Expositions of Holy Scripture: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VIIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII
The promise ought to be true for us all. It _is_ true for all who use
the things that are freely given to them of God. And whilst thus it is
the law for the devout life here, its most glorious fulfilment remains
for the life beyond. There each new moment shall bring new strength,
and growing millenniums but add fresh vigour to our immortal life. Here
the unresting beat of the waves of the sea of time gnaws away the bank
and shoal whereon we stand, but there each roll of the great ocean of
eternity shall but spread new treasures at our feet and add new acres
to our immortal heritage. 'The oldest angels,' says Swedenborg, 'look
the youngest.' When life is immortal, the longer it lasts the stronger
it becomes, and so the spirits that have stood for countless days
before His throne, when they appear to human eyes, appear as--'young
men clothed in long white garments,'--full of unaging youth and energy
that cannot wane. So, whilst in the flesh we must obey the law of
decay, the spirit may be subject to this better law of life, and 'while
the outward man perisheth, the inward man be renewed day by day.' 'Even
the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall; but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.'
A DEATH IN THE DESERT
'So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the Lord. 6. And he buried him in a valley in
the land of Moab, ... but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this
day.'--DEUT. xxxiv.5, 6.
A fitting end to such a life! The great law-giver and leader had been
all his days a lonely man; and now, surrounded by a new generation, and
all the old familiar faces vanished, he is more solitary than ever. He
had lived alone with God, and it was fitting that alone with God he
should die.
How the silent congregation must have watched, as, alone, with 'natural
strength unabated,' he breasted the mountain, and went up to be seen no
more! With dignified reticence our chapter tells us no details. He
'died there,' in that dreary solitude, and in some cleft he was buried,
and no man knows where. The lessons of that solitary death and unknown
tomb may best be learned by contrast with another death and another
grave--those of the Leader of the New Covenant, the Law-giver and
Deliverer from a worse bondage, and Guide into a better Canaan, the Son
who was faithful over His own house, as Moses was 'faithful in all his
house, as a servant.' That lonely and forgotten grave among the savage
cliffs was in keeping with the whole character and work of him who lay
there.
Here,--here's his place, where meteors shoot, clouds form,
Lightnings are loosened,
Stars come and go! Let joy break with the storm,
Peace let the dew send!
Lofty designs must close in like effects; Loftily lying,
Leave him--still loftier than the world suspects,
Living and dying.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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