I shall cease to be so afraid of death! by Alexander Smellie, 1907

“Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of His saints!” Psalm 116:15

To me, death has its unlovely aspects. I may be ready by God’s grace to meet it, and yet I recoil instinctively from the act of dying.  It seems unnatural, and it is usually attended by pain and suffering. It is a farewell to dear and beloved associations and a going out into an untrodden land.

I cannot coax myself to love the dreadful experience. And therefore I am glad to think that there is another side to the matter, and that to my Lord, my death is precious!

And why should it be so?

Let me consider the name by which He calls me, and I shall begin to understand.

“His saints!” That is His title for His sons and daughters, among whom I have been enrolled.  The people of His own purchased possession. The redeemed people whom He has set apart for Himself.

• He owns them in virtue of the stupendous price which He paid for them.
• He has been at infinite pains to redeem and save and cleanse them.
• Nothing which concerns them appears indifferent to Him.
• The death of the humblest of them, is of stupendous moment in His sight!

Let me reflect, too, that death is one of the means His grace and power employ to uplift and crown me! It looks as though I scarcely could know God thoroughly, or confide in Him completely, until I learn to lean upon Him when my heart and flesh faint and fail, when the long and close fellowship of body and soul is sundered, and when I pass forth alone into the mystery of unseen eternity.

Then He becomes more indispensable than ever.  Then my trust must be simple and absolute.  And then, when lover and friend are put far away–I cling to Him and refuse to let Him go.

Death teaches us this perfection of dependence.

And let me predict the future to which death is the doorway. I can scarcely imagine its spotless holiness, its unfathomable bliss, its endless pleasures, and its divine love.

But He sees it clearly and comprehends its breadth, length, depth, and height.  He is familiar with the flowers and fruits of His upper garden, the refreshment of the fourfold river, the music of the better country, and the city’s foundations of gems, its gates of pearl, and its streets of gold.

Is it a marvel that He should pronounce desirable and precious, that loosening and wrench from earth, which liberates me for a Heaven like this?

When I think my Lord’s thoughts, I shall cease to be so afraid of death!