LIFE OUT OF DEATH
LIFE OUT OF DEATH
“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1: 21). He has brought death very near to you all, and where you feel it very much. To you who remain, it has but one voice, and that is to walk with Him through the valley of sorrow [p. 154] to the morning of resurrection. He is the resurrection and the life. One never realises the full virtue of life but in death. There is the death of judgment because of our sins. The conscience when awakened passes through that death, and Jesus Christ through grace is the light of life. But there is the death to the heart also, which comes often very far on in one’s history and this may be in various ways, but it must be in a way that we feel it. We could hardly tell ourselves where it might happen. The Lord only knows where death is unknown to us, and where we require to enter into it. If you learn death to your heart, you will find in Christ quite a new and wondrous portion - your conscience not only relieved of its burden and at peace with God, but now your heart, stricken down by the death of a loved one at your very side, can learn what it is to have the living One for your resource and compensation, in all His superior and abounding tenderness and love. It is the time for learning the reality of His love and interest. Joy is the time for my friend to enjoy me, sorrow is the time for me to learn and know the value of my friend. You never perhaps so needed heart company before. Death threatens all ties when it rudely breaks one, and that one of the nearest, but this is the moment for you to find a light in the darkness, and to know the companionship of the Man of sorrows, never realised before. You hide your head in sorrow, the whole sky is darkened, every eye sees the gloom without, and yet this is the moment for your heart to find in Jesus a resource and a satisfaction which you have never known before. A friend in need is a friend indeed. No one else can come near enough to you. The dignity of sorrow forbids the intrusion of any but the One who can truly sympathise. He can, and He leads you into deep waters in order that your heart may require Him, and having found Him, you may learn His value and worth in a way entirely new to you and in a way never to be forgotten.