David had learned this lesson, by faith in the promised Saviour, long before he came to earth, and it was this that enabled him to say, “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.” Ps. 23:4.
And the apostle Paul had learned the same lesson, when he exclaimed so joyfully, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I. Cor. xv: 55, 57.
Good Dr. Muhlenberg put this lesson very sweetly into a single verse of his beautiful hymn, when he said:
“I would not live alway; no; welcome the tomb,
Since Jesus hath lain there I dread not its gloom.
There sweet be my rest, till he bid me arise,
To hail him in triumph descending the skies.”
The sweet Scottish poet Bonar had learned this lesson well, and was feeling the comfort which the thought of Christ’s burial gives when he could think of dying and lying in the grave, and speak about it in these words:
“I go to life and not to death;
From darkness to life’s native sky;