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 What is DEATH?
‘To Dwell with Him
Forevermore’
By D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the
flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with
Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more
needful for you. (Phil. 1:21-24)
We come now to the second
statement in the twenty-first verse: ‘to die is
gain’. In our last study we followed Paul as he considers the
possibility of remaining in life, and we saw how he says so magnificently
that for him to ‘live is Christ’. But
now we look at him as he faces the other possibility, death. And
immediately, before giving any reasons at all, he says that for him to die
is gain. So here, again, he makes one of those challenging and thrilling
statements which are so characteristic of his letters.
The Apostle thus brings us
face to face with what I would call the second great Question of life,
one that every thinking, thoughtful person should of necessity be pondering
constantly. The first question which we considered in the last study
is what is life? And the man who does not face that problem is, in
the philosophical sense of the word, a fool. But now we come to this
second question, what is death? What is it going to mean to us? What
is our attitude to it? Now here again I am constrained to say that surely
there is nothing that is quite so extraordinary about men and women as the
way in which they not only evade this question, but dislike it. There is no
need to seek proof for that. You start talking about death to anybody, and
immediately they will charge you with being morbid. The argument is that it
will come soon enough in any case and you need not go to meet it. To talk
about death is not popular; nor is preaching about it – it is very rarely
done these days. The whole concern of life seems to be to help people to
forget the fact of death and to postpone it as long as possible. Of course,
that is very different from the attitude of our forefathers, and especially
of the Puritans of the seventeenth century with their great tradition; a
time, let me remind you, when the real foundations of the greatness of this
country were laid. Those men thought perpetually of life in terms of death,
but this has all become unusual and strange. People dislike it, and regard
it as unhealthy.
But this is an attitude
which, apart from being quite ridiculous and senseless, is utterly
inconsistent with what we do in so many other respects. We never get
annoyed with the man who persuades us to take out a health or a life
insurance policy, that is admitted to be the height of wisdom. “Surely,’
one man says, ‘you are not going to take these risks, your house may be
burnt down.’ Or another says, ‘Can’t you see how wise it is to make
provision for these possibilities?’ The thing on which modern man prides
himself so much is that he is making provision, and he covers himself in
every respect. And yet, when it comes to this, the most certain and the
most vital and the most important fact and event of all, he completely
reverses the process and even becomes annoyed with anyone who impresses upon
him the duty and the importance of facing it and of making some provision
for it.
Now that, to me, is such
an interesting attitude. It is so utterly inconsistent that it does
seem to affirm the biblical teaching with respect to man and his attitude
toward death. There is only one way of explaining this modern reaction
toward the subject and that is that modern man, in spite of his apparently
blasé attitude towards death, is simply in the position that is described in
Hebrews 2:15, where we are told that men in sin, ‘through
fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’ That
is the cause of the annoyance, and of this disinclination to face and to
consider the subject. That is why men feel you are insulting them when you
ask them if they are ready to die; if this were not true, they would not
react so strongly.
But here we have a
statement by a man who immediately makes us see that there is an entirely
different attitude towards death. Paul says, I am facing it, I have
looked at it, and I say with respect to it, ‘to die
is gain’. Now of all the achievements of the gospel there is
none, perhaps, which is quite so striking as the way in which it has
entirely changed the attitude of mankind towards death. If you consider
death apart from the New Testament gospel, you will see at once what I
mean. Take even the Old Testament. In its view of death the Old Testament
rises higher than any pagan philosophy or teaching, yet, when you read it,
you find that there is still an element of uncertainty. It sometimes has a
hope, the writer of a psalm seems to rise to a higher level and almost gets
hold of the fact of the resurrection, yet it is shadowy and uncertain. You
even find psalms in which the Psalmist complains that when a man dies, he
dies altogether – ‘In the grave who shall give thee
thanks?’ (Ps. 6:5).
It is only with our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that we find the new attitude to this question of
death. As Paul puts it to Timothy, it is Christ who has brought life
and incorruption, or immortality, to light through the gospel (2 Tim.
1:10). The moment you come to the New Testament, and especially when you
read the Gospels, you find an entirely new outlook upon death,
something new and strange which the world has never known before. Of
course, in the last analysis it is due to the resurrection; it was
there that the final proof was given that death could be, and has been
conquered. By rising from the dead our Lord made it perfectly clear to his
disciples that he had conquered death and the grave. And it was because of
that great and glorious fact that Peter and all the apostles and all the
first Christians had this completely new view of death, and could
face it with a smile, and could say ‘to die is gain’.
