Some ejaculations and dying words of the late Reverend Mr John Willison

by John Willison

SOME

EJACULATIONS

and

DYING WORDS

Of the Reverend

Mr. JOHN WILLISON,

Late Minister of the Gospel at Dundee.

OR,

His last Words to his Wife & Children.

Edinburgh Printed and Sold in Niddry's Wynd

Ejaculations & Dying Words, &c.

To his Wife.

My Dear,

MY distress calls me to think of parting with you, the will of the Lord be done. I thank you for your tender care of me; may the Lord bless and reward you for it, and sanctify your own tenderness, and support you under it. As you have studied to live a life of faith and prayer all your days, so I believe you will continue to the end. In all your difficulties and fears, encourage yourself in the Lord your God. Commit your way to him; trust in him that is faithful and true. I resign you, my dear, to the Husband of Husbands, our dearest Lord Jesus Christ.

To my Children.

DEAR Children, your earthly father must leave you, but your heavenly father is immortal. O cleave fast to him. Triffle not about your souls concern in time of health; mind these things is the one thing needful; this you will repent of when you come within a near view of eternity. O sirs! press for clear views of your interest in Christ, the only surety and Saviour of sinners. Among other evidences of it, live by faith on him, and study holiness in heart and life. Dear sirs, think how you will be able to stand before Christ your judge at the last day, unless you have Christ's image on you, and be made new creatures.

Lord make you all such, and bless you with his best blessing!-My blessing be upon you all. What means God gave me, I have bestowed them to you. Be kind and careful of your mother while you have her; and let none of you forget, that though I go before you to the dust, you must all quickly follow me. O that we may all meet together at the right hand of our blessed Redeemer, to see his face and sing his praise. The time is near, be ye therefore also ready.

Now, my dear wife and children remember what is above as the words of your affectionate husband and loving father, who being dead, yet hereby speaketh to you for your eternal good and happiness; may they sink into your hearts: So prayeth.

JOHN WILLISON.

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Some of his Dying EJACULATIONS.

O Let me sleep in Jesus! I would not live always in this evil world that has little in it tempting and seems still proving worse, and where the torrent of sin and backsliding seems to grow stronger.

I would desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better than to be here. I am willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none in all the earth whom I desire besides thee; for though my heart, strength and flesh fail, yet God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

Now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.

O for Simeon’s frame, to be saying, Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

When Christ says,- Surely I come quickly: may my soul answer, Even so come, Lord Jesus.

I am living on the righteousness of Christ, yea, dying in the Lord. Even so come. I am detained here upon the shore, waiting for a fair wind to carry me over this Jordan. I have waited and will wait for thy salvation, O Lord. The Lord is a rock, and his work is perfect: Lord perfect what concerneth me.

O that I could say with Paul, The time of my departure is at hand. I have kept the faith; I have run my race; I have finished my course; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous Lord will give me at his coming.

I om vile and polluted, how shall I be cleansed? But that is a comfortable promise, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth from all sin. And so is that, Though ye have lien among the pots, ye shall be as doves, whose wings are covered with silver, and their feathers with yellow gold.

I resolve to obey; to submit to the Lord’s will; to die like Moses and Aaron, the one at Mount Hor, the other at Mount Abirim. They went up and died at the commandment of the Lord.

O that when my flesh and strength fail, God may be the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.— When now the keepers of the house do tremble, O that God may be the keeper; when the grinders cease, because they are few, O that God would feed my soul with manna that will need none of these employments; when the daughters of music are brought low, O to be fitted for that heavenly music; when the lookers out at the windows are darkened, O that my soul may be enlightened to see Jesus my Redeemer.

Lord help the unbelief and infidelity of my heart, and help to more of faith of a risen Jesus, an ascended Redeemer. O let me believe and feel the sweetness of that word of Christ, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to your God and my God.

O how shall such an unholy creature as I presume into such a pure and holy place? But the apostle has taught us, we may have boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus.

O that when the time of my last combat comes with my last enemy death, I may be helped above all to take the shield of faith, where I may be relieved from the sting of death, and may quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

O that I may be helped to adore the sovereignty of God in his rod, and humbly submit to it. Save me from both extremities; let me never despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when I am rebuked of him.

Now the prince of darkness will study to raise tempests of temptations to shipwreck the poor weather beaten vessel of my soul, when it would enter into the harbour of rest above; may Christ come to pilot and steer the helm, and it shall be safe.

O for more faith! may my faith ripen to a full assurance, that I may go off the stage rejoicing and that an abundant entrance may be ministered to me into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

O for more faith, that I may die like Simeon, when he had Christ in his arms, saying, Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

Lord, one smile of thy countenance would banish away all my doubts and fears, and make me sing in pain.

Is my Redeemer gone to prepare a place for us, why should I be slothful to follow his foot steps? when he is saying, come up hither; come up dwell here; come up reign here; come up sing here.

O Lord, deliver my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. O save me from the horrible pit, draw me out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and establish my goings, and put a new song in my mouth.

