A Believer's Last Day, His Best (continued)
speaking, and tender. See that Christ be your Lord and Master. See that all reckonings stand right between the Lord and your souls. See that you are fruitful, faithful, and watchful—and then your dying-day shall be to you as the day of harvest to the farmer, as the day of deliverance to the prisoner, as the day of coronation to the king, and as the day of marriage to the bride. Your dying-day shall be a day of triumph and exaltation, a day of freedom and consolation, a day of rest and satisfaction! Then the Lord Jesus shall be as honey in the mouth, ointment in the nostrils, music in the ear, and a jubilee in the heart.
4. The last use then is this—If a believer's last day is his best day, then by the rule of contraries—a wicked man's last day must be his worst day, for he must there face judgment with all the sins of his life. [A great man wrote thus a little before his death: "Hope and fortune farewell."] Death shall put an end to all the benefits and comforts that now you enjoy. Now you must say, "Honors, friends, pleasures, riches, credit, etc., farewell forever! I shall never have one more happy moment! I shall never be merry again! My sun is set, my glass is out, my hopes fail, my heart fails; all offers of grace are past, the Spirit will never more strive with me, free grace will never more move me, the brazen serpent shall never more be held forth! Death will be an inlet to judgment, yes, to an eternity of misery! [Sigismund the emperor and Louis the Eleventh of France straitly charged all their servants that they should not dare to name that bitter word 'death' when they saw them sick, so dreadful were the very thoughts of death to them.]
What the voice of God was to Adam upon eating the forbidden fruit; what the coming of the flood was to the profane men of the old world; what the waters of the Red Sea were to Pharaoh and his army; what the fire from heaven was to the captains who came up against
Elijah; what the burning furnace was to those who cast in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—the same will be the day of death to profane wicked souls.
Ah, sinners! my prayer for you shall be, that the Lord would awaken you, and set up a choice light in your souls, that you may see where you are, and what you are; that he would grant you to break off your sins by repentance, and give you a saving interest in himself; so that "for you to live may be Christ, and to die may be gain," Phil.
1:21; that in life and death Christ may be advantage to you; and that death may be the funeral of all your sins and sorrows, and an inlet to all that joy and pleasure, that blessedness and happiness—which is at God's right hand!
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A Believer's Last Day, His Best Day by Thomas Brooks , Copyright
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