Poster | Thread | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| John Angell James | | You will die this year!
This is what the Lord says: "I am going to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year!" Jerem. 28:16
This may be the case with any one of the readers of the present address, and therefore every one of them should seriously reflect upon such a possibility.
This year you may diefor you must die some timeand that time may as likely come this year as any other.
This year you may diebecause you have no revelation from God that you shall not.
This year you may diebecause you are ever and everywhere exposed to the causes that take away life.
This year you may diebecause life is the most uncertain thing in the world, and you have not the assurance of a single moment beyond the present.
This year you may diefor it is all but certain that many of the readers of this address will die this year and why not you?
This year you may die, although there is now no indication of approaching death; for many during the past year have been cut off, and many during the present year will die, who may now seem very likely to liveand why not you?
How many, then, are the probabilities that before next new year's day, your place will be vacant in the family, at the scene of your daily occupation, and in the house of God! Ought not this to induce a habit of solemn, pensive, devout, practical, profitable, reflection. Bring home the thought. Take up the supposition, and say, "Yes, it is possible, by no means improbable, that I may diethis year!"
Are you really prepared for your latter end, by being a partaker of genuine faith, the new birth, a holy life, and a heavenly mind? Or are you a mere nominal professor, having a name to live, while you are dead? Do you recognize in yourselves, and do others see in you, the marks of a state of grace? Put the question to your own hearts, ask yourselves, "What am I? Am I a spiritual, heavenly, humble servant of God? Am I really crucified with Christ, dead to the world, ripening for glory? Is there anything heavenly about me? Is my temper sanctified, my walk consistent?"
Is your soul in that state in which you would desire it to be found when death strikes? Are you, in your devotional habits, your temper, your general behavior, as you should bewith eternity so near? Would you desire to diejust as you are now?
How many false professors will be unmasked this year, and appear with astonishment and horror, as self-deceivers, formalists, and hypocrites! How many in reply to the plea, "Lord, Lord, I ate and drank in your presence"will hear the dreadful response, "Depart from me, I never knew you!" and thus find there is a way to the bottomless pitfrom the fellowship of the church! In whatever state you die this yearthat you will be forever! The seal of eternal destiny will be put upon you! Your last words in time, and your first in eternity, might be, "I must be what I amforever!"
The grand secret is about to be revealed, whether you are a child of Godor a child of the devil! That next moment after deathwhich imagination in vain attempts to paint, is to arriveand, waking up in eternity, you will shout with rapture, "I am in heaven!"or utter with a shriek of despair, and surprise, the dreadful question, "What! Am I in hell forever!" _________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:23 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: John Angell James | | Ever walking on the precipice of eternity!
Reader! Did you ever, in serious moments, and in a serious manner, ask such questions as these:
What am I?
Where did I come from?
Who sent me here?
What is my business in this world?
What is to become of me when I die, and leave this present world?
Does not reason press such inquiries on your attention? You find yourself in existence, possessing a rational soul; you know you cannot remain here long, and must soon go and lie down in the grave with your forefathers. But does your history end there? Is there no world beyond the tomb? There is! You are not only mortal, but immortal.
Immortality! What a word! What a thing! Did you ever ponder the idea? A deathless creaturewith an everlasting existence! Such is your soul. You are ever walking on the precipice of eternityand any moment you may fall over it!
Eternal duration alone, apart from the consideration whether it is to be spent in torment or in blissis a solemn idea. You are to live somewhereforever! Should this matter be allowed to lie forgotten among the thousand unconsidered subjects? Should it be treated with indifference, excite no reflection, produce no concern? Ought you not to be concerned? Going on step by step to eternityshould you not pause, ponder, and say, "Where am I going?"
For a person to realize that he is immortal, and yet to care nothing about where he is going to spend eternity, is the most monstrous inconsistency in the universe!
Can any man know . . . how holy God is, how evil a thing sin is, how great a blessing salvation is, how glorious heaven is, how dreadful hell is, how solemn eternity is, and not not be concerned about his eternal soul?
Astounding spectacle! A rational creature, anxious about a thousand things, yet not concerned about the eternal soul! Agitated, perplexed, inquisitive about little matters of mere passing interest, which the next day will be forgotten; and yet neglecting that great subject, which swallows them all up, as the ocean does the drops of rain that fall upon it. Your health, your property, your prospects, your friends, anything, everything, but your soul, and your soul's salvation, seizes and carries you away!
Did you ever weigh the import of that most awful of all wordshell?
