Isaiah 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus said the LORD… Perhaps the most awful moment of our lives is when we first feel in danger of death. All our past life then seems to be a cloud of words and shadows, altogether external to the realities of the soul. Not only childhood and youth, happiness and sorrow, eager hopes and disturbing fears, but even our communion with God, our faith in things unseen, our self-knowledge, and our repentance, seem alike to be but visions of the memory. All has become stern, hard, and appalling. It is as if it were the beginning of a new existence; as if we had passed under a colder sky, and into a world where every object has a sharpness of outline almost too severe for sight to bear. Let us see what we ought to do when God warns us. I. WE MUST ASK OURSELVES THIS QUESTION, Is there any one sin, great or small, of the flesh or of the spirit, that we. willingly and knowingly commit? This is, in fact, the crisis of our whole spiritual life. By consent in one sin, a man is guilty of the whole principle of rebellion. A holy man is not a man who never sins, but who never sins willingly. A sinner is not a man who never does anything good, but who willingly does what he knows to be evil. The whole difference lies within the sphere and compass of the will. II. WE MUST NEXT SEARCH AND SEE WHETHER THERE IS AN ANYTHING IN WHICH OUR HEART IN ITS SECRET AFFECTIONS IS AT VARIANCE WITH THE MIND OF GOD; for if so, then so far our whole being is at variance with His. III. A third test by which to test ourselves is THE POSITIVE CAPACITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL BEING FOR THE BLISS OF HEAVEN. When St. Paul bids us to follow after "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," he surely meant something more than a negative quality. Doubtless he meant by "holiness" to express the active aspirations of a spiritual nature, thirsting for the presence of God. IV. There are TWO SHORT COUNSELS which it may be well to add. 1. That we strive always to live so as to be akin to the state of just men made perfect. 2. That we often rehearse in life the last preparation we should make in death. (H. E. Manning, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. |
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