Ready
“When Death calls the roll, always be ready to answer ‘Here!’” This familiar motto of Fenimore Cooper’s old Trapper of the prairie is a backwoodsman’s paraphrase of the Scripture injunction, “Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh!” Everybody admits that his or her name will soon be called. Everybody admits the uncertainty of life and the absolute certainty of death. Some of those who read this paragraph may be within a few weeks or days of the eternal world; the invisible cistern may be nearly run out, and only a few drops left. Suppose this were your case, my friend; would you be frightened? You ought not to be if you are ready to go; and if you are not, then it is of infinite moment to you that you should be “setting your house in order.” Suppose that you ask yourself two or three questions, that you may know whether you are ready for the approaching roll-call.
I. Are your business affairs in the right condition to be left.? Are your accounts square, and your books so kept that you would be willing to have them audited, not only by your executors, but by the All-seeing Eye y It is hardly possible that you should not be owing a single dollar to anybody. But every man should conscientiously endeavor to keep his affairs so well ordered that, if a stroke of lightning or an apoplectic attack should end his life in an instant, his creditors should not suffer the unjust loss of a dime. Death is a merciless revealer sometimes; he makes awful
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exposure of some men’s secret dishonesty and of others’ criminal carelessness and improvidence. Would a single creditor suffer if you were to die to-morrow? For remember that it is just as dishonest to cheat your fellow-men from your coffin as to cheat them in your store, your shop or your ofifice. No Christian, surely, would wish to escape his creditor or to “take the benefit of the act” by hiding away in his sepulchre; and it will be a terrible thing to have some poor wronged fellow-creature carry up an unsettled account to the last tribunal. See to it, then, that you can go into another world without leaving a single person in this world to charge you with wronging him out of a farthing. For death is not the last of it; settling-day comes in the next world.
2. No person who has any others dependent on him is ready to die unless he 24 has .made proper provision for them. Some people are afraid to make a will lest death should overhear the scratch of their pens and be on their track. This is worse than cowardice; it is often a most shameful injustice to surviving kindred. Not only should every conscientious man make a will, but the first provision in it should be .for those who have the strongest moral claim. Healthy, prosperous, well-educated children have not a claim so strong as infirm parents have, or poor invalid relatives, or some benefactor who has never had his due. When you have discharged all the honest claims of those who are dependent, then make your Lord and Saviour your residuary legatee. Put your money where it will do the most good after you are gone; for stewardship reaches beyond the surrogate’s office: it goes up to the day of judgment. It is a blessed privilege to be
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scattering Bibles, or building asylums, or supporting missionaries, or educating poor freedmen, after you have reached heaven. Frederick Marquand went up to his rest years ago, but he built a noble edifice for the young men of Brooklyn, another for Mr. Moody’s Christian school among the hills of Massachusetts, and other similar structures elsewhere. Give the Lord all you can while you live; and then make such a will as you will not be ashamed to show him when you come into his presence.
3. A third close question for you to ask is — Am I forgiven? Not merely by any fellow-creature whom you may have injured or wounded. See to that, of course; see to it that no injuries unredressed and no harsh words unrepaired and no bitter memories be laid in your coffin; let no nettles grow in the turf above your ashes.
But the more vital question is, Have your sins been forgiven? All those evil thoughts towards God, all those secret sins that nobody has ever seen or dreamed of, all those transgressions of God’s pure law, all your lost opportunities to do good, all your woundings of Christ’s love and grievings of his Holy Spirit, have all these been pardoned? If not, they will condemn your soul and blast your hopes in eternity-Have you gone to Christ for forgiveness? “Through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Have you made honest confession and implored pardon in Jesus’ name? Have you clinched the sincerity of your confession by abandoning the sins you have loved, and set about a life of obedience to Christ’s commandments? No repentance is of any avail that does not lead to Christ. When you get rid of the old heart, by having a
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new and a clean heart — when you begin a new life in Christ and for Christ, then you are ready either to stay in this world or to go away into a better. “Blessed is the man whose transgressions are covered.” There is no condemnation in this world or in the next world to the man who is in Christ Jesus.
Other questions might be started. But if you are sure on these points that have just been named, if you can give an honest “yes” to the questions already stated, then you need not be afraid to hear your name called. You need not be ashamed to present yourself at the door of your Father’s House. That door will open to give you “an abundant entrancCo”