Death is a dreadful monosyllable! From the cold touch of that 'last enemy' all rational beings recoil with horror.
But death is only as the dark, heavy, iron-covered door of the prison, which opens to, while it conceals, the sights and sounds of the dungeon. Oh that first moment after death! what disclosures, what scenes, what feelings come with that moment! That moment must come and it may come soon!
Immorality, whether public or private, if it spreads through society, and especially through the rising generation, will be a canker to all that is great, glorious, and free, in this noble nation; and England's flag, floating so loftily and proudly, will be dragged down into the mud, and trampled underfoot by a swinish generation!
Be thankful, be humble, be consistent, be watchful. There is no logic so convincing, no rhetoric so persuasive, as the power of uniform and conspicuous excellence. Add to the substance of your moral worth, the brightest polish of an amiable disposition, and all the kindnesses of life. Be courteous, generous, benevolent, cheerful, active and useful.
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:24 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | How far people may go
It is amazing, how far people may go, and not be really converted. They may have many and deep religious impressions, many and strong convictions; they may have much knowledge of their sinful state, and a heavy and burdensome sense of their guilt; they may look back upon their past lives and conduct with much remorse; they may be sorry for their sins; and may desire to be saved from the consequences of them, being much alarmed at the prospect of the torments of hell.
Was not Judas convinced of sin, and did not he weep bitterly and confess his sin, and was not he filled with remorse? Was not Cain convinced of sin? I have known many people, who at one time appeared to be more deeply impressed with a sense of sin, and to have stronger convictions and remorse, than many who were truly convertedand yet they went back again to the world and sin. Nor is a detestation of sin always a true sign of conversion. Unconverted people may even wish to be delivered from the fetters of those corrupt lusts, which have long held them fast; for there are few notorious sinners, who do not frequently hate their sins, and wish and purpose to reform. Yes, people may sometimes desire to be delivered from all sin; at least they may desire it in a certain way, because they think that it is necessary in order to be saved from hell.
And as conviction of sin may exist without conversion, so may religious joy. The stony ground hearers "heard the word, and with joy received it," and yet they had "no root in themselves, and endured only for a while." The Galatians had great blessedness at one time, which the apostle was afraid had come to nothing. Multitudes rejoiced in Christ when he made His entrance into Jerusalem, who afterwards became His enemies. Many take great pleasure in hearing sermons, and going to prayer-meetings, and singing hymns, and frequenting church meetings, who are not truly born of the Spirit. So also do many people leave off sinful actions, and give up many wicked practices, and seem to be quite altered for a time, and yet, by their subsequent history, show that they are not converted.
There may be considerable zeal for the outward concerns of religion, as we see in Jehu, without any right state of mind towards God. Many have had great confidence of the reality of their conversion; they have had dreams and spiritual impressions, as they supposeand yet too plainly proved, by their after-conduct, that they were under an awful delusion. But it would be almost endless to point out the various ways in which men deceive themselves, as to their state. Millions who have been somewhat, yes, much concerned about religion, have never been born again of the Spirit. Perhaps as many are lost by self-deception, as by any other means. Hell resounds with the groans and lamentations of souls which perished through the power of deceived hearts!
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:25 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | We need to re-study our Bibles
We need to re-study our Bibles, and learn what real Christianity ishow holy, how heavenly, how spiritual, how loving, how morally and socially excellent a matter it is.
What separation from the world, what devoutness, what intense earnestness, what conscientiousness, what enlarged benevolence, what unselfishness, what zealous activity, what unearthliness, what seeds of celestial virtue our profession of godliness implies.
Having examined this, and obtained an impressive idea of it, let us survey our own state, and ask if we do not need, and ought not to seek, more of the prevalence of such a piety as this, which, in fact, is primitive Christianity.
Is our spiritual condition what it ought to be, what it might be, what it must beto fulfill our high commission as the salt of the earth and the light of the world? A Christian, acting up in some tolerable measure to his profession, walking in the holiness of the Gospelis the strongest and most emphatic testimony for God to our dark revolted world, next to that of Christ himself _________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:25 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: John Angell James | | I would ask
I would ask, what there is among you . . . of 'living by faith'; of the spiritual and heavenly mind; of the victory over the world; of devotional habits; of Bible meditation; of the practice of self-denial; of Christian charity; of the meekness and gentleness of Christ; of the stamp of immortality; of the anticipation of eternity; of the patient waiting for the coming of our Savior, all of which are enjoined in the word of God, and implied in our profession of Christianity
Do we not see, almost everywhere, instead of these things, a superficial, secular, and temporizing kind of piety; a piety without any depth of feeling, any power of principle, or any distinctness of character; a cold, spiritless orthodoxy, united with a heartless morality; a mere exemption from gross vice and fashionable amusements; an observance of forms and decenciesbut a lamentable destitution of love, of Christian temper, and tenderness of conscience?
