I. One almost invariable sight revealed to us in the shadow of death is the imperishableness of the past. There is good in this revision of the past. (1) It is good to know that the past as much as the present is real; that our deeds lie there, imperishable, dormant, but not dead; that we cannot hide from them when they awake, nor put them away from our lives. (2) The remaining hours of our time here are more likely to be encountered and occupied with serious hearts. (3) Nothing more disposes us to listen to the offers of Divine mercy, than a clear unambiguous view of the actual past of our lives.
II. Another and more important sight vouchsafed to us in serious illness is the sight of the world we live in dwarfed to its true proportions. This is a great sight. It is gain to a man's soul, even when no bodily betterness can take place. It is actual light to him in the land of the shadow. For if the cares and anxieties of our daily duties be disproportionate, if the great mass of them be nothing more real than shadows, it is better that we should know it here, than that we should pass deceived and deluded into the presence of Him from whose face all shadows flee away.
III. A third experience in serious illness is, that away from the resurrection of Christ there is no light for the world to come. We are bereft of human light. Our friendships do not help us here; our books wave farewell to us. The light they once brought to us twinkles behind us like street lights on a gradually receding shore; and the conviction comes nearer and clearer to our heart that the one light for the shadow, the light which alone can reveal the future, is the light which burns without consuming in the resurrection of our Lord.
IV. The next experience is the loneliness of suffering. This loneliness is the shadow sent to bring us home. God is our home. In Him, now and here, we live and move. The shadow separates us from our earthly home puts friend and companion far from us; but it is, eventually, to bring us closer to our home in Him.
V. To the children of God affliction is in every way a good. Its shadow is a retirement for renewed and deeper insight into the character and purposes of their Father.
A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth,p. 262.
References: Isaiah 9:3. F. J. Austin, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 137; J. Pulsford, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 233; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 155; H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines for Parochial Use,2nd series, p. 14; T. C. Finlayson, Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 523.Isaiah 9:4. E. H. Plumptre, Expositor,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 63; S. Cox, Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 410. Isaiah 9:5. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 184.