Pilgrim No.6 The Problem of Death

Well, we come then this evening to consider a problem which must cross the mind of every thinking person. In typical fashion, George Bernard Shaw says of death, it is the ultimate in statistics, one out of one dies. Well that's a cryptic way of approaching the subject, but what Bernard Shaw says is very much the truth.

And it's perhaps because it's this ratio of one out of one who dies that death itself has become a subject that one does not talk about openly very often. Indeed, in certain circles to raise the subject of death would be to engage in impoliteness. And so it's refreshing to come to the Bible and to read what the Bible candidly has to say about the problem of death.

For the Bible never does sweep any problem under the carpet, rather it takes the problem out and it parades it in front of the one who is studying the Word of God. And this evening we shall be looking at certain passages of Scripture, collating their teaching and endeavouring to come to certain conclusions with regard to the topic of death. And I suggest that a good starting point for our meditation tonight was the reading that I've already brought to you from the eleventh chapter of John's Gospel, for there is recorded a tragic scene, a scene which has been reenacted, albeit certain details may be different, in the experience of every family, for surely there is hardly anyone in this hall who has not known bereavement, at least amongst the wider family circle.

Jesus, you remember in this incident, is depicted as being some way from the scene of death. The one who dies is none other than his friend Lazarus. Jesus loved Lazarus and the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and it was for the latter a tragedy that their brother should have been so ill and Jesus should have been so removed from the situation.

And when his situation, when Lazarus' sickness became very severe, they did the best thing. They contacted Jesus, and yet he delayed coming, delayed coming in a purposeful fashion. He knew the crises that had occurred in that home at Bethany, and yet he doesn't hurry up, rather he waits around for a couple of days.

And then he decides that he'll make his journey southwards and he'll come to that village near Jerusalem, and the disciples can't really understand why it is that the Lord should behave in such a strange fashion. Why go now? Why go when Lazarus is probably dead and Jesus will be risking death himself because at Jerusalem there's rather a motley crew that are waiting to arrest Jesus and have him done to death. And then Jesus makes reference, perchance, to the sleep that Lazarus is in, but he's using that word metaphorically and the disciples understand him literally, and so Jesus has to correct them and he says, Lazarus is dead, clinically, medically, physically, Lazarus is dead, he is no longer.

And Jesus, on saying that, goes to Bethany and the incident that we read of happened as Jesus speaks to Mary and Martha and enunciates that tremendous teaching, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And Jesus demonstrated his power over death as he brings Lazarus back from the grave. Jesus proves that he is able to grant eternal life by demonstrating the power that he has over physical death, and Lazarus is brought back.

And we're grateful to the Holy Spirit that this story is recorded in this gospel because here is hope, here is consolation, here is comfort for those of us who have known bereavement in our own families, and particularly for those of you who have recently known the loss of a loved one. So from this incident we launch out in our study tonight, contemplating the problem of death. And I make the observation that I led off with again, that everybody has to face this problem, everybody has to face not just the possibility, but the certainty of death.

That death awaits you and me is a fact, and no one can gainsay it. A man writing to his son, the father with only a few days to live, had this to say, from your youth on remember that you must die, prepare yourself constantly for this moment. The man who wrote those words was expecting death himself because he'd been involved in the abortive attempt to kill Hitler in 1944.

He'd been arrested, and as I say, he got a few hours to live, so he writes to his son and he tells him to prepare himself constantly for the moment of death. And no one can dispute the advice that was put down by this father to his son, because everyone, as I say, has to face death. It is the great equalizer.

Death does not bow to a pauper, it does not bow to a prince. Death is the scythe that cuts down all the ranks of humanity, and whether you're rich or poor, ignorant or wise, one day that scythe will be applied to your life, unless, as I believe, the Lord Jesus Christ shall return and perchance you will be alive at that time. That's the only way anyone in this hall will ever escape knowing physical death.

So, one can say this, that it is only the fool who goes through life thinking that he's going to continue forever as he now is. And yet, a lot of people seem to have conned themselves into believing in a sort of physical immortality. We'll go on and on and on just as we are.

