The Goodness of God in Prolonging Human Life

Psalm xci. 16. With long life will I satisfy him.

Could the temporal blessings of the world all be collected together and enjoyed by one man, his own single life would outweigh them all. “All that a man hath will he give for his life,” is a truth, though uttered by the father of lies. There may be instances in which human life is perverted and abused; while this misapplication of the gift is no impeachment of the bounty of the Giver. And if life itself is a proof of the divine goodness, so is the continuance of life. It is a renewal of the gift itself, and a prolonged expression of the same divine goodness which first gave it. The text is the language of promise; and the blessing of life is the greatest of earthly blessings. “With long life will I satisfy him.” The subject of the present discourse, therefore, is the goodness of God in prolonging human LIFE. This thought may be illustrated,

L By the instinctive love of life which is found in evejy human bosom.

The love of life is one of the last principles in our nature, if not the last, that is ever subdued. There is a natural antipathy in man to the separation of the soul and the body. Every man feels it. Dissevered from the light, and hopes, and influences of Christianity, there is no event so dark and gloomy. To the living, it is an untried event; no one has ever returned from that struggle to tell us what is meant by a conflict with the last enemy. We irresistibly throw around it all the images of fearfulness and desolation, and even of sickening horror. That corporeal frame, once so beautiful and fair, now a mass of loathsome corruption; that body so fearfully and wonderfully made, now so worn, wearied, sickened, decayed, that the active and impatient spirit can no longer use it, reads a melancholy lesson. Yet in spite of ourselves, we feel that the sentence of the Almighty Judge has placed us in this state of awful condemnation. That life of consciousness, reason and immortality, takes the alarm, and inquires, What will that perpetual hereafter be, to which I am destined? These bonds which have united me to earth, when once severed, will they be superseded by other and higher sympathies; and these relationships, so extended and strengthened by time, and so tender and joyous, will they all expire? It is not in man to contemplate the great event which decides these questions, without solicitude: and few there are who contemplate it with so little apprehension, that they do not deem it a privilege to contemplate it at a distance.

Death removes from us all the objects and concerns of this world. Whatever they are, or have been, at that solemn hour they pass from us, in a moment. Our time of trial, whether it have been long or short, and whatever be our character, or the issues of the trial, is then closed. The righteous, from that day onward, will have no more darkness, nor doubt, nor fear; the wicked, from that day onward, will be driven away in their wickedness, from every prospect of good, from every means of grace, and every gleam of hope, and enter upon their unalterable eternity. There is goodness, great goodness in God in prolonging the life which he has given.

11. In the second place, this thought may be illustrated by the special care and providence of God, by which human life is prolonged.

One man does not live longer than another, as a matter of course. There are no laws of nature, or of his own physical, or intellectual constitution, by which the life of any one is necessarily prolonged an hour. Men die at every stage of life, from infancy to old age. There is not a greater diversity of age in the congregations of the living, than is to be found in the great congregation of the dead. It is impossible to predict how long the aged will live, or how soon the young may die. It is no uncommon thing for the weak, the sickly, and the frail, to survive the strong, the healthy, and the vigorous. “One dieth in his full strength, living wholly at ease, and quiet. Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.” Men die everywhere; from every station, every office, every employment, every sorrow and every joy. Death reigns over the palace, and the cottage; at the festive board, and in the house of prayer; amid the toils of men, and amid their amusements; in the house, and by the way; on the land, and on the sea; by unexpected casualty, and by gradually approaching disease; by the elements, and by the sword; by the malignant hands of enemies, and by the mistaken kindness of a friend. Folly and sin do not shield them from the stroke; nor are they protected by their wisdom and piety. Talent and usefulness afford them no security; nor are any so obscure and useless that death does not search them out. “We see that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish.” The “mighty man, and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the prudent and the ancient, the captain of fifty and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator,” are equally liable to finish their course, and lie down in the dust. “Thou earnest them away as with a flood.” Human life is like the rapid passage of an impetuous torrent. It passes, and is gone. It is like a dream — a night of undisturbed slumber, from which, when we awake, the time passed in it appears as a cipher. It is like the grass which groweth up; in the morning it flourisheth, and in the evening it is cut down and withered, and all its beauty, health and vigor are turned again to the earth. It is like a lighted candle; it will soon burn away, and go out of itself; while at any moment, it may be extinguished by a breath of air, or a few particles of moisture. Nay, it is like a vapor, — a thing of air, — a fluid floating in the atmosphere, — a smoke which the wind driveth away, — the most unsubstantial, fleeting, and transitory thing in the world.

