104 THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF MOSES
atmosphere, it is clearly visible. But the vision is most often reserved for those who are waiting on the confines of the Land, ready for the signal to enter. They tell us that on that border- land they hear voices, and discern visions of beauty and splendour of which heart had not conceived. Dr. Payson said, shortly before he died, "The Celestial City is full in my view. Its glories have been upon me ; its breezes fan me ; its odours are wafted to me ; its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart." ^
^ On one occasion Dr. Kidd was alluding to the unwilling- ness which even good people sometimes had to die. "It just reminds me," he said, " of what happened when I left the auld hoose. When a' the furniture was oot, and a' the rest had gane to the new ane, I couldna leave ; I paced up and doon the room in which my children were born ; I gazed upon the wa's of the chamber where I studied and wrestled with God, and I couldna tear myself away. But Betty, the servant, came, and she said, " Come awa', sir, come awa' ; the time's up, and the ither hoose is far better than this."^
III.
An Undiscoveeed Grave.
There is something strange and altogether singular in this, that Moses, the greatest of all the^ Old Testament prophets, should find a resting-place in the earth and no man be able to point it out. The sepulchres of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are known among the groves of Hebron ; the bones of Joseph, after many wanderings, rest in Shechem, in that parcel of ground which his father gave to him, the best beloved son. Kachel's tomb, watered by many a tear, stands on the way to " Ephrath, which is Bethlehem " ; for there her strength failed her, and she sank, as did all the ancient saints on the way to that birthplace of hope. The sepulchre of David is by Jerusalem, the home of his heart. But the last abode of Moses, the servant of God and the lawgiver of Israel, is claimed by no city in the wide land.
1. The first thing to notice is that the grave is not unknown to God. As it is in death, so is it in the grave — alone yet not alone. Moses dies alone, with no hand to clasp his, none to close
1 F. B. Moyer. = J. Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 141.
DEUTERONOMY xxxiv. 5, 6 105
his eyes ; but God's finger does it. The outward form of his death is but putting into symbol and visibility the awful characteristics of that last moment for us all. However closely we have been twined with others, each of us has to unclasp all hands, and make that journey through the narrow, dark tunnel by ourselves. We even live alone in a real sense, but we each have to die as if there were not another human being in the whole universe but ourselves. But the solitude may be a solitude with God. Up there alone, with the stars and the sky and the everlasting rocks and menacing death, Moses had for companion the supporting God. That awful path is not too desolate and lonely to be trodden if we tread it with Him. Moses' lonely death leads to a society yonder. If you refer to the 32nd chapter you will find that when he was summoned to the mountain God said to him, " Die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people." He was to be buried there, up amongst the rocks of Moab, and no man was ever to visit his sepulchre to drop a tear over it. How was he " gathered unto his people " ? Surely only thus, that, dying in the desert alone, he opened his eyes in the city, surrounded by " solemn troops and sweet societies " of those to whom he was kindred. So the solitude of a moment leads on to blessed and eternal companionship.
^ As we trust God to supply the needs of the body in life, so let us trust Him for its burial in death. He marks where the dust of each of His children mingles with its mother earth. When a grave is opened, His eye rests on it ; and though no foot may ever tread its soil, no hand keep it decked with flowers. He never forgets it ; and none will be overlooked when the archangel blows his trumpet over land and sea.^
Into the silent, starless Night before us.
Naked we glide; No hand has mapped the constellations o'er us,
No comrade at our side,
No chart, no guide.
Yet fearless toward that midnight, black and hollow,
Our footsteps fare: The beckoning of a Father's hand we follow —
His love alone is there,
No curse, no care.^
» F. B. Meyer. 2 Edward Rowland Sill.
io6 THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF MOSES
2. Again, no man must take from God the honour which belongs to Him alone, or stand between Him and the worship of His people. The first great lesson which the Jewish people were to be taught was the supremacy of the one true God. This was the indispensable basis of every other revelation, — the one God, alone, supreme, — ani then His attributes, His law. His way to man. They were taken from among the nations, and reclaimed from idolatry to carry this truth to the world; and then, when sovereignty was established, mercy could be fully proclaimed. It was the lifelong work of Moses to fix this truth of God's sovereignty. The word given him to bear was, "Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." All his labours and his trials arose from the difficulty of impressing this on their deep and constant conviction, and his death would have brought him no regret had he felt assured that his work was done. How solemn and pathetic his warnings to cleave to the true God, and wander to no other, as if he felt already the misgivings of their defection. And yet what he had done for them made it not unlikely that their reverence for him might prove their snare, and that they might be tempted to give him the place he desired to secure for God. Death, which lifts every great man higher, might have raised Moses above the lesson of his life — the unapproachable supremacy of God Himself. The deification of their heroes was the manner of the nations round them; it was the atmosphere of the age; and in this event we can surely see a means taken to guard the Israelites from the temptation. Had Moses himself obtained his choice, it would have been that, in death, he might carry out the lesson of his life, and here he gains it. He dies apart, and is buried in secret, where his grave can be dishonoured by no pilgrimage, and where no false veneration can rear altars to his memory. And this first lesson did not fail. The nation worshipped many strange deities, but it never gave the place of God to His prophets. If any life could have tempted them to such a course it would have been that of Moses, and when God removes him from their sight, and leaves no relic for sense or imagination to build its worship on, there is no successor of Moses who can assume the place.