[To see no more the glad sunlight in the shining air, to] [hear no more the song of birds, to delight no more in the] [splendour and fragrance of flowers, to watch the glorious] [beauty of the creation fade on the dying sight, as the] [sunset glow pales in the west and the pall of night settles] [over all, and to pass out into a world of dark and dreary] [shadows,-- a world which no sunlight quickens, no glow] [of life inspires!] To cast a last glance round the dear home circle, to look the last look into the eyes which have been to us, through all the stress and strain of life's battle, fountains of inspiration and hope! To touch for the last time the lips of the little ones crying and sobbing around [the parting soul]; to grasp for the last time the hand of dear and long tried comrades, [whose daily fellowship] [has lent its chief interest and joy to life!] To let the gaze wander feebly and lingeringly over the familiar scenes of the home or the business, the accustomed stool at the desk or seat by the hearth, and bid them a last, an eternal farewell! [There and thus we have lived; we have] [had no notion of life but this, and here we can live no] [longer, while the future is a dark unknown world, of] [which we will know but this, that the place which knows us] [now will know us no more for ever; that plead, strive,] [agonize as we may, never, never can we revisit the familiar] [scenes, gaze into the familiar faces, and refresh our hearts] [with a vision of the vanished life! It is this, the break,] which we have connected with living, which makes the dying so terrible, which drapes the unseen world into which the passing soul goes forth in [the] dreariest darkness, [while the world from which the inexorable sentence] [expels it seems radiant with sunlight, bathed with flood] [of life and joy.] Heb 2:15 2 objects of Xt.'s mission: "Destroy him who had the power of death" = devil Deliver from "fear of death." Fear of dying universal as sin - because a fruit of sin. Yet, a salvatory fear in some respects. Such, to some, is the burden of life as to fairly sicken them with it: and, were this sickness not counteracted by some strong principle in the human soul, it would, foar often than it does, lead to self-murder But the [dread] anticipation of the dying pang - of the darkness and gloom of mind that may attend the dying hour - of the unknown world beyond - of the chill [of] and loneliness of the grave - above all, of the solemn trial at the bar of judgment - a condemnation which the presence of sin in the conscience causes every one to dread as by an instinctive recoil of apprehension 2 - all this is usually enough to arrest the hand of suicide. [Shakspeare graphically draws] [the feeling of the heart on this subject in the] [well-known soliloquy of Hamlet:] [To die, to sleep --] [No more! -- and by a sleep to say we end] [The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks] [That flesh is heir to - tis a consummation] [Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.] [To sleep! - perchance to dream! - ay, theres the rub,] [For in that sleep of death what dreams may come] [When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,] [Must give us pause: [Theres the respect]] [[That makes calamity of so long life.]] [For who would bear the whips and scorns of time] [The oppressors wrong, the proud mans contumely,] 3 with a powerful and angry hierarchy: an inviting Church following her Lord, generation after generation, through good report and evil. [Be] The word faith, as used in Scripture, means "fidelity" also. "It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" - or a man [full of] deserving of [faith] confidence Look, then, at this whole picture of Christian faith. | It is founded upon conviction of the truth: it is that conviction ripened into strong and loving trust: it is that trust exhibited in fidelity to Him who is trusted. It has, you perceive, taken captive the understanding - it has energized the affections - it has put the entire man to work. It is symbolized by that blood, which, in our bodies, carries vitality to the brain, the heart, the limbs, to the whole system, as the [source] spring of all our activity. Thus, every idea connected with the uses of the word is [an idea inseparable] a suggestion of action: the action of [mind] thought 4 is [acquainting itself] becoming acquainted with God's word - of feeling, in yielding to [that words'] its claims - of will, in giving it movement [throughout] in the life. | A dead faith is, therefore, an absurdity - even an impossibility. | [Its essence] If it [is the very spirit of life] does not live, and warm, and stir, it does not exist. Regard [it, now] this principle from another point of view. | Note what the Holy Spirit, in Scripture, ascribes to this faith. There is a vast enterprise - that of extending Christ's rule in the real and in the world - which is specifically entitled "the works of daith" - which, indeed is styled "the works of faith, with power." | Many of the peculiar features of this enterprise, you will find illustrated in that roll call of faith's heros contained in the 11th of Hebrews. | That did not those men do, incited as they were by the promptings of this noble principle! 