Paul's Desire to Depart
A Sermon
(No. 274)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, September 11th, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better."–Philippians 1:23.
WE KNOW THAT DEATH is not the end of our being. By a confident faith we
are persuaded that better things await us in another state. We are
speeding onwards through our brief life like an arrow shot from a bow,
and we feel that we shall not drop down at the end of our flight into
the dreariness of annihilation, but we shall find a heavenly target far
across the flood of death. The force which impels us onwards is too
mighty to be restrained by death. We have that within us which is not
to be accounted for, if there be not a world to come, and especially,
as believers, we have hopes, and desires, and aspirations, which cannot
be fulfilled, and which must have been given us purposely to make us
miserable, and to tantalize us, if there be not a state in which every
one of these shall be satisfied and filled to the brim with Joy. We
know, too, that the world into which we shall soon be ushered is one
which shall never pass away. We have learned full well by experience
that all things here are but for a season. They are things which shall
be shaken, and, therefore, will not remain in the day when God shall
shake both heaven and earth. But equally certain are we that the
inheritance which awaits us in the world to come is eternal and
unfailing, that the cycles of ages shall never move it; that the
onflowing of eternity itself shall not diminish its duration. We know
that the world to which we go is not to be measured by leagues, nor is
the life thereof to be calculated by centuries. Well does it become
every one of us, then, professing the Christian name, to be questioning
ourselves as to the view which we take of the world to come. lt may be
there are some of you now present who call yourselves believers, who
look into a future state with shuddering and awe. Possibly there may be
but few here who have attained to the position of the apostle, when he
could say, that he had a desire to depart and to be with Christ. I take
it that our view of our own death is one of the readiest tokens by
which we may judge of our own spiritual condition. When men fear death
it is not certain that they are wicked, but it is quite certain that if
they have faith it is in a very weak and sickly condition. When men
desire death we may not rest assured that they are therefore righteous,
for they may desire it for wrong reasons; but if for right reasons they
are panting to enter into another state, we may gather from this, not
only that their minds are right with God, but that their faith is
sanctified and that their love is fervent.
I hope that the service of this morning may have the effect of leading
every one of us to self-examination. I shall endeavor while preaching
to search myself, and I pray that each one of you may be led to hear
for himself, and I beseech you to put home each pertinent and personal
question to your own souls, while in a quiet, but I hope in a forcible
manner, I shall endeavor to describe the apostle's feelings in prospect
of departure.
Three things I shall observe this morning. First of all, the apostle's
description of death; secondly, his desire for it, and thirdly, the
reasons which justified such a desire.
I. THE APOSTLE'S DESCRIPTION OF DEATH. We are to understand this of
course as being a description not of the death of the wicked, but of
the death of the righteous. And you will remark the apostle does not
call it an arrest. In the death of the wicked, the sheriff's officer of
justice doth lay his clay-cold hand upon the man's shoulder, and he is
his prisoner for ever. The sergeant-at-arms in the name of the justice
which has been incensed, puts the fetters about his wrists, and
conducts him to the prison-house of despair and everlasting torment. In
the Christian's case, however, there is no such thing as an arrest, for
there is no one that can arrest him. We sometimes talk of death
arresting the believer in the midst of his career, but we misuse terms.
Who shall arrest a man against whom there is neither conviction nor
accusation? Who is he that condemneth the man for whom Christ has died?
Nay, further, who shall so much as lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? How then can the Christian be arrested? It is no such thing; it
is an arrest of the ungodly, but not of the believer.
Nor does Paul speak of the believer's death as being a sudden plunge.
This is a proper description of the death of the ungodly. He stands
upon the brink of a precipice, and beneath him there is a yawning and
bottomless gulf. Through thick darkness he must descend, and into it
his unwilling spirit must take a desperate leap. Not so the believer.
His is no leap downwards: it is a climbing upwards. He has his foot
upon the first round of the ladder, and joyful is the hour when his
Master saith unto him, "Come up higher; ascend to another
guest-chamber, and here feast upon richer dainties than those I have
given thee below." Aye! tis no leap in the dark. Tis no plunge into a
cold sea; tis simply a departure.
