(with 1 Corinthians 15:55)
In the case of a saint, his afflictions and death fall to be considered: (1) as they have a respect to himself, and (2) as they have a respect to his neighbours and friends.
I. As they have a respect to himself. (1) The design of a saint's afflictions may be to rebuke him for backsliding, and not seldom for spiritual sloth and dulness of heart, with a view of recalling him from his wanderings, or arousing him from his lethargy. (2) A saint may be making commendable progress and yet be visited with affliction, that his graces may be advanced to a higher degree of excellence the Lord designing for His servant a station of peculiar glory in His heavenly kingdom. (3) Affliction and death are frequently commissioned as preventives of evil. (4) That which often strikes us as mysterious is, perhaps, resolvable on the principle that God removes some of His saints when their graces are most vigorous, and shine with the brightest lustre, before they decline; so that His government may be justified in advancing them to a higher place of honour in the kingdom, than it would have been fit to assign them, had they entered eternity in a state of declension.
II. It is frequently the interests of his friends even more than the interests of the saint himself, which the Lord designs to advance by the particular time and manner of his death. He may be a spiritually prosperous saint, cultivating his talents and opportunities with assiduity and zeal; but they may need correction and quickening, preservation from evil; and the requisite and most suitable discipline is dispensed to them by means of his afflictions.
III. Practical reflections. (1) Let us be thankful for death. (2) In reference to afflictions which do not proceed the length of death, as we would be saved their infliction, let us submit to the more gentle discipline of the remonstrances of the Spirit of God, excited within our consciences. (3) As we fear the death of our friends, let us be careful of our own ways. (4) As we desire that our own lives be prosperous and prolonged, let us be earnest and faithful in the training of our children, and in the admonition of our friends. (5) Let us diligently prepare for the death of our friends. (6) Let us prepare ourselves for our own death. (7) Let us examine ourselves of the improvement which we have made or are making of the death of our friends, and prepare to give them a satisfactory account of it.
W. Anderson, Discourses,2nd series, p. 40.
References: Proverbs 3:13. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 134.Proverbs 3:13-20. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 101.Proverbs 3:14; Proverbs 3:15. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,p. 136. Proverbs 3:16. Ibid.,p. 139.