#1967

"An Important Bridge"

When my sweet daughter Eliza was dying!

(John Newton's Letters)

My Dear Sir,
Our dear daughter Eliza never went out of doors after she returned home from visiting you. She had a succession and a variety of pains and maladies--and three weeks from her leaving your hospitable roof, the Lord delivered her from them all. For four days we expected her death every hour--and though she suffered much, we could not but be thankful that she continued so long. 

Her peace and confidence in God were abiding. Her mouth was filled with words of grace--comforting or exhorting all around her. Often she declared that she would not change conditions with any person upon earth, nor be willing to live longer here, even if restored to perfect health--for all that the world, or a thousand such worlds can afford! She smiled upon pain--and she smiled upon death. When she died, which seemed to be in a sort of slumber, she had reclined her cheek gently upon her hand, and there was almost a smile left upon her countenance. 

When my sweet daughter Eliza was dying, I almost wished it practical to have set my door open, and invited all who passed by to come in and see what it is to die in the Lord, and to hear what a child under fifteen could say of His goodness, and of the vanity of everything short of His favor!

Yes, the Lord has done great things for us since we came home. He sent achariot of love for our dear Eliza! We almost saw her mount to Heaven. Surely she was in Heaven, and Heaven in her--before she left the earth! 

I am constrained to confess that no one circumstance in my whole life called for a larger return of gratitude and praise--than the death of our dear girl. I knew that I loved her dearly--but how dearly I never knew, until about the last week of her life. Yet I am most perfectly satisfied, and have not had the most distant wish for a moment since she died--that the outcome had been otherwise. 

The thought of her helps me sometimes in prayer, often in preaching, and gives me such a confirmation of the great truths I speak of, as I would not be without.

   ~  ~  ~  ~ 

Addition, Dr. Morris:

            The greatest distance in the world, not the distance from the Earth to the sun, or the distance from any point A to point B; the fourteen inch distance from the heart to the brain. The believer must bridge that distance.

            Most believers and non-believers want to reduce God to their level of thinking. How often I have sat in a church house, strangers coming in to look around, perhaps visiting some church member. They tried to pretend like others, singing the gospel hyms, perhaps putting a "tip" in the offering plate, or even bowing in prayer. They had no idea about what was going on. We can understand why Jesus told us that there would be so few who find the narrow way.

            The house of worship should be a quiet, dignified, holy place. It is what the Old Testament described as the "inner court," where you find God. All other Christian activities, no matter how great they are, should take place in the "outer court." It was in the church yard that my ancestors met and greeted their friends. I cringe at the modern day church service, when the pastor invites everyone to shake hands with others, to greet others, both believers and non-believers. It has been a terrible drought on my existence... whether unbelievers should even be allowed to participate in a Christian worship service. How can they pray to a God that they do not know? How can they sing blessed hyms about a Jesus in whom they do not believe? Yet, perhaps, a miracle might happen...and they "bridged" that distance between their unbelieving heart and their unbelieving mind. After all, the thief on the cross had never done one thing in the support of Christ, or anything else good for that matter. All he had to do was to look at Christ, and believe in his mind.

            There are so many good works brought inside the church house...recognitions, ladders involving study, but, God's love is in the praise of his people. ("But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3)) The true worship service does not magnify human beings, but rather, glorifies God. It is a time of prayer . No greater worship than the worship instructed, memorialized, at the Lords Table. No greater worship than the "giving-back" to God, for his blessings and his work.

            God must surely be sickened by pretenders who never opened or studied his book...the answer book for every human need. Most believers want to live like non-believers...chasing after popularity, financial security, personal gratification. Unbelievers are so entertaining...so much charisma/gravitas. It is essential that a child of God, a believer in his resurrection, know the joy of salvation and can rejoice in redemption.