Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 12th

The living know that they shall die. - Ecclesiastes 9:5.

THIS is one of the most commonplace reflections ever uttered; and the plainest truths are often the most important, and at the same time the most neglected. Oh, it was a fine answer which the incomparable Judge Hale returned to a person who one day asked him why he attended a ministry so constantly and invariably, which could not inform him. “Oh,” said he, “I go not to be informed, but to be impressed.” And what is the language of the Saviour?-“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” Yes, “the living know that they shall die.” Let us, then, consider the sources of this knowledge.

We derive it from the Scriptures. We read, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” “Man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” “In Adam all die.” “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” But this is not one of those truths which depends entirely upon revelation. Revelation alone could have informed us of the origin, nature, and future consequences of death; but we could have learned the fact without it. For what says all history, for nearly six thousand years? Where now are the heroes that once triumphed, the philosophers that once taught, the kings that once governed? The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? “Comparatively,” says Solomon, “the earth abideth forever, but one generation passeth away, and another cometh;” empires rise and ‘fall, and flourish and fade.

Our world is little better than a large charnel-house. The very graves were once alive; we dig down through the remains of our ancestors in order to cover our contemporaries. And does not observation say the same? Do we not continually see man “going to his long home, and the mourners going about the streets”? Who has not been called more than once to mourn, and has frequently exclaimed, What a dying world! What dying children, what dying families, do we mourn! And who has not more than once sighed, Eternal Disposer of all things! “lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness”? Does not experience teach the same? Our very life is only the succession of dyings; every hour wears away a part of it; and as far as life is gone, so far are we already dead and buried.

Some have had very fierce attacks of mortality; and though they were able to withstand them, yet they were thus told, in language plain enough, that their “strength is not the strength of stones, nor their bones brass.” Those of us who have escaped these, do we not feel that while we survive we yet decay? While we are persuaded that we are mortal in destination, do we not feel that we are mortal also in state? Have we not the sentence of death in ourselves? Is not some pin taken out, or some cord loosed in the tabernacle? Old age bends down the man, as he walks along, towards the ground, as if it ordered him to survey the place towards which he is travelling. And the lengthened life is proof enough of the certainty of death; for what are dulness of hearing and dimness of sight, trembling of limbs, loss of appetite, chilliness of blood, and depression of spirits,-what are all these but the forerunners, the signals, the beginnings of death? But it seems entirely needless to enlarge on a truth which no one denies.

Every question besides this with regard to a fellow-creature is answered, only by peradventures. If we are asked, concerning an individual, Will he reach maturity? we say, He may. If asked, Will he become rich? we can only say, He may. Will he fill such and such an office? or will he form such a connection? He may. But if asked whether he will die, the reply will be, He must, without one moment’s hesitation or reserve. Oh, yes: “The living know that they shall die;” for “it is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment.”

The Lord shall comfort Zion. - Isaiah 51:3

WE may observe here three things-First, That distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion. We may sometimes think that our case is peculiar and hard to bear, and that no one has ever been so exercised as we have been, or have experienced such depressing and melancholy feelings as ourselves; arising out of the unfounded and unfavourable conclusions respecting our state, character, circumstances, and prospects, which we have been more disposed to cherish than to suppress. In reference to these we may be ready to say with David, “I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul.” And with Paul, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” And Zion had said just what we have feared: “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.”

Secondly, We here see how concerned God is not only for his people’s safety, but also for their comfort. Their doubts and fears might continue, and they at the same time would be perfectly safe, but he will not have them perpetuated; he is concerned to have them and the causes of them removed. He has left us “exceeding great and precious promises,” that we “might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” He not only threatened the base prophets in the days of Jeremiah, who “made the hearts of his people sad,” when he had commanded them to “make them merry,” but he issues this commission to all his ministers: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Thirdly, If the Lord has thus graciously promised to comfort Zion, and has made such ample provision that she may be comforted, we should fall in with his gracious design; we should be humbled, and mourn over our ignorance and perverseness, our impatience and unbelief; that we have entertained such hard thoughts of God; that we have charged God foolishly, unrighteously, and unkindly. Let us remember how dishonourable these conclusions are to him; how injurious to ourselves; and say, with David, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.” It is better that a Christian should err on the side of privilege than on the side of legality. It will have a better influence over his experience and practice. Let us take care that we are not in any measure or degree robbed of our confidence in a God of grace. Our confidence is our security. Without this, how can we rejoice, or ought we to rejoice? But “my sheep,” says he, “hear my voice, and I know them, and give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”