BRIEF THOUGHTS CONCERNING LIFE AND DEATH.
“AND all the days that Adam lived, were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.” Gen. v, 5. How very expressive this brief notice of the death of the first man. He lived almost one thousand years; he ceased to live longer. Death closed the scene. The man who sinned against God in eating of the tree of knowledge, now experienced the penalty of the law, and turned to dust. He had lost Paradise by sin. Now he suffers death as the penalty of transgression. It is certain, therefore, that death cannot restore man to Paradise, for it is the wages of sin. How appropriate is the brief statement of Moses concerning the death of Adam. How evident that he did not think the real Adam still alive. THE OBITUARIES OF GEN. V.
This chapter gives a complete list of the ancestors of Noah. The record states in each case the number of years that the patriarchs lived, and each record closes with these expressive words, “AND HE DIED.” How little like modern obituaries does this simple record appear. But there is one remarkable exception in this list of patriarchal biographies. One of these men did not die. Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him. Or, as Paul states it, “Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him.” Heb. xi, 5. One of these men was taken by God, and thus did not die; the others were not taken by God to be with him, and so it is said of each of them, “He died.” How different is all this from the present style of obituaries, which makes death the gate to endless joy, and dispenses with the resurrection of the dead, or the translation of the living, by exempting the real man from death, and ushering him in the moment of death into Paradise. THE VOICE OF ABEL'S BLOOD.
When God made inquisition concerning the murder of Abel, he states the cause of this inquiry to be that Abel's blood cried to him from the ground. That is, the sight of that innocent blood reminded the just Judge of the earth that punishment for this crime was demanded. Abel was a martyr of that same kind brought to view in Rev. vi. Because these persons are represented as souls under the altar, crying to God for vengeance upon their persecutors, many persons suppose that they are alive, under an altar in Heaven, asking God to punish their enemies, who, by killing them, had ushered them into the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy. Now here is Abel, slain under the same circumstances with themselves. What was it that cried to God for vengeance upon Cain? was it his immortal soul in the bliss of Paradise that cried for Cain's punishment? By no means. It was the sight of his innocent blood that thus appealed to God for the infliction of justice. But had it been true that the real Abel was alive and standing in the presence of God, personally demanding the punishment of Cain, God would not have said the blood of Abel cries from the ground, but Abel himself, in my presence, declares your crime, and demands your punishment. But in what a revolting light would this place Abel. Yet it is the very position that orthodoxy assigns to all the martyrs. How much more just the view that the martyrs beneath the altar were thus presented because their lives had been offered upon it, and that it was the sight of their blood thus offered that demanded vengeance from God, and not the personal wish, or prayer, of the martyrs. Stephen prayed, as he was dying from the murderous assault of his enemies, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Acts vii; 60. If he could say such things in the agonies of a violent death, it is indeed incredible that so soon as he was ushered into the bliss of Heaven, he began to pray for vengeance upon his murderers. It was the blood of Abel, and not Abel in person, that cried to God for vengeance. THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD.
Such is the teaching of God to Noah (Gen. ix, 4), and such the language of the law of Moses. Lev. xvii, 11, 14. This is far from indicating that man has an immortal nature.149Nothing is more susceptible of putrefaction than the blood. It is the immediate sufferer from the bad habits of man. It is capable of being filled with deadly poison. Indeed, it has in itself the seeds of death. When it is said that without the shedding of blood is no remission (Heb. ix, 22), it is with direct reference to the fact that the blood represents the life, and that sinners who have forfeited their lives to the law of God, cannot be pardoned without the laying down of a life that the law could accept. The church of Rome, not perceiving the point that it is the life which the law is after in demanding blood, and, perhaps, withal, willing to pervert the truth in order to make gain of godliness, teaches that one drop of Christ's blood was sufficient to redeem the world; but he shed it all, so that the church could have the overplus to use in the sale of indulgences. Such is the perversity of man's fallen nature, that there are more persons, probably, to-day, who choose to buy indulgences out of the pope's treasury, than to accept a free pardon of all their sins from Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is not, after all, so strange when we consider that Christ only pardons on condition that men leave off to sin; but in the other case, it is money, and not genuine repentance that constitutes the condition of acceptance. THE OBITUARIES OF ABRAHAM'S ANCESTORS.
