Light in Death
Sunday at Home. John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. For the last day or two he (Sir D. Brewster) was attended by his friend, Sir James Simpson, a man of kindred genius and of kindred Christian hopes. "The like of this I never saw," he said, as we met him coming fresh from the dying chamber. "There is Sir David resting like a little child on Jesus, and speaking as if in a few hours he will get all his problems solved by Him." For in that supreme hour of dawning immortality his past studies were all associated with the name and person of the Redeemer. "I shall see Jesus," he said; "and that will be grand. I shall see Him who made the worlds," with allusion to those wonderful verses in Hebrews which had formed the subject of the last sermon he ever heard, a few weeks before. Thus, tracing all to the Creator-Redeemer, he felt no incongruity even in these hours in describing to Sir James Simpson, in a "fluent stream of well chosen words," some beautiful phenomena in his favourite science. Reference was made to the privilege he had enjoyed in throwing light upon the "great and marvellous works of God." "Yes," he said, "I found them to be great and marvellous, and I felt them to be His." He had little pain but such as came from intense weakness. The light was with him all through the valley. "I have had the light for many years," he whispered slowly, and with emphasis; "and oh, how bright it is! I feel so safe, so satisfied!" And so, in childlike reliance and adoring love, he gently fell asleep in Jesus on the evening of Monday, February 10th, 1868. On the Saturday following he was laid beside kindred dust. (Sunday at Home.) Parallel Verses KJV: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. WEB: While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."