And I don't apologize for making that observation and for accusing people of conning themselves into believing that they are immortal, because the evidence of the fact lies in this. People are aware that there is such a thing as death, and yet it seems to me that the vast majority of folks never live life with this in view, that one day life shall be taken from them, that this life here is preparatory to a life that is beyond. When did death first come into this world? What was the first evidence of death? Well, according to the Bible, physical death owes its origin, traces its cause, back to man's sinfulness.

I need hardly spend time in rehearsing the events of Genesis chapter 2, and particularly Genesis 3. Adam was given a command by God and told that if he disobeyed his command, he would die. Adam and Eve, our first parents, disobeyed, and they did die. First of all, spiritually, they were thrust out of the Garden of Eden.

The relationship they had enjoyed between themselves and God was broken. And though they did not die instantaneously physically, that decay that leads up to physical death commenced. The germ of death was planted in the human species, and every one, every son, every daughter of Adam and Eve is contaminated with this germ.

Now this, I put to you, is straight biblical teaching as to the origin of death. It's Professor Bruce who says, with regard to Genesis chapter 3, in the full narrative, all subsequent history lies encapsuled. Its incidents are reenacted in the life of the race.

So the Bible traces the cause of death back to man's sinfulness. But let me develop my argument at this stage a little more and address you on the subject of the fear of death. Why is it today in the twentieth century that so many fear death? I read to you a poem that I came across the other day as I was glancing through a book.

It's, well, hardly a poem. The verse doesn't rhyme, but here is a young person who's haunted by the fear of death. And he or she says this, I lie awake worrying what it will be like to be dead.

I lie awake worrying how dark will the coffin be. I lie awake and feel how cold my life will be. It makes no sense, the end of life being death.

Just a memory and then nothing, absolutely nothing, just nothing. Death is like a black hole without any sides. Death is like a thought without a thinker.

Death is fear. But why be afraid of death? Why does sophisticated man in the twentieth century harbor such fears in his own heart? You see, if the teaching of the secularist is right, and supposedly there are many secularists in the world today, even in the majority some would have us say, some would have us believe, if the secularist is right, and death is just the dissolution of the body, the cessation of existence, then why be afraid of that? Why be afraid of annihilation? Death phobia doesn't really add up. Why is man, generally speaking, so afraid of dying? Could it be that he's afraid of dying, first of all because the mode of departure itself may be reprehensible to him.

No one here looks forward to a period of inactivity, a period of senility. No one looks forward to pain. And maybe we're afraid of that, and that's one of the contributory factors to death phobia.

But beyond that, or if you like, deeper than that, perhaps there's this fear that death is something final, something irrevocable. It's the full stop, and we're not used to that sort of thing. We've never experienced anything quite like it, and we rear up against the unknown.

We shy away like some frightened horse. We're afraid. But even deeper than that, I put to you, that the explanation for death phobia, death fear, is the sneaking suspicion that I dare to suggest every son of Adam has had at some time or other, that death may not be an act, but a state.

It's not that a man is annihilated. It's not that a man escapes the consequences of the way that he's lived his life on this earth. But rather, fear of death is caused by the possibility that he will have to face the consequences of the way that he has lived.

And this, I suggest to you, is the reason why the vast majority of people, ninety-nine percent, harbor death phobia, at least at some time. There are very few who would say with Bertrand Russell in his book, Why I Am Not a Christian, When I die, I shall rot, and nothing of my ego shall survive. There is darkness without, and when I shall die, there shall be darkness within.

There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing. That's what Bertrand Russell had to say about death, and yet you know he had no justification, no proof for saying what he did, no more proof than a man who in his own day was equally eminent and who argued from a different angle, a man by the name of William Jennings Bryan, who was an orator and a statesman in the United States of America. And he says this, To every created thing, God has given a tongue that proclaims a resurrection.

If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of a buried acorn and make it burst forth from its prison walls, will he leave neglected in the earth the soul of man? He continues, A grain of wheat has power to discard its body, and from earth and air fashion a new body. If this invisible gem of life in the grain of wheat can thus pass unimpaired through three thousand resurrections, I shall not doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a new body suited to its new existence when this earthly frame has crumbled to dust. Two men, both great men, both with tremendous intellects, passing comment on death.

