2. The text does not speak of to-morrow. Its cry, " Prepare ! " has regard to the present. We are urged to the duty as a duty to be performed now. There is no " to-morrow " in the Christian's calendar, as assuredly there is none in the text's exhortation. There is perhaps no expression in our language that has done more mischief to more souls than " by-and-by." " Prepare to meet thy God ! " " Time enough," says the youth ; " wait till manhood comes." " Prepare to meet thy God ! " " Time enough," says the man ; " wait till age comes." " Prepare to
1 John Kelman, The Road, i. 7.
326 A MEETING WITH GOD
meet thy God ! " " Time enough," says age ; " wait till death comes." And thus the present duty is constantly shifted off; the pleasures of youth hand the matter over to the business of manhood; the business of manhood bequeaths it to the in- firmities of age ; age takes up the accumulated legacy, and, with irresolute purpose, and feeble will, and exhausted strength, pushes it still nearer the grave, places it on the very confines of the eternal world, " resolves, and resolves, and dies the same."
T[ Whymper traces the stagnation of the South American Portuguese to their constant word " mafiana " (to-morrow). It is an inseparable feature of genuine spiritual and moral truth that it demands earnestness, and presents a situation which is urgent and immediate.1
TJ It is said that when the late Prince Imperial was but a child he gained for himself the sobriquet of "Little Mr. Ten Minutes," owing to an inveterate habit he had acquired of pleading for ten minutes longer when asked to do anything. Whether it were the dinner hour, or time for sleep, the invariable ten minutes were demanded and usually granted. When in the morning he was called to rise, too sleepy to speak, he would hold up his hands with the ten fingers extended, signify- ing the desired delay. Who could have dreamed that the habit was one day to cost him his life? Yet so it was. Ten minutes in a soldier-guarded palace in France was one thing. Ten minutes in the face of an agile enemy in Zululand made just the difference between safety and death. And the heir-apparent to an imperial throne sacrificed all his pros- pects for an unchecked childish whim. Terrible must have been the anguish of the royal mother in realizing that her indulgence had sealed a fate which timely firmness might have averted ! 2
^[Browning's Karslwok appeared in 1856 in The Keepsake; but, as we are told on good authority, has been printed in no edition or selection of the Poet's works. I am therefore justified in inserting it here —
"Would a man 'scape the rod?"
Kabbi Ben Karshook saith, "See that he turn to God
The day before his death."
1 John Kelman, The Boad, i. 75.
8 F. de li. Booth-Tucker, The Life of Catherine Booth, ii. 103,
AMOS iv. 12 327
" Ay, could a man inquire
When it shall come ! " I say, The Eabbi's eye shoots fire —
"Then let him turn to-day!"1
3. What makes a death-bed terrible ? The consciousness that there has been no preparation for it. What makes a death-bed happy ? The consciousness of a lifelong preparation. Why did St. Paul cry, when death in no gentle form stared him in the face, " I am now ready to be offered" ? Because he could say, " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
Every day we are either fitting or unfitting ourselves for the final " meeting " with God our Maker. It behoves us to practise ourselves, to unlearn what we need to unlearn, making a right use of our time, doing our work well, availing ourselves of all our openings for amendment and improvement, living with a constant reference to the unseen, watching, praying, looking for the signals of the Master's coming. It is like preparing for an examination. We cannot recover the ground we have lost by making a tremendous effort to hurry up at the end ; we cannot make up foi past neglects by putting on a spurt at the last. The best preparation consists in giving constant attention to the regular daily lessons, to the steady plodding round of work, when as yet the examination is a long way off, and we do not feel the pressure of any immediate urgency. What should have been the slow result of years cannot be reached by any violent effort or sudden spring.
*[j Bossuet, the great poet of the tomb, says :
" It is not worthy of a Christian " — and I would add, of a man — " to postpone his struggle with death until the moment when it arrives to carry him off."
It were a salutary thing for each of us to work out his idea of death in the light of his days and the strength of his intelligence and stand by it. He would say to death :
" I know not who you are, or I would be your master ; but, in days when my eyes saw clearer than to-day, I learnt what you were not : that is enough to prevent you from becoming mine."