[April 11th, 1875.]
Death is the king of terrors. The event of all others the most to be dreaded, and even to irrational animals an object of dread. As the love of life is natural and instinctive, so is the fear of death. It is, however, not only instinctive, it is rational. (a.) It is the end of the only kind of existence of which we have any consciousness or experience. To the eye of sense, it is annihilation. The dead, to all appearances, are as non-existent as the unborn. Where are the generations of the past?
(b.) It is the loss of all our possessions, of all sources of enjoyment to which we have been accustomed. It is the sundering of all social ties, a final separation of parents and children, &c.
(c.) Though to the eye of sense death is annihilation, it is not so to the eye of reason or of conscience. Such is the intellectual and moral nature of man, that all men have the apprehension or conviction of a state of conscious existence after death. But what that state is, human reason cannot tell. It is Hades. The torch of Science and the lamp of Philosophy are extinguished in the mephitic exhalations of the grave. The soul at death enters upon the unknown, the dark, the boundless, the endless.
(d.) These, however, are not the considerations which render death so terrible. The sting of death is sin. We should have no fear. Knowing that God is everywhere, we should know that we should be safe and blessed within the arms of his love wherever he might see fit to carry us. Sin, of necessity, involves guilt, and guilt is a fearful looking for of judgment. As there is in our physical frame a capacity for suffering of which we seldom think, so there is a capacity for a degree of fear of the wrath of God of which we know but little. All men, however, know enough of pain to know how terrible it may be; so all men know enough of guilt to know that an awakened conscience may create a hell in a man’s own bosom. Paul says of the heathen that they know the righteous judgment of God, &c.
It is because men know that after death there is the judgment, that all their life-time, through fear of death, they are subject to bondage. To the guilty, therefore, death is, must be, and ought to be, the king of terrors.
There are men so stupid that they die as the ox dies. There are others so reckless that they fear not to challenge God to do his worst. Multitudes are in such a state of lethargy at the approach of death that they have no apprehension. These facts do not alter the case. It remains true that for a sinner unreconciled to God, death is the most dreadful of all events, and is so regarded just in proportion as the soul is duly enlightened.
The only possible way to deprive death of its terrors is freedom from sin. But the strength of sin is the law, and the law is the nature of God, and is therefore immutable and inexorable. The law says: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them;” and “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” The demands of God’s law, which are the demands of God’s nature, i.e., of reason and right, must be satisfied. How is this to be done? To this object the efforts of men have been directed, by sacrifices, by asceticism, by self-discipline. To this end men still direct their efforts when awakened. They fast, they pray, they strive to subdue the evil passions; but all in vain.
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has done what we could not do. He has fulfilled the demands of the law, preceptive and penal. He has borne our sins; he was made a curse. God can now be just, and yet justify the ungodly. Those who trust in him are pardoned. Their guilt is removed. They are reconciled to God. Their normal relation to him is restored; and, as a consequence, they are transformed into his image. They are congenial with him. Wherever he is, “the nearer to him, the more blessed.” Death to the individual believer is a messenger of grace, an angel sent to bear him nearer to God. Thus the believer can say: “O death, where is thy sting?”
The Scriptures reveal to us that the state on which we enter at death is one of holiness and conscious happiness. Paul in this chapter takes a wider range. Ever since the creation there has been a conflict over the human race between good and evil, sin and grace, Satan and Christ. Satan apparently triumphed. The race fell under guilt and condemnation. Death reigned over soul and body. Death and the grave were for the time victorious. But Christ assumed our nature. He fulfilled the law. He delivered the soul from the curse and power of sin. He rescued the body from corruption. And when his word is accomplished, all the ransomed saved, and their bodies raised in glory, then will be heard the shout of Cherubim and Seraphim: “O death, where is thy sting?”
Therefore, 1. Believe in Christ. 2. Consecrate yourselves to him. 3. Strive to save your fellow-men.
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