Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing ChristiansRyle, J. C. (John Charles)
Religion
Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians
Ryle, J. C. (John Charles)
Christian life -- Anglican authors
It is a blessed thought that there will be "much people" in heaven at
last. Few as the Lord's people undoubtedly are at any one given time or
place, yet all gathered together at last, they will be "a multitude that
no man can number." (Rev. vii. 9; xix. 1.) They will be of one heart and
mind. They will have passed through like experience. They will all have
repented, believed, lived holy, prayerful, and humble. They will all
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
But one thing beside all this they will have in common: they will all
love the texts and doctrines of the Bible. The Bible will have been
their food and delight in the days of their pilgrimage on earth. And the
Bible will be a common subject of joyful meditation and retrospect, when
they are gathered together in heaven.
This Book, which all true Christians live upon and love, is the subject
about which I am addressing the readers of this paper this day. Surely
it is no light matter _what you are doing with the Bible_. Surely it is
matter for serious inquiry, whether you know anything of this love to
the Word, and have this mark of walking "in the footsteps of the flock."
(Cant. i. 8.) I charge you, I entreat you to give me an honest answer.
What art thou doing with the Bible?--Dost thou read it?--HOW READEST
THOU?
VIII. In the last place, _the Bible is the only book which can comfort a
man in the last hours of his life_.
Death is an event which in all probability is before us all. There is no
avoiding it. It is the river which each of us must cross. I who write,
and you who read, have each one day to die. It is good to remember
this. We are all sadly apt to put away the subject from us. "Each man
thinks each man mortal but himself." I want every one to do his duty in
life, but I also want every one to think of death. I want every one to
know how to live, but I also want every one to know how to die.
Death is a solemn event to all. It is the winding up of all earthly
plans and expectations. It is a separation from all we have loved and
lived with. It is often accompanied by much bodily pain and distress. It
brings us to the grave, the worm, and corruption. It opens the door to
judgment and eternity,--to heaven or to hell. It is an event after which
there is no change, or space for repentance. Other mistakes may be
corrected or retrieved, but not a mistake on our death-beds. As the tree
falls, there it must lie. No conversion in the coffin! No new birth
after we have ceased to breathe! And death is before us all. It may be
close at hand. The time of our departure is quite uncertain. But sooner
or later we must each lie down alone and die. All these are serious
considerations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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