Let me describe what I think the apostle means by the figure of a
departure. Many deaths are preceded by a long season of sickness, and
then I think we might picture them by the departure of a ship from its
moorings. There lies the ship in its haven. there is a friend of yours
about to journey away to some distant clime. You will never see his
face again in the flesh. He is going to emigrate; he will find a home
in another and he hopes a happier land. You stand upon the shore; you
have given him the last embrace. The mother has given to her son the
last kiss, the friend has shaken him by the hand for the last time, and
now the signal is given; the anchor is taken up; the rope which held
the ship to the shore is loosed, and lo, the ship is moving and she
floats outward towards the sea. You look, you still wave your hand as
you see the ship departing. Your friend stands on some prominent spot
on the deck, and there he waves his handkerchief to the last. But the
most sharpsighted of friends in such scenes must lose sight of one
another. The ship floats on; you just now catch a sight of the sails,
but with the strongest telescope you cannot discover your friend. He is
gone: it is his departure. Weep as you may, you cannot bring him back
again. Your sorrowful tears may mingle with the flood that has carried
him away, but they cannot entice a single wave to restore him to you.
Now even so is the death of many a believer. His ship is quietly moored
in its haven. He is calmly lying upon his bed. You visit him in his
chamber. Without perturbation of spirit be bids you farewell. His grip
is just as hearty as he shakes your hand, as ever it was in the best
hour of his health. His voice is still firm, and his eye is still
bright. He tells you he is going to another and a better land. You say
to him, "Shall I sing to you"–
"Begone unbelief, my Saviour is near?"
"Oh! no" says he, "sing me no such a hymn as that; sing me–
"Jerusalem my happy home,
Name ever dear to me,
When shall my labors have an end
In joy, and peace, and thee."
He bide you a last farewell. You see him for a little season even after
that, although he is too far gone again to address you. It may be a
partial insensibility seizes hold of him; he is like a ship that is
just going out of sight; you look at his lips, and as you bow down your
ear, you can catch some faint syllables of praise. He is talking to
himself of that precious Jesus who is still his joy and hope. You watch
him till the last heaving breath has left the body, and you retire with
the sweet reflection that his Spirit on a glassy sea has floated
joyously to its post. Thus the believer's death is a departure. There
is no sinking in the wave; there is no destruction of the vessel: it is
a departure. He has gone; he has sailed over a calm and quiet sea, and
he is gone to a better land.
At other times deaths are more sudden, and are not heralded by
protracted sickness. The man is in health, and he is suddenly snatched
away, and the place which knew him once knows him no more for ever. I
am about to use a figure which will seem to you extremely homely, and
certainly could not be classical. I remember to have been once a
spectator in a sorrowful scene. A company of villagers, the younger
branches of a family, were about to emigrate to another land. The aged
mother who had not for some years left her cottage and her fireside,
came to the railway station from which they must start on their
departure. I stood among the sorrowful group as a friend and minister I
think I see the many embraces which the fond mother gave to her son and
daughter, and the little ones, her grand-children. I see them even now
folding their arms about her a aged neck, and then bidding farewell to
all the friends in the village who had come to bid them adieu. And well
I remember her, who was about to lose the props of her household. A
shrill sound is heard, as if it were the messenger of death, it sends a
pang through all hearts. In great haste at the small village station
the passengers are hurried to their seats They thrust their heads out
of the carriage window. The aged parent stands on the very edge of the
platform that she may take the last look. There is a sound from the
engine, and away goes the train. I remember well the instant when that
poor woman leaning on her staff sprang up from the chair with which she
had been accommodated, and jumping from the platform, rushed alone the
railway with all her might, crying, "My children! My children! My
children! They are gone and I shall never see them again." The figure
may not be classical, but nevertheless I have been reminded of it by
many a death. When I have seen the godly suddenly snatched away–no
time to watch them–they are gone, swift as the wind itself could bear
them, as if the hasty waves of the sea had buried them out of sight. It
is our affliction and our trouble, but we must stand behind and weep,
for they are gone beyond recall. Notwithstanding, there is something
pleasant in the picture. It is but a departure; they are not destroyed;
they are not blown to atoms, they are not taken away to prison. Tis but
a departure from one place to another. They still live; they still are
blessed. While we weep they are rejoicing. While we mourn they are
singing psalms of praise. Remember this my brethren in the apparel of
mourning, and, if you hare lost friends of late, this may tend to
console your spirits. Death to a believer is but a departure, yet what
a departure it is! Can you and I think calmly of it? The time must come
when I must depart from wife and children, and from house and home,
when I must depart from everything that is dear to me on earth. The
time is coming to thee, oh rich Christian, when thou must depart from
all the comforts of thine estate, from all the luxuries of thine
household, from all the enjoyments which thy rank confers upon thee.
And oh, poor Christian, lover of thy home, the time is coming when thou
must depart from thy cot, homely though it be, still dear unto thee;
thou must leave the place of thy toil, and the sanctuary of thy rest.
We must mount as on eagle's wings far from this world. We must bid
adieu to its green fields as well as its dreary streets. We must say
farewell to its blue skies and to its dusky clouds; farewell to foe and
friend: farewell to all we have, alike to trial and to joy. But blessed
be God it is not the last look of a criminal condemned to die, it is
the farewell of one who departs to another and a happier land.
The apostle's description of death, however, is not finished. He has
here only pictured that which is visible. We now come to notice his
description of the invisible part of death–
"In vain the fancy strives to paint
The moment after death;
The glories which surround the saint
When yielding up his breath.
This much–and this is all we know,
They are supremely blest;
Have done with sin, and care, and woe,
And with their Saviour rest."
This is precisely the apostle's description of the state of the
believer after death. They depart; yes, but whither? To be with Christ.
Just observe how quickly these scenes follow each other. The sail is
spread; the soul is launched upon the deep. How long will be its
voyage? How many wearying winds must beat upon the sail ere it shall be
reefed in the port of peace? How often shall that soul be tossed upon
the waves before it comes to the sea that knows no storm. Oh tell it,
tell it everywhere; yon ship that has just departed is already at its
haven. It did but spread its sail and it was there. Like the old ship
on the lake of Galilee, there was a storm that tossed it, but Jesus
said, "Peace, be still," and immediately it came to land. Yes, think
not that there is a long period between the instant of death and the
eternity of glory. There is not so much as space for the intervening of
a lightning's flash. One gentle sigh, the fetter breaks, we scarce can
say it is gone before the ransomed spirit takes its mansion near the
throne. We depart, we are with Christ; more quickly than I can say the
words, swifter than speech can express them they become true. They
depart, nod they are with Christ; the selfsame instant they have closed
their eyes on earth they have opened them in heaven. And what is this
invisible part of death? "To be with Christ." Who can comprehend this
but the Christian? It is a heaven which the worldling cares not for, if
he could have it, be would not pawn his meanest lust to gain it. To be
with Christ is to him a thing of nought, as gold and silver are of no
more value to little children than the pieces of platter with which
they will amuse themselves. So heaven and being with Christ is of no
value to the childish sons of earthly mirth. They know not what a mass
of glory is crowded into that one sentence. "To be with Christ." To the
believer who understands it, it means, first, vision. "Thine eyes shall
see him." I have heard of him, and though I have not seen his face,
unceasingly I have adored him. But I shall see him. Yes, we shall
actually gaze upon the exalted Redeemer. Realize the thought. Is there
not a young heaven within it? Thou shalt see the hand that was nailed
for thee; thou shalt kiss the very lips that said, "I thirst;" thou
shalt see the thorn-crowned head, and bow with all the blood-washed
throng, thou, the chief of sinners, shalt adore him who washed thee in
his blood; when thou shalt have a vision of his glory. Faith is
precious but what must sight be? To view Jesus as the Lamb of God
through the glass of faith makes the soul rejoice with joy unspeakable;
but oh! to see him face to face, to look into those dear eyes; to be
embraced by those divine arms rapture begins at the very mention of it!
While I speak of him, my soul is like the chariots of Aminadab, and I
desire to depart and to be with him. But what must the vision be when
the veil is taken from his face, and the dimness from our eyes, and
when we shall talk with him even as a man talketh with his friend. But
it is not only vision, it is communion. We shall walk with him, he
shall walk with us, he shall speak to us, and we shall speak to him.
All that the spouse desired in Solomon's Song, we shall have, and ten
thousand times more. Then will the prayer be fulfilled "Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his lips, for his love is better than wine." Then we
shall be able to say "His left hand is under my head, and his right
hand doth embrace me." Then will he tell us his love; then will
rehearse the ancient story of the ever-lasting covenant, of his
election of us by his own true love, of his bethrothal of us through
his boundless affection, of his purchase of us by his rich compassion,
of his preservation of us by his omnipotence, and of his bringing us
safe at last to glory as the result of his promise and his blood. And
then will we tell to him our love, then into his ear will we pour out
the song of gratitude, a song such as we have never sung on earth,
unmixed and pure, full of serenity and joy, no groans to mar its
melody; a song rapt and seraphic, like the flaming sonnets which flash
from burning tongues above. Happy, happy, happy day, when vision and
communion shall be ours in fullness!" To be with Christ which is far
better."
Nor is this all, it means fruition of Christ. Here we look and long to
taste or if we taste it is but a sip, and we long to drink to the full.
Here we are like Israel in the wilderness, who had but one cluster from
Eschol, there we shall be in the vineyard. Here do we have the manna
falling small, like coriander seed, but there shall we eat the bread of
heaven and the old corn of the kingdom. We have sometimes on earth,
lusts, ungratified desires, that lack satisfaction, but there the lust
shall be slain and the desire shall be satiated. There shall be nothing
we can want; every power shall find the sweetest employment in that
eternal world of joy. There will be a full and lasting fruition of
Christ, and last of all upon this point there shall be a sharing with
Christ in his glory, and that for ever. "We shall see him," yes, and
let us have the next sentence, and "shall be like him when we shall see
him as he is." Oh Christian, antedate heaven for a few years. Within a
very little time thou shalt be rid of all thy trials and thy troubles;
thine aching head shall be girt with a crown of glory, thy poor panting
heart shall find its rest and shall be satisfied with fullness as it
beats upon the breast of Christ. Thy hands that now toil shall know no
harder labor than harp-strings can afford. Thine eyes now suffused with
tears shall weep no longer. Thou shalt gaze in ineffable rapture upon
the splendor of him who sits upon the throne. Nay more, upon his throne
shalt thou sit. He is King of kings, but thou shalt reign with him. He
is a priest after the order of Melchisedec, but thou shalt be a priest
with him. Oh rejoice! The triumph of his glory thou be shared by thee;
his crown, his joy, his paradise, these shall be thine, and thou shalt
be co-heir with him who is the heir of all things. Doth not this very
description of the unseen part of death stir up in the heart of the
believer a longing "to depart and to be with Christ which is far
better."
II. I have thus, as well as I was able, spoken upon the first part. And
now my friends, let us consider THE APOSTLE'S DESIRE. How differently
do men regard death. We have seen men shriek at the prospect of it. I
have seen the man driven to madness when the skeleton king has stared
him in the face. Pacing up and down his chamber he has declared with
many a curse and imprecation that he would not and could not
die–shrieking so that you could scarcely bear his company. He has
looked forward to death as the concentration of all despair and agony,
and he has vainly striven, with all his might, not to die. When he felt
at last that death was stronger than he, and that he must get a
desperate fall in the struggle, then has he began to shriek and to cry
in such a strain that scarce demons themselves could excel the despair
concentrated in each shriek. Others have we seen who have met death
somewhat more calmly. Biting their lips, and setting fast their teeth,
they have endeavored to keep up appearances, even in the last moment,
but they have endured the inward suffering, betrayed to us most plainly
by the staring eye, and the awful look. Others, too, we have seen, who,
callous through sin, totally deserted by God's Spirit and given up to a
seared conscience have gone to their death with idiot resignation. They
have even played the madman yet more fully, and have tried to brag and
bully even in the jaws of hell. Many Christians, have we met–true
believers–who can go so far as to say they were willing to die. Please
God, whenever the solemn hour should come, they were prepared to go up
to their chamber and stretch themselves upon their bed, and say, "Lord,
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." But the apostle had gone
further than they. He said he had a desire to depart, and the desire
was a strong one. The Greek word has much force in it. He panteth, he
longeth to be gone. I might paraphrase it by one of the verses of an
old hymn–
"To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone."
He desired not to get away from earth for he loved to serve his Master,
but he desired to be with Christ, which he declared to be far better. I
ask you if you were in Paul's condition would not such a desire contain
the very fullness of wisdom. There is a ship at sea, Fully laden. It
has a precious cargo of gold on board. Happy is the kingdom that shall
receive the wealth which is contained within its hold. Would you not if
you were a possessor of such a vessel long to be safe in port. The
empty ship needs scarcely fear the water for what hath she to lose. If
it casts its ballast into the sea, what is it the poorer? But when the
ship is full of treasure well may the captain long to see it safely
moored. Now Paul was full of faith and love. He could say, "I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith." And what wonder therefore
that he was longing to be safely anchored at home. So the soldier, who
in the midst of battle has smitten down foe after foe, knows that a
high reward awaits him. He has charged upon the enemy, and driven them
back in many a desperate struggle. He has already been victor. Do you
wonder he wishes the fight now were over, that his laurels may be safe?
If he had played the coward he might long that the campaign should be
protracted, that he might redeem his disgrace. But having so far fought
with honor he may well desire that the garment rolled in blood, may be
rolled up for ever. Ay! and so was it with the apostle. He had fought a
good fight, and knew that the crown was laid up for him in heaven, and
he anticipated the triumph which Christ would give him, and what marvel
that panting and longing, he said, "I have a desire to depart and to be
with Christ which is far better?" Upon this point I am constrained to
be brief, because the next division involves the whole matter, and upon
this, I would be somewhat longer. And may God grant that what I shall
say upon it may be impressive.
III. PAUL'S REASONS FOR LONGING TO DEPART. There have been–it is the
part of candour to admit it–there have been other men besides
Christians who have longed to die. There is the suicide who, mad, from
life's history hangs to be hurled, even though hell receive him. Tired
of all life's troubles he thinks he sees a way to escape from his toil
and from his sorrow through the grim gate of death. He stains his hand
with his own blood, and red with his own gore appears before his Maker.
Ah fool, to leap from one evil to a myriad! Ah madman, to plunge from
little streams of woe into an unfathomable gulf of agony! There can be
no more absurd, revolting, and insensible act, than for a man to take
away his life. Setting aside the horrors of crime that surround it, how
foolish is the attempt to escape by rushing into the very midst of
danger! The ostrich who buries het head in the sand, and when she
cannot see the hunter thinks the hunter cannot see her, is sensible and
wise compared with such a man, who rushing into the very thick of the
battle hopes in this way to escape from his enemy. How can it be thou
foolish man? Is the stream too deep for thee already, and instead of
seeking to find a shore by faith in God dost thou seek the center of
the stream that thou mayest get a firmer footing there? Oh foolish
generation and unwise, "Put up thy sword into thy scabbard and do
thyself no harm," for harm thou wilt do if thou rush into a greater
evil to escape the less.
There have been other men, who with a so called philosophic spirit,
have desired to die. Some men are sick altogether of mankind. They have
met with so many ungrateful and deceitful wretches that they say, "Let
me get rid of them all.
'Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Where rumor of oppression never more
May reach mine ear.'"
And they have thought to find this lodge in the wilderness of death;
and so they long for the wings of a dove to flee away from the
degenerate race of men. Not so this apostle. He was no such coward as
to fly from evils; he sought to better them. The apostle loved his
race; he was no man-hater. He could say that he loved them all, and
thus he had prayed for them all, and had carried them in the bowels of
Christ continually to the throne of mercy. Others, too, have thought by
getting out of the world they should get rid of their disappointments.
They have struggled very hard to get rich, or they have striven for
fame, and they have not succeeded, in their ambitious designs, and then
they have said, "Let me die." Now the apostle was never disappointed in
seeking wealth for he never cared for it. He had no desires whatever
beyond food ard raiment. He wished for nothing more, and as for rank
that he utterly despised. He did tread beneath his feet as the mire of
the streets all the honors that man could give him. Nor was the apostle
in any sense a disappointed man. He had sought to spread his Master's
fame and he had done it. He had a standard to plant and right well had
he planted it. He had a gospel to preach and he did preach it
everywhere with all his might. He was a singularly happy man, and
therefore he had no such cowardly reasons for desiring to depart.
Others, too, have said that they wished to depart because of their
great suffering. Now the apostle thought of no such dastard flight. He
was ready for all weathers. He had been beaten with rods; he had been
stoned; he had been shipwrecked; but he could say, "None of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto me." He did not wish
to escape from persecution. He rejoiced therein. He had often sung a
hymn in prison, besides that hymn which he had sung with Silas for his
companion. He had often shouted in the prospect of the block or the
flames. Nor did he wish to die because of old age, for he was not an
aged man when he wrote this epistle. He was just then, I suppose, in
full vigorous health, and though in prison I do think that an angel
might have ransacked the whole world before he could have found a
happier man than the apostle Paul, for a man's happiness consisteth not
in the wealth which he possesses. In the bare dungeons of Rome, Paul,
the tent maker, had a glory about him which Nero never had in all his
palaces; and there was a happiness there to which Solomon in all his
glory never had attained. So then, the desire of Paul to depart is for
these reasons far superior to the desire of the mere philosopher, or of
the disappointed worldling.
What then made Paul wish to depart? I shall put it thus–the same
reasons prompt the desires of every true believer; but they can have no
power whatever with many here, who have no desire to depart, because
for you to die would be not happiness and bliss, but an eternal weight
of misery.
First, the apostle felt a desire to depart because he knew that in
departing and being with Christ he should be clean rid of sin. Paul
hated sin; every true believer does the same. There have been times
with us brethren and sisters when we could say, "Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Sin has been
our plague. Like righteous Lot in Sodom, the sins of others have vexed
us; but, alas! we have had to bear a Sodom in our own hearts, which has
vexed us still more. As to the trials and troubles of this world, they
are nothing at all to the believer, compared with the annoyance of sin.
Could he get rid of his unbelief, of his murmuring disposition, of his
hasty temper–could he get rid of the various temptations of Satan,
could he be clean, and pure, and perfect, he would be thoroughly
satisfied. And this made the apostle long to depart. "Oh," saith he to
himself, one baptism in the stream of death and I am perfect–but to
pass the chill and dreary stream and I shall stand without spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing, before the throne of God." The dog of hell
shall follow us to the very edge of Jordan, but he cannot swim that
stream. The arrows of temptation will be shot at us as long as we are
here, but on the other side of Jordan these darts can never wound us
more. Rejoice, then, believer, in the prospect of death, because in
dying thou art once for all clean rid of sin. When I lay down this body
I have laid down every infirmity, and every lust, and every temptation,
and when clothed upon with that house which is from heaven, I have girt
about my loins perfection and unsullied purity. But oh! ye that believe
not in Christ, ye do not desire to die for such a reason as this. For
you there is no such a prospect. For you to die will be but to plunge
deeper into sin. You sin now, and when you die your spirit will descend
to hell, where, in the midst of fit companions, whose guilt is ripened,
you shall spend an eternity in oaths, and curses, and blasphemies. O
sinner! to-day you sow your sins in the furrows, and when you die you
shall reap the harvest. To-day you break the clods, to-day you work in
the husbandry of iniquity, then there shall be a shouting of an awful
harvest home. When pressed down with the sheaves of your sins, divine
justice shall bring forth the harvest of misery and torment to you. You
have reason enough to long to live, because for you to die is to reap
the reward of your iniquities.
Again, Paul longed to die for another reason, because he knew that as
soon as he should depart he could meet his brethren in faith who had
gone before. This desire also prompts you and me. I long to see, though
it is but a few hours since we have lost their society, those two
sisters, and the dear brother who during this week have departed in
Christ. Worshipping among us but a few days ago, it seems a strange
thing to talk of them as being in heaven. But there they are, far from
the reach of mortal, vision. At our departure we shall see them. It was
our happiness to see them not long before their departure, and to mark
it down as one of the notabilia of our life, that these three, all of
them alike died in quiet peace singing themselves into heaven, never
staying their song, so long as memory and breath held out. We shall see
them. But we have others we are longing for. Some of you may remember
the departed wife, scarce cold within her grave. Many of you look back
to dear little ones taken away in their infancy, carried off to their
father's God. Many of you remember aged parents; those that taught you
in the way of God; the mother from whose lips you learned the first
verse of Scripture, and the father upon whose arms you were carried for
the first time up to the house of God. They are gone; but the joyous
reflection remains that we are going in the same direction, and that we
shall meet them soon. Some of us can look back through generations and
trace our pedigree through the saints, and we are longing for the time
when the whole band of us, those who have gone in olden time, and those
who remain may sing together that new song of praise to our common God.
