May 2, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"These all died in faith." — Hebrews 11:13 · KJV

Look at the epitaph of all those blessed saints who fell asleep before our Lord came! It matters little how else they died, whether of old age or by violence; the one point on which they all agree is the point most worth recording: "these all died in faith." In faith they had lived it was their comfort, their guide, their motive, and their support; and in that same grace they died, closing their life-song on the sweet note they had held so long. They did not die resting in themselves or in their own attainments; they made no advance beyond the way they were first accepted with God, but held to the way of faith to the end. Faith is as precious to die by as it is to live by. Dying in faith looks back to the past. They believed the promises given before their time and were assured that their sins were blotted out through the mercy of God. Dying in faith has to do with the present. These saints were confident of their acceptance with God, they enjoyed the warmth of His love, and they rested in His faithfulness. Dying in faith also looks into the future. They fell asleep still affirming that the Messiah would surely come, and that when He appeared on the earth in the last days they would rise from their graves to see Him. To them the pains of death were only the birth-pangs of a better condition. Take courage, my soul, as you read this epitaph. Your own course, by grace, is a course of faith, and sight rarely cheers you; but this has been the pathway of the brightest and the best. Faith was the orbit in which these stars of the first magnitude moved all the while they shone here, and you are happy that it is your orbit too. Look again tonight to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, and thank Him for giving you the same precious faith that belongs to souls now in glory.