Great care is necessary, therefore, on the part of God, to cherish and prolong such a frail existence as this, and amid so many and constant exposures. If prolonged at all, it is by interpositions strongly marked with divine watchfulness and benignity. We need not be so much surprised to see men die, as to see that they are kept from dying. The wonder is not, that so many die so soon, as that, under the sentence of death, and in such a world, and amid so many exposures, any should live so long. Multitudes have been as it were dying for a series of years, and still they live. Multitudes, who, in the judgment of their fellow-men, long since bore all the marks of premature death, have lived to see those marks obliterated, and now give all the indications of prolonged years. Multitudes who, from year to year, have themselves looked for an early grave, have found their melancholy apprehensions defeated, and are yet in the land of the living. Who that hears me cannot look back upon expressions of restoring, or preserving mercy, by which he has been snatched from the grave? From how many perilous events have you but just made your escape? In how many different departments of human life, in how many scenes of unexpected danger, have you been kept as the apple of God’s eye? Not few are those periods in the history of almost every man, in which, to human view, there was little to hope, and everything to fear, and from which he has been mercifully rescued. Who does not see, in a multitude of instances, that nothing but the hand of God has kept him from the grave? Our times and seasons are all in his hand. Nothing is more obvious than his goodness in prolonging the life of man. But I remark,

III. This thought may be illustrated, in the third place, by contrasting the divine goodness in prolonging human life, with the divine sovereignty in taking it away.

God takes away the life of man, as well as gives, and prolongs it. His sovereignty in cutting short the lives of men, calls for cordial and unreserved submission; while his goodness in prolonging them, calls for adoring gratitude. “We live, while others are dead,” is a thought very often upon the lips of men; but it is one which furnishes affecting proof of the divine goodness. Why is it that some live, while others die? Are the living wiser, better, holier, or more useful than the wise, and good, and useful who have gone to their last earthly rest? Have they any stronger hold on life? Have they a better title to it, and would God have done them any injustice, had he spared the dead, and cut off the living? Are they the wicked, and the vicious, and vile only that have died*; or are the wicked, and vicious, and vile still among the living? There are those who have lived to see whole generations die. They stand almost alone amidst a younger race, and talk only of the events of other times, and of men who flourished before the rising, and risen generations had existence. They have lived to see the changes which the current of time has made in this transitory world. And who hath thus made the living to differ from the dead? What arm has restrained the ruthless axe of time from them, which has been laying millions low? There is but one answer to these questions. The difference is to be attributed to the unmerited, and sovereign favor of God. No reason can be found for it elsewhere. It is an expression of the divine goodness and mercy; and it is one among those extra-dispensations, those rare expressions of divine goodness, to account for which, we must have recourse to the will of God, and ascribe all to him. There is no chance or accident here; and there is something more than natural causes: it is the hand of God.

IV. A fourth consideration, in illustration of this thought, is, that in prolonging the lives of men, God gives them time and opportunity for repentance.

The soul is the most important, the all-important part of man. There are seasons when, in contemplating the divine care over human life, we are constrained to demand with the Psalmist, “Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him; and the son of man, that thou visitest him!” Nor are the reasons of this wondrous condescension hidden from us. This vapory, evanescent thing, which we call human life, is the envelope which wraps up an immaterial and immortal existence; and in J;hus watchfully protecting it, the God of mercy has an ulterior regard to the soul. He guards the frail casket, for the sake of the jewel which it contains; he encamps around the threatened and tottering tenement, from regard to the immortal tenant who occupies it. He views men, not only in the light in which they now appear, and as inhabitants of time, but in the light in which they will appear in future ages, and as inhabitants of eternity.

