Part 19 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 20 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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1. First, Certainly the present call of God, the uncertainty of the Spirit's motion, and the danger of delay—calls upon you for present repentance. It is a dangerous thing to deal with God, as ill debtors do by their creditors; first they put them off one week, and then another week, and then a third week, etc., until at last they provoke their creditors to cast them into prison, and to practice all severity upon them. Those who thus deal with God shall be as severely dealt with by God, as you may see in Proverbs 1:24-32.
The ancient warriors would not receive an old man into their army; and do you think, O vain man! that after you have spent your time, and wasted your strength, and exhausted your spirits in the work of Satan, and in the service of your lusts—that God will receive you to his grace and favor? If you do thus flatter yourself, it is ten thousand to one but that you will deceive yourself! Though true repentance is never too late—yet late repentance is seldom true. Ah, how many millions are now in hell, who have thought, and resolved, and said that they would repent hereafter—but that hereafter never came! You say "Tomorrow, tomorrow I will repent," when you know not what a tomorrow will bring forth. Alas! how many thousand ways may death surprise you before tomorrow comes! Though there is but one way to come into the world—yet there are a thousand thousand ways to be sent out of the world. Oh, the diseases, the hazards, the dangers, the accidents, the deaths—which daily—which hourly attend the life of man!
A Jewish Rabbi, pressing the practice of repentance upon his disciples, exhorted them to be sure to repent the day before they died; to which one of them replied, that "the day of a man's death was very uncertain;! to which the Rabbin made answer, !Repent, therefore, every day, and then you shall be sure to repent the day before you die.! O sirs, unless you do repent today, you cannot tell that you shall repent the day before you die; for who knows today—but that he may die tomorrow?
It was once asked of Augustine, what he would say of a wicked man who had lived loosely all his life—but died penitently, etc. To whom he replied, "What would you have me to say? That he is damned? I will not, for I have nothing to do to judge him. Shall I say that he is saved? I dare not, for I would not deceive you. What then? Why, this, "If you now repent—you are safe, whatever has become of him."
Ah, friends, you are never safe until you repent; it is repentance which puts you out of all danger of miscarrying forever. Shall the farmer take his present seasons for sowing and reaping? shall the good tenant repair his house while the weather is fair? shall the careful pilot take his advantage of wind and tide, and so put out to sea? shall the traveler mend his pace when he sees the night comes on? and shall the smith strike when the iron is hot?—and shall not we take the present opportunity of repenting and turning to the Lord, remembering that there will be a time when time shall be no more; and when there shall be no place found for repentance, though it should be sought carefully with tears, Heb. 12:17; and remembering that there will be a time when your hour-glass will be out, and when the door will be shut, and when there will be no entrance at all, Luke 13:24, 27; and remembering that it is a safer course, with prudent Prometheus, to foresee a danger and shun it, than, with foolish Epimetheus, to go on unadvisedly and be punished?
Ah friends! it is a dangerous thing to make repentance, which should be the practice of all your days, to be the task of old age. Does not common experience tell us that the longer the ship leaks—the harder it is to be emptied; and that the longer the house goes to decay—the worse it is to repair; and that the further the nail is driven—the harder it will be to get out? And so certainly the longer any man defers his repentance, the more difficult it will be for him to repent; his heart will every day grow more and more hard, and his willmore and more perverse, and his judgment more and more corrupted, and his affections more and more disordered, and his conscience more and more benumbed or enraged, and his whole life more and more defiled and debauched. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!" Numbers 23:10
Friends, do not deceive yourselves, old age is but a sad, a sandy, a tottering and sinking foundation for you to build your hopes and happiness upon—for you to build your everlasting condition, your eternal making or marring upon. Are the dog-days of old age, are the trembling hands, the wrinkled face, the failing eyes, the gasping lungs, the fainting heart, the feeble knees, and the broken down legs—are these a sacrifice worthy of a majestic God? Is a body full of sores, aches, and diseases, and a soul full of sin—an offering befitting a majestic God? Surely not! Oh, what madness, what wickedness is this—to serve Satan, your lusts, and this world with full dishes—and to put off God with scraps! to serve these in the flower, in the prime and primrose of your days—and to put off God with the dregs of old age!
Certainly repentance is rather a work for youth than old age. It is a work rather for strength than weakness, and for health than sickness. Oh, do not let Satan deceive you, do not let your own hearts delude you—but fall upon the work of repentance presently, knowing that as you have one day more to repent of, so you have one day less to repent in. What a piece of vanity is it—that while the ship is sound, the tackling sure, the pilot well, the sailors strong, provisions laid in, and the wind favorable—that the mariners and passengers should lie in the harbor—playing cards, drinking, dicing, dancing, and idling! And when the ship is leaky, the pilot sick, the mariners faint, provisions spent, and the winds boisterous—then to hoist up sail, to make a voyage into a far country!
And yet such is the vanity of most men, who in the days of their youth, health, and strength, who when their memories are strong, and their minds quick, and their reason ripe, etc., do sin away, and fool away, and trifle away the day of grace, the offers of mercy, the motions of the Spirit, and the entreaties of Christ! And when old age comes, when their wits are cracked, their souls distracted, their senses stupified, their hearts astonished, their minds darkened, and their bodies diseased and distempered—oh, then they think to leap into heaven, with a "Lord have mercy upon me" in their mouths! Even though they have lived like devils—yet they hope they shall die like saints; and though they never took no care of God's honor—yet they hope that God will take care of their souls; but when the thread of their lives is cut, the next news that ever you shall hear of these is—that they are gone to hell.
I have read of a young man, who being admonished of the evil of his way and course, and being pressed to leave his wickedness, and to break off his sins by repentance, upon the consideration of judgment, eternity, and death a-coming; he answered, "What do you tell me of these things? I guarantee you, that I will do well enough, for when death comes, I will speak but three words—and that will help all. And so he went on in his wickedness. But one day, on coming to a bridge over deep waters, the horse stumbled, and he let go the bridle, and gave up himself and his horse to the waters; and was heard to say these three words, "Devil take all!" Here were three words with a witness! And oh that all that think to repent at last, with a "Lord have mercy upon me," would lay this instance to heart! The light of your life may be put out before you can once say, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner!"
Oh, take heed of delaying your repentance, for the more you delay it, the more will your account be increased, your debt augmented, Satan strengthened, your body enfeebled, your lusts emboldened, your soul endangered, and all the difficulties of conversion more and more multiplied. By delaying of your repentance you gratify Satan, deceive yourself, lose the opportunities of grace, and damn your soul forever and ever. Well, remember this, if you will not repent today, God may swear in his wrath tomorrow, that you shall not enter into his rest! And then woe to you—that ever you were born!
And thus much for the preventing of these sad mistakes about repentance, which mistakes keep off many a man from looking and laboring after that holiness without which there is no happiness.
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Part 20 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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