Fear not

“Fear not: I…have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:17-18

“Is it Jesus, all precious, all lovely, all-powerful Jesus, that saith this? He who hath redeemed my soul from hell, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling? And hath Jesus, my Husband, my Brother, my Redeemer, the keys both of hell and of death? Why then it is impossible for any to open death’s door one moment before that he gives the appointment. And doth he command me to fear not? Oh then, my soul, dismiss all anxiety about thy departure. Thy time is in Jesus’s hands; the keys are hanging at thy Redeemer’s girdle. Never fear, neither to die as thou hast lived, and art living, in a believing frame in Jesus. This is as much suited to a dying time, as it is to a living time; for with this thou mayest go out of the world, as safe as living in it. ‘To live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ God’s covenant love, and God’s covenant promises in Jesus, are the same. They are, both in death and life, fixed and sure.”

Robert Hawker (1753-1827)