Man is fallen by his iniquity, and under the wrath and curse of God. Yet, through Jesus Christ, is there for him a way of pardon and eternal life. The world he occupies is the prison of hope. The short term of human life is the only day of grace and space for repentance. Within this period are compressed all the offers of mercy, all the instructions of the Bible and the Sabbath; all the warnings of divine providence, ail the strivings, and all the reviving influences of the Holy Spirit; all the solemnity, and tenderness, and prayer, by which men are led to the knowledge of themselves and the great Redeemer, and all the instances of repentance that ever take place among fallen men. These are all ended, and there is no instance of repentance when once human life is come to a close. It is the wildest delusion to look for an opportunity of making our peace with God beyond the grave. Up to the very eleventh hour, there is hope. The day of grace is not closed, the space for repentance is not over, the door of mercy is not forever shut until the last breath is gone that expels the soul from the worn-out house of her earthly tabernacle. Not a few do indeed abuse this truth, and defer the work of their salvation until the hour of death, and perish for their presumption. But it is still a truth, and one which has led some of our race truly to repent and believe in the Son of God, at a very late period of their earthly existence. How, then, does the divine goodness shine in sparing the forfeited lives of men, prolonging their dwelling upon earth, and lengthening out the day of their merciful visitation! How many are now in heaven, who would never have entered there, had not God in mercy permitted them to live twenty years, instead of ten; or forty, instead of twenty! How many in our guilty world would have died in their sins, if they had died the last year! How many, even, in this small congregation, would have perished without hope, if they had died during their last voyage! How many of us should have now been lifting our eyes in torment, had we died twenty, or ten, or five years ago! “The long-suffering of God is salvation.” His goodness in prolonging human life is as great as the multitude of his pardons; as great as the worth of the soul; as great as the perdition from which it delivers; as great as the heaven it bestows. “Millions of money,” exclaimed an agonized and dying Queen, “for a moment of time!” A year, a month, a week, a day, a single hour added to the fleeting period of human life, maybe, and often is, the turning point for eternity.

V. I remark, in the fifth place, the divine goodness in prolonging human life, appears in the consequent graces and hopes of his own people.

God prolongs the life of his own people, and often interposes to snatch them from the grave, for the most benevolent and gracious purposes. There are, indeed, not a few of them who have such clear evidence of their adoption into the divine family, that they are conscious that they have more to gain than to lose by leaving the present world. Yet how many good men are to be found, who, as they were sinking under the power of disease, and as death seemed to be coming up into their chambers, have expressed such sentiments as these: “God has taken me by surprise. Though I have hopes, precious hopes, yet is it a dark hour. I had hoped to be better fitted for heaven than I am; and if it be his blessed will, I have still a desire to live.” When curtained by all the tenderness and solemnity of the bed of death, good men feel that it is a deeply solemn thing to leave the present world, and enter upon the unchanging allotments of the future. Not unfrequently they tremble as they approach the grave; and you may hear them pleading in the language of the Psalmist, “Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like the moth. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry: hold not thy peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more!” They would live, and examine their hearts afresh, and know more satisfactorily that all will be well with them. They may hope to die safely, and yet feel that they have barely religion enough to furnish some of the fainter marks of God’s children. They would not go forth to meet the Bridegroom without trimming their lamps afresh. The thought distresses them to die so unprepared. Sometimes, they fear they have some sins unrepented of, and the forgiveness of which they have not found so sealed by the blood of sprinkling as they desire. They would be more holy, more weaned from the world, and more attached to God and heaven; and thus die more in peace, and more to the honor of God and true religion. And in thus prolonging the lives of his people, who does not gratefully recognize God’s goodness? I add,

VI. In the sixth place, the divine goodness in prolonging human life is evinced by the fact, that his benevolent purposes toward our world are, for the most part, accomplished through the agency of living men.

Some of these are accomplished, it is true, through the instrumentality of mere physical and irresponsible causes; but most of them, and those the most important, are accomplished through the agency of moral causes, or men. Some of them are accomplished through the agency of men, after they are dead; because men live by their influence and actions, long after they sleep in the dust. But the most of them are accomplished through living men; men whose existence is prolonged in order to secure these great ends.

The lives of men are lengthened out, not more for their own benefit, than for the benefit of others. We are prone to overlook the purpose, as well as the hand of God, in prolonging human life. Just so long as men, in any department of human life, be it ever so exalted, or ever so debased, have anything to do for God, and can be employed in accomplishing his purposes, he lengthens out their days. He will take care that not one shall be called to his grave, before his allotted work is done. He will watch over all their course, and continue to them the time and opportunity of fulfilling all his counsel, until all the wise and benevolent designs which he purposes to execute by their instrumentality, are accomplished.

