Death Is a Gathering (1)

It is a very sweet word, that death is nothing but a gathering. It presupposes that God's children are all scattered in this world amongst wicked men, in a forlorn place, as pilgrims in a strange land. It is a comfort to be gathered. From where will we be gathered? We shall be gathered from a wicked, confused world. To whom will we go? To our Father. At death, the changes for God's children are for the better. Death to them is but a gathering. This gathering shows the preciousness of the thing gathered; for God does not gather things of no value. Every Christian is dearly bought, with the blood of Christ. As men gather jewels before fire comes into their houses; or as farmers will be sure to gather their corn before they let the beasts come into the field; so says God, I will be sure to gather you. We are all by nature lost in Adam, and scattered from God, therefore we must be gathered again in Christ, for he is the head of all union that is good. Christ speaks to Jerusalem, 'How often would I have gathered you together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not' (Matt. 23:37). Christ would have gathered them unto himself, by his word, but they refused. All the gathering of a Christian in this life is a gathering to Christ by faith, and to the communion of saints by love (1 Thess. 4:17). After this there comes by death a gathering to Christ in glory. For the soul goes forever to be with the Lord. Then comes a higher degree of gathering at the day of judgment, when there shall be a great meeting of all saints, and the soul and body shall be reunited together, to remain forever with the Lord. Let us then think of this, that whatsoever befalls us in the world, we will surely be gathered, for death is but a gathering. A gathering to a better place, to heaven, where we will be forever praising the Lord, never offending him, loving and pleasing one another.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Josiah's Reformation, pp. 137-40 [105-07]
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