5 From this fear, it is Christ that delivers. Not all - but those who trust themselves to Him as Friend, Savior. This He does by "destroying him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" V.14. Satan had this power because he possessed the power to introduce sin into our world, and start it upon its long & melancholy reign. We know not, indeed, what power he has to inflict death in particular instances = but we know that death was a part of his dominion - he brought it in from his own dark domain of evil - and laid the train of all those ills which terminate first or last in death: - making it the source of distress it is. In this respect he had the power of death: and a tremendous power it is. == But, to destroy 6 this power, and the dominion to which it belongs - to stroy him who introduced it, and gave it all its stings - to rescue those who are subject to it and to all its terrors - to replace death with life, and the fears of death with the hopes which appertain to the kingdom of life - to introduce a state of things where no one could die - to replace earth which is everywhere arched with graves, by heaven which is nowhere the receptacle of the dead, but, throughout, a home where its remotist causes are forever unknown - where no eye has a tear, where no nerve has a tremor of apprehension, where sickness is as impossible as sin, where the great Physician has no more medicine to administrer, but only the joys of health,- whether health of body or mind - to communicate - to accomplish all this He came 7 So that whoever shall believe in Him has absolutely nothing to dread: not even death, which is now convuted into the door through whose wide-open portals there streams the light of His countenance who is forever their patron and their abode. [ None but Xt. as ever delivered from the] [fear of death, because none but He could deliver ] [from sin, its cause, its instrument of terror.] [Not but He, either, could implant in the] [soul that principle of life which is death's] [antidote.--] But, are Christians actually freed from the fear of death? Not always, because not living up to their principles - not leaning as they should upon Christ - their deliverer. But, first or last, all of them are thus freed. 8 Always, I presume, are they [thus] freer of this dread than others. [As] As, however, death approaches [as] when they are brought face to face with the King of Jews - it is perhaps universally the case that they lose all their dread of his power. May-be, in looking upon death at a distance, it seemed to spread out before them as a great deep cold river which no feet could ford - but when they came actually to its [?] very brink, and touched the waters, the anticipated chill has changed to a welcome warmth, and the river itself has been reduced to a narrow rill, to step across which requires only a [step] moment, and that a moment of surprising gladness:- and there death appeared only as a means by which God has "given his beloved, sleep" - soft sleep in the true light of heaven. 9 How often, accordingly, have the most timid met death as a child encounters the repose that nestles it in a mother's arms - with a smile upon the lips which gave token of a blessed waking in the quick-coming morning! Oh, to many a troubled couch has [God] the Spirit of holy peace come, in visitations of unearthly sweetness! Oh, to many a dying bed has God the Saviour come, to convert it into a [vehicle] resting-place where life - true life - was at last found, and found never to be lost again -- But, look at the [nature] simplest teachings of Xty. for a proof that Christ its Author has [found] made provision for ridding the minds of His followers from the bondage of death's fears. (1) Xt teaches that there is a world 10 above this world of sense and of sin; and yet a world so high as to be able to attract our hopes, as to something real and tangible. Apt to think that here- about us - are the only realities. -- Not enduring, though- Evermore changing. - The heavens we see alone seem firm - "firmament." Same stars always in same places -Eye upon "glory that shall be revealed." (These will pass away) A country which hath found a [t??]