grown smaller and of less importance, and they will wish that they had thought more of laying up treasure in Heaven. "A deathbed repentance" is what many trust to who are living a life of sin. Far be it from me to deny that such repentance is sometimes granted-the thief on the cross is a standing instance of the mercy of the Lord, and an encouragement to penitence however late. It is, however, scarcely too much to say, that the instances are few; that in general as a man lives, so he dies. The time of acute disease is not the time for seeking God; the flesh has its burden of pain and weakness then, and the mind is often clouded, and cannot easily turn to subjects which are strange to it. When God has been sought and loved in time of health, then His presence is felt as a support and refreshment in the hour of sickness, because no active exercise of thought is required. The sufferer lies as a child in its father's arms, clinging to Him, needing no words, but comforted by the feeling of His loving sympathy and protection. To some it is given, through a long period of weakness, to feel their end gradually approaching, and to keep their minds unclouded through all. Consumption, that lingering and painful disease, has, no doubt, for this reason been called "the death of God's elect." Through months, or, it may be, years, the mind is enabled to contemplate the end, and to seek reconciliation and peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. While the outward man decayeth, the inner man may be renewed day by day, and become gradually refined and purified as silver, till it reflects the Saviour's image. In far the greater number of diseases, however, the mind is depressed like the body, and is incapable of thinking or repenting. A sudden stroke may seize a man and lay him on his bed a helpless, paralysed creature, without power of himself to speak or move. Or death itself may come with a sudden blow, striking down the man in full health without a moment's warning; a deep-seated disease suddenly attacking a vital part, or an accident such as we are every day liable to may stop the machine in an instant, and make "this sensible, warm motion become a lifeless clay." Death seems terrible when it comes in such a shape, hurrying a soul into the presence of its Judge, and so general is the dread it inspires, that we pray in our Litany, "From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us." Nevertheless, "death cannot come to him untimely who is fit to die." If our state were constantly one of fitness for death, it would little matter how or when the call came. There are two cases of sudden death, both of which really occurred, and which contrast strangely with one another. A man offered a wager that he would drink so many quarts of beer off without stopping. His wager was taken, and, of course, there were plenty of comrades to keep him up to the mark. No sooner had he finished his wicked draught than a blood-vessel in his stomach, being overstrained, burst, and he was a dead man. A minister of God, standing up in the pulpit and giving out the text for his sermon, was seen to fall, and was taken up lifeless. The heart's action had suddenly stopped. In the one case we are shocked and horrified; in the other, we feel that there is something striking and appropriate in the servant of God being translated in a moment from his earthly labours to his heavenly rest. Beware of saying to yourselves, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;" whereas you know not that God's sentence may not already have gone forth, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee "." How will your soul appear before Him? how will it bear the presence of the Lamb or the gaze of the Angels? Remember that the impure and wicked cannot inherit the kingdom of God, Luke xii. 19, 20. they have made themselves incapable of sharing in its joys. A false, sinful man cannot endure the company of the righteous; it is torture to his dark soul to have to stand the gaze of the innocent; he feels he has no part with them in any of their motives or feelings; he would rather be among his own evil companions, joining in their ribaldry and vice. In like manner the filthy and unclean cannot enter into the company of the Angels, unless they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. When all the holiness of God is seen, and sin revealed in its true colours, will there not then be weeping and gnashing of teeth? Think of these things now while there is time for repentance, and turn to the Saviour, for He waits to be gracious. He makes the same sad and earnest appeal to you that He did to His disciples, "Will ye also go away?" May your answer be that of the devoted Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life"," To you who are living here as Christians, I would say, fear not to contemplate your death, think not of it as the dark grave, but as the passage to the higher, better life which God has designed you for. "Life is real, life is earnest, Let your striving here be after the attainment 8 John xvii. 24. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON. |