When I Think My LORD'S Thoughts, I Shall Cease To Be So Afraid Of Death!

The death of HIS saints!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)

"Precious in the sight of the LORD, 
is the death of HIS saints!" Psalm 116:15

To me death has its unlovely aspects. 

I may be ready by GOD'S grace to meet it--

and yet I recoil instinctively from the act of dying.

It seems unnatural.

It is usually attended by pain and suffering.

It is a farewell to dear and beloved associations.

It is a going out into an untrodden land. 

I cannot coax myself to love the dreadful 

experience. And therefore I am glad to think 

that there is another side to the matter, and 

that to my LORD, my death is precious. 

And why should it be so?

Let me consider the name by which 

HE calls me, and I shall begin to 

understand. "HIS saints!" 

That is HIS title for HIS sons and 

daughters, among whom I have 

been enrolled. The people of HIS 

own purchased possession.

The redeemed people whom HE has set 

apart for HIMSELF. HE owns them in virtue 

of the stupendous price which HE paid for them.

HE has been at infinite pains to redeem and 

save and cleanse them. Nothing which 

concerns them appears indifferent to HIM. 

The death of the humblest of them, 

is of stupendous moment in HIS sight.

Let me reflect, too, that death is one 

of the means HIS grace and power 

employ to uplift and crown me. 

It looks as though I scarcely 

could know GOD thoroughly, 

or confide in HIM completely--

until I learn to lean upon HIM . . .

  when heart and flesh faint and fail,

  when the long and close fellowship 

of body and soul is sundered,

  and when I pass forth alone 

into the mystery of unseen eternity.

Then HE becomes more indispensable 

than ever. Then my trust must be simple 

and absolute. Then, when lover and 

friend are put far away, I cling to HIM 

and refuse to let HIM go. Death teaches 

us this perfection of dependence.

And let me predict to myself the future 

to which death is the doorway. I can 

scarcely imagine it . . .

  its spotless holiness,

  its unfathomable bliss,

  its endless pleasures,

  its divine love. But HE sees it clearly, 

and comprehends it in its breadth 

and length and depth and height. 

HE is familiar . . .

  with the flowers and fruits of HIS upper garden,

  with the refreshment of the fourfold river,

  with the music of the better country,

  with the city's foundations of gems, and

 its gates of pearl, and its streets of gold.

Is it a marvel that HE should pronounce 

desirable and precious, that loosening and 

wrench from earth which liberates me 

for a Heaven like this?

When I think my LORD'S thoughts, 

I shall cease to be so afraid of death!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

GraceGems has published William Nicholson's comforting short article,
 "The Believer's Inheritance".