The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon

lay,” with joy and gladness, he does not lie there now. Weep, when you see the tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Your sin slew him, but his divinity raised him up. Your guilt has murdered him, but his righteousness has restored him. Oh! he has burst the bonds of death; he has ungirded the cerements of the tomb, and has come out more than conqueror, crushing death beneath his feet. Rejoice, oh Christian, for he is not there — he is risen. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

      17. One more thought, and then I will speak a little concerning the doctrines we may learn from this grave. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay” with solemn awe, for you and I will have to lay there too.

      Listen! from the tomb a doleful sound,

      My ears, attend the cry;

      You living men, come view the ground,

      Where you must shortly lie.

      Princes, this clay must be your bed,

      In spite of all your powers;

      The tall, the wise, the reverend head,

      Must lie as low as ours.

      It is a fact we do not often think of, that we shall all be dead in a little while. I know that I am made of dust and not of iron; my bones are not brass, nor my sinews steel: in a little while my body must crumble back to its native elements. But do you ever try to picture to yourself in the moment of your dissolution? My friends, there are some of you who seldom realise how old you are, how near you are to death. One way of remembering our age is, to see how much remains. Think how old eighty is, and then see how few years there are before you will get there. We should remember our frailty. Sometimes I have tried to think of the time of my departure. I do not know whether I shall die a violent death or not; but I wish to God that I might die suddenly, for sudden death is sudden glory. I wish I might have such a blessed exit as Doctor Beaumont, and die in my pulpit, laying down my body with my charge, and ceasing at once to work and live. But it is not mine to choose. Suppose I lie lingering for weeks in the midst of pains, and grief, and agonies; when that moment comes, that moment which is too solemn for my lips to speak of, when the spirit leaves the clay — let the physician put it off for weeks or years, as we say he does, though he does not — when that moment comes, oh, you lips, be dumb, and do not profane its solemnity. When death comes, how is the strong man bowed down. How does the mighty man fall. They may say they will not die, but there is no hope for them: they must yield, the arrow has gone home. I knew a man who was a wicked wretch, and I remember seeing him pace the floor of his bedroom, saying, “Oh God, I will not die, I will not die.” When I begged him to lie on his bed, for he was dying, he said he could not die while he could walk, and he would walk until he did die. Ah! he expired in the utmost torments, always shrieking, “Oh God, I will not die.” Oh! that moment, that last moment. See how clammy is the sweat upon the brow, how dry the tongue, how parched the lips. The man shuts his eyes and slumbers, then opens them again; and if he is a Christian, I can imagine he will say:

      Listen! they whisper: angels say

      Sister spirit, come away.

      What is this absorbs me quite —

      Steals my senses — shuts my sight —

      Drowns my spirit — draws my breath?

      Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

      We do not know when he is dying. One gentle sigh, and the spirit breaks away. We can scarcely say “He is gone,” before the ransomed spirit takes its mansion near the throne. Come to Christ’s tomb then, for the silent vault must soon be your habitation. Come to Christ’s grave, for you must slumber there. And even you, you sinners, for one moment I will ask you to come also, because you must die as well as the rest of us. Your sins cannot keep you from the jaws of death. I say, sinner, I want you to look at Christ’s sepulchre too, for when you die it may have done you great good to think of it. You have heard of Queen Elizabeth I crying out that she would give an empire for a single hour; or, have you read the despairing cry of the gentleman on board the “SS Arctic,” {a} when it was going down, who shouted to the boat “Come back! I will give you £30,000 if you will come and take me in.” Ah! poor man it were but little if he had thirty thousand worlds, if he could prolong his life by it, “Skin for skin; yes, all that a man has will he give for his life.” Some of you who can laugh this morning, who came to spend a merry hour in this hall, will be dying, and then you will pray and crave for life, and shriek for another Sunday. Oh! how the Sundays you have wasted will walk like ghosts before you! Oh! how they will shake their snaky hair in your eyes! How will you be made to sorrow and weep, because you wasted precious hours, which, when they are gone, are gone too far ever to be recalled. May God save you from the pangs of remorse.

      18. IV. INSTRUCTION IMPARTED. And now, Christian brethren, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” to learn a doctrine or two. What did you see when you visited “the place where the Lord lay?” “He is not here: for he is risen!” The first thing you perceive, if you stand by his empty tomb, is his divinity. The dead in Christ shall rise first at the resurrection, but he who rose first — their leader, rose in a different fashion. They rise by imparted power. He rose by his own. He could not slumber in the grave, because he was God. Death had no more dominion over him. There is no better proof of Christ’s divinity, than that startling resurrection of his, when he rose from the grave, by the glory of the Father. Oh Christian, your Jesus is really God; his broad shoulders that hold you up are indeed divine; and here you have the best proof of it — because he rose from the grave.

      19. A second doctrine taught here, well may charm you, if the Holy Spirit applies it with power. Behold this empty tomb, oh true believer: it is a sign of your acquittal and your full discharge. If Jesus had not paid the debt, he would never have risen from the grave. He would have lain there until this moment if he had not cancelled the entire debt, by satisfying eternal vengeance. Oh! beloved, is not that an overwhelming thought?

      It is finished! It is finished!

      Hear the rising Saviour cry.

      The heavenly turnkey came; a bright angel stepped from heaven and rolled away the stone: but he would not have done so if Christ had not done all; he would have kept him there; he would have said, “No, no, you are the sinner now; you have the sins of all your elect upon your shoulder, and I will not let you go free until you have paid the uttermost farthing.” In his going free I see my own discharge.

      My Jesus’ blood’s my full discharge.

      As a justified man, I have no sin written against me in God’s book. If I were to turn over God’s eternal book I would see every debt of mine receipted and cancelled.

      Here’s pardon for transgressions past,

      It matters not how black their cast,

      And oh my soul with wonder view,

      For sins to come here’s pardon too.

      While through your blood absolved I am

      From sin’s tremendous curse and blame.

      20. One more doctrine we learn, and with that we will conclude — the doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus rose, and as the Lord our Saviour rose, so all his followers must rise. Die I must — this body must be a carnival for worms; it must be eaten by those tiny cannibals: perhaps it shall be scattered from one portion of the earth to another; the constituent particles of my frame will enter into plants, from plants pass into animals, and thus be carried into far distant realms; but at the blast of the archangel’s trumpet every separate atom of my body shall find its fellow; like the bones lying in the valley of vision, though separated from one another, the moment God shall speak; the bone will creep to its bone; then the flesh shall come upon it. The four winds of heaven shall blow, and the breath shall return. So, let me die, let beasts devour me, let fire turn this body into gas and vapour, all its particles shall yet again be restored; this very exact same actual body shall rise up from its grave, glorified and made like Christ’s body, yet still the same body, for God has