And also, of course, in
the light of the resurrection they were reminded of many promises
that had been made our Lord himself in the days of his flesh. They
remembered how he had said, ‘Let not your heart be
troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are
many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I
am, there ye may be also’ (John 14:1-3). And in the light of the
resurrection that becomes the glorious possibility. Thus, it was because of
the teaching of our Lord and especially because of the resurrection, that
the Apostle was able to write this glowing, challenging, magnificent
statement to the church at Philippi.
Yet, once more, as we look
at it, we are not merely looking at an objective statement, we are really
examining ourselves. This is a statement that is meant to be true, not
only for Paul, but for every Christian. Paul, as I have pointed out, never
claimed uniqueness for himself in that respect; in our Christian
experience we are all meant to be the same, and if Paul can face death
like this, I ought to be able to as well. But can I really do so? Am I
facing death in this particular way? I think we must agree that this again
is one of those deep, thorough-going searching analyses of our very
profession of the Christian faith. If you asked which was the most
difficult and searching test – to say, ‘to me to
live is Christ’, or to say, ‘to die is
gain’ – I wonder what your reply would be? For myself, I have no
hesitation in saying that the former is the more difficult test. I
do not feel that the second statement is as difficult to say as the first
and I will you why. The fact and the question of my death and eternal
destiny, thank God, is determined by Christ. If I believe at all in Jesus
of Nazareth as the Son of God, and in his death on Calvary, and in his
resurrection, then whatever may happen to me, ‘to
die is gain’. I know it is right, it must be right. But when I
am asked to say, ‘to me to live is Christ’,
then it is not so much something that he does for me, as something that I
myself have to do and in that sense living is more difficult that dying.
Perhaps there is little
point in comparing the two, and yet I think it is important. To be
able to say, ‘to die is gain’ is a very
thorough test. It may not be as difficult and as searching as the other
and, yet, how vital it is. In other words, it comes to us like this: do
I feel as I face the fact of death that it is going to be gain to me?
Can I look at it as the Apostle looked at it? Now in order to help us in
this self-examination let me remind you of some of the ways in which
people do look death, so that we may see to which of these groups we
belong. So often when we come to the practical test like this we seem to
belong to other categories instead of to the Christian. What, then, are
some of the common, characteristic views of death at the present time?
First, there is a fear or a hatred of death. Death is the last
enemy, that haggard person that some ever nearer and nearer, and we have a
horror of it. Another attitude is that of resignation. It
has got to come and I have to face it, so it is no use worrying or being
annoyed about it. Then a third view, which men have tried to make
popular in the last hundred years or so, is that we must have courage,
we must stand up to it and refuse to be frightened; not resignation but a
kind of defiance.
And then, lastly, there is
the Christian’s attitude.
I think perhaps the best
way of putting these different views is to put them in the form of three
quotations of poetry which I found once in a book and which seem to me
to put this whole case very well. They certainly express the fear,
and the defiant courage, and the Christian’s view of death.
But before I come to these, let me give you what I consider to be the
best description of resignation; it is given by Walter Savage Landor.
I strove with none;
For none was worth my strife;
Nature I loved and next to Nature, Art
I warmed both hands before the fire of life;
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Resignation! The fire is
going out in the grate; it sinks and I am ready to depart.
But now, bearing that in
mind, let me remind you of the other three attitudes that have here
been put together in a most interesting manner. One idea at the back of
these three quotations is of death as drinking the ‘stirrup cup’.
There was an old custom that when cavalrymen set out upon their exploits
they drank from the stirrup cup and that idea is reflected here and so too
is the apocalyptic symbol Revelation 6 of death as the pale horse.
There was once a man
called the Hon. John Hay who was at one time Secretary of State in the
United States, and this is how he expresses the fear and horror death:
My short and happy day is done,
The long and lonely night comes on,
And at my door the pale horse stands
To bear me forth to unknown lands.
His whirring shrill, his pawing
hoof
Sound dreadful as the gathering storm,
And must I leave this sheltering roof
And joys of life, so soft and warm?
