1 NOT to myself I owe
That I, LORD, am Thine;
Free Grace hath all the Shades broke through,
And caus’d the Light to shine
Me thou hast willing made
Thy offers to receive;
Call’d by the Voice that wakes the Dead,
I come to Thee and live.

2 Why am I made to see
Who am by nature blind ?
Why am I taken home to Thee,
And others left behind ?
Because thy sov’reign Love
Was bent the Worst to save
Jesus, who reigns inthron’d above,
The free Salvation gave.

3 Tho’ once far off I stood,
Nor knew myself thy Foe,
Brouglit nigli by the Eedeemer’s Blood,
Myself and Thee I know
No more a Child of Wrath,
Thy Graciousness I see ;
And praise thee for the Work of Faith
Which Thou hast Wrought in me.

4 In Sins and Trespasses
When more than dead I lay.
Drew near my Tomb the Prince of Peace,
And roll’d the Stone away
With me his Spirit strove,
Almighty to retrieve
He saw me in a Time of Love,
And said unto me, Live.

5 By Him made free indeed,
I felt his gracious Words ;
His Mantle over me was spread.
And I became the Lord’s.
Jesus, thy Son, by Grace,
I to the End shall be ;
Made perfect through thy Comeliness
Which I receiv’d from Thee.

6 I drink the living Stream
To all Believers giv’n,
A Fellow-citizen with Them
Who dwell in yonder Heav’n
With all thy chosen Band
I trust to see Thee there.
And, in thy Righteousness, to stand
Undaunted at thy Bar.

– Augustus Toplady, Poems and Hymns

That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.
Hebrews 2:14

O child of God, death hath lost its sting, because the devil’s power over it is destroyed. Then cease to fear dying. Ask grace from God the Holy Ghost, that by an intimate knowledge and a firm belief of thy Redeemer’s death, thou mayst be strengthened for that dread hour. Living near the cross of Calvary thou mayst think of death with pleasure, and welcome it when it comes with intense delight. It is sweet to die in the Lord: it is a covenant-blessing to sleep in Jesus. Death is no longer banishment, it is a return from exile, a going home to the many mansions where the loved ones already dwell. The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems great; but it is not so. We are not far from home–a moment will bring us there. The sail is spread; the soul is launched upon the deep. How long will be its voyage? How many wearying winds must beat upon the sail ere it shall be reefed in the port of peace? How long shall that soul be tossed upon the waves before it comes to that sea which knows no storm? Listen to the answer, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” Yon ship has just departed, but it is already at its haven. It did but spread its sail and it was there. Like that ship of old, upon the Lake of Galilee, a storm had tossed it, but Jesus said, “Peace, be still,” and immediately it came to land. Think not that a long period intervenes between the instant of death and the eternity of glory. When the eyes close on earth they open in heaven. The horses of fire are not an instant on the road. Then, O child of God, what is there for thee to fear in death, seeing that through the death of thy Lord its curse and sting are destroyed? and now it is but a Jacob’s ladder whose foot is in the dark grave, but its top reaches to glory everlasting.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
Matthew 27:51

No mean miracle was wrought in the rending of so strong and thick a veil; but it was not intended merely as a display of power–many lessons were herein taught us. The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn-out vesture, rent and laid aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because all fulfilled in him, and therefore the place of their presentation was marked with an evident token of decay. That rent also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleamed forth above it. By the death of our Lord Jesus we have a clear revelation of God, for he was “not as Moses, who put a veil over his face.” Life and immortality are now brought to light, and things which have been hidden since the foundation of the world are manifest in him. The annual ceremony of atonement was thus abolished. The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil, was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Hence access to God is now permitted, and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus. There is no small space laid open through which we may peer at the mercy-seat, but the rent reaches from the top to the bottom. We may come with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace. Shall we err if we say that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvellous manner by our Lord’s expiring cry was the type of the opening of the gates of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion? Our bleeding Lord hath the key of heaven; he openeth and no man shutteth; let us enter in with him into the heavenly places, and sit with him there till our common enemies shall be made his footstool.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening