"--"My life draweth nigh unto hell. . . I am like one
stript among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom
thou rememberest no more; and they are cut off from thy hand. . . .
Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? and shall the dead arise and
praise thee? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy
righteousness in the land of destruction?"--"For the grave cannot
praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down to the
pit cannot hope for thy truth."
Even into that lowest darkness, where man feels, even for one moment,
that God is nothing to him, and he is nothing to God--even into that
Jesus condescended to go down for us. That worst of all temptations,
of which David only tasted a drop when he cried out, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus drained to the very dregs for us.--
He went down into hell for us, and conquered hell and death, and the
darkness of the unknown world, and rose again glorious from them,
that He might teach us not to fear death and hell; that He might know
how to comfort us in the hour of death: and in the day of judgment,
when on our sick bed, or in some bitter shame and trouble, the lying
devil is telling us that we are damned and lost, and forsaken by God,
and every sin we ever did rises up and stares us in the face.
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