Death - Our Power And Our Powerlessness

Ecclesiastes 8:8 W. Clarkson The Preacher brings before us the familiar fact of - I. OUR POWERLESSNESS IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH. There are evils from which large resources, or high rank, or exceptional abilities may secure us; but in these death is not included. No man may escape it. Some men have lived so long that "death has seemed to have forgotten them;" but their hour has come at last. Death is a campaign in which there is "no furlough" given. Therefore: 1. Let every man be in readiness for it; let us live "as those who today indeed are on the earth, but who to-morrow may be in heaven." Let not death surprise us with some urgent duty undone, he neglect of which will leave our nearest relatives or dearest friends in difficulty or distress. 2. Let us all measure the limit of our life; and let us feel that since so much is to be done by us if we can, for narrower and for wider circles, and since there is but a brief period in which to do it, let us address ourselves seriously, energetically, patiently, devoutly, to the work which the Divine Husbandman has given us to do. But the statement of the Preacher, reminding us of this familiar truth, may suggest to us, by contrast - II. OUR PROVINCE AND OUR POWER IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH. Although it is utterly hopeless that we can avert the stroke of the" last enemy," we may do much in regard to it. 1. We can often defer its coming by the wise regulation of our life; we cannot "retain our spirit" when our hour is come, but we may put that hour much further on by prudence and virtue. Folly will ante-date, but wisdom will post-date it. We cannot, indeed, measure Divine favor by the number of our years - there is a Christian reading of the heathen adage, "Whom the gods love die young" - but it is very often true that "with long life" God will "satisfy" the man who "sets his love upon him" (Psalm 91:14-16). 2. We can gain a spiritual victory over it; we can "...so live, that we may dread The grave as little as our bed." We may so abide in Jesus Christ, and so live in the light of his holy truth, that the idea of death, instead of being a terror or even a dark shadow at its close, will be positively welcome to our spirit. 3. We may find a friend in it when it comes; the friend whose kind hand opens for us the door of immortality, and ushers into the life which is free and full and endless. - C.