This is part of Hezekiah’s song of praise to God. He was very ill. A good man, yet rather afraid of death; certainly very anxious to live. When we are strong and full of life, it is easy to talk of braving all worldly sorrows; but when the time comes for us to prove our words, many who are now in heaven have said, “Spare me a little before I go hence and be no more seen.” In what affecting terms did Hezekiah bewail his sickness! “I said, in the cutting off my days. . . . I shall not see the Lord,” in His holy sanctuary on earth; “I shall behold man no more;” never again behold the human face divine, never meet again the welcoming smile of child or friend.
God heard Hezekiah’s prayer, took pity upon him, turned back the sundial of his life fifteen years. The good king rejoiced in this gift of lengthened life: “The grave cannot praise Thee,” &c.
Let us follow out this rejoicing of the king, this setting forth the advantages of the living above the dead. 1. The living are in possession of the time which is given to make reconciliation with God and secure an everlasting interest. We are all by nature strangers to God, enemies to Him in our mind and inclination. We are defiled and guilty creatures; this is the hour of cleansing, whilst the fountain stands open in which our sins may be washed away (2 Cor. vi. 2). We are by nature utterly unfit for heaven; this is the day of repentance as well as of pardon. At the summons of death we must go, whether prepared or unprepared, holy or unholy, hoping or despairing. While your hearts were unholy, your death, had it happened, must have been dreadful. Let those who have improved this gift of life to make their reconciliation with God highly value it, and magnify its important advantages with all the gratitude and zeal of the king of Judah. 2. Life is a precious and golden gift, because it affords a field for increasing in good works. We are required to be “zealous of good works.” Zealous; not to touch a good work as if we were afraid of burning our fingers. Such works “are good and profitable to men.” The days and years of life should be numbered by the multitude of good works, as by the revolutions of the earth. Lost and wasted time should not come into the account of life. Ah! if we reckoned thus, what a shrinking and contracting would take place! A Roman emperor, a heathen, used to say, “I have lost a day,” if he had not done any good action in it. How many are there who live to no purpose at all, whom the world will not miss when they are gone! How many live to wicked purposes, and the world is glad to get rid of them! Some are mere cumberers of the ground; they bear the Christian name, but how different from Christ! “The night cometh,” said He, “in which no man can work.” “Ye are the light of the world,” said Christ to His disciples, and how dark would this earth be were there no disciples of Christ upon it! “Ye are,” said He, “the salt of the earth;” if the salt were gone, what corruption of manners, what filthy communications, what odious practices would overspread and defile society! One child of God in a family is like the ark in the house of Obed-Edom, of which we read, “The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom,” &c.; or like Joseph in Potiphar’s house, of whom we read, “The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake,” &c. We may follow up this idea, and say if one child of God is so great a blessing in a family, many may bless and save whole cities and nations. We find this to have actually been the case from what is said of Noah, Daniel, and Job. God said three thousand years ago, “Righteousness exalteth a nation,” and it is equally certain that wickedness overthroweth it. In all the Old Testament history, we see how He ascribes prosperity to the keeping of His commandments, and ruin to the breaking of them. We cannot suppose that it is in any way different now; that the Ruler of the Universe is in slumber, or, being awake, has altered the rules of His government. Life, and especially youthful life, is the time for good works and good actions; not one can be done in the grave.
Conclusion.—Let young persons value life. It has been said that we “take no note of time save from its loss;” let not this be said of you. It is the gift of time that alone places you in a position to profit by all other gifts. Make good use of life; of this its pleasant morning; be obedient, be diligent, love each other, avoid quarrelling and evil words. Live so that the end will conduct you to a world where, though time will be no longer, life will continue for ever.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 239–246.
Praise for Preservation.
(Last Sunday of the Year.)
xxxviii. 19. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day.
Such was Hezekiah’s burst of thankfulness when God heard his prayer, and gave him fifteen years more of life. While the danger lasted, he was surprised into more of alarm than became his place and character; but now, marvellously spared, he calls upon the living everywhere to praise God for His goodness. His case, he feels, was theirs too. All men alike live upon God’s bounty, and are debtors to His patience. He guards them from evil,—sends them good things, without which life must be presently extinguished,—renews their being, and makes it over to them by a fresh grant, not only when the closing year reminds us of the gift, but at each day’s working time. Therefore Hezekiah is not satisfied with a solitary strain of thanksgiving. He looks round upon a world teeming with animated, intelligent beings, and in every brother who God hath made and kept alive he finds one who should bring in his tribute of praise. He wants a chorus of rejoicing worshippers.
1. This season naturally makes us thoughtful. We think of what life has been to us lately, and what it might have been. We have nearly passed another stage on our journey to the grave, and we miss some who began it with us. We stand, like unwounded soldiers on the battlefield with the dead and the dying all round them. This is all God’s doing. He who gives life sustains it. If to have lived on be deemed a blessing, and praise for the boon be due anywhere, it can only be to Him whose providential government of the world is like an hourly repetition of the creative power which called it out of nothing.
2. But is life worth having? Is prolonged life a blessing, and may we fairly require men to be grateful for it? This is assumed by Hezekiah. Life and praise may go well together, because to so great a degree life and happiness go together. Not always. Some are so unhappy that they cry out under their burden, and almost wish, for a moment, for deliverance at any cost. But the settled feeling of men’s minds is the other way. To almost all of them life is the hoarded treasure which they will guard at any price. They will put up with the worst they have to bear before they will accept release on the terms of being banished straightway to an unknown world. The reason is, that by the side of this harvest of woe, of which they reap a few ears now and then, there groweth a harvest of blessing, of which they are constant reapers (P. D. 2282, 2256).