And Bertrand Russell suggests that there's nothing. Another man suggests from a different position of argumentation that there is something that lies beyond death. And I say that undergirding both positions is the thought of faith because you cannot prove either, not from the point of view of these two men.

So let me develop this thought of religious faith and death and see where that will take us in our study this evening because I think I can put this proposition down without any fear of someone arguing against it. That when a man with religious faith faces death, he is helped in a remarkable fashion. When a man is confronted by what the poet calls that tremendous hour, I say he is helped if he has religious faith.

Peter Moyne was a fighter in the Norwegian resistance movement during the last world war. Unfortunately for him, his activities were discovered by the German authorities that had taken over control of the country of Norway and he was deported to Germany. Peter Moyne kept a diary of the last events of his life, an incredible diary because he had no pen.

He just pinpricked into paper. And this is what he says on one occasion. He says, Today I was interrogated twice.

I was whipped. I am terribly afraid of pain, but I have no fear of death. Peter Moyne was a Christian.

Listen to another man by the name of Christoph Probst. This fellow was a student in the University of Munich and was responsible for the distribution during the National Socialist Movement's heyday in Germany, the distribution of a pamphlet called the Pamphlet of the White Rose which criticized Hitler and all his gang. Unfortunately for Christoph Probst, he was discovered and he was sentenced to death.

He wrote a letter to his sister on the eve of his death and he says this, I never knew that dying is so easy. I die without any feeling of hatred. Never forget that life is nothing but a growing in love and a preparation for eternity.

You know, it's tremendous that here are two examples, and I could quote a myriad more, of men who have faith, faith in Jesus Christ, and they're facing death. And that religious faith, which is theirs, comes to its zenith, is expressed in its most absolute fashion just at that moment when life is to be plucked from them. How different is this, are these experiences, than say, the description of the last few moments of the skeptical philosopher David Hume.

David Hume's housekeeper once went on record as describing the last moments of David Hume's life. She went on record in this fashion because she reckoned what most of his friends had to say about the courageous way the atheist faced death was inaccurate. And she goes, she writes like this, It is true that when Mr. Hume's friends were with him, he was cheerful and seemed quite unconcerned about his approaching fate.

He even frequently spoke of it to them in a jocular and playful way. But when he was alone, the scene was very different. He was anything but composed.

His mental agitation was so great at times as to occasion his whole bed to shake, and he would not allow the candles to be put out during the night, nor would he be left alone for a minute. I had always to ring the bell for one of the servants to be in the room before he would allow me to leave it. He struggled hard to appear composed even before me.

But to one who attended his bedside for so many days and nights and witnessed his disturbed sleep and still more disturbed wakings, who frequently heard his involuntary breathings of remorse and frightful startings, it was no difficult matter to determine that all was not right within. And she concludes, This continued and increased until he became insensible. I hope to God I shall never witness a similar scene.

Well, interesting evidence from the housekeeper of the atheistic philosopher David Hume. What does the Bible have to say about men and women, believers in Jesus Christ, when they face death, when they come to this tremendous hour? Well, biblical teaching is charged with optimism and with hope. We get the illustration of the apostle Paul almost goading death as he describes it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and the 55th verse.

The apostle there is setting down his belief in the resurrection, a belief based upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as though he's confronted with an open sepulcher, the apostle chides death. And he says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul bases his hope on resurrection, his faith that he will span the river that we call death, on the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. In the 20th verse, for instance, of the same chapter, he works out the argument, Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ has triumphed over death. Therefore, for the believer, death is like a wasp that has lost its sting.

It is no more to be feared. It is not the ultimate obscenity. It is not the untamed monster.

The power of death has been harnessed by Jesus Christ and he has broken the grip that it has over humankind. And the Bible goes further than this in its argument, and this is really tremendous if you're following me at this point, for it sets down certain advantages that are brought about by physical death. And I'm not exaggerating when I say this.

I know of no other book, no other book on philosophy, no other book on religion that chalks up the advantages of being dead physically as does the Bible. I'll develop the teaching in a moment. Listen to John Calvin, one of the greatest theologians that the church has ever known.

