Evening Twilight (5)

An Old Friend

“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).

Visiting the elderly in the congregation is one of the many tasks in the ministry. During a visit when it is asked how life is experienced in the evening twilight of life, the answer is often, “It has passed away like a shadow.” That was also the experience of the poet: “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”

It is a privilege to listen to the wonders of free grace at the feet of the elderly, not by contemplating the matters but from having experienced them. Then there develops a connection between one another, and a union flows from this. Thus, there will be an accepting and a respecting; each other’s needs in natural and spiritual life will be carried along into the inner room. In eternity they will not meet a strange God, neither will they meet a strange people. “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.”

What is from heaven binds together. What is bound together by the flesh always ends in the flesh. What is of heaven ends up in the poorhouse together and lives from what is granted. What is of the flesh is “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” and lives from what is taken. To a poor people, God can give something. A rich person has no lack. In Hebron, two women met each other. Elisabeth and Mary were bound together by God. What they possessed was received in an honest way. They experienced this as a miracle. Mary had said, “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.”

The Lord gives just enough that they do not lack but, also, just enough that they always need God. Elijah could go through the desert for forty days and forty nights because of the bread and water that was granted. It was enough to get through and not to perish. Thus, true life is tried, purified, and fought against, but when they call in trouble, God will deliver them.

An old elder wrote to a minister because of an inward bond. In the past they had often met each other, and a bond had developed. This was strongly experienced by the old friend. He wrote, “If you have some time, come for a visit again.” Thus, they met each other one evening. It could be seen that the evening twilight had come. The shadow of eternity could be seen. In an old chair sat a man broken down according to the body. His voice was weak, but his spirit was lively. Without saying anything, they sat together. One of the elderly was close to home, and the number of the God-fearing was few. The minister remembered the word of Jeremiah: “How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!” When the spiritual household goods disappear, the house becomes empty. Natural man can fill it with religion and furnish the house with new household goods, but fallen man cannot replace life. “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”

How was it with the old friend? For others, he was a readable letter, but God’s people often walk with the light on their back. Then their life is clear to another, but they themselves walk in darkness. The Lord prepares for eternity in His way. It is a difficult lesson to learn. To live out of Christ is to die with Christ. In the evening twilight of life, man’s merits do not count. Having an office in the church, gifts of labor, and fruits of the ministry are not companions to the Jordan. The inheritance is distributed according to the electing good pleasure. Leaning on the righteousness of Christ only, the Church will enter in. For this, discovering and uncovering grace is necessary. Being made receptive for heavenly teaching, the old friend shared the following. The evening twilight showed the end of his life and promised eternal rest. He said, “It is the end. I know it and I feel it. The Lord showed retrospection in my life. My official labours ended with a deficit. My pillars were unable to support the building. The memories of the meetings with my King made me see the resting places and resting times for my soul, but my soul could find no rest in them. It lay outside of me in Another. It taught me two matters which point to the ground of salvation. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.” There is but one price and one Saviour. A matter lies behind this: “Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:18,21).

It is not a false hope with which God’s Church travels home. It is grounded in the only and perfect righteousness of Christ. In a way of true discovering and uncovering, the Holy Spirit makes room for it. Christ must be received as a gift from the Father. Only through Him will the Church be reconciled to God. “Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.”

I wait for God to hide me;

My soul, with longing stirred,

Shall hope, whate’er betide me,

In His unfailing word.

My soul waits for Jehovah

With more intense desire

Than watchers for the morning

To dawn of day aspire.

—Psalter 446:3

(To be continued)

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