Life Style VICTORIAN VILLAGE
in the face of the temptation the thought of eternity. There is a great saying by the martyred Reformer, Bishop Hooper, when someone urged him to recant before he was burned, saying, "Life is sweet, and death is bitter." "True," said the good Bishop, "quite true! But eternal life is sweeter, and eternal death is more bitter." The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend to whom we must all look for help, both for now and eternity. The reason why the eternal Son of God came into the world can never be declared too fully or proclaimed too loudly. He came to give us hope and peace while we live among the "temporary things which are seen," and glory and blessedness when we go to the "eternal things, which are unseen." He came to bring "life and immortality to light" (2 Timothy 1:10) and to "free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:15). He saw our lost and bankrupt condition and had compassion on us. And now, blessed be His name, a mortal man may pass through "temporary things" with comfort, and look forward to "eternal things" without fear. Our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased these mighty privileges for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute and bore our sins in His own body on the cross and then rose again for our justification. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21) that we poor, sinful creatures might have pardon and justification while we
repentance in the grave: there is no conversion after the last breath is drawn. Now is the time to believe in Christ and to lay hold of eternal life. Now is the time to turn from darkness to light, and to make our calling and election sure. The night comes when no man can work. As the tree falls, there it will lie. If we leave this world refusing to repent and believe, we will rise in the same condition on resurrection morning and find it would have been "better for us if we had never been born." I strongly advise readers to remember this and to make good use of their time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made and never waste it or throw it away. Your hours and days and weeks and months and years all have something to say to your eternal condition beyond the grave. What you sow in this life on earth, you are sure to reap in a life to come. Remember this in your use of all the means of grace, from the least to the greatest. Never be careless about them. They are given to be your help toward an eternal world, and not one of them ought to be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled. Your daily prayers and Bible-reading, your weekly behavior on the Lord’s Day, your manner of going through public worship—every one of these things is important. Use them all as one who remembers eternity. Keep it foremost in your mind whenever you are tempted to do evil. When sinners entice you, and say, "It is only a little sin." When Satan whispers in your heart, "Never mind: what is the great harm in it? Everybody does it,"—then look beyond time to a world unseen, and place
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