To be near unto God - pagina 287

birth

we

are

Life

passive.

then

only

begins.

But when God has privileged us to reach the years of maturity, and the end has come, the servants and handmaidens of the Lord should not be dragged out by death against their will, but of themselves they should face it with a will. And by the way in which they do this, they should reveal the fruit of their labors of faith.

The

first

Chris-

tians sang hj-mns of praise as they carried out their dead. And St. Paul said: "For me to die is gain, for to be with Christ is by far the best."^ Thus dying was the last struggle, but not of one who defends his life against the waylayer. It was much rather the struggle of the hero, who bravely went ahead, in order jubilantly to come to God. Indeed, we may not court death. It is our bounden duty to guard our life unto the end. Suicide is no dying, but self-destruction. Dying is an exhibition of courage. Suicide is cowardice It is failure. It is lack of daring to continue the battle of life. It is desertion from the ranks. But though until the end, as long as there is

hope and chance, nothing must be left untried to continue God's serv^ice on earth until he issues

—

forth the call, when it comes, the smile of sacred is more in place than the heaving of a sigh. He who believes has always confessed that he does not belong here, but that his home is above.

joy

Dying must make must be put upon

this all

nothing to a child of

real.

our

God

life

In dying the seal of faith.

Dying

is

save the entrance into an eternal life. And this it can not be, unless it is an act. We must not be overtaken, lifted up and carried off. We must hear the call, and 283

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