Evening, May 2

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"These all died in faith."

  Hebrews 11:13

   Behold the epitaph of all those blessed saints who fell asleep before
   the coming of our Lord! It matters nothing how else they died, whether
   of old age, or by violent means; this one point, in which they all
   agree, is the most worthy of record, "they all died in faith." In faith
   they lived--it was their comfort, their guide, their motive and their
   support; and in the same spiritual grace they died, ending their
   life-song in the sweet strain in which they had so long continued. They
   did not die resting in the flesh or upon their own attainments; they
   made no advance from their first way of acceptance with God, but held
   to the way of faith to the end. Faith is as precious to die by as to
   live by.

   Dying in faith has distinct reference to the past. They believed the
   promises which had gone before, 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 beams of his love, and rested in his faithfulness. Dying in
   faith looks into the future. They fell asleep, affirming that the
   Messiah would surely come, and that when he would in the last days
   appear upon the earth, they would rise from their graves to behold him.
   To them the pains of death were but the birth-pangs of a better state.
   Take courage, my soul, as thou readest this epitaph. Thy course,
   through grace, is one of faith, and sight seldom cheers thee; this has
   also been the pathway of the brightest and the best. Faith was the
   orbit in which these stars of the first magnitude moved all the time of
   their shining here; and happy art thou that it is thine. Look anew
   tonight to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith, and thank Him
   for giving thee like precious faith with souls now in glory.