Forsake me not when my strength faileth me. for it is towards evening, Let Thy strength be made perfect Day is fled and gone, the deathless death. beseech of Thee for the close of our life, that Thou wouldst direct it in peace, sinless, shameless, and, if it please Thee, painless, gathering us together under the feet of Thine elect, when Thou wilt, and as Thou wilt, only without shame and sin. Remember we the days of darkness, for they shall be many, lest we be cast into outer darkness. Remember we to outstrip the night, doing some good thing. Near is judgment; a good and acceptable answer Vouchsafe to us, O LORD. Glory be to the FATHER, and to the Son, and to the HOLY GHOST. Amen. CHAPTER II.-DEATH. DEATH has passed upon all, for all have sinned. The sin of Adam, and our own sins weigh upon us, and we must die. This union of sin and death is a chief cause of the terror which has always held men in bondage. All nations have agreed in regarding a corpse as a defilement. No priest might touch the dead, who were buried outside the house, and even without the city. Nature herself teaches the same lesson. All that is fair, all that is mighty, all that we love disappears under the hand of death, and only loathsomeness remains. We cannot bear the presence of our dearest and most beloved, but cast them forth. Even the weeping sister says, "LORD, by this time he stinketh." And the dead body is the very image of the dead soul. The eye no longer sees; nor does the ear hear. The hand is powerless; and the foot is without motion. All those powers by which men show themselves lords of creation are either extinct or sealed up: And why? Because the soul has left the body. And what is this but the figure of that desertion of man by GoD, in punishment for man's forsaking of his Maker, by which division from Him, who is our Life, comes all this misery. "For if sin had not gone before, doubtless death would not have followed. Death then of the body also followed, but death of the soul preceded. The death of the soul went first by deserting GOD, and the death of the body followed by the desertion of the soul: In the one case the soul deserted of its own will, in the other it has been compelled to leave against its will." Even the righteous have feared death. Abraham feared it, and denied Sarah. Hezekiah feared it, and prayed with great lamentations to be spared. The fear of death has kept all mankind subject to bondage. ; The act of dying is most bitter. Not only must we shut our eyes to our old abode, and the faces of those we love-not only must we suffer great pain or weakness in our last hours-but we must endure that fearful wrench and rending of the soul from the body which takes place at death. GOD has united the soul and the body together in a mystery. We know that our bodies are figures of CHRIST'S Body, the Church and as the HOLY SPIRIT is the life of the Church, so our souls quicken our mortal bodies. The Church was formed by the INCARNATION, by which God dwelling in our dead nature gave it life; so that the union of GOD and Man in the LORD JESUS is like unto the union of our souls and bodies. The two unions resemble each other, and the greater consecrates the less. To dissolve this marriage then of body and soul is unholy and unnatural. Sin only did it. It is a violence, and grief, and hurt for a man to be rent in twain; and although men may be resigned to death none can love it, in itself. In itself death must be hateful. To the Chief Apostle death was bitter, although the fruit of death is sweet; and perhaps that fear of death as a violence, and as being a likeness to sin and a fruit of 2 Ibid. 299, s. 8. 1 S. Aug. Serm. 173, sec. 2. it, was part of the bitter cup of Passion which our Saviour drained for us; as has been said. "The LORD consoles concerning this, taking the form of our infirmity on Himself, and saying, 'My soul is heavy even unto death.' Thence were the Martyrs great because they endured the most hard roughness of bitter death." Now if death is hard to saints, what must it not be to sinners? For how often do men transgress, and suffer pain, in order to escape death. Yea, they steal and slay, and there is no crime which they do not commit in order to put off the day of death, which still comes speedily, and daily draws nearer and nearer. They make more sure of Hell, and double its torments for ever, that they may put it off but a few years longer. This is indeed from fear of judgment, as well as of the sorrow of dying. And here again is death most terrible, because that after it is no repentance. Now we must be saved, or never. "The night cometh when no man can work." "The day of death assigns each man to his dwelling." What is beyond the grave who knoweth? The mysteries between death and judgment none have searched out. Eight persons like ourselves have been restored to life, but their lips were sealed. No one of them hath told us what he saw, and heard, and felt in that land of awe. The first glimpse of eternity, and of the world of spirits, the very thought of it makes the heart to fail, and the knees to shake. And there are perils in the very act of dying. All faith may fail, and clouds of despair may come across the spirit and make it dark as night; and Satan may prevail. For then our old sins may rise up like hideous phantoms before the soul; or like devils, even as they were, and may drive us into the unbelief and despair of Judas. Else why should we pray, as we are taught, "In the hour of death, Good LORD, deliver us," and "Suffer us not in our last hour for any pains of death to fall from Thee." Thus speaks one of the fathers of English history. "I knew a brother myself, would to GOD I had not known him, whose name I could mention if it were necessary, and who resided in a noble monastery, but lived himself ignobly. He was frequently reproved by the brethren and elders of the place, and admonished to adopt a more regular life; and though he would not give ear unto them, he was long patiently borne with by them. . . . He falling sick, and being reduced to extremity, called the brethren, and with much lamentation, and like one damned, began to tell them that he saw hell open, and Satan at the bottom thereof; as also Caiaphas, with the others that slew our LORD, by Him delivered up to avenging flames. In whose neighbourhood,' said he, I see a place of eternal perdition provided for me, miserable wretch.' The brothers, hearing these words, began seriously to exhort him, that he should repent even then, whilst he was in the flesh. He answered in despair, 'I have no time now to change my course of life, when I have myself seen my judgment passed.' Whilst uttering these words, he died, without having received the saving viaticum."" O how fearful then is death, painful and bitter, and full of perils; which, if it be not the gate of life, is the door of hell itself! Who shall say that he does not fear death, unless his repentance is complete, and his pardon sealed? Who shall make light of death, and boast himself before the battle? The Apostle indeed says, "O grave, where is thy victory ?" but he speaks for those who are 1 Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Book v. chap. xiv., translated by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. |