January 5, 2021

For many churches, 2020 has proved to be a year of funerals. Pastors have walked alongside their people through the valley of the shadow of death and have buried many beloved church members. Yet, even as one who grieves with his people, the pastor must also model what it looks like to have hope amid …

January 1, 1970

A Voice from Heaven   “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from …

Revelation:14:12,13

January 1, 1970

The Seven Sneezes    “The child sneezed seven times.” — 2 Kings iv. 34.   THE child was dead. Although he had been the special gift of divine promise and was therefore doubly prized by his parents, yet the little lad was not secure from the common hazards of life. He was in the harvest field in the heat …

2 Kings:4:34

January 1, 1970

The Empty Seat    “David’s place was empty.”— 1 Samuel xx. 27.   IT was quite right that David’s place should be empty, because Saul sought to slay him, and he could not safely sit in the presence of an enemy who had twice before cast a javelin at him to “smite him even to the wall with it.” …

1 Samuel:20:27

October 19, 1890

The Man Who Shall Never See Death   “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never …

John:8:51-53

March 3, 1881

THE BELIEVER’S DEATHDAY BETTER THAN HIS BIRTHDAY.   “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day  of one’s birth.” — Ecclesiastes vii. 1.   IN this part of the world we can hardly understand how much the Easterns thought of perfumes. When Solomon speaks of “precious ointment” he speaks of a luxury …

Ecclesiastes:7:1

May 2, 1880

Sentence of Death, the Death of Self-Trust    “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, hut in God which raiseth the dead.”— 2 Corinthians i. 9.   WE are justified, dear friends, in speaking about our own experience when the mention of it will be for the benefit of others. …

2 Corinthians:1:9

March 24, 1878

Over Against the Sepulchre   “Sitting over against the sepulchre.”— Matthew xxvii. 61.   MARY MAGDALENE and the other Mary were last at the Saviour’s grave. They had associated themselves with Joseph and Nicodemus in the sad but loving task of placing the body of their Lord in the silent tomb, and after the holy men had gone home …

Matthew:27:61

September 9, 1877

Our Last Journey   “When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.” Job xvi. 22.   THE season of the year may well remind us of our mortality. The com, which a few weeks ago was green and vigorous, has now for the most part yielded to the sickle; many …

Job:16:22

February 18, 1872

Precious Deaths   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."—Psalm 116:15        David sought deliverance from imminent peril, and he felt sure of obtaining it; for being a servant of the Lord he knew that his life was too precious in the sight of God for it to be lightly brought …

Psalms:116:15