The Tragedy of Death by Francis M. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

The Tragedy of Death

By Francis M. Wilcox

WHAT a terrible tragedy is death! How cruel and remorseless its withering, blighting touch! Upon all alike it falls. The prince and the peasant, the master and the servant, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the learned and the illiterate, the tender babe, the strong man, the aged and infirm,—all alike fall before its ruthless onslaughts.

Medical science, human skill and genius, environment, climatic conditions, are powerless to stay its ravages. The possession of youth and beauty, of riches and influence, of position and popularity, of knowledge and wisdom, or all of these together, with the addition of every other temporal advantage and earthly blessing, cannot secure a release from its claims.

Death destroys human hopes and ambitions. It dethrones kings and depopulates kingdoms. It shapes the course of empires, and molds in a large measure all human history. Famine and fever, plague and pestilence, do its bidding. In palace and hovel, in camp and field, on ocean’s broad expanse and in earth’s quiet resting places, it does its ever-ghastly work of destruction.

We are daily reminded of its presence and of its power. The populous cities of the dead marking the gateway to every town and hamlet, the freshly made mounds, the open sepulchers, the passing funeral trains, the tearful eyes and heaving breasts, are silent and solemn witnesses that we live in a land where death reigns.

How we long for the tyrant’s power to be broken! Thank God, deliverance is promised, and ere long the promise will be fulfilled. From his high and holy habitation the compassionate Redeemer looked upon this dark and death-doomed world. He heard the cries and saw the tears of its sin-cursed inhabitants. He resolved by the sacrifice of himself to purchase their redemption. He could do this only by partaking of their nature, fighting in human flesh their battles, going with them into the very stronghold of death itself, and there conquering the cruel tyrant. This he did. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

By the power of conquest, by his right as a victor, when Christ arose from the dead he brought away the keys of death’s prison house. To his children “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,” he declares: “Fear not; . . . I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

“The sting of death is sin.” That sting will be removed. Death and hell [the grave] shall be cast into the lake of fire. And in that glad day shall the righteous sing: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And God himself shall dwell with his children, and be their God. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Dear reader, have you lost some loved one, a kind father or mother, a loving husband or wife, an idolized son or daughter, an affectionate brother or sister? “Hope thou in God.” Your loving Saviour holds the key to the prison house of death. Soon he will open wide the portals of the tomb. His voice of power will penetrate to the lowest depths of earth and sea as he bids his sleeping children arise.

And it will be now but a little while. Soon “he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Let us look beyond the tomb’s dark night to the resurrection day. There we shall meet in glad and never-ending reunion the loved who now are sleeping in the tomb.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The tragedy of death shall give place to the blessed, joyous scenes of eternal glory in the kingdom of our God. F. M. W.