Reading: “Thus saith the Lord: set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live”—Isaiah 38:1
Here is a decree that must shortly arrive for us all; and we know not how soon. It is good to set both our house and heart in order; for he that is best fitted to live, is best prepared to die. How does your account stand? Your body must go down to the grave, and surely if the soul is safe in union with Jesus, such an event as the dissolution of the body, is more to be desired than dreaded.
If a voice from heaven declared the dead to be blessed, who die in the Lord; then will your death be blessed, if you are living in union with Christ. And from his sweet teachings, and constraining influences, have you not ventured yourself on him? Convinced that there is salvation in no other, did you not cast yourself on his blood and righteousness, and at a time when under the deepest sense of your sin, and his all-sufficiency to save? And have you not many a time since, when the false reasoning of men, the temptations of hell, from within and without, would have turned you aside from the Lord; have you not, by this sweet supporting grace, been kept leaning on Jesus?
Yea, moreover, has the dear Redeemer not acquainted you with himself, and caused you to believe in Him. Has He not since, in a thousand renewed manifestations of his love, comforted and strengthened you and made you sensible of his gracious presence?
Surely then, if he says to you, “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live,” it is but the call of Jesus to the exercise of the last act of faith, and indeed to die to this world only, that you may live with him in glory in a better world.
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