Oh, joys of life, so soft and warm,
Kind friends so faithful and so true,
My rosy children and my wife
So sweet to kiss, so fair to view.
So sweet to kiss, so fair to view,
The night comes on, the light burns blue,
And at my door the pale horse stands
To bear me forth to unknown lands.
When General E. P.
Alexander read that, he felt that it expressed nothing but the fear of
death: a strange adventure, terrifying and horrid but unavoidable. He felt
that this was not good enough, and he wanted to express in dauntless
unfaltering language the way in which he would face death, so he
wrote these lines in the light of that first poem:
But storm and gloom and mystery
Shall only nerve my courage high;
Who through life’s scenes hath borne his
part
May face its close with tranquil heart.
No trembling hand will grasp the rein
This life has not been mine in vain;
In unknown lands I’ll seek my place,
I’ll drain the cup and boldly face
The heritage of the human race
Whose birthright is to pierce the gloom
And solve the mystery of the tomb.
I follow some, and others lead
From whom my soul would ne’er divide
One fate for all. Where moves the great
Procession, there let me abide.
Now both these poems came
into the hands of James Powis Smith, a distinguished minister from the state
of Virginia, someone who had fought with Stonewall Jackson, and had ridden
with him through many a valley of the shadow of death. He felt that the
fear of death as expressed by the Hon. John Hay was not good enough and
that General Alexander, too, had failed in his attempt at courage; so
he, as Christian, wrote this:
The pale horse stands and will not bide,
The night has come and I must ride;
But not alone to unknown lands,
My Friend goes with me holding hands.
I’ve fought the fight; I’ve run the race,
I now shall see him face to face,
Who called me to him long ago
And bade me trust and follow.
The joys of life have been his gift,
My friends I’ll find when clouds shall
lift;
I leave my home and all its store
To dwell with him for evermore.
What does he give? His cup of love
Until with him I rest above;
I’ll mount and ride, no more to roam,
The pale horse bears me to my home.
You see the difference
– not fear, not mere resignation, not an attempt at boldness and courage,
but triumph; he smiles at it, he is confident, he is certain. Now
that is the characteristic expression of the Christian’s attitude towards
death, and that is what Paul says in one phrase in this magnificent
statement – ‘to die is gain’.
Now Paul, here, is not
talking so much about the act of dying as about the state in which the
Christian finds himself after death; though in a way he does give us
hint about the dying in the surrounding verses and that is why we must read
them with this phrase. In verse 23, he uses the word to depart.
The authorities are not quite agreed as to the exact meaning of this word.
There are two possible translations, but no one can prove which is
really correct; in a sense they both say the same thing. The first
is the idea of lifting the anchor. There is the ship in harbor, the
anchor is raised and the ship sets out upon her voyage. Death, therefore,
means passing from this land across a narrow sea and entering another
harbor, or crossing the narrow sea from this world to the next and then
living the land of pure delight. That is one suggestion; to depart means
boarding the ship, crossing the sea and arriving at your ultimate
destination.
The other possible
meaning for this word is striking the tent, breaking up the camp and
going on with the journey. Now you can choose whichever you prefer, but
for myself I have no hesitation in accepting the second, because it
seems to the characteristic Jewish view of life. Paul writes in 2
Corinthians 5:1, ‘For we know that if our earthy
house of this tabernacle were dissolved…’ That is the idea.
Peter, too, in his second epistle tells the Christians that as long as he is
‘in this tabernacle’ or tent, he is
going to go on reminding them of certain things, ‘knowing
that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath shewed me’ (2 Pet. 1:13-14). That was the typical Jewish
view. The idea was that this is a temporary world where you live in
tents; there are no permanent buildings here. Death means breaking up
the camp, striking the tent, moving on to the permanent residence which is
awaiting you. That is how Paul views the act of death – just a
moving from this world to the next.
But, you remember, and we
must surely note it as we deal with this subject, the beautiful statement
with regard to the fear of dying that was made by our Lord himself in his
story of Lazarus and Dives: ‘It came to pass that
the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.’
And what a glorious statement that is. You know, my friends, we do not
understand these things, but we believe this on the authority of the Son of
God himself. If you and I are in Christ when the last act comes, the final
crossing, we shall be carried by angels. That is death to the Christian.
