May 24

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.—Luke 23:46.

THE blessedness of this privilege of commending our spirits into the hands of our heavenly Father! That he is our Father, is the foundation of the privilege. Let the privilege itself, then, be unfolded to our view.

First, we may consider what it is which is thus commended into the hands of God: it is the soul, the more excellent and immortal part of man, that is committed to the sure custody of God.

1. It is our more excellent part in its nature and capacity. Man is a compounded creature, of a body and a soul: the body in its original and resolution is earth; the soul is of a divine descent, a spiritual substance, and in the nobility and perfection of its nature, but a little lower than the angels; it is the vile body, but the precious soul.

In its capacity it incomparably excels the body; for the body lives and moves in the low region of the senses, that are common with the worms of the earth; but the soul in its understanding and desires, is capable of communion with the blessed God, of grace and glory. From hence it is, that the whole world can not make one man happy; for the ingredients of true and complete happiness are the perfection and satisfaction of the soul. The apostle tells us, The less is blessed of the greater. Can the world bring perfection to man, that is so incomparably short of his imperfection? Our Saviour assures us, the gain of the whole world can not recompense the loss of one soul. There is a vast circuit in our desires, and all the lines terminate in the centre of blessedness. Can the world give sincere satisfaction to them? Solomon, who was as rich and high as the world could make him, has left an everlasting testimony of the vanity of transient things, from his experimental observation, and the direction of the Holy Spirit: so he begins and ends his sermon, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity: so vain and vexing, that we shall not only be weary of them, but of this life, wherein we use them. Can the creature make us happy, when their emptiness and anguish annexed to it, makes our lives miserable? The world can not satisfy our narrow senses: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, much less the infinite desires of our supreme faculties. Those who are now enchanted with its allurements, within a little while will see through its false colors. As when one awakes, all the pleasant scenes of fancy in his dream vanish; so when the soul is awakened at the end of life, the world and the lusts thereof pass away, and the remembrance of them.

I shall add farther; what clearer evidence can we have of the worth of the soul, than from God's esteem, the Creator of it? Now when God foresaw the revolt of our first parent, that brought him under a double death in one sentence, temporal and eternal, and that all mankind was desperately lost in him, then his compassionate counsels were concerning his recovery: his love and wisdom accorded to contrive the means to accomplish our redemption, by the death of his incarnate Son: We are not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a Lamb without spot and blemish. Of what value is a soul in God's account, that he bought with his own Son's blood the most sacred treasure of heaven? We may say for the honor of our Redeemer and our own, that which the angels can not; we were so valued by God himself, that his Son became man, and died on the cross for the salvation of our souls, the eternal weight of glory, which exceeds all the thoughts of our minds, and desires of our hearts. What are all the kingdoms and pleasures of the world, in comparison of that blessedness God has prepared for those that love him? Now the soul that is inestimably precious, and should be most dear to us, is secured from danger, when received by God's hands.

2. The soul is our immortal part. The body is compounded of jarring principles, frail and mortal: a casualty of sickness dissolves the vital union, and it falls to the dust. But the soul is a spirit by nature, and immortal by its inherent property. Its spiritual operations performed without the ministry of the senses,—the eye of the mind contemplates its objects, when the eyes of the body are closed—demonstrate its spiritual nature: for the being is the root of its working, and consequently that it exists independently of the body. But of this we have the clearest assurance in the Scripture. This is another demonstration that present things can not make us happy; for they forsake us the first step that we take into the next world, and then the soul enters into happiness or misery equally eternal. The immortality of the soul, and the immutability of its state, are inseparable then; for the present life is the time of our work, the next is of recompense according to our works. If we die in the Lord, the consequence is infallible, we shall live with him for ever: if we die in our sins, we shall not be received by his merciful hands, but fall into his bottomless displeasure. And of what concernment is it, to have our souls with God in that infinite and incomprehensible duration? All the measures of time, days and weeks, months and years, and ages, are swallowed up in that invisible depth, as the rivers that pour into the sea are swallowed up without any overflowing of its waters. The dove that Noah let out of the ark, as a spy to discover whether the deluge was abated, found not a place to rest on; but after many circuits in the air, it returned to the ark. If our thoughts take wing, and multiply millions of millions of ages, we can not rest in any computation, for there remains after all an entire innumerable eternity.

Such is the precious treasure, so grand in nature, capacity, worth, and duration, which the dying saint commends to the safe-keeping of God's hands. May we so live, that when we come to die, we may in the full assurance of faith and hope, say, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!