Death separates man from all the pursuits and attractions of earth.
Posted : 27 Dec, 2011 06:55 AM
" ... and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:10).
Devotional
There is a separating power in death. That is a truth too evident and too affecting to deny. Death separates the soul from the body.
Death separates man from all the pursuits and attractions of earth. "When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish" (Ps. 146:4). His plans of ambition, his plans of advancement, his plans for religion, his plans for relationships�all his plans perish on that day. What a mournful solemnity is there in this vivid description of the separating power of death over the creature!
What a separating power, too, death has, as felt in the chasms it creates in human relationships! Who has not lost a friend�a second self�by the ruthless hand of death? What bright home has not been darkened, what loving heart has not been saddened, by its visitations? It separates us from the spouse of our youth, from the child of our affections, from the friend and companion of our earlier and riper years. It comes and breaks the link that bound us so fondly and so closely to the being whose affection, sympathy, and communion seemed essential elements of our being, whose life we were used to regard as a part of our very existence.
But there is one thing from which death can never separate us�the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, and all the blessings which that love bestows. Death separate us? No, death unites us the more closely to those blessings by bringing us into their more full and permanent possession.
Death imparts a realization and a permanence to all the splendid and holy anticipations of the Christian. The happiest moment of his life is its last. All the glory and blessing of his existence cluster and brighten around that solemn crisis of his being. Then it is he that feels how precious is the privilege and how great is the distinction of being a believer in Jesus. And the day that darkens his eye to all earthly scenes opens it upon the untold and unimaginable and ever-increasing glories of eternity. It is the birth-day of his immortality.
Then, Christian, do not fear death! It cannot separate you from the Father's love. Nor can it, while it tears you from an earthly bosom, wrench you from Christ's. It may be that you shall have a brighter, sweeter manifestation of his love in death than you ever experienced in life. Jesus, the Conqueror of death, will approach and place beneath you his almighty arms, and your head upon his loving bosom. Thus encircled and pillowed, you "will never see death" (John 8:51), but, passing through its gloomy portal, shall only realize that you had actually died from the consciousness of the joy and glory into which death had ushered you.
by Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
All praise to thee, Eternal Lord,
clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
choosing a manger for thy throne,
while worlds on worlds are thine alone.
Once did the skies before thee bow;
a Virgin's arms contain thee now:
angels who did in thee rejoice
now listen for thine infant voice.
A little Child, thou art our Guest,
that weary ones in thee may rest;
forlorn and lowly is thy birth,
that we may rise to heav'n from earth.
Thou comest in the darksome night
to make us children of the light,
to make us, in the realms divine,
like thine own angels round thee shine.
All this for us thy love hath done;
by this to thee our love is won:
for this we tune our cheerful lays,
and shout our thanks in ceaseless praise.
(Martin Luther, 1524; tr. in Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858)