But, as I say, Paul was
really concerned here, not with the act, but with the state and condition of
the Christian after death. ‘It is gain,’
he says and because of this he adds in verse 23, ‘I
am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with
Christ; which is far better,’ Indeed, we ought to translate it
like this: ‘…which is very far better.’
And what more could he say than that?
So then, the question for
us is, why is it far better to die and to be with Christ? Let me
suggest some of the answers. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews helps
us by putting it like this: ‘For they that say such
things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had
been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had
opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that
is, an heavenly…’ (Heb. 11:14-16). He has already said that they
were ultimately seeking for ‘a city which hath
foundations’, not a tent, or an encampment, but an immovable,
unshakeable city ‘whose builder and maker is God’.
That is ‘much better’ because it is a
permanent place. To put it in a slightly different way, it means going to a
life which is not transitory but is never ending. Again, as the author of
Hebrews says in chapter 13, verse 14, ‘For here we
have no continuing [or abiding] city, but we
seek one to come.’ It is continuing, everlasting and changeless
condition, an abiding life which is far better, for that reason; it is not
contingent and transitory like this one.
But then I must mention
this other idea, the idea of death as just going home. Paul, in
effect, puts it like this: ‘If I consult my own longing I should desire
to dissolve this earthly tabernacle and to go home to Christ.’ Can you
think of anything more beautiful than that – to go home to Christ? I
am certain that is what Paul meant. You note at the end of Philippians 3
that the words in the Authorized Version are ‘our
conversation [citizenship] is in heaven.’
Someone once described Christians as ‘a colony of heaven, waiting for the
homeland’. We have been sent here to colonize this particular place to
which we belong. And that is what Paul seems to think. I am a stranger
here, a pilgrim, a sojourner, heaven is my home; death means going home: it
is far better.
Let me suggest another
reason to you why to die is gain. In Christ and his resurrection I
shall get rid of the ‘the body of this death’,
the desire, the list, the things that remain of the old man and all that is
sinful and imperfect. Christ assures me of an ultimate glorification when I
shall be entirely free from sin, not only from its guilt and power
but also from its pollution. The day will come when none of the elements of
sin will be left in us, we shall be utterly and absolutely free from it
all.
What else? Well,
to know fully and finally, and to understand, and see, things as they
are. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, ‘Now we
see through a glass, darkly’; thank God for the little that we do
see in life, life would be impossible if we did not see that much, but even
at its best it only ‘in a glass darkly’,
and then it will be ‘face to face’. We
shall see things clearly then, the whole sweep of the great plan of
salvation. Oh, to see God and wonder and the glory of it, to know and to
understand without limit or hindrance!
But we must end in this
way. What really makes death gain, says Paul, is that it means to
be with Christ. That is the great, the positive thing; the others I
have mentioned have, in a sense, been negative. This is what makes Paul
say, If I had the power to choose, I would choose death, for this reason
– to see him as he is. I put it again as I did earlier: Paul had had
that glimpse of Christ on the road to Damascus. He had seen the face and
never had he forgotten it, and this is what dying meant to Paul – to go
on and see him always, to spend the whole of eternity looking at him.
To be with Christ, just to look into his face, that is heaven, that is
eternal bliss, that is what Paul longed for and lived for; and then to enjoy
perfect communion with him for ever, without any hindrance,
without any interference, without any intermission.
Thank God for the
experiences we have in this world from time to time when we feel that Christ
is with us and speaking to us, but , alas, it is not a permanent condition.
There are days when the soul seems lifeless and Christ seems far away, and
the communion is broken, but, as Paul says, we walk by faith and not by
sight; in spite of our feelings, and all the things that seem to be against
us, we just go on by faith. But there the communion is
unbroken, there is never an intermission and we shall enjoy his
companionship for ever and for ever.
Well, these are some of
the things, surely, that make Paul say that to die is gain. Let me add
just a footnote. People have often asked me why we are not told more
in the New Testament about life beyond the grave. I have two answers
to give. The first is this and I am sure that it is right: we are
not told more because there is a sense in which we cannot be told more.
Everything in this world is sinful, even our language. I do not hesitate to
assert, therefore, that if the New Testament had given us a detailed
description of heaven and of being with Christ our language would
misrepresent it. Our language is not pure enough; the thing is so wonderful
that all the vocabularies of the universe are not adequate to describe it.
