe and the golden harp are bestowed,every remnant of the sackcloth attire is removed. The moment the pilgrim, whose forehead is here furrowed with woe, bathes it in the crystal river of life,—that moment the pangs of a lifetime of sorrow are eternally forgotten! Reader! if thou art one of these careworn ones, the days of thy mourning are numbered! A few more throbbings of this aching heart, and then the angel who proclaims “time,” shall proclaim also, sorrow, and sighing, and mourning, to “be no longer!” Seek now to mourn thy sins more than thy sorrows; reserve thy bitterest tears for forgetfulness of thy dear Lord. The saddest and sorest of all bereavements, is when the sins which have separated thee from Him, evoke the anguish-cry, “Where is my God?”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“Behold, I come quickly.”—Rev.iii. 11.

A Speedy Coming.

“Even so! come, Lord Jesus!” “Why tarry the wheels of Thy chariot?” Six thousand years this world has rolled on, getting hoary with age, and wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn shadows of twilight announcing, “The Lord is at hand.” Prepare, my soul, to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when thine adorable Redeemer, so long dishonoured and despised, shall be publicly enthroned, in presence of an assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, satisfied in the fruits of His soul’s travail, destroying His enemies with the brightness of His coming—the lightning-glance of wrath,—causing the hearts of His exulting people to “rejoice with joyunspeakable and full of glory.” Prepare, my soul, to meet Him! Let it be a joyous thought to thee,—thy “blessed hope,”—the meeting of thine Elder Brother. Stand oftentimes on the watchtower to catch the first streak of that coming brightness, the first murmur of these chariot wheels. The world is now in preparation! It is rocking on its worn-out axle. There are voices on every side proclaiming, “He cometh! He cometh! to judge the earth.” Reader! art thou among the number of those who “love His appearing?” Remember the attitude of His expectant saints: “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, will findWatching!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“At evening-time it shall be light.”—Zech.xiv. 7.

Eventide Light.

How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of “a world to come!” Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the “better country.” But, alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar—the spirit droops—guilty fears depress—sin dims and darkens—God’s providences seem to frown—God’s ways are misinterpreted—the Christian belies his name and his destiny. But, “At eventide it shall be light.”—Thematerial sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled sky, sets often in a couch of lustrous gold? So, when the sun of life is setting, many a ray of light will shoot athwart memory’s darkened sky, and many mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an “All is well!” How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus especially felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings hushed with His own gentle accents, “Fear not! it is I; be not afraid.” A triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lighted with holy lustre, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life’s evening-tide be thine!

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”—Johnxiii. 7.

Heavenly Illumination.

As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in gloom. It is notalways“light” at his evening-time; but this we know, that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth’s shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on heaven’s chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! “in God’s light thou shalt see light;” the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now,—“A great deep” is all the explanation thou canst often give to His judgments; thewhyand thewhereforeHe seems tokeep from us, to test our faith, to discipline us in trustful submission, and lead us to say, “Thy will be done!” But rejoice in that hereafter-light which awaits thee! Now we see through a glass darkly; butthen, face to face. In the great mirror of eternity all the events of this chequered scene will be reflected; the darkest of them will be seen to be bright with mercy,—the severest dispensations, “only the severer aspects of His love!” Pry not, then, too curiously; pronounce not too censoriously on God’s dealings with thee. Wait with patience till the grand day of disclosures; one confession shall then burst from every tongue, “Righteous art thou, O Lord!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”—Johnxiv. 3.

A Glorious Reunion.

If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! “I will come again!” Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honour and dignity is this!—His saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. “WhereI am, there yeshall be also!” “Father, Iwill(it was His dying wish,—a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer) that those whom Thou hast given me be with me whereI am.” Happy reunion! Blessed Saviour, if Thy presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when known only by the invisible eye of faith, what mustbe that presence in a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory! Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family—the Head with all its members—the Vine with all its branches—the Shepherd with all His flock—the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided—ties snapt asunder on earth, indissolubly renewed—severed friendships reunited—the triumph of love complete—love binding brother with brother, and friend with friend, andallto the Elder Brother! My soul! what thinkest thou of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him upon His throne,—“Him that overcometh.”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever.”—Hoseaii. 19.

Everlasting Espousals.

How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath “married thee!” Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and there, thine espousals were contracted: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. “The Bridegroom tarrieth;” but see that thou dost not slumber and sleep! Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the burning lamps. At “midnight!” (the hour when He isleast expected) the crymaybe—shallbe heard,—“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” My soul! has this mystic union been formed between thee and thy Lord? Canst thou say, in humble assurance of thine affiance in Him, “My beloved is mine, and I am His!” If so, great, unspeakably great, are the glories which await thee! Thy dowry, as the bride of Christ, is all that Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a feeble creature can receive. In the prospect of those glorious nuptials, thou needest dread no pang of widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can take asunder; He betroths thee, and it is “for ever!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“This corruptible must put on incorruption.”—1 Cor.xv. 53.

