DEATH AND RESURRECTION

DEATH AND RESURRECTION

I have been intending to send you a little word in this time of your sorrow. It is in the valley of the shadow of death that the child of God practically learns the consolation of Christ — how “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”. It is then that the full nature of the judgment on man — death — is before one, and the dearest affections are wrenched because of it. But it is then, also, that one learns in a distinct way that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. When death has removed the nearest and the dearest, and the heart feels a dreary blank, He comes in and ministers to the heart the comforts of the resurrection, when already the purifying effect of it has been known to the conscience. From man’s scene your sorrow has come, but your comfort is now to come in a very special way from the Lord Jesus Christ who is risen from the ^[p. 248] dead, and who brings it to you from His own scene. It is a very instructive moment to the soul, and almost unequalled. You have entered the valley, and the sense of it is doubtless crushing, but as you traverse it you are met by the Lord Himself, who comes to you in resurrection, and He takes you out of the valley into the glorious mount where life reigns and there is no more death.

Look for the risen One and you will come out of the dark valley deeply and richly taught in the virtues of the “rod” which works for you, and the “staff” which you lean on, the very personal experience of the bitterness of death which you pass through being made by Him an occasion for acquainting your heart with His love, His sympathy and His power; so that in company with Him you will be in the power of life out of death — a wonderful and blessed experience. The Lord bless and comfort you in the full sense of His love and of His fostering care for you at this time.