O give grace to strive by faith, and prayer to enter in at the strait gate. Lord, thou hast bid me knock and it shall be opened, ask and I shall receive; Lord, I knock open unto me; I would be in, I must be in; let me in but over the threshold; let me in within sight of my Redeemers face, within sight of the smiles of his countenance; let me within hearing of the songs of the redeemed, let me get to the outside of that praising company, I’ll be well enough if I get in.

Lord, in I must be, out I cannot stay. O shut me not out with swearers, sabbath breakers and profane persons; Lord, I never chus’d their company while in this world; Lord, do not gather my soul with sinners thereafter.

The redeemed are gathering, and the wicked are gathering. Lord gather me with thy flock; they are fast a gathering; the church’s head is gone; he has left the earth and entered into his glory. My brethren and friends, many of them have arrived where he is, I am yet behind. O how great is the difference between my state and theirs; I am groaning out my complaint, they are singing God’s praise; I am in darkness, and cannot see thy face, but they behold thee face to face. O should I be satisfied to stay behiud when my friends are gone! Shall I wander here in a hungry desart, when they are triumphing above, and dividing the spoil!— O help me to look after them with a stedfast eye, and cry, O Lord, how long! O heavenly Father, draw me after Jesus, for none came to him without thy aid. O Father draw me up there where he is, and I'll mount up as on eagle’s wings. O draw me, and when thou seemest to fly from me, Lord enable me to follow hard after thee.

Lord give me the staff of promise in my hand that I may go over Jordan with it. O give me such a promise as that, ‘When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be bnrnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.’

Lord, my experiences are finall, my manifestations are few; these I wil not lean to. Yet I will remember thee from the land of Jordan, from the Hermonites, and from the hill Mizar. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

O thou who remembrest the dying thief when on the way to thy kingdom, and O remember me when now seated in thy kingdom, and say unto my soul when I am dying, 'This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.'

Lord, I am called to the work, O give me the strength, I never had. O strengthen me like Sampson for once, when at death, to pull down the strong hold of sin in me. Lord, wash away my sins in the blood of Christ and then my soul shall not sink in the ocean of thy wrath.

O what’s my life but a vapour! a sand glass of 60 or 70 years! O how fast does it run down! how soon run it out! Vain, vain, is the love of life, and the fear of death. O for more patience and less fretting. If the damned had hope of being saved from hell after a 1000 years pain, how willingly would they endure it? Blessed be God, my pains is not in hell, their state is not mine.

Lord, draw near to me, and save me. My body is full of trouble, and my life draws near to the grave. But, Lord, thy loving kindness is better than life, O make thy loving kindness sure to me, and I will willingly part with this dying life. Oh, that I could make all the world see the beauty of my precious and adorable Saviour. Nothing but an interest in Christ can give peace in life, or comfort in death. He is the chief among ten thousaud, and all together lovely. My body its in part dead, but I know I cannot die eternally while Jesus lives. I must go down to the grave; but what is the grave? it is but a refining pot since my Saviour lay in it; it is but a bed of roses. He is the Rose of Charron, and the Lilly of the valley.

It was his grace that drew me, and made me willing in a day of his power; no desire nor merit in me, it was all free and undeserved. O let the chastisement of my body be the medicine of my soul, to cure me of sin, and bring me to sincere repentance for it; for Christ was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him. Lord, remember the chastisement of Christ for sin, and let my pains be the chastisement of a father, and not the wounds of an enemy. Let Christ’s sufferings mitigate mine. I rejoice in the prospect of that glorious inheritance reserved safe. — I could not comfortably enter eternity any other way but in and through this God-man mediator: if he was not God as well as man I could not be supported, but he is God. Oh, this precious Saviour, he is my all in all, he is my sufficient good, my portion and my choice; in him my vast desires are fulfilled, and all my powers rejoice. I am travelling the wilderness to a city of habitation, whose builder and maker is God. Oh! delightful thought! that I who was going on in sin, should be plucked as a brand out of the burning. Oh! how will they ly on a death bed that have nothing but their own works to fly to? with only this to depend on, I should be the most miserable of all creatures; but the long white robe of my Redeemer’s righteousness is all my desire. They are truly blessed. they alone are happy, who are enabled to exalt in that garment of celestial glory which never waxeth old, in the illustrious robes of a Saviour’s consummate righteousness, which are incorruptible and immortal. This is a robe which hides every sin, of thought, word or deed, that I have committed.——O how unspeakably happy are they who are justified by this all perfect righteousness of all they in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who therein can constantly triumph and glory.

Lord, I live upon Christ, I lie upon his righteousness, I live upon his blood and merits; yea, I die also leaning wholly upon this bottom. It is not past experience or manifestations I depend upon; it is Christ, a present all sufficient Saviour, and perfect righteousness in him I look to. All my attainments are but loss and dung beside him.

When I find myself polluted I go to this fountain for cleansing. Lord give me delight in approaching to thee; delight to be at a throne of grace—O that I could make my bed there, ly and die there.

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. O for strength to offer a holy violence by faith and prayer.

Thus the Author died as he lived, testifying the power of religion upon himself, and that at a time when men have most need of its comfort.———The foregoing words are transcribed from his own manuscript, now in the hands of Mr. Bell, Minister at Aberbrothick.

William Bell

FINIS.