April 10
"Fear at Death"
“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: and the rich man also dies, and was buried”
Luke 16: 22 (KJV).
Suppose the poor Christian is now upon a sick-bed, beset with a thousand fears, and ten thousand at the end of that—sick-bed fears! And they are sometimes dreadful ones; fears that are begotten by the review of the sin, perhaps, of forty years’ profession. Fears that are begotten by dreadful and fearful suggestions of the devil, the sight of death, and the grave. And it may be hell itself! Fears that are begotten by the withdrawing and silence of God and Christ, it may be the appearance of the devil himself. Some of these made David cry, “O spare me” a little, “that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no more” (Psalm 39: 13). “The sorrows of death,” David said, “compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow” (Psalm 116: 3). These things; he calls the bands that the godly have in their death, and the plagues that others . . . [do not know]. “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men” (Psalm 73: 9). But now, out of all these, the Lord will save his people: Not one sin, nor fear, nor devil shall hinder; nor the grave nor hell disappoint you. But how must this be? Why you must have a safe-conduct to heaven? What conduct? A conduct of angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1: 14).
These angels, therefore, are not to fail them that are the saved; but must, as commissioned of God. [To] come down from heaven to do this office for them. They must come, I say, and take the care and charge of our soul, to conduct it safely into Abraham’s bosom.
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