A Watchword for Life and for Death

Into Thy hand I commit my spirit. — Psalm xxxi. 5. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. — Luke xxiii. 46. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. — Acts vii. 59.

David said in his lifetime j “Into Thy hand I commit my spirit:” in the hour of torture and dissolution, Jesus Christ and His servant, Stephen, used almost the same expression. It is, then, not necessarily a dying speech. It is as appropriate to youth as to old age; to the brightness of life as to the shadow of death. These are words which stretch over the entire expanse of human existence, adding brightness to the silvery morning, and enhancing the pomp of the gorgeous sunset.

The greatest concern of man should be a concern about his spirit. His clothes wear out: his house crumbles away: his body must return to the dust: it is in his spirit alone that man finds the supreme possi-A WATCHWORD I^OR LIFE AND DEATH. 107

bilities of his being. Care for the spirit involves all other care. When the spirit is rights the whole life is righteous and strong. Hence the importance and the interest of this subject — commending and committing the spirit to the one God and Father of all life. Here is David an Old Testament saint, committing his spirit to God: here is Jesus on the cross commending His spirit to the Father; and here is Stephen, the first of Christian martyrs, giving up his spirit to the Saviour. What they did we may do. We are not invited to put our feet on untried ground, — we are asked to join the general assembly and church of the first-born in an act of the deepest trust.

I. Regard the words as supplying — the teue watch-WOED OF LIFE. Life needs a watchword. Our energies, purposes, hopes, should be gathered around some living and controlling centre. We stray far from the right line when we take ourselves into our own keeping. When we commit our spirit into the hand of God, three results accrue: —

First: We ccproach the duties of life through a series of the most elevating considerations, [a) We are not our own: (6) We are parts of a great system: (c) We are servants, not masters: {d) The things that are round about us are beneath our serious notice, except for momentary convenience or instruction.

Second: We accept the trials of life with the most hopeful patience. They are disciplinary. They are under control. They are needful. “I said in my haste I am cut off from before Thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.^’ The whole psalm is a commentary upon this doctrine.

Third: We recognise the mercies of life with the most joyful thanhfulness. The name of God is upon the smallest of them. “I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy,” etc. (ver. 7, 8).” Oh how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee! ‘’ etc. (ver. 19). To the atheist the morning is but a lamp to be turned to convenience; to the Christian it is the shining of the face of God. All things are ours, if the spirit be Christ’s.

What is your life’s watchword? You have one. What is it? Self-enrichment? Ease? Indulgence? Money? The one trioe watchword is, Into Thy hands I commit my spirit, — my case, — my controversies — my disappointments — my whole discipline and destiny.’’

II. Regard the words as supplying — the true WATCHWOED OF DEATH. If the Uviug man requires a watchword, how much more the man who is dying! How strange is the country to which he is moving! How dark the path along which he is travelling!

How short a way can the dearest and strongest of his acquaintances accompany him! All this so well understood by us all, makes death very solemn. This watchword as spoken by Jesus and as spoken by Stephen shows —

First: Their belief in a state of being at present invisible. Was Jesus Christ likely to be deceived in such a matter? Read His life: study the character of His thinking: acquaint yourselves with the moral tone of His teaching; and then say whether He was likely to die with a lie in His mouth. And Stephen? What had Stephen to gain if no world lay beyond the horizon of the present and visible? Jesus and Stephen, then, must at least be credited with speaking their deepest personal convictions. It is something to ■fts in our ignorance and weakness to know who have believed this doctrine of a future state.

Second: Their assurance of the limitations of human malice. The spirit was free! Ye evil ones, ye cannot touch the divine side of human nature: your cruel sword cannot strike its way into the souls sanctuary; ye may murder, but ye cannot annihilate!” Fear not them that kill the body,’^ etc.

In view of these considerations there are four points of practical application: (1) Where the spirit is fit for the presence of God, there is no fear of death. (2) All who have died in the faith are iwesent with the Lord. (3) Jesus Himself knows what it is to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. (4) The prayer for entrance amongst the blest may come too late. We have no authority for the encouragement of death-bed repentance. It is but poor prayer that is forced from a coward s lips — it is not prayer, it is the groan of mortal fear.

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