Enter the social spheres of professing Christians, listen to their conversation, witness their entertainments, observe their spirit. How frivolous, how worldly, how different from what might be expected from redeemed sinners, from the heirs of immortality, from the expectants of everlasting glory!
Follow them home to their domestic circle, and behold their pervading temperhow irascible, how worldly, how destitute of spirituality! Witness the cold and lifeless formalitythe late, hurried, irregular, and undevout seasons of their family devotions, together with the shameful neglect of the pious instruction of their children! Witness the shortness and inconstancy of their times for private prayer, and think how little communion with God, how little study of the Scriptures, how little self-improvement, can be carried on during such fragments of time, snatched from the greedy and all-devouring passion of earthly-mindedness!
The spirit of prayer is expiring amidst the ashes of its own dead forms, and the Bible reduced, in many houses of professing Christians, to the degradation of a mere article of furniture, placed there for showbut not for use.
Who will deny that this is but too correct a representation of modern piety; or admitting it, deny the need in which our churches stand of a revival?
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:30 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | Fearfully secularized
If asked to point out the specific and prevailing sin of the church in the present day, I cannot hesitate to replya prevailing worldliness of mind, heart, and conduct. The church is fearfully secularized in the spirit and temper of her members. The love of the world is become the master-passion, before which other and holier affections have grown dim and weak.
The determination, as well as the concern, to be rich, has crept into the church! Those who profess to have overcome the world by faith, appear almost as eager as others, in all schemes for getting wealth, and by almost any means.
This worldly spirit is also seen in the general habits and tastes of professing Christians. Their style of living, their entertainments, their associations, their amusements, their conversationevince . . . a conformity to the world, a minding of earthly things, a disposition to adapt themselves to the world around, a desire to seek their happiness from objects of sense, rather than from those of faithwhich proves the extent to which a secular worldly spirit is dominating the spirit of piety in the church.
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:32 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | Sickness and disease
Christians, like others, are exposed to the attacks of sickness and disease. "Wearisome nights, and months of vanity, are appointed to them." But their religion follows them into the sick chamber, and is their nurse, their companion, and their comfortergiving patience in the day, and songs even in the night. How soothing are its consolations, how pleasant are its reflections, how bright are its anticipations! It speaks to the sufferers of the sources of their sorrows, and tells them that they all proceed from their Father in heaven! It reminds them of . . . His unerring wisdom, His infinite love, His unfailing fidelity, His gracious presence in the scene of woe, His merciful design in every chastisement of His hand, the blissful outcome in which He will cause all to terminate.
They can bear confinement, for God is with them. Their hours are not made heavy and irksome by the recollection of the mirthful scenes from which they are cut off, and the amusements to which they have no longer access. Their entertainment has come with them; they have brought the cup of their pleasure with them, and they can drink it amidst the languor of disease, as a refreshing cordial, or an exhilarating draught.
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:33 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | Your idol?
What is it, that you are looking to and depending upon for happiness? Is HEALTH your idol, and the source of your happiness? How soon may we be smitten with diseaseand doomed to wearisome nights and months of vanity in the chamber of sickness. Will riches smooth the pillow of sickness? Will the counting money or the surveying estates, when it can be done only in imagination, enchant the sleepless hours, and cheer the long sad days of ceaseless pain? Will the recollection of the parties you have attended, the pleasures you have enjoyed but cannot any longer enjoyenliven the gloom of the solitary chamber? Will the sound of carriages at midnight, taking the votaries of pleasure to or from the scenes of fashionable resort, impart to your feverish frame any relief, or to your distressed mind any comfort? Oh, what, in that long, dark season of trial which may be coming upon you, will the pleasures and possessions of earth do for you?
