apostle Paul who did not know whether he should depart to be with Christ, which is far better, or to remain in the land of the living on behalf of his fellow Christians. There was willingness to depart and likewise willingness to stay; and most important at the moment, there was the complete lack of any fear o f death. I went over the great basic problems of life which had been settled. After all, these are not many, and for me seemed to re solve themselves into just three: salvation, service and steward ship. 1. SALVATION As to the first, there was no question as to the truth and power of the salvation provided by the Lord. The sin question had been settled and there was the recollec tion with gladness of the certainty of redemption by the precious blood: “ Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb with out blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18, 19). Since the sin question had been settled there also had been firmly established forever the problem of sonship with the Most High. There was recollection o f John 1:12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons o f God, even to them that believe on his name.” and also First John: “ Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (3 :2 ). May I ask you if beyond any shadow o f doubt you have that same strong confidence, based on the Scriptures and personal ex perience of regeneration, that you also can face death with the knowledge that the sin question and the sonship question have been settled? THE KING'S BUSINESS
FACING DEATH Unafraid b y Dr. V . R a ym ond Edman
T wice in my lifetime I have looked death squarely in the face and have found that last enemy to be indeed a defeated foe. At the brink o f eternity the believer in Christ is more sure than ever of the reality o f that shout of triumph given by the Saviour on the cross when He said, “ It is finished” ! Death with its sting was defeated with final ity at Calvary and, for the Chris tian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. My first encounter with death took place many years ago when I was a young missionary in Ecuador. I contracted typhus fev er while working among the In dians in the Andes Mountains. After some days I was outwardly unconscious but inwardly fully aware that I was wading far out into the river of death. So far, in fact, that those on life’s shore brought a coffin for me and helped my wife dye her wedding dress black for the expected funeral service. For my part, I experi enced the overwhelming love o f God so that death had no terrors; rather, there was the unspeak
ably wonderful assurance that “ if our earthly house o f this taber nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. 5 :1). Also, there was the strong confidence of Job: “ For I know that my Re deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth . . . whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall be hold . . .” (19:25-27). The second facing up with the last enemy took place quite recent ly while I was on a trip in the Near East. I was awakened in the night with pain in my shoulders and both arms, and acutely con scious that the heart was the source o f the difficulty. As I lay alone in the darkness I recalled with quietness o f spirit that word in Romans 8 :11, “But if the Spir it of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor tal bodies by his Spirit that dwell- eth in you.” Our times are in God’s hand. I thought of the dilemma of the
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