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THE

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 310.]

OCTOBER, 1827. [No. 10. Vol. XXVII.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

For the Christian Observer.

TRUE AND FALSE REPOSE IN

IF

DEATH *.

F the conduct of men be a just criterion of their feelings, it would appear to be the first desire of human nature that death might never arrive; the second, we might therefore conclude, would be, that, seeing death is inevitable, we may become duly prepared for its reception. This, however, though a very natural desire, is by no means always followed by a corresponding system of conduct; so that while men in general wish, with Balaam, to "die the death of the righteous,'

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few live that life which they imagine ought to be attended with so auspicious a result.

There is but one modification of human existence which we have any good reason to believe will be accompanied with either safety or repose at our departure into another world. What is the nature of that peculiar modification cannot assuredly be doubtful; for, if Christianity be a Divine revelation fitted to the wants of man, and the only system which teaches him how he may obtain acceptance with God, then nothing short of the full effects of the Gospel upon a human soul can fit that soul for its eternal change. We may be moralists or philosophers; we may be esteemed

The following Essay is taken from a work entitled "Christian Essays," by the Rev. S. C. Wilks. The writer has been frequently requested to print this Essay separately, on account of its reference to the character and death-bed of our great British Moralist, Dr. Johnson.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 310.

wise and amiable; we may live without reproach, and meet death without a pang; yet, amidst all, if we know not practically the necessity and the value of a Redeemer, and have not obtained a scriptural hope of an interest in his salvation, we are venturing defenceless and exposed upon a wide ocean of storms and uncertainties, and are without a single well-founded exbraving all the terrors of eternity pectation beyond the grave.

The importance of procuring accurate ideas respecting religion and the mode of salvation, as connected with the safety and repose of a death-bed, is by no means universally considered in its full extent. There is a vague, unmeaning sort of piety-or, at least, of what unjustly bears that sacred_name,— which persons in general are too often willing to consider as all that is required for sustaining with patience the approach of affliction or death. Thus, a constitutional sweetness of disposition, or the negative blessing of not having been permitted to fall into any gross vices, is frequently viewed, both by the sufferer and the spectators, as sufficient to render the hour of dissolution easy, and the prospect of futurity welcome. If tranquillity be but obtained, it is of little consequence, in the estimation of the world at large, in what manner it was procured, or whether it be true or false; and thus that spiritual insensibility, which, both in itself and its results, is the greatest of evils, is boasted forth as the natural and proper effect of a well-spent life.

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The propriety of such a conclusion is more than questionable; for who, that is conversant with the effects of sickness, has not observed how often there supervenes (independently of religious considerations), a languid indifference to life or death, to the world and to eternity, which is evidently nothing more than the natural effect of affliction long sustained, and of a mind weakened and worn out by the near approach of dissolution? The faculties, almost subdued by the pressure of natural causes, oftentimes leave scarcely a sufficient degree of capacity for reflection, to make it appear to the sufferer a subject of any importance what is the fate of either body or soul. Thus the mind is said to have been tranquillized, when, in fact, it was only benumbed, and rendered incapable of summoning its natural energies even to a contemplation so important and pressing as that of an eternal world.

Whether this gradual insensibility, so often attendant upon sickness, is to be viewed as a merciful provision of the Almighty, in order to divest the physical circumstance of dying of a part of its terrors; or whether it was intended as a warning to early and deep repentance, before the approach of so precarious a season, it is not at present necessary to inquire. The only inference intended to be deduced is this; That, if all the terrors of futurity, all the moral pains of dissolution, all the hopes and fears of an unknown world, are so often found incapable of arousing a dying man from the natural lassitude and indifference attendant upon the slowly-approaching hour of mortality, the mere circumstance of dying in calmness is by no means a sufficient evidence of a wellgrounded hope of the felicities of heaven. The inference is still more forcible, if surrounding friends, as too often happens, have anxiously guarded every avenue, to prevent

the intrusion of that religious instruction and advice which were necessary to open the eyes of the unconscious sufferer.

Moral causes may likewise combine with physical as a sedative in death. Ignorance, or unbelief, or "hardness of heart, and contempt of God's word and commandment," may spread a deceitful calm, which will but end in a sad reverse of eternal bitterness and disappointment. Allowing, however, for every limitation and exception, it may still be laid down as a universal proposition, that, where there visibly exists a firm belief in a future state of retribution, with a due sense of human sinfulness and guilt, nothing but the means of salvation revealed in the Gospel can give peace and satisfaction to the soul. If the powers of mind are worn down by disease, this vivid perception may not exist; but where it really does exist, there is assuredly but one means of obtaining repose.

If this proposition be correct, it follows, that, wherever a death-bed has been really calm without any specific dependence upon the Redeemer, the effect has been produced either by ignorance or unbelief; either by not knowing and believing in a future state of retribution, or by not duly considering that guilt and sinfulness of man which ought to render the idea of retribution alarming to the fallen mind *.

These two primary causes may, however, branch out into various subordinate ones; but all these may be again traced back to their original sources of ignorance or scepticism. The various causes of falsely-happy deaths have been so well pointed out by a revered author of the present age, that no

It will be seen, that in this and the following remarks it is taken for granted that the mind is capable of due reflection, disease, or kept from serious thought by and not become languid or indifferent by any external artifice.

apology is necessary for the quotation.

"The blind are bold; they do not see the precipice they despise. -Or, perhaps, there is less unwillingness to quit a world which has so often disappointed them, or which they have sucked to the last dregs. They leave life with less reluctance, feeling that they have exhausted all its gratifications.Or it is a disbelief of the reality of the state on which they are about to enter. Or it is a desire to be released from excessive pain; a desire naturally felt by those who calculate their gain rather by what they are escaping from, than by what they are to receive.-Or it is equability of temper, or firmness of nerve, or hardness of mind.-Or it is the arrogant wish to make the last act of life confirm its preceding professions. Or it is the vanity of perpetuating their philosophic character. Or, if some faint ray of light break in, it is the pride of not retracting the sentiments which from pride they have maintainedthe desire of posthumous renown among their own party; the hope to make their disciples stand firm by their example; ambition to give their last possible blow to Revelation-or, perhaps, the fear of expressing doubts which might beget a suspicion that their disbelief was not so sturdy as they would have it thought. Above all, may they not, as a punishment for their long neglect of the warning voice of truth, be given up to a strong delusion, to believe the lie they have so often propagated, and really expect to find in death that eternal sleep with which they have affected to quiet their own consciences, and have really weakened the faith of

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under consideration. The greater number of these cases are evidently those of apparent, and not real tranquillity; cases in which a mask is worn to deceive the spectator, while the mind is fully conscious of its own suppressed agitations. There are but three modes in which a real calm in death can be produced;-by ignorance respecting human guilt and a future state; by scepticism concerning them; or by a knowledge that guilt has been expiated and punishment sustained on our behalf. It may not be improper to illustrate and confirm this remark by a few distinct references and observations.

If we look back to the Heathen world, we shall, it is true, discover almost innumerable instances of tranquil, and even triumphant, dissolution; but in the majority of these cases ignorance was evidently the parent of this false peace. A human being wholly unconscious of spiritual subjects, unacquainted with his own immortality, with the nature of God and of himself, with his aggravated offences against his Creator, and with the awful retribution which his offences merit, may die at ease, because he "dieth as the fool dieth." Amongst persons of this class the best and most enlightened individuals of the heathen world must be included.

Ignorance sometimes assumes a different form; so that persons, conscious of part at least of the truths just mentioned, may still die in false peace through their ignorance of the remainder. One single incorrect idea, whether it be respecting the supposed indiscriminate mercy of God, or the innocence of man, or any other subject intimately connected with repose in death, may, by its lethargic influence, prevent the salutary effect of every other article of belief. A person may fearlessly plunge into an overwhelming stream, either from not knowing its rapidity and depth, or from a false opinion that

he can stem its neither case is his be envied.

torrent; but in rash security to

The example, therefore, of a heathen, however enlightened, ought not to be cited as a sufficient proof that a person ignorant of Christ, yet conscious of a future retribution, may nevertheless die in unaffected peace; for though the person in question might know much, he could not possibly know all that was necessary to render the experiment complete. Allowing, for the sake of illustration, that he fully believed in the immortality of his soul, and in a judgment to come, still he could not be duly sensible of his own corrupt nature and personal demerits, without being made first acquainted with the original condition of man, his subsequent fall, the strictness of the Divine law, his own personal transgressions of it, and, in short, with all those circumstances which rendered an Atonement necessary for human redemption. It is only, therefore, in cases in which these points are fully undersood and believed, that we can correctly ascertain whether any consolation, short of a genuine faith and dependence upon Jesus Christ, can give satisfaction to a truly enlightened mind.

Let us, then, turn from the heroes and philosophers of the classical world, to that large class of persons who, educated within the limits of Christendom, are seen to pass into eternity without manifesting fear or perturbation, though evidently destitute of any realizing views of that salvation, a knowledge of which is indispensably necessary for the repose of every well-informed and tender conscience. Instances of this kind, which are, alas! sufficiently numerous, may be urged as irreconcilable with the doctrine laid down in the preceding remarks; and, in point of fact, are so urged every day, with a view to prove, that, after all our speculations, there is in reality no great need for those re

ligious feelings and sentiments to which persons of seriously disposed mind attach the highest importance. If men, we are told, can die thus happily by means of their present general views of Christianity, there can be no particular necessity for entering more deeply into its peculiar disquisitions.

In this objection it will be seen that the knowledge and belief of the individual in Christianity are taken for granted from the mere circumstance of his having been born of Christian parentage and educated in a Christian country. Should it, however, appear, as will be hereafter shewn, that, notwithstanding these advantages, he may very possibly be still ignorant or unbelieving respecting some important points revealed in the Gospel, it will follow, that, amidst all his presumed light and information, he is but a heathen with the name of a Christian; and may therefore be but too justly included in the remarks already made respecting the nations who know not, or believe not, those truths which made an atonement indispensable.

In the mean time it should be observed, that that objection may be carried much further than the objector himself might be disposed to allow. For if the single circumstance of calmness in death is to determine the sufficiency of a person's religious belief, heathenism itself will not be without its triumphs, and all the calm and heroic deaths of classical antiquity must henceforth be narrated as proofs of the adequacy of the systems beneath whose influence they originated. Had this calmness been connected with a due knowledge and belief, the case would have been far more relevant and convincing.

It would be, perhaps, considered

as a somewhat harsh assertion, though it is perfectly true, that the deaths of a large portion of professed Christians are tranquil only on the very same grounds as those

of many heathens were tranquil also. Men are oftentimes accustomed to bring forward the generic, rather than the specific, idea of piety. In proof of this remark, it is by no means unusual to find professedly Christian writers selecting examples of happy deaths almost indiscriminately from heathens, heretics, and true believers, with, perhaps, scarcely a single warning to point out the important specific differences between the religious systems of the various persons whose characters are discussed. Thus, under one generic name, we are told of the pious and happy death of Cyrus, or Socrates, or some other favourite of antiquity, in nearly the same terms which are elsewhere employed to characterize that of a Christian martyr or Apostle. The features which are common to all are minutely pourtrayed, while those which are peculiar to the latter are overlooked. It is the frame of mind simply considered, and not as connected with Christian truth, that is pointed out to our attention. The marked and important difference, not merely between the hopes of these classes of persons, but also between the grounds on which those hopes depend, is quite overlooked, amidst the spurious catholicism of a universal creed. The worshipper of Jehovah and of Jove are placed side by side; and because the one found in an awful ignorance of his moral condition that calm, which the other derived from a well-founded hope in his Redeemer, it is predicated of both alike that they expired in piety

and peace.

It would, however, be very probably urged by the objector in return, that his argument was intended to apply solely to professed Christians. He would, perhaps, allow, that in a heathen, or even in a vicious man, a peaceful death must of course be connected with a considerable degree of ignorance or unbelief; but he would add, that where the individual was a baptized person, and there existed no par

ticular viciousness of character, calmness in death, even though unconnected with any peculiar reliance on the atonement of Christ, would be nevertheless not a deceitful, but a rational and well-founded repose, grounded on general views of the Creator's mercy, though not specifically dependent upon any idea of the merits and propitiation of the Redeemer.

Here, then, we return to the precise point of discussion; and in every view of the subject it is far from an idle speculation: for if what is currently applauded and envied as an easy and hopeful death, be in truth oftentimes nothing more than the natural consequence of ignorance or infidelity, or both in conjunction, nothing surely can be more evident than the necessity of careful self-examination, in order that our tranquillity in dissolution may not be followed by a far more dreadful death than the one whose terrors we had thoughtlessly despised.

How often do we hear it remarked, respecting a person most heedless and irreligious, that "he died like a lamb." Impossible, if, in the full possession of his mental faculties, he seriously contemplated his Maker and himself, as they are both exhibited in Scripture, without at the same time taking fully into his account the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Impossible, if he adequately saw and felt the disease, without being enabled to apply the remedy. Impossible, if he knew and believed his guilt, without reposing by faith in Him who alone can take away the sin of the world. If, dying ignorant of Christ Jesus, he died in comfort, or at least in what unjustly bears that name, he could not assuredly credit the denunciations of Divine wrath; or, believing them, he did not see how justly they applied to himself. Here, then, existed some degree of ignorance or unbelief; and, in fact, there is no subject upon which men in general, even in a Christian country, are so sceptical as on that

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