What is it, that you are looking to and depending upon for happiness? Is WEALTH your idol, and the source of your happiness? How justly is it called in Scripture, "uncertain riches!" and "deceitful mammon!" "Riches," said the wise man, "make to themselves wings and fly away as an eagle towards heaven." And is it not most strange folly to stake your happiness on that which, like an uncaged bird, may at any moment be upon the wing, and soaring where we cannot follow? What changes have we witnessed in the circumstances of men; what rapid falls from wealth to poverty! How many do we know who, by those vicissitudes which are ever going on in this commercial country, and in this speculating age, have descended from the sunny heights of prosperityto dwell the remainder of their days in the gloomy valley of poverty below! This may be your case. Your treasure, like the volatile quicksilver, may slip through your fingers when you think you hold it firmest. What will you do for comfort then? Your friends, like summer birds, will migrate when your winter has come upon you! You will no longer be able to have partiesand who invites the child of misfortune to theirs? Those who once shared your hospitalities, will forget you in the season of your humiliation, for your presence will no longer grace their circle. What, then, will you do, when the world frownsand you have no one else to smile upon you?
What is it, that you are looking to and depending upon for happiness? Is PLEASURE your idol, and the source of your happiness? How soon may you be unfitted by sickness or change of circumstances for this, and have the sweet and intoxicating cup dashed from your lips! How soon may your place be vacant at the resort of the mirthful and the fashionable! And then with what melancholy feelings will you contrast the amusements of the ball-room, the concert, or the partywith the abode of poverty or disease!
What is it, that you are looking to and depending upon for happiness? Are FRIENDS your idol, and the source of your happiness? Alas! alas! how soon may 'the spoiler' enter your earthly paradise, and convert that joyous scene into a desert, by the death of the most endeared objects of your affection! What! depend for your supreme felicity on the frail continuance of a beating pulse! Death enters, not only into the scenes of discord and strife, but also into those of the purest love and sweetest harmonyand, disregarding the entreaties of marital or parental love, bears off the object to which, more than all the universe besides, you looked for your bliss!
Where, then, will you find satisfaction? The finite has failedand the infinite God has not been sought! The human and earthly has been taken awayand the divine and heavenly has not been acquired. That one death has covered earth with sackcloth, and has thrown a pall over all that it contains. Is happiness, then, to be found amidst such uncertainties?
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:34 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | The springs of true happiness
The springs of true happiness gush out from the foot of the cross! But how little do many who profess to have drank the living water, appear as if they had been at the crystal stream, and were satisfied with it!
Mere 'religious professors' do not desire this spiritual joy. They certainly would have some kind of enjoyment; they desire to be gratified. But it is only the joy . . . of friendship, of health, of success in business, of a comfortable home, and a quiet fire-side that they long for. They do not desire . . . the peace of believing, the pleasure of communing with God, the delight of holiness and hope, the felicity of a sense of pardoned sin, the gratification arising from the exercises of devotion _________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:35 | Profile | hmmhmm Member
Joined: 2006/1/31 Posts: 4994 Sweden
| Re: | | Oh wonderful, ineffable, inconceivable exchange!
The SUDDEN DEATH of a real Christian, is an unspeakable blessing. Such a one is spared . . . . the languors of sickness, the racking pain, the anguish sometimes almost intolerable, and all the other terrible harbingers of death protracted through wearisome nights and months of vanity! To be exempt from the heart-rending pangs of separation at the last faltering adieu; to be saved from those gloomy apprehensions which sometimes arise in the minds of the strongest and holiest of believers when contemplating the portals of the tomb; to be carried through the iron gates of death before we knew we were drawing near to them; to wake up in a moment, as from a dream, at the sound of the seraphim's songand exchange in an instant of time the sights of earthly objects for the glorious realities of heavenand the society of friends below for the innumerable company of angels; to find ourselves suddenly in the presence of God and the Lamb, and see the smile of welcome upon the countenance of the Saviorand with a burst of astonishment and gratitude to exclaim, "And is this heaven? and am I there? How short the road! How swift the flight!"
Oh wonderful, ineffable, inconceivable exchange!
"In vain our fancy strives to paint The moment after death, The glories that surround the saint, When he resigns his breath!
"Thus much, and this is all we know They are completely blessed, Are done with sin, and care, and woe, And with their Savior rest!"
Sudden death to a real Christianis one mighty bound from earth to heaven! Sudden death to an unconverted sinneris one dreadful stumble into hell. Oh, unutterable horrorto be surprised, overwhelmed, confounded in a momentby exchanging the pleasures, the friends, the possessions, the prospects of earthfor those doleful shades, where peace and hope can never dwell.
You, too, may die suddenly. Are you ready, quite prepared by repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and a holy lifefor deathfor speedy deathfor sudden death? Prepare to meet your God! Prepare for death, for judgment and eternity! Prepare! Prepare!
_________________ CHRISTIAN
|
| 2007/3/1 15:37 | Profile |
|