This is an expression of great goodness on the part of God. Men sometimes sink into the grave without having apparently accomplished anything worth living for. Good men often see life wearing away, and the opportunity of usefulness just about to be circumscribed by the narrow limits of the tomb; and it covers them with shame that they should have lived to so little purpose, and done so little for a redeemed church and a ruined world. They know the value of human life, and are grateful for the goodness that still lengthens it out. In this view of the divine goodness in prolonging life, its trials and sorrows can scarcely have a place. Those there are whom God spares, both to do and suffer his will; and when they both do and suffer it as they ought, though their race is lengthened out, it is but to enhance their prize; though the conflict may be severe, it is to brighten their crown; and though it be to augment their toil and sorrow, it is also to enlarge their reward. That will be the happiest and most honored man in heaven, who has been the holiest, and lived the longest, and done and suffered the most for

God in the present world. There is nothing, therefore, equivocal in the proofs of the divine goodness in prolonging human life.

The preceding thoughts suggest the following reflections: —

1. In the first place, they enforce the importance of employing hunian life for- the great purposes for which it is given and prolonged. We may all wonder, and with an admiration that is full of holy gratitude, that we have not long since been cut down as cumberers of the ground. And if we would not bury all grateful remembrance of his goodness in the grave of a forgetful heart; let us show that we appreciate it by devoting the life he has prolonged to his service and glory. After all that God has done to watch over and protect these frail and exposed lives, it were a thankless return to devote them to sin and the world. Days there have been when some of you foresaw the approach of evil; when you feared that your earthly career was coming to a close; but heavenly mercy interposed for your deliverance, and rescued you from the grave. You will not forget those days, nor your own undisclosed thoughts and expressed purposes in regard to the future, should you be permitted to live. And have you paid the vows which your soul made in the time of trouble? Or have those solemn reflections passed away, to be renewed and revived in tenfold bitterness, when the day of calamity shall come on afresh? God spares you, but it is only for a little while. What you do, must be done quickly, for there is no work, nor knowledge, nor device in the grave whither you are hastening. God can lay you aside whenever he is pleased to do so. You may not be satisfied with living, and you cannot be reconciled to dying, unless you faithfully employ life while it lasts. You will find it a pleasure to live, so long as “for you to live is Christ;” and when this building of flesh shall begin to shake, you will find, that those for whom it is Christ to live, to die is gain.

2. In the second and last place, since the goodness of God is so manifest in prolonging human life, how great is the guilt, and how fearful must he the misery, of those who derive no benefit from it when thus prolonged? Notwithstanding all the divine goodness in giving them existence in the present world, and in continuing the existence he gave; in furnishing them so many rich and favorable opportunities to make that existence a blessing to others and themselves; in instructing and warning them, and in keeping back the sword of the Destroyer, year after year; still they have lived in vain, and worse than in vain. It was said of Judas, “Better for that man, had he never been born!’* And it may be said with truth of every man who lives and dies in his sins. Such men abuse the divine forbearance and long-suffering, to their souls’ undoing. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” God has given some of you, beloved hearers, great and long-continued opportunities for repentance, in order that your life and day of grace may be a blessing. But are there none among you, whose abuse of his goodness and forbearance give strong indications, that these blessings may be converted into a curse? If you die in sin, as you have lived in sin, how may you hope to come off with a lighter doom than is reserved for those who, ‘* after their hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God!” There is nothing of which you may be more solemnly assured, that that God “waits that he may be gracious.” His tenderness never speaks out more truly than when he says, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim! how shall I deliver thee, Israel! How shall I make thee as Admah! how shall I set thee as Zeboim! Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together!” But if you pervert this divine clemency to presumption, and abuse the goodness which thus prolongs your day of grace to impenitence and sin; better had it been for you not to have lived out half your days. God will destroy you, but not until the measure of your iniquity is full. Woe, — woe betide the man on whom the vials of his wrath will be poured out, because he thus hardens himself against God, and bids defiance to the fears and hopes of eternity! And ‘* what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?” The universe will have visible evidence that such a man deserves the woes he feels.