| The Beauty of Self Control |
Chapter 5 |
Page 5 |
There really is nothing to dread, therefore, in dying. The Old Testament Scriptures represent it as a walk through the valley, the valley of the shadow of death, accompanied by the Shepherd, whose presence allays all fear and gives peace. In the New Testament what we call dying is a departure from earth, in the companionship of Christ. There is a mystery in it because it is away from all that we know or understand and all that we can se, but there is nothing in it to be dreaded, for it does not separate from Christ for an instant, and it takes the person to Christ to be with him forever. We are to die unto the Lord, with no interruption to our attachment to him, and then continue, in the heavenly life, living unto the Lord. For life will go on with its blessed activities in heaven. Our work may differ in its character, but we shall ever be loving and serving Christ.
Thus our relation with Christ is for all time, through death, and through eternity. He does not become our Saviour merely to deliver us in some emergency. Ofttimes this is all that we can do for a man who is in distress or need. We can relieve him for the time, but when the occasion is past he drops away from us, perhaps back into his old trouble, and our relation to him ceases. But when we accept Christ as our Saviour it is forever. He takes us into his love and into his live. He establishes a relation with us that never shall be broken. He will never weary of us. We may sin against him, but he will not cast us off. We may be unfaithful to him and may wander far away, but when we repent and creep back to him, he will forgive us and receive us again to the place of love. The marriage covenant has a limitation, for it is “till death us do part.” But there is no such limitation in the covenant made between Christ and us. Death will not part us from him. We belong to him in the heavenly life. We are to follow him in this world to the very last, and then forever in the world to come. We are to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, and then continue to do his will when we reach heaven.
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