When Dr. Watts was on his death-bed, he said, “I bless God that I can lie down at night without the slightest fear whether I wake in this world or another.”
Another good minister, when asked how he felt at the approach of death, said,—“I am just going into eternity; but I bless God, I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die.”
During the reign of Henry VIII, of England, many good men were cruelly put to death for the sake of their religion. Among these was Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. When he came in sight of the scaffold on which he was to die, he took out of his pocket a Greek Testament, and looking up to heaven, said, “Now, O Lord, direct me to some passage which may comfort me in this trying hour.” Then he opened the book, and his eye rested on this passage, “This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” He closed the book and said, “Praised be God! this is all I need. This is enough for life, or for death; for time, or for eternity.”
When the Rev. James Harvey came to his last sickness, his physician came in one day and told him he had but very little time to live.
“Then let me spend my last moments,” said he, “in praising my blessed Saviour. Though my heart and my flesh fail, yet God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. St. Paul says: ‘All things are yours, whether life or death; things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.’ Here is the treasure of a Christian, and a noble treasure it is. Death is ours. Jesus has made it our friend, by his death and burial. Praise God for this truth. And now welcome death! How well thou mayest be welcomed among the treasures of the Christian. ‘For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.’”
The Rev. William Janeway was another excellent and faithful minister of Christ. In his closing sickness, these were among the last words that he spoke: “I bless God I can die in peace. I know what that means, ‘The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts.’ It is keeping mine now. My joy is greater than I can express. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Now I can die. It is nothing. I long to die. I desire to depart and be with Christ.” And so he died.
These good men had studied well the subject of Christ’s burial, and had learned the lesson of comfort it was intended to teach us. And when we think of the burial of Christ, let us remember the lessons of which we have now spoken in connection with it. These are the lessons about the certainty of his death:—the fulfillment of his word;—the working of his providence;—and the comfort we derive from his burial.
The collect for Easter-even, is a very appropriate one with which to close this subject:—“Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections, we may be buried with him; and that through the grave and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection, for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”