To keep an eye on the home above is consummate wisdom. Hence the injunction of the Holy Apostle, "Set your affections on things above." This exercise of the heart can only be attained by first seeking an interest in the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"John looked, and, lo! a Lamb (the Lamb of God) stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name (the new name) written in their foreheads, and I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the four hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth." Those who had here below redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of their sins, according to the riches of His grace. These are they who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ. Concerning such is this solemn affirmation made, corroborated by the attestation of the Divine voice, that the dearly beloved John heard, saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
You know that the original signification of the word "blessed" means happy. In Christ's inimitable Sermon on the Mount He declares, "Happy are the beggars in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." All the uninterrupted felicities of the glory land are theirs at the hour of dissolution. Their joy is augmented by the pure fellowship and friendship of the Saviour and the saints before the throne of the Eternal.
There is a broad avenue opened up to the saved of pleasing and familiar intercourse with the general assembly, and the spirits of just men made perfect. They share the attention and affection of the heavenly host, and are gladdened by the presence of Him who is the King eternal, immortal, but not now invisible, for they behold the King in his beauty.
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Death to the Christian is represented in the Scripture as a sleep. "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." He is redeemed from the power of death. "For Christ came to deliver them, who, through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage." (Heb. ii. 15.) All believers, therefore, need not dread death—he is a conquered enemy. And so every one of us who are here to day in Christ can say humbly, but truly, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" No Christian, however weak he may be, need fail to feel with Paul, and ask the same question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The last great conflict is inevitable, but the secret of a triumphant departure from this life is found in the language of the "Faith Psalm," "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." It is not really death that we have to grapple with. It is only the shadow of death. We do not fear the shadow of a sword, or the shadow of a serpent. The above verse of the twenty-third Psalm is very frequently misquoted. It is called the dark valley. But you remember that when Bunyan's pilgrim came down to the valley it was not dark, for Jesus, the light, was with him. The sting of death is not simply concealed; it is completely destroyed by the death of Christ. He conquered the great enemy. "The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Thus understood, the Christian is truly blessed in his death. He cannot be separated from Christ, or from his symmetrically developed spiritual character. Death is not the extinction of being. We must make a distinction between natural and spiritual death. It is sin unforgiven that gives death his power. It is a fearful catastrophe to those out of Christ. Hence the holiness of others will not avail them at the hour of dissolution. "When the soul raves round the walls of its clay tenement, and runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help when no help can come," then the door of salvation is eternally shut. The last ray of hope is then forever faded. "There are no acts of pardon past in the cold grave to which we haste." Oh, let us not content ourselves with a mere external profession of Christianity. True wisdom consists in having the graces of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Walking day by day by faith in Jesus Christ, so that when the cry is made, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him," we go forth with joy and not with grief.
Scriptural facts concerning death go to show that it is not an unimportant event. To the soul who is found clothed not in his own righteousness which is of the law, but with the righteousness of the Redeemer, to die is gain, for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (or holy ones). It is then the refining process is thoroughly completed. They are ready to be offered. The honor and favor of the Father is now about to be received. The union formed on earth is at death gloriously ratified in heaven.
The obedience of Christ's death is fully realized to be laid to their account. The life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel is then permanently enjoyed. The clouds and mysteries that cluster around this earthly life are then dissipated. The full communion of the populace of glory is wonderfully experienced without interruption or restraint. The "conflict is over, and the prize is won." "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." It is then we view the Divine glory, for this was a part of Christ's prayer: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory."
You see, then, how the believer is ushered into the beauties and blessedness of the beatic state. There is, therefore, nothing to be dreaded by the approach of the last enemy. For, says the prophet, He "will swallow up death in victory: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of the people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it." It is by a realization of his security in death that the believer in Jesus can calmly meditate on the hour of dissolution—that he is blest with longings for home; that he is soon to be delivered from the present evil world; in short, that he is completely constituted an actuality in the Church triumphant. He is at last brought into intimate alliance with Christ, not now by faith but by sight, not by prayer, but by praise; not by earthly circumscribed anticipation, but by the power of unfathomable and constraining grace, and a deep sensibility of soul which springs from the knowledge that he is forever with the Lord; now the strugglings of faith are ended.