Are You
Ready?
by J. C. Ryle
"Be also ready." Matthew 24:44
Reader, I ask you a plain question at the beginning of a
New Year. Are you ready? It is a solemn thing to part company with the old
year. It is a still more solemn thing to begin a new one. It is like
entering a dark passage. We know not what the may meet before the end. All
before us is uncertain. We know not what a day may bring forth, much less
what may happen in a year. Reader, are you ready? Are you ready for
sickness? You cannot expect to be always well. You have a body fearfully
and wonderfully made. It is awful to think how many diseases may assail it.
"Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long!" Pain
and weakness are a hard trial. They can bow down the strong man, and make
him like a child. They can weary the temper and exhaust the patience, and
make men cry in the morning, "Would God it were evening, and in the evening,
would God it were morning." All this may come to pass this very year. Your
reason may be shattered. Your senses may be weakened. Your
nerves may be unstrung. The very grasshopper may become a burden.
Reader, if sickness comes upon you, are you ready? "Man," says the
Scripture, "is born to sorrow." This witness is true. Your property
may be taken from you. Your riches may make themselves wings and flee away.
Your friends may fail you. Your children may disappoint you. Your
servants may deceive you. Your character may be assailed. Your conduct may
be misrepresented. Troubles, annoyances, vexations, anxieties, may
surround you on every side like a host of armed men. Wave upon wave may
burst over your head. You may feel worn, and worried, and crushed to the
dust. Reader, if affliction comes upon you, are you ready?
Are you ready for bereavements? No doubt there are
those in the world whom you love. There are those whose names are engraved
on your heart, and round whom your affections are entwined. There are those
who are the light of your eyes, and the very sunshine of your existence. But
they are all mortal. Any one of them may die this year. Before the daisies
blossom again, any one of them may be lying in the tomb. Your Rachel may be
buried. Your Joseph may betaken from you. Your dearest idol may be broken.
Bitter tears and deep mourning may be your portion. Before December you may
feel terribly alone. Reader, if bereavement comes upon you, are you ready?
Are you ready for death? It must come some day. It
may come this year. You cannot live always. This very year may be
your last. You have no freehold in this world. You have not so much as a
lease. You are nothing better than a tenant at God's will. Your last
sickness may come upon you and give you notice to exit. The doctor may visit
you and exhaust his skill over your case. Your friends map sit by your
bed-side, and look graver and graver every day. You may feel you own
strength gradually wasting, and find something saying within, "I shall not
come down from this bed, but I shall die." You may see the world slipping
from beneath your feet, and all your schemes and plans suddenly stopped
short. You may feel yourself drawing near to the coffin, and the grave, and
the worm, and an unseen world, and eternity, and God. Reader, if death
should come upon you, are you ready?
Are you ready for the second coming of Christ? He
will come again to this world one day. As surely as He came the first time,
1800 years ago, so surely will He come the second time. He will come to
reward all His saints who have believed in Him and confessed Him on earth.
He will come; to judge all His enemies, the careless, the ungodly, the
impenitent, and the unbelieving. He will come very suddenly, at an hour when
no man thinks, as a thief in the night. He will come in terrible majesty, in
the glory of His, Father, with the holy angels. A flaming fire shall burn
before Him. The dead shall be raised. The judgment shall be set. The books
shall be opened. Some shall be exalted into heaven. Many, very many, shall
be cast down to hell. The time for repentance shall be past. Many shall cry,
"Lord, Lord, open to us," but find the door of mercy shut forever. After
this there will be no change. Reader, if Christ should come the second
time this year, are you ready? Oh! reader, these are solemn questions. They
ought to make you examine yourself. They ought to make you think. It would
be a terrible thing to be taken by surprise. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.
But shall I leave you here? I will not do so. Shall I
raise searchings of heart, and not set before you the way of life? I will
not do so. Hear me for a few moments, while I try to show you THE MAN THAT
IS READY. He that is ready has a ready Savior. He has Jesus ever
ready to help him. He lives the life of faith in the Son of God. He has
found out his own sinfulness, and fled to Christ for peace. He has committed
his soul, and all its concerns, to Christ's keeping. If he has bitter cups
of affliction to drink, he knows they are mixed by the hand that was nailed
to the cross for his sins. If he is called to die, he knows that the grave
is the place where the Lord lay. If those whom he loves are taken away, he
remembers that Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and a
husband who never dies. If the Lord should come again, he knows that he has
nothing to fear. The Judge of all will be that very Jesus who has washed his
sins away. Happy is that man who can say with Hezekiah, "The Lord is ready
to save me!" (Isaiah xxxviii. 20.)
He that is ready has a ready heart. He has been
born again, and renewed in the spirit of his mind. The Holy Spirit has shown
him the true value of all here below, and taught him to set his affections
on things above. The Holy Spirit has shown him his own deserts, and made him
feel that he ought to be thankful for everything, and satisfied with any
condition. If affliction comes upon him, his heart whispers, "there must be
a needs-be. I deserve correction. It is meant to teach me some useful
lesson." If bereavement comes upon him, his heart reminds him that the Lord
gave and the Lord must take away, whenever he sees fit. If death draws near,
his heart says, "My times are in your hand; do as you will, when you will,
and where you will." If the Lord should come, his heart would cry, "This is
the day I have long prayed for- the kingdom of God is come at last." Blessed
is he who has a ready heart!
He who is ready, has a home ready for him in heaven.
The Lord Jesus Christ has told him that He is gone "to prepare a place" for
him. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, awaits him. He is
not yet come to his full inheritance. His best things are yet to come. He
can bear sickness, for yet a little time he shall have a glorious body. He
can bear losses and crosses, for his choicest treasures are far beyond the
reach of harm. He can bear disappointments, for the springs of his greatest
happiness can never be made dry. He can think calmly of death. It will open
a door for him from the lower house to the upper chamber, even the presence
of the King. He is immortal until his work is done. He can look forward to
the coming of the Lord without alarm. He knows that they who are ready will
enter in with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Happy is that man
whose lodging is prepared for him in the kingdom of Christ! Reader, do you
know anything of the things I have just spoken of? Do you know anything of a
ready Savior, a ready heart, and a ready home in heaven? Examine yourself
honestly. How does the matter stand? Oh! be merciful to your own soul. Have
compassion on that immortal part of you. Do not neglect its interests for
the sake of mere worldly objects. Business, pleasure, money, politics, will
soon be done with forever. Do not refuse to consider the question I ask you.
ARE YOU READY? ARE YOU READY?
Reader, if you are not ready, I beseech you to make ready
without delay. I tell you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all
things are ready on God's part for your salvation. The Father is ready to
receive you. The Lord Jesus is ready to wash your sins away. The Spirit is
ready to renew and sanctify you. Angels are ready to rejoice over you.
Saints are ready to hold out the right hand to you. Oh! why not make ready
this very year? Reader, if you have reason to hope you are ready, I advise
you to make sure. Walk more closely with God. Get nearer to Christ. Seek to
exchange hope for assurance. Seek to feel the witness of the Spirit more
clearly and distinctly every year. Lay aside every weight, and the sin that
so easily besets you. Press towards the mark more earnestly. Fight a better
fight, and war a better warfare every year you live. Pray more. Read more.
Mortify self more. Love the brethren more. Oh! that you may endeavor so to
grow in grace every year, that your last things may be far more than your
first, and the end of your Christian course be better than the beginning.