He says this, No man has made much progress in the school of life who does not look forward with joy to the day of death and final resurrection. Would you dare to write that in your diary? No man has made much progress in the school of life who does not look forward with joy to the day of death and final resurrection. Do you say that John Calvin is guilty, as are preachers today, in the twentieth century of exaggeration and oversimplification? Has he got no New Testament evidence for him to make such an astounding assertion? I suggest to you that John Calvin had.

Listen to Paul from Tarsus writing about death in a fashion that suggests he's anticipating it gladly. He says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.

If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And so he goes on in his argument, almost saying that he's rejoicing in the possibility of death.

I say almost. When he's writing to the Philippians, he's arrived. It's not a question of almost.

He's there. He's awaiting the outcome of a trial, a trial in which his own life is in jeopardy. He's been brought before the emperor and he doesn't know what the verdict is.

And so he expresses his thoughts to the Philippians in the first chapter of that epistle and says to the apostle, You know something? I've got a problem. What's your problem, Paul? Well, says Paul as he languishes in his dungeon at Rome, I don't really know what to hope for. I don't know whether I want a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

Because if Caesar brings in the verdict of guilty, well, what does it mean? I shall be executed. What does that mean? I shall be with Christ. What does that mean? It means I'll be in a far, far better condition than I've ever been down here.

For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. This is tremendous argumentation. And the man who is setting down these sentiments is no fanatic.

He's a man who's been skilled in Jewish theology, in Greek philosophy, one of the greatest minds that ever lived. And he contemplates the thought of death and he sees something entrancing, something attractive. Why? Is he in a melancholy fashion? No, that is not his temperament at all.

He's a man with a zest for life. But he looks upon death as being the vehicle which will take him into the immediate presence of God. He enjoys the presence of the Lord Jesus spiritually at the moment, but here is absolute enjoyment as a stark possibility, being brought directly into the presence of the Savior, and says, Paul, if that's the option, then I want to go.

I'd like, if I'm just to come down on my selfish desires, I'd like to go and to be with Christ, which is far better. You say the like of the apostle Paul was never found again after the first century in his attitude to death. You're dead wrong if that's the reasoning that you entertain.

Listen to Johannes Prassock. He was a man who discovered one day at the hands of the Nazis that he was going to be put to death. He was a priest, a man who had a deep religious faith.

And when he learned of his death sentence, he wrote this in the flyleaf of his New Testament. The name of the Lord be praised. Today I have been condemned to die.

The name of the Lord be praised. Today I have been condemned to die. Listen to another comment made by a lad who was a cabin boy in a ship.

And he came from Canada, and during the Second World War he was living in Copenhagen. And there he engaged in activities which brought upon him the wrath of the Nazi war machine. And he's carted off also to Germany, and the death sentence is passed on him.

And he's writing in his diary. In fact, he's writing a letter, and he says this. I experienced an indescribable feeling of relief, an exultant intoxication of victory, a joy so irrational that I was as though paralyzed.

It was as if the soul had liberated itself completely from the body, as if soul and body were gambling like two detached beings, the one in a completely unfettered supernatural ecstasy, the other severely earthbound, writhing in a passionless convulsion. Suddenly I realized how incredibly strong I am. And then he goes on and speaks more of the calmness and the strength that he receives, although he's facing imminent death.

Well, I say that the man who has religious faith, the man who has trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, can look upon death not as the ultimate obscenity, but rather as the vehicle that takes him into the immediate presence of his Lord. But perhaps for many of you who have come here this evening, it's not death itself for you that is a problem, but the fact of having to face bereavement, the terror of someone who you love having been taken from you and you remaining. I think that perhaps this is the greatest problem that death poses, certainly to the believer.

Suddenly taken from your life is someone with whom you've lived for many a long year, and that indeed is a dreadful situation with which you have to cope, recognized by some who at the point of death are reflecting upon the predicament that will face their loved one. Listen, for instance, to Count Steinhardt, who was facing death again at the hands of the Nazis, and he writes to his wife, For you, beloved, everything, of course, is much worse than for me. For my own person, you must feel assured I do not fear death.