A Joyful Resurrection.

Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the tones of the archangel’s trumpet!—the dishonoured dust, rising a glorified body, like its risen Lord’s? At death, the soul’s bliss is perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in the redemption price of Calvary; and “them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when Christ’s “dead men shall arise;”—when, together with His dead body, they shall come; and thesummons shall sound forth, “Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!” All the joys of that resurrection morn we cannot tell; but its chief glory wedoknow,—“When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Like Him!—My soul, art thou waiting this manifestation of the sons of God? Like Him!—Hast thou caught up any faint resemblance to that all-glorious image? Having this hope in thee, art thou purifying thyself, even as He is pure? Be much with Jesus now, that thou mayst exult in meeting Him hereafter. Thus taking Him as thy Guide and Portion in life, thou mayst lay thee down in thy dark and noisome cell, and look forward with triumphant hope to the dawn of a resurrection morn, saying, “What time I awake, I am still with Thee!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“There shall be no night there.”—Rev.xxi. 25.

A Nightless Heaven.

My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these midnight tossings on life’s tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. “His going forth is prepared as the morning.” That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. “Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light.” Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a nightless world!—the glories of a present God!—the everlasting light of the Three in One, quenching the radiance of all created orbs—superseding all material luminaries. “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than theythat watch for the morning!” The haven is nearing—star after star is quenched in more glorious effulgence—every bound over these dark waves is bringing thee nearer the eternal shore. Wilt thou not, then, humbly and patiently endure “weeping for the night,” in the prospect of the “joy that cometh in the morning?” Strange realities! a world without night—a firmament without a sun; and, greater wonder still,thyselfin this world,—a joyful denizen of this nightless, sinless, sorrowless, tearless Heaven!—basking underneath the Fountain of uncreated light! No exhaustion of glorified body and spirit to require repose; no lassitude or weariness to suspend the ever-deepening song: “Theyrest not!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”—1 Peterv. 4.

A Crown of Life.

What! is the beggar to be “raised from the dunghill, set among princes, and made to inherit a throne of glory?” is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, a guilty traitor, to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven—gifted with kingly honour—royally fed—royally clothed—royally attended—and, at last, royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall be the dispenser of royal diadems to His people; and when they shall begin the joyful ascription of all eternity, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made usKings——; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Wilt thou not be among the number? Shall the princes and monarchs of the earth wade through seas of blood for a corruptible crown; and wilt thou permit thyself to lose the incorruptible, or barter it for some perishable nothings of earth? Oh! that thou wouldst awake to thy high destiny, and live up to thy transcendant privileges as the citizen of a Kingly Commonwealth, a member of the blood-royal of Heaven. What wouldst thou not sacrifice,—what effort wouldst thou grudge, if thou wert included at last in the gracious benediction, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

“He is Faithful that Promised.”

“God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”—Rev.xxi. 3, 4.

The Vision and Fruition of God.

Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre to which every ray of light converges. God is “all in all.” Heavenwithout God!—it would send a thrill of dismay through the burning ranks of angels and archangels; it would dim every eye, and hush every harp, and change the whitest robe into sackcloth. And shall I then, indeed, “see God?” What! shall I gaze on these inscrutable glories, and live? Yes, God himself shall be with them, and be their God: they shall “see his face!” And not only thevision, but thefruition. Oh! how does sin in my holiest moments damp the enjoyment of Him! It is the “pure in heart” alone who can “see,” far more, who can enjoy “God.” Even if he did reveal himselfnow, these eyes could never endure His intolerable brightness. Butthen, with a heart purified from corruption—a world where the taint of sin and the power of temptation never enters—the soul again a bright mirror, reflecting the lost image of the Godhead—all the affections devoted to their original high destiny—the love of God the motive principle, the ruling passion—the glory of God the undivided object and aim—the will no opposing or antagonist bias,—man will, for the first time, know all the blessedness of his chief end,—“to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever!”

“REMEMBERTHISWORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!”

All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen.All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen.

All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen.

Transcriber’s Notes:Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected.11th Day: For consistency, “bypast” has been changed to “by-past”.16th Day: For consistency, “1 Peter1. 6.” has been changed to “1 Peteri. 6.”30th Day: The spelling of “transcendant” has been retained.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected.

11th Day: For consistency, “bypast” has been changed to “by-past”.

16th Day: For consistency, “1 Peter1. 6.” has been changed to “1 Peteri. 6.”

30th Day: The spelling of “transcendant” has been retained.

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