At end of Love, at end of Life, At end of Hope, at end of Strife, At end of all we cling to so — The sun is setting — must we go ?
At dawn of Love, at dawn of Life, At dawn of Peace that follows Strife, At dawn of all we long for so — The sun is rising — let us go!^
2. There was but One in this world to whom could fitly be applied the title of " the Kighteous," our Lord Jesus Christ Him- self ; and when we pray, " Let me die the death of the righteous ! " it is like saying, " Let me die as my Master died, let my last end be like His."^
(1) First, we observe that our Blessed Lord sets before us a new view of death. If on the one hand it is gloomy, if it tells us that death is the dire penalty, the necessary penance of sin, yet on the other hand it is not without brightness, for it tells us that death is the paying of the debt of sin, and is therefore the entrance into the land of everlasting life, that it is the gate of heaven itse^i
> Louise Chandler Moultoa.
422 THE DEATH TO DIE
" Rise," said the Master, " come unto the feast."
She heard the call, and rose with willing feet;
But thinking it not otherwise than meet For such a bidding to put on her best, She is gone from us for a few short hours
Into her bridal closet, there to wait
For the unfolding of the palace gate That gives her entrance to the blissful bowers.
We have not seen her yet, though we have been Full often to her chamber door, and oft
Have listen'd underneath the postern green, And laid fresh flowers, and whispered short and soft,
For she hath made no answer, and the day
From the clear west is fading fast away.
(2) Next, we notice that our Lord teaches us how to prepare for death — that is, for a good death : " Eight dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Our Lord teaches how to prepare that our death may be like "the death of his saints," precious in the sight of God. The fundamental principle surely is this, that none can die the death of the righteous who are not trying to live the life of the righteous. Our Lord's death teaches us, first, that we must follow His life. We cannot face death with the calmness, with the joy with which He faced it, " Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame," unless our life has been an attempt to follow Him — has been the life of the righteous.
*|j Those who have crushed out their higher aspirations, and lived a mere careless worldly life — without a thought of the Unseen Hand which was guiding them, without a reference to the Will of the Lord of their conscience, without any desire to be conformed to the image of His Son — will have little power or courage to grasp that Unseen Hand, and rest their souls upon it, when the senses are failing. Faith, affiance, trust, in the Unseen is not a single act : it is a habit of soul, generated by many acts, by constant acting. The "life of the righteous" is a life of faith. Without faith, without a belief, a trust, in God, how can the soul stand upright in the midst of life's storms, or stand firm against its " manifold temptations " ? Even when explicit faith may have been lost or overshadowed for a time, what is every act of virtuous self-denial but a homage to the Unseen? The " righteous " then — the faithful — are " blessed in their death," with the same blessedness which they enjoyed in their lifetime.
NUMBERS XXIII. lo 423
There is no other possible. Infinite as is the Mercy of our God, and Great as is His Power, He cannot make the Past not to have been : and, remember, we are making it now that which it will be for ever.^
^ The strong light which the teachings of Jesus have thrown on the Law of God, revealing its deep spiritual requirements — and not His words only, but His life and His death — have given us a standard which must, if it is realized, introduce penitence into our lives, not as a mere outward form or occasional service, or as a kind of composition for our offences, but as the spirit of our daily life — as the true temper of those who see their own baseness, selfishness, and coldness, in the light of God's pardoning, paternal Love. This repentance — a continual daily turning to God — will make the last, the inevitably remorseful last look at life from the dying pillow, less bitter, less intolerable, even for those who will have much in themselves, in their own course, to regret. But, if deferred till then, with what anguish will it come ? Yes ! penitence is needful — not to propitiate an angry God — not as the attitude of a slave, who crouches creeping to avert the uplifted lash — but because it is the right, the truly human, feeling for those who see their own inward faults and the trans- gressions of their lives. And but little indeed does any one know of the comfort and relief of such repentance, who would dream of putting it ofif till all opportunity was over of obeying the gracious words — " Go and sin no more ! " ^