Beloved, we have high joys in prospect: we shall soon join the general
assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in
heaven. Our companions now are but poor and despised, but we shall soon
be brethren with princes. Moses who was king in Jeshuron, and David who
ruled over Israel, shall not be ashamed to call us brethren, for the
Highest himself shall acknowledge us, and he that on the throne doth
sit shall lead us unto living fountains of waters, and in his gracious
fellowship shall wipe away all tears from off our faces. I think that
the company of apostles, and prophets, and holy martyrs and confessors,
who have gone before, will be a very sweet part of the bliss of the
redeemed. And all this may make us pant to depart. But, O ye ungodly
ones! ye who have never been converted, and who fear not God, this hope
is not for you. You must go to your own place. And whither must you go?
To your drunken companions damned before you? Must you go down to the
pit with harlots and with the profane? Whither away, whither away, thou
careless man, thou lover of sin? Whither art thou going when thou
diest? Thine answer might well be this doleful ditty: "I am going to be
the guest of devils; I am going to feast with fiends; I am going to
abide with murderers, and whoremongers, and adulterers, and with such
as God hath condemned. These must be my companions for ever." Methinks
I see the wheat of God standing in the valley every year, about to be
gathered into the garner of heaven in its own place, and yonder I see
the tares, and what is the message for them? "Gather up the tares and
bind them in bundles to burn them." And who knows in what bundle you
may be? You may be bound up in the same bundle with murderers and
suicides. Yes, the men that you despise may be your companions in the
bundle of the wicked. The drunkard and the swearer, whom some of you
pretendedly good people look down upon with scorn, may be your bundle
companions, your bed-fellows for ever when you make your bed in hell
and abide in everlasting torment.
But last of all, Paul's grand reason for desiring to depart was to be
with Christ. Again I say, simple though the words be–to be with
Christ, have all heaven condensed in them. Like the sounding of the
silver trumpet of jubilee rings this precious sentence, "to be with
Christ." Like the harps of the glorified–like the singing of the
redeemed, like the hallelujahs of paradise, does this ring upon mine
ears, "To be with Christ." Lift up your voices, ye seraphim! Tune your
hearts anew, ye seraphs! Shout for joy ye blood-washed, but your
loudest strains cannot excel the thundering glory of this magnificent
but brief sentence, "to be with Christ, which is far better." This, my
beloved–this shall well repay the tiresome pilgrimage of life. This
reward shall be sufficient for all our contests with temptation, for
all the shame we have endured in following Christ, in the midst of a
wicked generation. This, this shall be all the heaven that our largest
desires shall crave. This immensity of bliss shall stretch across
eternity.
But O unbeliever, what hast thou to do with such a hope as this? Thou
canst not desire to depart and to be with Christ, for what is Christ to
thee? To-day thou despisest him. The man of sorrow thou esteemed not.
Jesus of Nazareth thou dost not regard. He is preached to thee every
Sabbath day, but thou despisest him. With many tears have I presented
him to thee, but thou hast shut thine heart against him; he has knocked
at thy door and there he stands shivering even now, but thou wilt not
admit him. Beware ye that despise Jesus, for in another world ye shall
see him after another fashion. Ye too shall be with him, but it shall
be but for an instant. Summoned before his bar, dragged reluctantly to
his dread tribunal, ye shall see him whom you despise; ye shall see him
and not another. But oh, with what astonishment will ye behold him, and
what amazement shall seize upon you! Ye shall see him, but no longer as
the humble man! his eyes shall be as flames of fire. Out of his mouth
shall go a two-edged sword. About him shall be wrapped "the rainbow
wreath, and robes of storm," and he shall speak in louder tones than
the noise of many waters, and in great thunderings shall he address
thee, "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire in hell, prepared for the
devil and his angels." Oh "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and ye perish
from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little." Oh, go to your
houses; may God the Spirit draw you to your chambers, and may you there
be led to fall upon your knees, confess your guilt, and humbly seek for
pardon, through that precious blood which flows freely this day, and
which will freely give pardon to you if with all your heart you seek
it. May God's Spirit lead you so to seek that you may find, and may you
and I, and all of us, in the day of our departure, see the land before
us–the happy shore of heaven. May we know that as our vessel sails
from earth it shall only take a hasty voyage "to be with Christ which
is far better." God the Spirit visit you now, God the Son bless you,
God the Father remember you, through Jesus. Amen.
The absence of the regular reporter is the publishers' apology for the
incorrectness of this sermon. Mr. SPURGEON has found it utterly
impossible to recall the words which he uttered, and which many of his
hearers declare to have been attended with peculiar power.