CHAPTER XXVIII. Sunset.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
Sunset.
Last Days on Earth-- Admitted into Hospital--Patience and Resignation--Knowledge of an Approaching End--Commends his Wife and Child to God--Sufferings Light--Power of Religion in a Dying Hour--"All is Clear"--Day Dawns--Morning Breaks--Sabbath Below Exchanged for Sabbath Above--Perfect Peace--Asleep in Jesus.
"He lifts me to the golden doors,
The flashes come and go;
All heaven bursts her starry floors,
And strews her lights below,
"And deepens on and up! The gates
Roll back, and far within
For me the heavenly Bridegroom waits,
To make me pure of sin.
"The Sabbaths of Eternity,
One Sabbath deep and wide;
A light upon the shining sea,
The Bridegroom with His Bride!"
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
HAVING heard from my dear friend that he was on his way home in the Robert Lowe, and that I might expect him about the month of May, I was daily examining the papers for tidings of the vessel's arrival. On the 24th May, I discovered that she had entered the Channel, and had scarcely returned from reading the account, when Marjouram reached Woolwich, and inquired for me. We met, not knowing each other, as to the flesh; for seven long years had done their work of change on both of us.
I at once saw that he was not long for this world; and he, too, appeared to be impressed with the same conviction. We spent many happy hours in conversation, and could but subscribe in grateful humility to the record of the past, --that "the Lord had done all things well." He rejoiced indeed in my temporal prosperity, but above all in my possession of a good hope through grace. I found him the same as I had ever known him, --a truly-devoted servant of Christ. He talked of trying to procure a situation as Scripture-reader, if the Lord were pleased to spare him a short time, as he felt convinced that he would never be able to resume his military duties.
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He desired to live that he might be the means of bringing sinners to Christ, and was specially anxious about his unconverted relatives, who had long been the subjects of his earnest prayers. He told me that he was rejoiced to see, on his arrival in London, that some hard hearts had been softened. I had several interviews with him before the Sabbath, and always felt my own soul refreshed as I conversed with him, for he evidently lived above the things of time, and looked forward to eternity with anticipations of joyful delight. He did not appear to suffer much pain, complaining only of extreme weakness. On my calling to see him on Sunday morning, he expressed an earnest wish to attend the house of God. This privilege, however, was never again to be his on earth; he was ripening speedily for the general assembly of the first-born in heaven. I saw him every day during the following week, and one evening wo spent a most happy hour together. As I was talking to him about his approaching end, and asking him if he could now rely wholly upon Jesus for salvation, he replied, "I can trust my all in His hands; I know He will never leave me nor forsake me." He told me he did not feel that excessive joy he had experienced in times gone by, but that he had in its stead a settled peace. Before I left him, we engaged in prayer together. The occasion, and our very words of supplication, I never can forget. This was the last time we bowed together at the throne of grace. It appeared as if his faith took hold of God, and I felt that the Lord was indeed with us. How he pleaded for those near and dear
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PATIENCE AND RESIGNATION.
to him!--the Church, myself, and many others. I left him, feeling how far my own Christian experience fell short of his.
The week wore away; and though his friends thought him better, I knew his departure was very near. I called, on the following Sunday, when he asked me to request his minister to return thanks in his name to Almighty God for all the mercies he had received, and for his safe return to his native land. I need not add that his desire was fully carried out. To the Rev. Mr S-----, who called in to see him in the afternoon, he gave a sovereign as a thank-offering to the Lord. He could hear the sound of Sabbath singing from an adjoining place of worship, and had a very great desire to mingle with the worshippers. He appeared very happy, and shewed by his manner that he felt convinced that this would be his last Lord's-day on earth. Preparations were made for him to visit his friends, but these were soon frustrated; for, upon attending hospital on June 4th, the doctor, finding that he was much worse, took him in altogether. I visited him in the afternoon, and found him perfectly resigned to his heavenly Father's will. Although he had not seen his parents for so many years, and thought he would now have had that pleasure, and, with it, the opportunity of doing them some good, still not a murmur escaped his lips at the defeat of his cherished idea. On the contrary, he told me he wished he had been admitted sooner.
There were five other men in the same ward, and he
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said, he would willingly die at once could, his death but be the means of bringing them life. Being too weak to speak to them himself, he desired me to do so, beseeching them to be reconciled to God. There was one young man, named H-----, who was very kind to him, and who had become much attached to him since his admission, scarcely leaving him till his death.
When I visited him on Friday afternoon, he told me that he was a dying man, as he had previously assured his dear wife. He next asked to see their dear child. The interview was a very affecting one, as the two were devotedly attached to each other. With many tears he commended them both to the Lord, and afterwards became more composed. Every temporal want was supplied, and all that medical skill could devise was done for him. Several ministers and pious friends visited him, all of whom can bear testimony to the privilege of being present at his dying bed.
