Look upon death
(Brooks, "Words of counsel
to a dear dying friend")
Look
upon death as that which is best.
"Better is the day
of death,
than the day of one's
birth." Ecclesiastes 7:1
"I desire to depart and be with Christ, which
is
better by far." Philippians 1:23
The Greek is very significant--"far, far the better!"
A
saint's dying day is the daybreak of eternal glory!
In respect of pleasure, peace, safety, company and
glory--a believer's dying day is his best day.
Look
upon death as a
remedy, as a cure. Death
will perfectly cure you of all bodily and spiritual diseases
at once: the infirm body and the defiled soul, the aching
head and the unbelieving heart. Death will cure you of
all your ailments, aches, diseases, and distempers.
In Queen Mary's days, there was a lame Christian,
and a blind Christian--both burned at one stake.
The lame man, after he was chained, casting away
his crutch, bade the blind man to be of good cheer;
"For death," says he, "will cure us both; you of
your blindness, and me of my lameness!"
As death will cure all your bodily diseases, so it will
cure all your soul distempers also. Death is not the
death of the man--but the death of his sin! Death
will at once free you fully, perfectly, and perpetually
from all sin; yes, from all possibility of ever sinning!
Sin was the midwife which brought death into the
world--and death shall be the grave to bury sin.
Why, then, should a Christian be afraid to die,
unwilling to die--seeing death gives him an
eternal separation . . .
from infirmities and weaknesses,
from all aches and pains,
from griefs and gripings,
from distempers and diseases,
both of body and soul?
When Samson died, the Philistines died together with
him. Just so, when a saint dies, his sins die with him.
Death came in by sin, and sin goes out by death!
Death kills sin which bred it.
Look
upon death as a
rest, a full rest.
A believer's dying day is his resting day . . .
from sin,
from sorrow,
from afflictions,
from temptations,
from desertions,
from dissensions,
from vexations,
from oppositions,
from persecutions.
This world was never made to be the saints' rest.
Arise and depart, for this is not your resting place,
because it is polluted! (Micah 2:10)
Death brings the saints . . .
to a full rest,
to a pleasant rest,
to a matchless rest,
to an eternal rest!
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We have posted Brooks comforting seven page letter,
"Words of counsel to a dear
dying friend". Must reading!