The Aged Christian in Death
Back to A Happy Old Age
Death sometimes seizes the young. Sometimes it overtakes a person as he journeys carelessly along the road of life. Sometimes it checks the seed — before it springs up. Sometimes it nips the flower — as it begins to open to the sun.
But death, while it has seized one and another person — has hitherto passed you by. You have lived, it may be, your sixty or eighty years. But now your turn is coming soon! The shore of eternity is not far off. You feel that you are drawing near to it.
Perhaps death has sounded its warning note in your ear. Its chariot wheels are drawing near. Your strength is breaking up. Yourappetite is gone. Your hearing is thick and dull. Your sight has grown dim. Ah, if this world was your eternal home — it would be but a sad one now! If your only delights were to be found in the world — your lot would indeed be a mournful one; for the world can do but little for you in your present state. It seems to turn its back upon you now.
But brighten up! Your Heavenly Father is near! He has blessings for you. He will not leave you in your declining years. 'I will be your God throughout your lifetime — until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you!' He is able to strengthen and comfort you in your hour of weakness. He can give you a peace which the world never gave you.
Now, I dare say — you wish to die well. You wish to leave this world with a true hope. Do you not? Then three things are specially needful to make your deathbed a happy one.
1. You must be brought to feel your guilt in God's sight. Many acknowledge this in words — but they do not thoroughly feel it in their hearts. But if the Holy Spirit awakens your soul — if you are really brought under His blessed influence — then you will not merely speak of being a sinner; but you will feel, and that deeply — the burden and guilt of sin. What a difference there is between the cold acknowledgment that you and all the world have sinned — and that deep conviction of sin which leads you to cry out in the agony of your soul, 'God be merciful to me — the sinner!'
Ask God to make you see what sin is. Pray that the Holy Spirit may show you your guilt, and lead you to sigh and cry for its removal.
'Ah,' you will say, 'is this what you mean by happiness on a deathbed? Such thoughts as these will only make me miserable!' There is some truth in this. But depend upon it, there can be no real happiness, until you have felt the misery of your sin — and had it removed. Your wound must be probed and laid open — before it can be healed. And is not this a blessed misery — if it leads to happiness? What if sorrow endures for a night — if joy dawns upon us in the morning? It is better to feel your sins now — than to feel them when you are beyond the reach of pardoning mercy! I always think that those are on the fair road to happiness, who have made the discovery that they have wandered and strayed from the right way, and are earnestly seeking to find a better path.
Look closely into your own evil heart. Try and bring every sin from its hiding-place. They lie, some of them, very deep. Pray then, 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'
Remember that there is not a sin which you have ever been guilty of — even though it be years and years ago — that is not written down in God's iron memory. The sins of your youth, which you may have long since quite forgotten — there they are, as fresh as if they had been just committed! Yes, you have need to ask God to wipe them out of His remembrance, though they will always be fresh in your own. The prayer of David will just suit you, 'Do not remember the sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.'
To feel your sins then is important — very important. But something more is needful. You must get them pardoned, blotted out, put away forever. And how can this be?
2. There is a way by which the guiltiest may obtain full and free forgiveness. There is a fountain in which the vilest may wash and be clean. The blood of Christ can wipe away our deepest stains. God has sent His Son to die upon the cross; and in that cross you may find mercy.
But perhaps you may imagine that you have no great need of such a Savior — that you have done nothing particularly wrong — that your heart is as clean as others — that you have lived a tolerably harmless life, and that God will at last accept you. No, dear friend, you are a sinner, a great sinner, in God's sight, though man may have nothing to lay to your charge. Oh, how much you have left undone! How much you have done wrongly! How much you have thought about your body — how little about your soul! How much have you cared about this world — how little about eternity! How much more have you loved yourself — than you have loved your Lord!
Be assured, your sins are great and many — far greater, and far more, than you can ever imagine. Go then, and throw yourself on Christ the great Sin-bearer. Bring your debt to Him, who has paid it with His blood. Believe on Him. Give your whole heart to Him. Say, 'Lord, enable me to love You. Make me to taste of Your preciousness. Look in mercy upon me — a vile sinner. Help me in my great need. Pardon all my guilt, and clothe me with Your perfect righteousness.'
3. But further — we need a holy heart. And God must give this. He alone can take away 'the heart of stone' — the hard, unbelieving, unloving heart. He alone can give you a 'heart of flesh' — a believing, loving, tender heart. Happy those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, whose souls are filled with His grace, and are daily more and more conformed to the image and likeness of Christ.
And can we ever be perfectly and completely holy here on earth? No, we shall carry about with us a sinful nature to the very last. Our refuge in a dying hour must not be any goodness of our own — but the merits and atonement of Jesus our Savior.
Perhaps this book may fall into the hands of one who has been long lying upon a sick-bed. Dear reader, your bed may be a bed of peace; and it will be so if you have found the Savior. All is well — if God is your God, and Christ is your Savior. Then you need not fear. He who is your Father keeps you there. You are His prisoner. He has the keys, and in His own good time He will unlock the door — and welcome you into His presence, to be with Him forever.
Or perhaps your end is near. Happy is it for you, if death and eternity are no strangers to you. Happy for you — if Jesus is your portion, and heaven your home. Then you have only to die; and death has lost its sting with you. Christ has plucked it out. You can say with the Apostle, 'I know whom I have believed.' And you can add with David, 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.'
There is now but a step between you and death. And well that it is so, if you are a true servant of God. You have nothing to dread. Death, which is 'the king of terrors' to the ungodly, is like a 'welcome messenger' to you. It is like the plank on which the sailor walks to shore, after having been tossed on the troubled ocean. It will bear you to your Father's arms! It will lay you in your Savior's bosom.
Ah, though it is hard to bear weakness and suffering — though days of pain and nights of weariness are appointed you — still you will willingly endure all this — if Christ is with you. If He 'makes all your bed in your sickness' then that bed will be a bed ofblessing to you. It is better to lie there with God for your Friend — than to enjoy health and strength without Him. Your last illness may be a very precious time to you — the most important season of your whole life — the time when you shall receive the fullest communications from God, and enjoy the truest peace.
Let Christ be your watchword in death, your hope, your joy, your portion, your all. Think of Him, when you can think of nothing else.Cling to Him, when all else is slipping as it were from under you. Be assured — He will never leave you, nor forsake you.
I have read of a dying Christian, a venerable servant of God, whose wife and children stood around his bed weeping. His speech was well-near gone, and his memory had nearly left him. One of his children had asked him, 'Father, do you remember me?' and received no answer. Another and another also — but still no answer. Then his aged partner drew near. She bends over him; and as tears fall down her cheeks, she says, 'Do you not remember me?' A vacant stare. There is no light in that filmy eye. The seal of death is upon those lips. His sun has almost gone done. The shadows of death are upon him.
Then one calmer than the rest, who remembered that the love of Christ is 'strong as death,' stooped to his ear, and said, 'Do you remember Christ?' That name seemed for a moment to call back his consciousness. His pale countenance lighted up, like the last beam of day; and with a smile he replied, 'Remember Christ! Dear Christ! He is all my salvation, and all my desire!'
May this be your feeling and mine in the hour of our departure!
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