I fear it only as it affects you and our beloved children. Let me read you another passage also from Kim, the cabin boy, as he writes his final letter to his girlfriend. And he realizes, too, that the problem of death will be for her how to cope with life when he is no longer available for her fellowship and for her to receive his love.

He says, My own little sweetheart, Today I was put on trial and condemned to death. What terrible news for a little girl only twenty years old. I obtained permission to write this farewell letter and what shall I write now? What notes are to go into this my swan song? We sailed upon the wild sea.

We met each other in the trustful way of playing children and we loved each other. We still love each other and we shall continue to do so. But one day a storm tore us asunder.

I struck a reef and went down. But you were washed up on another shore and you will live on in a new world. Remember, and I swear to you that it is true, that every sorrow turns into happiness but very few people will in retrospect admit this to themselves.

They wrap themselves in their sorrow and habit leads them to believe that it continues to be sorrow and they go on wrapping themselves up in it. The truth is that after sorrow comes a maturation and after maturation comes fruit. Here then are people at the point of death who realize that the great problems posed by their death will be problems that their loved ones will have to face.

And I say there are many of you here and may the Lord be compassionate as He deals with your soul this evening or in that same condition. Ah yes, you say, that's my problem. It's not so much death for myself about which I am afraid but I find it so difficult because the one that I lived with for so long is not with me anymore.

What help, what comfort, what consolation can the Christian gospel offer people in such a situation? Well, it can offer a tremendous amount of help indeed. And the first thing that the Bible tells us is this, that to be sorrowful about the passing of a loved one is not to engage in sin. To mourn is not incompatible with the Christian faith.

Our God is a God of feelings. Do you expect that He thinks that when you have lost a loved one that all of a sudden you're going to switch back into a happy-go-lucky, contented frame of mind? Of course not. He appreciates that there will be sorrow.

There must be a wrench. You have been with your friend, your sweetheart for a long time and sorrow is the result of parting. And the Bible says it is not wrong to be sorrowful but Paul says we do not sorrow as those who have no hope.

The Bible tells us concerning the very nature of God that He is a compassionate God. His compassions, they fail not, says the writer of the Lamentations. They are new every morning.

And the compassion of God, the sensitivity of God is not something that is restricted to the New Testament to enunciate. You find it in the Old Testament. Think of God's affection for Israel.

Think of His reaction when Israel does those things which are displeasing to Him. God, the God of the Old Testament, is the God of a sorrowing and a sorrowful heart. And when you come into the New, well, that lesson is underlined.

How do you read God the Father's activity at Calvary? Can we not say that at the zenith of that skull-shaped hill the Father was bereaved as the Son took upon Himself the sins of the world? And that cry which rent the darkness of the night, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? That cry touched the heart of God, our Heavenly Father. I say God knows something about bereavement. God knows something about sorrow.

And it's the God of sorrows whose character is revealed in the Old and in the New Testament who says to you and says to me that His compassions, they fail not. They are new every morning. I say that within the very nature of God there is consolation for those who have been bereaved.

And what is more, God has given to each one of us the precious gift of memory, an ability to reflect upon experiences that we had in the weeks and months and the years gone by, experiences charged with happiness which are brought to the forefront of our minds and which are of help to us during distressing circumstances when we feel alone. Some of you may have read that incredible book and if you haven't read it, then I tell you you couldn't invest 40p in a better book written by Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, in which Corrie ten Boom, this Dutch lady who's still alive today, recounts her experiences and that of her father and her sister at the hands of the Germans during the last world war. You remember, those of you who've read the incredible story, how she was separated by death from her beloved sister and how her sister had, prior to this occasion, been the means of helping Corrie through innumerable horrific experiences.

Now when her sister was taken, what kept Corrie going? The thought of all that her sister had been, the life of her mother, the memory of her father, these things she fed her soul upon and they were used by God's Holy Spirit within her heart to give her strength to be able to face the bereavement and the loneliness and the savagery of the concentration camp which she endured for so many years. I say that facing bereavement, to help us face bereavement, we have the preciousness of memory. But even beyond this, of greater value, is the tremendous joy of reunion.

