Death

What benefits affliction can confer on the soul. We read, that anxiety about a son led the nobleman to Christ, in order to obtain help in time of need. Once brought into Christ’s company, he learned a lesson of priceless value. In the end, “he believed, and his whole house.” All this, be it remembered, hinged upon the son’s sickness. If the nobleman’s son had never been ill, his father might have lived and died in his sins. Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly. Health is a great blessing, but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort, are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ. Thousands at the last day, will testify with David, and the nobleman before us, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” (Psa. 119:71.) Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble. Let us settle it firmly in our minds, that there is a meaning, a needs be, and a message from God, in every sorrow that falls upon us. There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction. There is no commentary that opens up the Bible so much as sickness and sorrow. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit.” (Heb. 12:11.) The resurrection morning will prove, that many of the losses of God’s people were in reality eternal gains.

Sickness and death come to the young as well as to the old. We read of a son sick unto death, and a father in trouble about him. We see the natural order of things inverted. The elder is obliged to minister to the younger, and not the younger to the elder. The child draws nigh to the grave before the parent, and not the parent before the child. The lesson is one which we are all slow to learn. We are apt to shut our eyes to plain facts, and to speak and act, as it young people, as a matter of course, never died when young. And yet the grave-stones in every churchyard would tell us, that few people out of a hundred ever live to be fifty years old, while many never grow up to man’s estate at all. The first grave that ever was dug on this earth, was that of a young man. The first person who ever died, was not a father but a son. Aaron lost two sons at a stroke. David, the man after God’s own heart, lived long enough to see three children buried. Job was deprived of all his children in one day. These things were carefully recorded for our learning. He that is wise, will never reckon confidently on long life. We never know what a day may bring forth. The strongest and fairest are often cut down and hurried away in a few hours, while the old and feeble linger on for many years. The only true wisdom is to be always prepared to meet God, to put nothing off which concerns eternity, and to live like men ready to depart at any moment. So living, it matters little whether we die young or old. Joined to the Lord Jesus, we are safe in any event.

Verse 1

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Verse 2

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Verse 3

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

Verse 4

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless:
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Verse 5

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee:
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Verse 1

A few more years shall roll,
A few more seasons come,
And we shall be with those that rest
Asleep within the tomb:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that great day;
O wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 2

A few more storms shall beat
On this wild rocky shore,
And we shall be where tempests cease,
And surges swell no more:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that calm day;
O wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 3

A few more struggles here,
A few more partings o’er,
A few more toils, a few more tears,
And we shall weep no more:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that blest day;
O wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 4

A few more Sabbaths here
Shall cheer us on our way,
And we shall reach the endless rest,
The eternal Sabbath-day:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that sweet day;
O wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 5

’Tis but a little while,
And He shall come again
Who died that we might live, who lives
That we with Him may reign:
Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that glad day;
O wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 1

A few more years shall roll,
A few more seasons come,
And we shall be with those that rest
Asleep within the tomb.

Verse 2

A few more suns shall set
O’er these dark hills of time,
And we shall be where suns are not,
A far serener clime.

Verse 3

A few more storms shall beat
On this wild rocky shore,
And we shall be where tempests cease,
And surges swell no more.

Verse 4

A few more struggles here,
A few more partings o’er,
A few more toils, a few more tears,
And we shall weep no more.

Verse 5

’Tis but a little while
And he shall come again,
Who died that we might live, who lives
That we with him may reign.

Verse 6

Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that great day;
Oh, wash me in thy precious blood,
And take my sins away.

Verse 1

Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Verse 2

Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Verse 3

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin!

Verse 4

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes to tears.

Verse 5

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do.

Refrain

Jesus died for you,
And Jesus died for me,
Yes, Jesus died for all mankind;
Bless God, salvation’s free.

Refrain

Help me, dear Savior, thee to own,
And ever faithful be;
And when thou sittest on thy throne.
O Lord, remember me.

Verse 1

And let this feeble body fail,
And let it faint or die;
My soul shall quit the mournful vale,
And soar to worlds on high--

Verse 2

Shall join the disembodied saints,
And find its long-sought rest;
That only bliss for which it pants,
In the Redeemer’s breast.

Verse 3

In hope of that immortal crown
I now the cross sustain;
And gladly wander up and down,
And smile at toil and pain.

Verse 4

I suffer on my three-score years,
Till my Deliverer come,
And wipes away his servant’s tears,
And takes his exile home.

Verse 1

Are there no wounds for me?
Hast thou received them all?
How can I, Lord, the anguish see,
Beneath which thou didst fall?

Verse 2

’Tis over now, I know,--
That suffering life of thine;
Thy precious blood has ceased to flow,
Thou wear’st thy crown divine;

Verse 3

But yet, I weeping see
The thorns which pierced thy head;
Thou faint’st beneath thy cross for me,
For me to death thou’rt led!

Verse 4

Meekly, with love divine,
Thy holy head is bent,
And streams of blood, for sins of mine,
Flow where thy side is rent.

Verse 5

Beneath this sacred flood
I bow my sinful soul;
Dear Savior, let thy precious blood
Wash me and make me whole.

Verse 1

As fade the stars at morn away,
Their glory gone in perfect day,
So pass away the friends we love,
Their presence lost in worlds above,
While we o’er their slumbers are weeping.

Verse 2

As sink the stars when night is o’er,
To rise upon some other shore,
So sink our precious ones from sight,
In other skies to walk in light,
While we sorrow’s vigils are keeping.

Verse 3

No more in east, or in the west,
Fade they from sight, or sink to rest;
Fixed firm in that celestial air,
They radiant shine eternal there;
Our hearts up to meet them fond leaping.

Verse 1

Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep;
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes.

Verse 2

Asleep in Jesus! O how sweet
To be for such a slumber meet;
With holy confidence to sing
That death hath lost his venomed sting.

Verse 3

Asleep in Jesus! peaceful rest,
Whose waking is supremely blest;
No fear, no woe, shall dim that hour
That manifests the Saviour’s power.

Verse 4

Asleep in Jesus! O for me
May such a blissful refuge be;
Securely shall my ashes lie,
Waiting the summons from on high.

Verse 5

Asleep in Jesus! far from thee
Thy kindred and their graves may be;
But thine is still a blessed sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep.