In Christ, Death is but a Passing Shadow to His people
"Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." -Psalm 23:4 [KJV]
Death, the gaunt king of terrors; Death, who with his
scythe in his resistless hand, mows down whole millions of the human
race; Death, who awaits his victims at every corner; Death, that must
soon lay you and me low in the grave, casts a shadow wherever he comes.
He visits the sick room, and casts a shadow there; he hangs over the
cradle, and his shadow falls on the infant's face; he comes in the
Indian letter from abroad, or with the black seal and mourning envelope
put into our hand at home; and these tidings or these tokens cast a deep
shadow over our hearts.
Indeed, where is the place where death does not cast his shadow? where the house where this shade has never fallen? In fact, he never comes without it. He is "the last enemy;" he is the final fulfilment of the original curse. And though death, to a saint of God, is stripped of its terrors, robbed of its sting, and disarmed of its victory; though, to the expiring believer it is but a portal of life into the mansions of eternal bliss, yet, say what we may, the portal casts a shadow. Even David, though full of sweet confidence that "the Lord was his shepherd," at the very time when "his cup ran over" with the Lord's goodness and love, calls it "the valley of the shadow of death." "Thy rod and Thy staff" comforted him, and he "feared no evil," but it was still "a valley," overhung by frowning mountains and dark, overarching woods, and "the shadow of death" was spread upon it from the entrance to the end. And yet it is but a "shadow."
To the graceless,
the Christless, the impenitent, the unbelieving, it is a substance, for
the wrath of God, which burns to the lowest hell, awaits them at the
end of the valley, to plunge them into the lake that burneth with fire
and brimstone. But to those who die in the Lord, in the sweet enjoyment
of peace through his blood, it is but a passing shadow. For them the
substance died when Jesus died. It was buried in His tomb, but did not
rise with Him, for He destroyed it when He "abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light."
-preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
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