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Bible reading....J.C.Ryle

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Iconoclast, Aug 17, 2016.

  1. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    In his writing J.C.Ryle offered this in reference to approaching death;
    http://gracegems.org/Ryle/bible_reading.htm

    8. In the last place: the Bible is the only book which can comfort a man in the last hours of his life. Death is an event which is before us all. There is no avoiding it. It is the river which each of us must cross. I who write, and you who read, have each one day to die. It is good to remember this. We are all sadly apt to put away the subject from us. "Each man thinks each man mortal, but himself." I want every one to do his duty in life--but I also want every one to think of death. I want everyone to know how to live--but I also want everyone to know how to die.

    then he wrote this.....
     
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  2. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    pt2;

    It befits every thoughtful and sensible man to consider calmly how he is going to meet death. Gird up your loins, like a man, and look the subject in the face. Listen to me, while I tell you a few things about the end to which we are coming.

    The good things of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. All the gold of California and Australia will not provide light for the dark valley. Money can buy the best medical advice and attendance for a man's body; but money cannot buy peace for his conscience, heart, and soul.

    Relatives, loved friends, and servants, cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. They may minister affectionately to his bodily needs. They may watch by his bed-side tenderly, and anticipate his every wish. They may smooth his dying pillow, and support his sinking frame in their arms. But they cannot stop the achings of a troubled heart. They cannot screen an uneasy conscience from the eye of God.

    The pleasures of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. The brilliant ball-room; the merry dance--the midnight revel--the party to races, the card table--the box at the opera--the voices of singing men and singing women--all these are at length distasteful things. To hear of hunting and shooting engagements gives him no pleasure. To be invited to feasts, and sports, and fancy-fairs, gives him no ease. He cannot hide from himself, that these are hollow, empty, powerless things. They jar upon the ear of his conscience. They are out of harmony with his condition. They cannot stop one gap in his heart, when the last enemy is coming in like a flood. They cannot make him calm in the prospect of meeting a holy God.

    Books and newspapers cannot comfort a man, when he draws near death. The most brilliant writings of Macaulay or Dickens will pall on his ear. The most able article in the Times will fail to interest him. The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews will give him no pleasure. The last new novel will lie unopened and unheeded. Their time will be past. Their vocation will be gone. Whatever they may be in health--they are useless in the hour of death.

    There is but one fountain of comfort for a man drawing near to at his end--and that is the Bible. Chapters out of the Bible--texts out of the Bible--statements of truth taken out of the Bible, books containing matter drawn from the Bible--these are a man's only chance of comfort when he comes to die. I do not at all say that the Bible will do good, as a matter of course, to a dying man--if he has not valued it before. I know, unhappily, too much of death-beds to say that. I do not say whether it is probable that he who has been unbelieving and neglectful of the Bible in life--will at once believe and get comfort from it in death. But I do say positively, that no dying man will ever get real comfort--except from the contents of the Word of God. All comfort from any other source, is a house built upon sand.
     
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  3. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    pt3;
    1]I have seen many dying people in my time. I have seen great varieties of manner and deportment among them.

    2]I have seen some die sullen, silent, and comfortless.

    3]I have seen others die ignorant, unconcerned, and apparently without much fear.

    4]I have seen some die so wearied out with long illness that they were quite willing to depart--and yet they did not seem to me at all in a fit state to go before God.

    5]I have seen others die with professions of hope and trust in God, without leaving satisfactory evidences that they were on the rock.

    6]I have seen others die who, I believe, were "in Christ," and safe--and yet they never seemed to enjoy much sensible comfort.

    7]I have seen some few dying in the full assurance of hope, and like Bunyan's "Standfast," giving glorious testimony to Christ's faithfulness, even in the river of death.

    But one thing I have never seen. I never saw anyone enjoy what I should call real, solid, calm, reasonable peace on his death bed--who did not draw his peace from the Bible. And this I am bold to say, that the man who thinks to go to his death-bed without having the Bible for his comforter, his companion, and his friend--is one of the greatest madmen in the world. There are no comforts for the soul but Bible comforts, and he who has not got hold of these, has got hold of nothing at all, unless it be a broken reed.

    Have you seen this in your own experience?

    Which type of death has been most common in your family or with your friends?

    Do you have a different view of your own exodus than you once did?
     
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  4. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Im kinda looking forward to it.:D
     
  5. SovereignGrace

    SovereignGrace Well-Known Member
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    I worked at another hospital years ago and went to draw blood on an elderly patient(I am a lab tech who can also draw blood) who was not knocking on death's door, but rather, trying to break it down with a battering ram. I introduced myself by name and said I needed to draw blood(every night around 3:00-4:00 we would start morning rounds so the doctors would have their patients' result when they got there). Well, he said, "Well G.D., blankety, blank, blank, blank!" Curse words of a sailor. I was a sinner then, and yet, that bothered me. That man, in all the times I was around him, never showed any remorse. He was twice dead, plucked up by the roots it seemed.

    I also knew an old man who hobbled around on a cane who would curse like a drunken sailor. He was once confronted in a supermarket I worked at about stealing some chewing tobacco. He threatened to cut the assistant manager's guts out with a knife even pulling it out, iirc. He died and that bothered me, even whilst a sinner.
     
  6. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Sad indeed . Once in a sermon Spurgeon made reference to old reprobates who go into eternity in such a hardened state. He spoke of the need not to take in much of their profane thoughts.
     
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