. (2) Xty. accustoms its believers to draw enjoyment from scenes which death causes disturb, by accustoming them to cultivate the undying part of their being. -- A great thing when one comes to regard his immortal soul as worthier than his moral body. [?] This life for a better - its crosses - discipline - disappointments. -- 11 (3) Christianity constrains to cultivate love for God. (a) This is a love that casts out all fear One fear has absorbed every other. = Casts out, too, undue [love] attachment to earth: a worthier object: a mightier good. (b) Induces longing desire to be with its object / whatever the obstacles in way, he who feels the stirring of this love will learn to despise them all; or if not to despise, to overcome them all. - A task of God's presence here and now, leads to resolve to drink at the very fountain of His followers when there shall be [not] no lot or hindrance. (4) Above all, Xty robs death of its terror by showing [this] their resurrection to believers. - revealing the certainty & glory of this, in Xt's 12 Without this, no assurance. A glimpse of the birth, indeed, in the hauslation of Enoch or Elijah - in raising of Lazarus and others - those who, at the crucifixion arose from their graves and were seen of many. But the conclusive victory was were at Xts. coming again to life, - in behalf of all His followers. The other cases may have been exceptional - this a representative case including all for whom Xt. had died. - The dread thing had maintained an undisputed dominion, a despotic sway, over all the past generations of mankind. But now a new order of things. Death encountered for the 1st time an enemy more powerful than himself. He [received] was forced to receive into his territory -in the guise of a captive - Him to whom the 13 had to submit as to a final Conqueror. As has been remarked by another: "Xt. exhibited the prespecimen of immortal man: not the shadow of immortality consisting in being remembered and celebrated for ages by creatures who are themselves hasting to the tomb: but an immortality consisting in a form Wh. is imperishable - a glorious being, over wh. death had no more power, and which will subsist in undecaying strength and splendor when the heavens are no more. This is the pattern and example to which His followers - now become the children of the resurrection - will be conformed: -- who will surely ascend with Him to heaven and partake of His utmost life. What was accomplished in Him will certainly 14 certainly be accomplished in them: His victory over death He will impart to them: the eternal rest into which He [has] entered, at his ascension, He has prepared for them. "Every man in his own order: Xt, the first [f??s]: there, they that are Xts at his coming." The rewards He merited, the dignity to wh. He was exalted, are by no means confined to His own person but acome to every part of His mystical body. In short, our Lord means us to understand that, through Him - for those that believe - death has lost all the elements wh. make it death. It is distinctly & absolutely a process of life: being born into a world of congenial conditions and surroundings. It is a birth pang 15 not a last agony - a process of construction, not of dissolution: - and Oh, did we understand it all - did we see it as Xt. sees it - we should remember no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the higher, the eternal, the truly home-like world. Take courage, believer. "Death is the only thing in death that dies." For you it is destroyed. [Next old that] But to others - how sad is the prospect? [*II That old that, so often expressed*] [*The leaving of the present*] [*for the unknown future!] 16 Oh, there is one - only one - who could have [uttered] originated those words of cheer to [the] our dying race: "I am the resurrection and the life" - "whoso liveth and believeth in me shall never die." There shall be no break at all in your living, if only you yield yourselves to Him. [He who lives in Xt. can] [never die.] Your life will thus, in its deepest experiences and [as] longings, be a part of the life of the celestial and eternal world. You will be, already, a risen man, in the truest and strongest meaning of these words: - for being in Xt. you bear His life, from which nothing shall ever bereave you - so that as He has arisan so have you: -and your dying will be only a realization of [your] that new life which, now one of [faith] trust, shall 17 become one of [sight] taste, in a realm where it will be forever unstained by a breath of decay. A for such a [death] departure, [on] at which, as the film of death thickens, [fa] faith brightens into open vision, hope into the passionate joy of possession, live into the flame of life fed from the life of God: This is not to die. "The world [recedes] recedes; it disappears, Heaven opens on mine eyes, mine ears With sounds seraphic ring. Lend, lend, your wings; I mount, I fly: O grave where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"