This link will take you to the final pastoral letter of John Brown (of Haddington), written to his flock just before his death in 1787 (for all you ARPs, John Brown was part of the Secession Church in Scotland). He has some words that brought great conviction to this pastor:
Having through the patience and mercy of God, long laboured among you, not as I ought, far, far from it, but as I could, I must now leave you, to appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of my stewardship. You cannot say that I ever appeared to covet any man’s silver or gold, or apparel, or ever uttered one murmur about what you gave me; or that I sought yours, not you. You cannot charge me with idling away my devoted time in vain chat, either with you or others, or with spending it in worldly business, reading of plays, romances, or the like. If I had, what an awful appearance should I soon have before my all-seeing Judge! You cannot pretend that I spared either body or mind in the service of your souls, or that I put you off with airy conceits of man’s wisdom, or anything else than the truths of God. Though I was not ashamed, as I thought Providence called me, to give you hints of the truth presently injured, and for the support of which is the declared end of the Secession, yet I laboured chiefly to show and inculcate upon your consciences the most important truths concerning your sinfulness and misery, and the way of salvation from both through Christ, and laboured to hunt you out of your lying refuges, and give your consciences no rest but in Christ and Him crucified. The delight of my soul was to commend Him and His free and great salvation to your souls, and to direct and encourage you to receive and walk in Him.
But Brown makes it very clear where he was placing his trust:
But I have no confidence in any of these things before God as my Judge. I see such weakness, such deficiency, such unfaithfulness, such imprudence, such unfervency, and unconcern, such selfishness, in all that I have done as a minister or a Christian, as richly deserves the deepest damnation of hell. I have no hope of eternal happiness but in Jesus’ blood, which cleanseth from all sin, in redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of my sins, according to the riches of His grace. It is the everlasting covenant of God’s free grace, well ordered in all things and sure, that is all my salvation and all my desire.
And even as he faces death, he makes yet one more appeal for lost souls to trust in Christ:
Let me then beseech you, now, without a moment’s delay, to consider your ways. Listen to the Lord’s invitations! Believe His self-giving declarations and promises, which, times without number, have, with some measure of earnestness, been sounded in your ears. For the Lord’s sake, dare not, at your infinite peril, to see me again in your sins, and refusers of my glorious Redeemer and Master? Oh! give Him your hearts, give Him your hearts! I never complained of you giving me too little. Nay, I thought myself happier than most of my brethren as to all outward matters. But I always thought and complained that you did not use my Master Christ as I wished in your hearts, lives, and houses. And now I ask nothing for myself, or any of my family, but make this my only dying request to you, that you would receive my Master Christ into your hearts and houses. Could my soul speak back to you from the eternal state, could all my rotting bones and sinews, and every atom of my body, speak back to you from the grave, they should all cry, “Oh that you were wise, that you understood this, that you would consider your latter end!” Oh that you would give my Master, Christ, these ignorant, guilty, polluted, and enslaved hearts of yours, that He, as made of God unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, might enter in and fill them for evermore with His grace and truth! Oh, say not to a dying, a dead minister, but to a living Redeemer, and His Father, and blessed Spirit, NAY.
If you can, give a few moments of your time to read this farewell letter of a minister to his congregation, and ask yourself what are indeed the most important things in this world.
wonderful post