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CHAPTER XXIV.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN THE TIME OF ONE'S DEATH.

"A Christian cannot die before his time,

The Lord's appointment is the servant's hour."

“I took them away as I saw good.” — Ezekiel, 16: 50.

THERE are three distinctly marked and most important periods in the life of every one: the time of one's birth, the time of his decision for heaven or for hell, and the time of his death. From one point of view it might seem that the time of one's birth was the most important; for it is then that he is ushered from comparative unconsciousness into this living and breathing world, an immortal and wonderfully endowed creature; and, whatever destiny he may now choose for himself, he has clearly commenced an eternal existence. The very thought is enough to overwhelm the mind with issues of unspeakable importance. But in so far as the man himself has any thing to do with his destiny, the time of his decision for heaven or for hell is by far the most important. And though it be impossible for any one to tell, precisely, when that time of great decision is, yet it must be admitted that there is such a time; and I think it will also be admitted in general, by those who are accustomed to think seriously and deeply upon the subject, that there is, commonly, a point in a man's lifetime when, if he has not already made the heavenly choice, he will not be likely to make it. It is true, it may be with some that they will make this choice very late in life; almost the last thing, perhaps, that they seriously set about; but these cases rarely exist, if ever; we do not know what may be the Divine

Providence in such cases, nor is it any part of our business to try to decide: we know the general law and the general fact. that it is not what a person's character or appearance of character may be in the last hours, by any influences which then altogether operate, but what it is in consequence of a whole previous life, the result and end of which may manifest itself in the last hours, and may not, very distinctly; it is this which decides a person's destiny. And if goodness begins to appear then, and to predominate, after a whole life of impenitence and sin, it is not because the man then wills it independently of his past course, but because that course itself, and all that pertained to it, was taken into view by the Divine Providence, and so ruled and regulated as to bring out the final result. So that, while we never know what is being wrought within a man, and he may turn about very late in life, seeking heaven as his chief good; yet all our rational calculations are to be based upon the whole course of a man's probation. And we say that there is very likely to exist a point in a man's lifetime, when, if he has not yet made the heavenly choice, he will not be likely to make it. This may result from the steady perseverance which he has made in sin, and the forms of evil which he has thereby organically established in his mind. He may weave for himself a spiritual body so distorted and perverted, that he not only has no desire to change it here, but which he will find it impossible and alike undesirable to unweave, when he passes out of the world where it was done. For it is here, as has been said before here in this world of nature, that the foundation is laid, the ultimates acquired, upon which the interiors of the mind must rest as a house upon its basis. One may make some external improvements beyond the grave; may come temporarily into less and less actual evil, and into some sort of natural, external good; but he cannot, while in this position, change his motives, or be led to good from the love of good.

"The experiment was made whether they were able to resist

evils whilst the punishments of hell were announced to them, yea, while they were seen and likewise felt; but still it was vain, for they hardened their minds, saying, come what will, provided only that we are in the delight and joys of our hearts so long as we are here; we know things present, what is to come we are not concerned about; we shall not suffer more evil than many others; but after a stated time they are cast into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not to do evil; but punishments do not take away the will, the intention, and consequent thought of evil, they only take away the act." A. E. 1165. "The evil remains within, and recurs when the fear ceases." 1164.

But note carefully that there must have been a time- a turning moment a choice amid all other choices- (fearful and momentous consideration it is,) when the first decisive inclination to that evil life— the one which turned the scale, and kept it ever after that way, commenced in that man's history. He did not know it; no mortal, and perhaps no angel knew it; but God saw it, and was working in reference to it. But the man must be held in freedom. Then it was that he made the fatal choice! It determined all other choices, and involved a destiny of unimaginable horror.

Here, then, is the second great period of a man's life. It is when he makes his decision for heaven or for hell.

"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side: Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that light.”

Observe, we are not saying that any man can know when that time is; we only say that such a time there must be; and to doubt that the Divine Providence is most particularly concerned in it that even the time of our death is wisely ordered in reference to it, would be to doubt one of the most reasonable and evident things in all theology. Religious

writers have often spoken of this time as one of unusual struggle, and of more or less sensible surrender, either to good or evil. And why may we not suppose the angels who watch over a man's destiny, to be particularly active and anxious at such a time? Swedenborg also speaks of the particular leading of the good and evil through this world, and of a similar decision. His language, too, is remarkably discriminative.

"There are in the world men-angels and men-devils. [That is, human beings who will people heaven, and who will people hell.] With a man-angel all the degrees of his life are open even to the Lord; but with a man-devil only the ultimate degree is open, and the superior degrees are closed. A manangel is led of the Lord, both within and without; but a man-devil is led of himself from within, and of the Lord from without. A man-angel is continually withdrawn from evil by the Lord, and led to good; but a man-devil is continually, also, withdrawn by the Lord from evil, but from a more grievous to a less one, for he cannot be led to good. A man-angel is continually withdrawn from hell by the Lord, and is led into heaven more and more interiorly; but a man-devil is continually, also, withdrawn from hell, but from a more grievous to a milder one, for he cannot be led into heaven. A man-angel, because he is led of the Lord, is led by civil law, by moral law, and by spiritual law, on account of the Divine [principle] which is in them; a man-devil is led by the same law, but on account of what is of himself in them. * A man-an

gel and a man-devil appear like to each other as to externals, but they are altogether unlike as to internals; wherefore, when external things are laid aside by death, they are manifestly unlike; the one is taken away into heaven, and the other is conveyed down to hell." A. E. 1145.

Again, touching the changes and determinations of life to which we have referred, we find this language in the work on Divine Providence.

"Man [in the world] is not [in hell or heaven] as a spirit who is inscribed in the society, for man is continually in a state of reformation; wherefore, according to his life and its changes, he is transferred by the Lord from one society of hell into

another, if he is evil; but if he suffers himself to be reformed, he is led out of hell, and is led away into heaven, and is also transferred there from one society to another, and this until death; after which he is no longer carried from society to society there; because he is then no longer in a state of reformation, but remains in that in which he is according to life: wherefore, when man dies, he is inscribed in his place." D. P. 307.

From the whole, then, it is evident how much the Divine Providence must have to do with the time of a man's death. However we may settle the eternity of this most sorrowful of all questions, there is enough in the temporary features of it — in the unimaginable ages of sin and its consequences - and the awful uncertainty which hangs around the whole theme, to convince one of the infinite importance of the results determined by this great change of worlds.

Now, whichever side a man may decide for, be it heaven or be it hell, it is the state of his life here in the world, the quality of his spirit, and what can be made of him in the spiritual world; nay, it is really what he is making of himself now, and what the Lord is doing for him, both in his own soul and in the world beyond, which decides to a moment the time of his death, which is the third great period in the life of man.

This event is ordered, therefore, with the utmost precision. So is every other event; but this assumes to our minds a greater importance, being so full of eternal consequences. It is alike important to the good and to the evil. In the passage of the Word at the head of this chapter, it is said"I took them away as I saw good." This is said of the evil Sodomites. And it is taught here, even of the wicked, and the most wicked, that the time of their death is ordered with a no less particular reference to the utmost amount of good which can be done for them. If they cannot be regenerated, they may be reformed; and if they cannot be in the highest sense reformed, they are capable of more or less external improvement; at all events, it is seen exactly what and how much can be done for

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