LECTURE 3
ON HOLDING THE HOUR OF YOUR DEATH CONTINUALLY BEFORE YOUR EYES
It is very difficult for death to take by surprise, the man who holds the hour of his death continually before his eyes. That man will hardly have a thing to fear since the hour of his departure is always pressed on his eyes. Aside death not taking that man by surprise, he also gets the opportunity to mourn his own remains before the final time of his departure.
Personally, I have descended countless times into the grave with this art of piety. I have also had the opportunity to look on my own mortal remains and thus mourn my littleness. For if there is one lesson I have taught myself to appreciate, it is how little I am. And we all ought to get it straight that we are indeed very little.
Anytime I, by sitting, set the hour of my departure before me, I get an entirely different view of life. It gives me strong motivation not to weigh the flying words of men above their measure. It moves me to the place of devotion where the contempt of men on earth does not make me sad. It makes me still, and from that stillness, I am fed with the knowledge of the Holy. Like the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God . . .” (Psalm 46:10).
Two things yet remain to be clarified. The first is that, the man who continually holds the hour of his death before him is not the naughty man; neither is he the gloomy and austere type so bitterly ridiculed in the Hollywood Christian movies. That man may even look happier than his acquaintances. The only problem he has with society wherewith he is sometimes forced to some weeping sorrow is their pursuit of pleasures and treasures. He has taken those treasures through the fire and they have failed in the cauldron: he considers them great vanity. He wants to tell his experience to others and pour out his heart to some compatible souls who will understand him but no one is willing to give him an ear. So he only bows his head in pain and he bears the grief alone.
The second thing is that he is not the frustrated or the intimidated type. He, by practicing such art of piety, only learns to remove and fix all his confidence and trust in God and to retain his peace.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).
My dear friends, if only you would give diligence to this holy practice, you will not fear death that greatly. It would soothe all your sorrow and heal all your grievous wounds.
HIM WILT THOU KEEP IN PERFECT PEACE
By James Montgomery
Him wilt Thou keep in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stay'd on Thee;
Me, Lord, from pining care release,
And vain perplexity.
'Tis not the bleeding wounds of grief,
Whose anguish I bemoan;
An evil heart of unbelief,
A cold, hard heart of stone;--
O'er this, in loneliness, I wake,
And darkness to be felt,
Since Sinai's thunders cannot break,
Nor Calvary's sufferings melt.
Uncheer'd with hopes, unawed by fears,
All comfort banish'd hence,
O for a burst of contrite tears!
A pang of penitence!
O for one grain of saving faith,
Upspringing in my breast!
"Come unto Me," my Saviour saith,
"And I will give thee rest."
I hear, I know the joyful
sound; I fly that call to meet,
And find, what all who sought have found
Rest at His blessed feet.