There lived in Germany years ago a countess of the House of Hanover. She was an unbeliever, and specially opposed to the teaching of resurrection and eternal life.
This descendant of royalty died when about thirty years old. Before her death she gave written orders that her grave should be covered with a solid granite slab; that around it should be fitted square blocks of stone, and that the corners should be fastened to each other and to the granite slab by heavy iron clamps. On the granite covering she ordered this inscription to be placed:
“THIS BURIAL PLACE,
PURCHASED FOR ALL ETERNITY,
MUST NEVER BE OPENED.”
All that human power could do to seal that grave was done. BUT GOD—
Years later a little seed, hidden in the earth, sprouted. As the green shoot sought the light, the root grew and strengthened. It found its way between the side stone and the upper slab and grew there. Slowly and steadily it swelled with life and forced its way onward until the iron clamps were torn apart. The granite lid gradually lifted, and at last was resting, upright, against the trunk of the large and flourishing tree that grew from that little seed.
What a warning this is to those who do not know the power of God! “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it” (Ecclesiastes 8:88There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. (Ecclesiastes 8:8)).
Human beings will be just as helpless to resist the power of God in resurrection as they now are in evading His decree of death.
One Man was here—only one—who had the power of life and death in His own hands: Jesus, the Son of God. He only could say of His life: “No man taketh it from Me. . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:1818No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:18)).
Who else can use language like that? Who, among the greatest and strongest of the human race, can dispute God’s right to say to him, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee”? And when once that decree has gone out, who can reverse the sentence?
Turn to God in faith while it is still TODAY. In that solemn day of your own death it will be too late for you to seek the light. It can only be the blackness of darkness forever.