in the present life that, I fear me, we are largely
forgetting what it does for us at the end, and beyond the end. And I
would that we all thought more of our exodus and of our entrance in the
light of Christ's death and resurrection. Such contemplation will not
unfit us for any duty or any enjoyment. It will lift us above the
absorbed occupation with present trivialities, which is the bane of all
that is good and noble. It will teach us 'a solemn scorn of ills.' It
will set on the furthest horizon a great light instead of a doleful
darkness, and it will deliver us from the dread of that 'shadow feared
of man,' but not by those who, listening to Jesus Christ, have been
taught that to depart is to be with Him.

III. Now I meant to have said a word, in the close of my sermon, about a
third point--viz., the way of securing that this aspect of death shall
be our experience, but your time will not allow of my dwelling upon
that as I should have wished. I would only point out that, as I have
already suggested, this context teaches us that it is His death that
must make our deaths what they may become; and would ask you to notice,
further, that the context carries us back to the preceding verses. 'An
entrance shall be _ministered_ unto you _abundantly_.' We have just
before read, 'If these things be in you and _abound_, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ'; and just before is the exhortation, 'giving all
diligence, minister to your faith virtue.'

So the Apostle, by reiterating the two words which he had previously
been using, teaches us that if death is to be to us that departure from
bondage and entrance into the Kingdom, we must here and now bring forth
the fruits of faith. There is no entrance hereafter, unless there has
been a habitual entering into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus
Christ even whilst we are on earth. There is no entrance by reason of
the fact of death, unless all through life there has been an entrance
into rest by reason of the fact of faith.

And so, dear brethren, I beseech you to remember that it depends on
yourself whether departing shall be arrival, and exodus shall be
entrance. One thing or other that last moment must be to us all--either
a dragging us reluctant away from what we would fain cleave to, or a
glad departure from a foreign land and entrance to our home. It may be
as when Peter was let out of prison, the angel touc