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Strange things can happen in the short day of life. I am allowed to copy a page from a letter written by one who nursed his fellow missionary through deadly illness, in the hope that should this page find another on the edge of that rough water he may feel the handgrasp of a friend.
“The book [Rose From Brier] found its way into the sickroom on the ground that it might have a message for the patient, but he soon passed beyond the reach of words of cheer. I have never before realized how satanic delirium can be. It seems as if the devil is allowed to take advantage of the weakened condition of the sufferer to dominate his mind. These nights I have seen a soul suffering the very agonies of hell, confirmed in the belief that he had fallen from grace and was doomed to everlasting damnation; and then the same child of God convinced that he was a devil, and acting like one. The mention of the Name would but call forth blasphemy. There is something sinister and devilish about these diseases. Thank God we do not need to understand.”
There is no new thing under the sun:
“One thing I would not let slip,” wrote John Bunyan. “I took notice that now poor Christian was confounded, that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it: just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than anything that he met with before, even to think that he should now blaspheme Him that he loved so much before: yet, if he could have helped it, he would not have done it; but he had not the discretion either to stop his ears, or to know from whence these blasphemies came.
“When Christian had traveled in this disconsolate condition some considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man as going on before him saying, ‘Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no ill; for Thou art with me.’
“Then was he glad, and that for these reasons: First, because he gathered from thence that some who feared God were in this Valley as well as himself. Secondly, for that he perceived God was with them, though in that dark and dismal state. And why not, thought he, with me? though, by reason of the impediment that attends this place, I cannot perceive it. Thirdly, for that he hoped, could he overtake them, to have company by and by.
“So he went on, and called to him that was before: but he knew not what to answer for that he also thought himself alone. And by and by the day broke. Then said Christian, ‘He hath turned the shadow of death into the morning.”‘
Thank God for the morning after such a night. About the piteous fading of the mind, someone has said, “It is sometimes the Father’s way to put His child to bed in the dark”; but the child will waken very happy in the morning. And the words comfort the greater trial of what appears to be spiritual collapse. However shadowed the “going to bed” of the Father’s child may be, the awakening will be radiant.
Think of it and be comforted, you who have seen one dear to you pass unsuccored, apparently, through rough waters. Body, soul and spirit may appear to be submerged, but the spirit of the child of God is never for one moment imperiled, no sudden swirl shall pluck it out of the Hands that hold it fast. And your prayer found it where you could not follow. There was no response that you heard or saw when you spoke those words of life, and sang those hymns by that bedside. But singing can follow one under water; it sounds far off and a little dreamy, but it is clear. Perhaps that is how those hymns sounded to that dear spirit. And under water, deep under water, it saw a light softly diffused coming to meet it. This is what happens when one dives into a deep pool at night and swims slowly upward. The moonlight meets one long before one reaches the surface. And if it can be so with the moonlight of earth, how much more true it must be of the sunlight of heaven.