Thread: "Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done" (Rev. 22:11�12).
"Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done" (Rev. 22:11�12).
Posted : 5 Oct, 2011 01:08 AM
Devotional
Many seem to cherish the delusion that there is a kind of moral transformation in death. They imagine that because death itself is a change of relation�around which gather new sensations, new feelings, new thoughts, new solemnities, and new prospects�therefore the soul passes through a kind of spiritual preparedness to meet its approaching destiny.
But such is not the case. The character has been setting up for years, and time yields it to the demands of eternity in the precise mold in which it was formed. Death hands over the soul to the scrutiny and the decisions of the judgment exactly as life relinquished it. The "king of terrors" has received no commission and possesses no power to effect a moral change in the transit of the spirit to the God who gave it. Its office is to unlock the cell and conduct the prisoner into court. It can furnish no plea, it can suggest no argument, it can correct no error, and it can whisper no hope to the pale and trembling being on his way to the bar. The jailer must present the criminal to the Judge precisely as the officer delivered him to the jailer�with all the marks and evidences of criminality and guilt still clinging to him as at the moment of arrest.
Multitudes seem to suppose that when the strange and mysterious but unmistakable signs of death are stealing upon them�when the summons to appear before the Judge admits of no doubt and allows of no delay�they may then abandon with ease what they have held to be truth, but now in the mighty illumination of an unveiling eternity they find to be error. They imagine that it does not matter how negligent those who have lived all their lifetime without God may have been of religion while the last day appeared distant. They presume that it does not matter how careless those who had professed faith in Christ may have been of the ground of their confidence under an indefinite expectation of appearing in the presence of God. They cherish the vain hope that when the footfall of death is heard approaching�when the invisible world becomes visible through the opening chinks of the earthly house of their tabernacle�they will be able to summon all the remainder of strength, and with the utmost strenuousness turn their undivided attention to the business of saving their souls.
But is it really so? Is not the whole course of experience against an idea so false as this? Do not people die mostly as they have lived? The infidel dies in infidelity. The profligate dies in profligacy. The atheist dies in atheism. The careless die in indifference. And the formalist dies in formality. Undoubtedly there are exceptions, but the exceptions confirm rather than disprove the general fact. People die as they lived.
How deeply this should affect the professing Christian! Your death will derive much of its character and complexion from the present tenor of your life. There will be a lack of bright evidence on that day in proportion to the lack of spirituality and the undue influence which the world has had upon your mind. If you have habitually distanced your walk with God, if you have gradually separated from those holy, sanctifying influences which go to form a matured, influential, and useful Christian, then to that degree in death you will lack the full, assured hope that "there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:11).
How very important it is, then, that you should endeavor to know the true state of your soul before God! "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure" (2 Pet. 1:10).