I get terribly annoyed sometimes, it's scriptural too, occasionally, if it's righteous indignation, terribly annoyed with those critics who refer to Christianity as being a prop for anemic minds who cannot face the facts of life as they really are. And sometimes we react against such criticism and we allow it to rob us of the joy that there should be in dwelling our minds upon the fact that one day there is going to be a tremendous reunion. You see, so often in this life we get things completely out of perspective.

We get so involved with our ordinary circumstances that we don't see life from the point of view of eternity. We don't see life from the point of view of 75 years or less or more. And we don't relate that lifetime onto the scale of eternity.

Or to change my metaphor for a moment, we fail to appreciate that a lifespan is just one tick of the clock of eternity. And ere long the time will dawn, and not far away, when those of us who have been parted from ones that we have loved shall be reunited with them. Again listen to a man writing to his wife who he will never see again on this earth.

And he makes reference to the joy of reunion. He says, at the end of all separations there comes for us Christians the everlasting wedding feast when our marriage and our love will find a new consummation with God and with our Father. I say, do not let the critic, the cynical person, rob you as a Christian of the joy, of the comfort, of the solace, of the hope that there is in realizing that one day there shall be a tremendous reunion.

And relatively speaking, that day is imminent. And for those of you who've known bereavement, what about these moments that are left to you in your life, perhaps months, perhaps years? Are you going to spend them just in terms of remorse, of dwelling upon what you used to be, but paralyzed to the present to every opportunity that presents itself as you as an individual continue, albeit without the help and inspiration of your loved one? No. Take the opportunity of the present as an opportunity to live out your life as a memorial, as a testimony to the ones who have gone before and as a praise to your God and Father.

You say, who is sufficient for these things? God through Jesus Christ can help you. For the Apostle Paul who first put up that question said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So then, this is how the Christian approaches death, not as the ultimate obscenity, not as a hydra-headed monster to be feared, but as something to be expected, as something to be looked forward to, not in a melancholy fashion, but rather as a means whereby one will be carried into the immediate presence of God And what lies ahead for those of us who trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? What awaits us? Listen to the psalmist as he pens his beliefs in Psalm 73, verse 24, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

The Apostle Paul, when he was writing to the Corinthians in the first chapter, in the first letter, which, in the first letter in the second chapter, he makes reference to all that there is in store for believing people. He says, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. That's a tremendous thought, isn't it? Let those words sink into your subconscious.

Dwell upon them with your mind. I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And those incomprehensible, indescribable things are all that the Apostle Paul has in mind when he's reflecting upon the glory that lies beyond the grave for the Christian believer.

There are some intimations of what lies beyond in the Word of God, and that's going to be the subject of our study for next week. But let me draw together within these last two minutes all that I've been saying thus far this evening. The problem of death, yes, it remains a horrific problem for those who do not trust the Lord Jesus.

But for those of us who know him as our Savior, well, death is a foe that once existed but now has been defeated. Death is really a friend to be courted, something to be longed for without, as I have expressed on several occasions this night, being melancholy in any sense of the word. Why be afraid? Why be afraid of death? Afraid? Afraid of what? To feel the Spirit's glad release? To pass from pain to perfect peace? The strife and strain of life to cease? Afraid? Afraid of that? Afraid of what? Afraid to see the Savior's face, to hear his welcome, and to trace the glory gleam from wounds of grace? Afraid of that? Afraid of what? A flush, a crush, a pierced heart? Darkness, light, oh, heaven's counterpart? A wound of his, oh, heaven's art? Afraid of that? Afraid of what? To do by death what life could not? Baptize with blood, the stony plot, till souls shall blossom from that spot? Afraid of that? The poem was written by John and Betty Stan in 1933.

It arrived through the letterbox of their parents on the same day as they received news that their son and daughter-in-law had died in the Far East, and had offered themselves up as further members of the noble army of martyrs. Afraid, said the stams? Afraid of death? Why, there is no fear in death, neither is there fear in love, because perfect love casts out all fear, and the answer to the problem of death is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.