Part 30 (2/2)
Shall the Christian's remembrance of these words be overlooked in the great day of reckoning? Will the dear Lord not recognize even a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple? Verily it shall in no wise lose its reward. To care for the poor is practical Christianity. The question will not be asked in the great day of account: Did you preach long, deep, and eloquent sermons? Or offer long and pharisaical prayers? No. But He will ”say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed.” Why? ”Inherit the kingdom.... For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?... And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
As Christian workers we have constantly to remember that while we are justified by our faith here, and now, we will be judged by our works, yonder.
Henry Law, in ”Christ is All,” wisely remarks that, ”Fruit is the sign of healthy trees, and so works evidence that we have life.” ”By their fruits ye shall know them.” ”Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compa.s.sion from him, how dwelleth the love of G.o.d in him?”
TO DIE IS GAIN.
How frail, how short, how uncertain is human life. ”Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down.”--Job xiv. 1. ”As for man, his days are as gra.s.s: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind pa.s.seth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”--Ps. ciii. 15-16.
”All flesh is as gra.s.s, and all the glory of man as the flower of gra.s.s. The gra.s.s withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.”--1 Pet. i. 24-25.
These very solemn pa.s.sages of Scripture reveal to us two distinct lines of thought: First, The mutable; and, secondly, the immutable. If a man die, shall he live again? Ah, it is here, amid the ravages which death makes, that we hear Christ's blessed words, ”I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
While it is true that this body must droop and die, and return to dust, yet death cannot touch the soul. It is immortal, it has been created in the image of G.o.d. He is a spirit, and a spirit is indestructible. The essence of the soul is spiritual. From the hour of the new birth, the soul of man begins to ripen for glory. All its powers and capacities are gradually developed and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
This preparation for Heaven is the work of the Holy Spirit. By providences, by sermons, by the word of truth, and by prayer, G.o.d prepares His servants for the heavenly home on high. Looking, then, at this life as a state of danger, difficulties, and trials--a life of probation--we must say with Paul, that when the great conflict is over, ”To die is gain.” ”The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.”
But remember he said, _now I am ready to be_ offered.
It is only when we are ready to be offered, that to die will be gain.
Oh, are you ready? Jesus says, ”be ye also ready.”
There are some here, perhaps, who are still unsaved, unprepared for death. Oh, if G.o.d should call for you to-day, where would your soul go?
You know that G.o.d out of Christ is a consuming fire. It will not be gain for you when you die, unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, come to Him while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation.
There is no time to be lost in this important matter, for death is upon our track. While G.o.d invites how blest the day. While the Holy Spirit is speaking and saying, ”Prepare to meet thy G.o.d.” Oh, resist not entreaties, yield to His power. How is it possible for a soul to be ready for death, and judgment, and a coming eternity, without conversion?
”Verily, verily,” said Jesus to Nicodemus, ”I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of G.o.d.” ”Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” How is it possible for any to be ready to meet G.o.d in peace unless they are washed in Christ's blood, and clothed in His spotless and justifying righteousness.
Paul said, ”To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
There are some, however, who do not believe this comforting doctrine.
They debar the Christian from the enjoyments of Heaven during the intermediate state between the hour of death and the resurrection. This condition they call the unconscious state of the dead. They are soul-sleepers, and generally believe in the pernicious error, namely, the annihilation of the wicked. A pleasing thought no doubt to the workers of iniquity, as they shall escape the punishment due to their iniquities. This is about as dangerous a doctrine as the new school theology of reformatory punishment, namely, that G.o.d is so good and so full of universal benevolence, that He cannot consistently, with His attribute of mercy, consign His creatures to everlasting punishment. It is true that G.o.d is full of love and tender mercy; but He never appeared as a merciful G.o.d excepting through a mediator. He can only be just, and the justifier of those alone who believe in Jesus. ”Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given under Heaven or among men whereby we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus.” To those, we believe, He is precious at the hour of death. It is then the believer is ushered into the presence of the King eternal, immortal, and invisible. In view of the greatness and glory of the transition from earth to Heaven, the Apostle exclaimed, ”I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.” For it is _then_ that we really begin to live; now we see through a gla.s.s darkly; now we know only in part, but then, oh, what a change, ”Beyond the smiling and the weeping.”
”Let not your heart be troubled,” said Jesus; ”in my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” It is for these mansions we were begotten. ”Heirs to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away.”
Sister Knowles had the blest a.s.surance of this Heavenly home, she knew this a.s.surance was attainable, and on earth she enjoyed it, and now she is reaping the rich reward, and its innumerable and unutterable advantages. In her dying hour she could triumphantly exclaim, with Simeon in the temple, ”Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” And, like Moses, her eye was not dimmed, nor her natural force abated. Oh! the gain, the bliss of thus dying.
Heaven as our home is worthy our deepest contemplation. ”It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” It is a place of perfect rest. Oh, how comforting is this thought to the poor, way-worn, toiling pilgrim.
Oh, land of rest for thee I sigh!
The important discovery of this land of rest will nerve our arm for the great conflict of life. It will inspire us to work more earnestly and more incessantly for Jesus. It will sweeten every bitter cup of trial and tribulation that we have to encounter here below. It will distil a desire and a loftiness of aim in life, that we may at last reach the rest that remains for the people of G.o.d. The struggle with inbred sin will be more easily overcome, and every l.u.s.t and evil pa.s.sion will be completely conquered by keeping the eye steadily fixed on those glittering mansions,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, And the weary are at rest.
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