It is so glorious and wonderful that we need to be qualified and perfected
before we can take the description or are capable of understanding it. I
am sure that is the first answer.
The other answer is
that we are deliberately not told, in order that we may think of it only as
Paul thought of it. Paul only put in one way. It is not just to be rid of
the things I have mentioned. They are for my perfecting. The only reason
for wanting to go to heaven is that I may be with Christ, that I may see
him. That is why the little word ‘and’ is so important – ‘to
me to live is Christ and to die is gain’. The only man
who is really happy about death, the only one who can say confidently, ‘to
die is gain’, is the man who has said, ‘to
me to live is Christ’. You remember the prophet Balaam who said,
‘Let me die the death of the righteous’
(Num. 23:10). But he forgot that if you want to die the death of the
righteous you have to live the life of the righteous. If I want to be able
to say with certainty ‘to die is gain’,
I must be able to say here and now ‘to me to live
is Christ’. That is what enabled Paul to say it. Christ was the
consuming passion of his life: to know him to dwell with him, that is the
thing, said Paul, that is my life, and therefore to die must be gain; to
go home, to be with Christ, is very far better.
God grant, my beloved
friends, that as we examine ourselves in the light of life and death we may
be able to join the Apostle in his glorious affirmation.
Click here for Lloyd-Jones message: What is Life?
Now read what Spurgeon
has to say from this text:
DEATH IS LOSS,
But Oh, What Gain!
by C. H. SPURGEON
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
— Philippians 1:21
Surely DEATH is
loss. When I look upon thee, thou clay-cold corpse, and see thee just
preparing to be the palace of corruption and the carnival for worms, I
cannot think that thou hast gained! When I see that thine eye hath lost
light, and thy lip hath lost its speech, and thine ears have lost hearing,
and thy feet have lost motion, and thy heart hath lost its joy, and they
that look out of the windows are darkened, the grinders have failed, and no
sounds of tabret and of harp wake up thy joys, O clay-cold corpse, thou
hast lost, lost immeasurably.
And yet my text tells me that it is not so. It says, "To
die is gain." It
looks as if it could not be thus; and certainly it is not, so far as I can
see. But put to your eye the telescope of faith, take that magic glass which
pierces through the veil that parts us from the unseen. Anoint your eyes
with eye salve, and make them so bright that they can pierce the ether, and
see the unknown worlds. Come, bathe yourself in this sea of light, and live
in holy revelation and belief, and then look, and oh, how changed the scene!
Here is the corpse, but there the spirit; here is the clay, but there the
soul; here is the carcass, but there the seraph. He is supremely blest; his
death is GAIN.
Come now, what did he lose? I will show that in everything he lost, he
gained far more. He lost his friends, did he? His wife, and his children,
his brethren in church fellowship, are all left to weep his loss. Yes, he
lost them; but, my brethren, what did he gain? He gained more friends than
ever he lost. He had lost many in his lifetime, but he meets them all again.
Parents, brethren and sisters who had died in youth or age, and passed the
stream before him, all salute him on the further brink. There the mother
meets her infant, there the father meets his children, there the venerable
patriarch greets his family to the third and fourth generation, there
brother clasps brother to his arms, and husband meets with wife, no more to
be married or given in marriage, but to live together, like the angels of
God.
Some of us have more friends in Heaven than in earth; we have more dear
relations in glory than we have here. It is not so with all of us, but with
some it is so; more have crossed the stream than are left behind. But if it
be not so, yet what friends we have to meet us there!
Oh, I reckon on the day of death if it were for the mere hope of seeing the
bright spirits that are now before the throne; to clasp the hands of
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, to look into the face of Paul the apostle,
and grasp the hand of Peter; to sit in flowery fields with Moses and David,
to bask in the sunlight of bliss with John and Mary Magdalene.
Oh how blest! The company of poor, imperfect saints on earth is good; but
how much better the society of the redeemed! Death is no loss to us by way
of friends. We leave a few, a little band below, and say to them, "Fear
not little flock," and we ascend and meet the armies of the
living God, the hosts of his redeemed. "To die is
gain."
Yes, brethren, "TO DIE IS GAIN."
Take away, take away that hearse, remove that shroud; come, put white plumes
upon the horse's heads, and let gilded trappings hang around them. There,
take away that fife, that shrill sounding music of the death march. Lend me
the trumpet and the drum. O Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah; why weep we
the saints gone to glory; why need we lament? They are not dead, they are
gone before. Stop, stop that mourning, refrain thy tears, clap your hands,
clap your hands... "They are supremely blest, have done with care and sin
and woe. And with their Saviour rest."
What! weep! weep for heads that are crowned with coronals of heaven? Weep,
weep for hands that grasp the harps of gold? What, weep for eyes that see
the Redeemer? What, weep for hearts that are washed from sin, and are
throbbing with eternal bliss? What, weep for men that are in the Saviour's
bosom?
No; weep for yourselves, that you are here. Weep that the mandate has not
come which bids you to die. Weep that you must tarry. But weep not for them.
I see them turning back on you with loving wonder, and they exclaim, "Why
weepest thou?" What, weep for poverty that it is clothed in
riches? What, weep for sickness, that it hath inherited, eternal health?
What, weep for shame, that it is glorified; and weep for sinful mortality,
that it hath become immaculate? Oh, weep not, but rejoice. "If
ye knew what it was that I have said unto you, and whither I have gone, ye
would rejoice with a joy that no man should take from you." — "TO
DIE IS GAIN."
Ah, this makes the Christian long to die — makes him say, "Oh, that the word
were given! O Lord of Hosts, the wave divide, and land us all in heaven!"
And now, friends, does this belong to you ALL?
Can you claim an interest in it? Are you living to Christ? Does Christ live
in you? For, if not, your death will not be in gain. Are you a
believer in the Saviour? Has your heart been renewed, and your conscience
washed in the blood of Jesus? If not, my hearer, I weep for thee. I will
save my tears for lost friends; there, with this handkerchief I'd staunch
mine eyes forever for my best beloved that shall die, if those tears could
save you.
O, when you die, what a day! If the world were hung in sackcloth, it could
not express the grief that you would feel. You die. Oh death! Oh death! how
hideous art thou to men that are not in Christ! and yet, my hearer, thou
shalt soon die. Save me thy bed of shrieks, thy look of gall, thy words of
bitterness! Oh that thou couldst be saved the dread hereafter! Oh! the wrath
to come! the wrath to come! the wrath to come! who is he that can preach of
it?
Horrors strike the guilty soul! It quivereth upon the verge of death; no, on
the verge of hell. It looketh over, clutching hard to life, and it heareth
there the sullen groans, the hollow moans, and shrieks of tortured ghosts,
which come up from the pit that is bottomless, and it clutcheth firmly to
life, clasps the physician, and bids him hold, lest he should fall into the
pit that burneth. And the spirit looketh down and seeth all the fiends of
everlasting punishments, and back it recoileth. But die it must. It would
barter all it hath to coin an hour; but no, the fiend hath got its grip, and
down it must plunge.
And who can tell the hideous shriek of a lost soul? It cannot reach heaven;
but if it could, it might well be dreamed that it would suspend the melodies
of angels, might make even God's redeemed weep, if they could hear the
wailings of a damned soul. Ah! you men and women, ye have wept; but if you
die unregenerate, there will be no weeping like that; there will be no
shriek like that, no wail like that. May God spare us from ever hearing it
or uttering it ourselves! Oh, how the grim caverns of Hades startle, and how
the darkness of night is frighted, when the wail of a lost soul comes up
from the ascending flames, whilst it is descending in the pit.
"Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of
Israel?" Christ is preached to you. "This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners." Believe on him and live, ye
guilty, vile, perishing; believe and live. But this know — if ye reject my
message, and despise my Master, in that day when he shall judge the world in
righteousness by that man, JESUS CHRIST, I must be a swift witness against
you. I have told you — at your soul's peril reject it. Receive my message,
and you are saved; reject it — take the responsibility on your own head.
Behold, my skirts are clear of your blood. If ye be damned, it is not for
want of warning. Oh God grant, ye may not perish.
— Excerpted from C. H. Spurgeon's sermon #146 "The
Good Man's Life and Death" - "http://www.spurgeon.org"
NPSP Vol 3,
Year 1857, pgs. 314-316, Philippians 1:21
Check out Spurgeon Gems "http://www.spurgeongems.org/"
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