On Friday night his last change came on: he became very restless, but still retained his faculties. When I came on Saturday afternoon, I saw at once that his death was at hand. His wife was permitted now to remain with him altogether. He was unable to say much, but every word he spoke testified that he was happy in Jesus. As the evening drew on, she thought that his mind was wandering, and asked him if he knew her; he answered very distinctly, and with some concern, "Why, yes, you are my dear wife." It was now evident that he could not last many hours.
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"ALL IS CLEAR."
About eleven o'clock P. M. the senior surgeon came to see him, and remained with him till half-past twelve, making every possible effort to alleviate his sufferings, which were not, however, very great. Before he left, he told us that nothing more could, be done, and gave us the necessary directions for the night. After he had gone away, Marjouram expressed his earnest gratitude for the great kindness he had received at his hands. He appeared to be very composed, falling into a light slumber shortly afterwards, which lasted from two to three o'clock. On waking, his mind wandered for about an hour, after which he again became perfectly calm, and asked for me. I assured him that I was with him; and he then looked for his wife, and seeing her at his side, appeared very happy. He spoke to us about going home; and when we reminded him that heaven was his home, his countenance brightened up with a ray of celestial glory. He exhorted us to press forward to the same home, concluding by saying-- "Mind, you have promised you will meet me in heaven." He appeared to suffer very little, and was as patient in this closing scene as he had been throughout the whole of his illness. He asked us to lift him up in bed, and said, "I am going up, come with me." After he had been again laid down, he said, with supernatural emphasis and distinctness, "All is clear."
Yes, all was clear between his soul and his Saviour; and we felt that he was being favoured with visions denied to us. He was evidently engaged in silent prayer
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and praise. A few minutes more, and he had uttered his last connected sentence--
"I AM ON THE ROCK!"
his countenance beaming at the same time with, if possible, a more heavenly expression than it had ever yet worn.
"Yes, dear brother," I added, "on the Rock Christ Jesus;" repeating at the same time the well-known hymn--
"Rock of ages cleft for me."
His lips were wreathed with perpetual smiles as he listened: words seemed to struggle up for utterance, but speech had almost failed him.
"Happy!" "Rejoice!" "Amen!" he was heard to murmur, and when he had said this he fell asleep.
In the early summer morning, his happy spirit escaped. The prison doors were opened and closed, noiselessly and peacefully, at the bidding of the angel of the Lord. The Sabbath on earth, with its chimes and holy assemblies, was just commencing. But he who had loved the amiable tabernacles here had gone to the everlasting Temple; and, as we watched what he had left behind, we might almost have heard the harpers harping with their harps, and caught, through the mist that intercepted our feeble vision, the flashing of the golden gates.
So unbroken was the stillness, so mysterious the solemnity of repose--it seemed as though we were listening with strained ears to the sound of the soul's departure with its angelic escort. Awed by the wondrous hush,
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THE PRESENCE-CHAMBER.
and overcome by powerful emotion, we gazed, upon the dead. In reverent affection we closed his eyes. Within them lay the expression of that deep unutterable calm of a spirit at rest: then rose to my thoughts and to my lips the words of the hymn--
"Oh, may I triumph so,
When all my warfare's past;
And, dying, find my latest foe
Under my feet at last!"
His poor widow bowed her head under the heavy blow. "I would not wish him back," she exclaimed, with tears, "for I know that he is reaping his reward in heaven."
At her request, permission was asked to have the body removed from the hospital to the lodgings he bad previously occupied. This was readily granted, and they carried him to that little room where, but a few days before, he had poured out his soul before God:
"Brought him to the quiet chamber where the air with flowers was sweet,
Where, as in a holy temple, no intrusive eye could come."
The echoes of his supplication seemed to linger there still; but with him prayer was now over--he had gone to join "the new song before the throne."
With us that Sunday passed in strange tranquillity. We could have stayed the noiseless flight of the golden hours. There seemed to be a nameless influence around us, akin to that described by St Paul as "the powers of the world to come." Perhaps our spirits, so long in close
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communion with his, were unable as yet to brook the separation, and had in a sense joined his flight, and were in some measure participating in his experience.
Explain these influences how we may, they come most mercifully in this work-a-day world to check our unbelief. For who--as he turned from that busy street near where the dead was lying, from the distant chimneys of yonder arsenal, alive with an everlasting hum and throng, to that curtained sanctuary where Death was reigning-- would fail to realise in that presence-chamber the truth of David's exclamation--
"Man walketh in a vain shadow;
He disquieteth himself in vain:"
unless, indeed, he "walk by faith, not by sight."