The life of Noah closes with the very same form of expression that is used in the case of all his ancestors. “And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” Gen. ix, 29. But from Noah's time to Terah, the father of Abraham, this form of expression is dropped. Eight generations intervene between Noah and Terah. The record of their lives is given in Gen. xi. The form of expression in the case of each is the same. Each man is said to live a certain number of years prior to the birth of his son. Then he is said to live a certain number of years after that event. Such is the form used by Moses in this most concise style of biography. And how expressive is this continued silence respecting man's translation to Paradise by the act of dying. The period of life is given, and every thing indicates that at the expiration of that period they ceased to live. Beyond all doubt this is the exact truth. In the case of Terah, the father of Abraham, almost the same form of expression is used as in the record of Noah and his ancestors. Gen. xi, 32. “And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.” How significant are these brief obituaries. These men lived so many years, and then died, i. e., ceased to live longer. One man did not die, because God took him. That is the whole story. All died but one. Call death what you will, it is a plain declaration of the Holy Spirit, that in death there is no remembrance of God. Ps. vi, 5. So it is certain that the righteous among these ancient patriarchs are not now praising God. Ps. cxv, 17. And such of them as died in sin are not now suffering punishment. They are silent in sheol, waiting for the decision of the Judgment. Job xxi, 29, 30; Ps. xxxi, 17; 2 Pet. ii, 9. “And Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.” Gen. xi, 28. In these days it is nothing unusual for children to die before their parents. In fact, a very large portion of all the children do thus die. But such was not the case in ancient times, when the lives of men were simpler, and their habits less destructive to health. Here is the first express mention of the death of an individual while his father yet lived, and even he did not die till mature life. The Holy Spirit places this on record in a manner to call our attention to it. Lamech's case furnishes a partial exception among the antediluvian patriarchs, as he, at the age of seven hundred and seventy-seven, died five years before Methuselah. And Noah and Shem, as antediluvian patriarchs, outlive their immediate posterity after the flood. Noah did not outlive his son Shem, but did outlive Peleg, the fifth in descent from himself. Shem outlived his own son, and even lived till Abraham was one hundred and fifty. Peleg outlived his son Reu, and Nahor outlived Terah, but, in each case, this is the result of the great shortening of life to the entire race of man after the flood. The case of Haran seems to be properly the first instance of a man dying in the prime of life, of which we have any knowledge. But in these days, a vast proportion die in childhood; and of those that survive this period, by far the larger part die in what should be the midst of their days. It is not God's mysterious providence, but the unaccountable folly of mankind, that thus makes it true of so many, that they do not live out half their days. THE SHORTENING OF HUMAN LIFE.
The abridgement of the period of human life presents some things worthy of notice. The first great abridgement was in the first generation after Noah. He lived nine hundred and fifty years. But Shem, who was born after Noah was five hundred years old, only lived six hundred years. Here the life of man was shortened over one-third. In the next generation the duration of life was cut down about one-third again, i. e., from six hundred years to about four hundred. Arphaxad lived four hundred and thirty-eight years. The next generation, as represented by Salah, lived four hundred and thirty-three years. The next, as represented by Eber, four hundred and sixty-four. Then it is cut down almost one-half. Peleg, the son of Eber, lived two hundred and thirty-nine years. His son, Reu, lived two hundred and thirty-nine years. Serug, his son, lived two hundred and thirty years. Terah lived only one hundred and forty-eight years. Then the next generation rallies and recovers the period of two hundred years. Terah, the son of Nahor, lived two hundred and five years. It is remarkable that none after him are recorded to have lived two hundred years. See this interesting record in Genesis xi. It is something worthy of our notice how life was thus abridged by successive acts. Each considerable abatement is in every case final. What is lost thus is never recovered. How brief is human life now compared with the two hundred and five years of Terah. Yet it is long enough for us to make sure of immortality. Thank God for this brief and fleeting life.