Sermon
on the Death of P.P. Bliss by Evangelist D. L. Moody
Preached by D. L. Moody in the Tabernacle at Chicago on January 31, 1876, just two days after Phillip Bliss's tragic death in Ashtabula. Bliss, with his wife Lucy, was scheduled to arrive in Chicago on the Pacific Express to participate in this service.
Text: "Therefore be ye also
ready."
I
expected to enjoy this afternoon coming around here and hearing our friend
Mr. Bliss sing the Gospel and our friend Mr. Whittle
preach.
I
was telling my wife, when we got home Friday night, that I was really glad
I didn't have to work so hard on this Sabbath. I cannot tell you what a
disappointment it has been to me. I have looked forward to those two men
of God coming to this city. I had arranged and made my plans to stay over
a few days, in order to hear and enjoy their services.
Ever
since I heard that I would have to take their place this afternoon, there
has been just one test running in my mind. I cannot keep it out: "Therefore
be ye also ready."
You
who have heard me preach the last three months, I think will bear witness
to this, that I haven't said much about death. Perhaps I haven't been faithful
in this regard. I'd always rather tell about life; perhaps there's not been
warning enough in my preaching. But, I feel that if I should hold my peace
this afternoon, and not lift up my voice and warn you to make ready for death,
God might lay me aside and put someone else in my place; I must speak and
forewarn you.
Today
has been one of the most solemn days of my life. The closing house of every
year, for the past ten or twelve years, have been very solemn to me. I think
I never spent such a day as I have today. This world never seemed so empty,
and men never looked so blind away from God, as they do today. It seems,
as never before, that I cannot understand how life can go on in madness,
how a man can keep away from Christ, when in just a stroke he is gone to
eternity, and there is no hope. Those men I mean that really believe,
intellectually, that the Bible is true; that if they die without regeneration,
without being born again, they cannot see God's kingdom. How is it, they
can believe, and yet they can still stay away from Christ when such judgements
are brought near to them, is a mystery to me.
I
hope the words of the Lord Jesus will find their way into your hears, as
they have to mine; I hope you will hear Him this afternoon saying, "Therefore
be ye also ready." He had been
warning them; for in the verse preceding this text He said, "As in the days
of Noah, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
until the flood came and took them all away." It came suddenly. How often
the judgements of God come suddenly upon us.
I
want to call your attention to a few words we find in the Old Testament,
in the 6th chapter of Jeremiah, at the 10th verse: "To whom shall I speak
and give warning that they may hear? Behold their ear is uncircumcised, and
they cannot harken; behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach;
they have no delight in it."
Also
in the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel, 4th, 5th, and 6th verse: "Then whosoever
hears the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come
and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own hear. He heard the sound
of the trumpet and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he
that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword
come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword
come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hands."
Do
you ask me, now, why I am so anxious to warn you? Because, if I don't the
blood of your soul will be required at my hand. I want to warn you today;
I want to plead with you today. And it is because I love you that I come
to plead with you. I am sure there is nothing else that could induce me to
speak this afternoon. I felt rather like going into my room and locking the
door, and trying to learn what this providence means. I don't expect to find
out yet; I'm not sure I'll ever know. But - (the speaker paused in deep emotion)
I just felt I'd got to come down this afternoon and cry out: "Therefore be
ye also ready!" Make ready before the close of this sermon! Just ask yourselves
this question, "Am I ready to meet God this moment?" If not, when will you
be? God would not tell us to be ready, if He did not give us the power, unless
it was something within our reach.
The
thought is put into some of your minds that I am trying to take advantage
of the death of this good man to frighten you and scare you; and I haven't
any doubt Satan is doing this work, at this moment. Right here let me notice
that some say I'm preaching for effect. That's what I am doing. I want to
affect you; I want to rouse you out of your death-sleep, when I warn you
to prepare to meet your God; for "In such hour as you think not, the Son
of Man cometh."
It
is just from pure love, pure friendship to you, that I warn you; the thought
that I am trying to frighten you from selfish motives is from the pit of
hell. You take a true mother; if she does not warn her child when playing
with fire, you say she's not what she professes to be, not a true mother.
If the father sees his boy going to ruin and doesn't warn him, is he a true
father? I say it is the single power of love that makes me warn you. Suppose
I walk by a house on fire, with a man and woman in it, and their seven children.
If I don't call out, hammer on the door, smash in the windows if necessary,
and cry out, "Escape if you can, " what would you say? You would say I ought
not to live. If souls are going down to death and hell all round me - I verily
believe such live today, and some are in this building - how can I hold my
peace, and not cry out at the top of my voice: "Therefore be ye also ready,
for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man
cometh."
There
is a legend, that I read some time ago, of a man who made a covenant with
death; and the covenant was this: that death should not come on him unawares
- that death was to give warning of his approach. Well, years rolled on,
and at last Death stood before his victim. The old man blanched and faltered
out, "Why, Death, you have not been true to your promise. You have not kept
your covenant. You promised not to come unannounced. You never gave me any
warning." "How, How!" came the answer. "Every one of those gray hairs is
a warning; every one of your teeth is a warning; your eyes growing dim is
a warning; your natural power and vigor abated - that is a warning. Aha!
I've warned you...I've warned you continually. "And Death would not delay,
but swept his victim into eternity.
That
is a legend; but how many the past year have heard these warning voices.
Death has come very near to many of us. What warnings have come to us all.
The preacher's calls to repentance, how again and again they have rung in
our ears. We may have but one or two calls yet, this year, in the next few
hours; but I doubt it. Then how many of us in the last twelve months have
gone to the bedside of some loved friend, and kneeling in silent anguish
unable to help, have whispered a promise to meet that dying one in heaven.
Oh, why delay any longer! Before these few lingering hours have gone, and
the year rolls away into eternity, I beg of you, see to it that you prepare
to make that promise good. Some of you have kissed the marble brow of a dead
parent this year, and the farewell look of those eyes has been, "Make ready
to meet they God." In a few years you will follow, and there may be a reunion
in heaven. Are you ready, dear friends?
When
visiting the body of my brother, just before he was put in the grave, I picked
up his Bible, of the size of this in my hand; and there was just one passage
of Scripture marked. I looked it up, and I found it read, "Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, do it with all they
might." As I read it that night, the hand that wrote it was silent
in death. It was written in '76. Little did he think, when he wrote it, that
in that same year he would be silent in the grave. Little did he thing that
the Autumn wind and the winter snow would go roaring over his grave. Thank
God, it was a year of jubilee to him! That year he met his God. How often
have I thanked God for that brother's triumphant death! It seems as though
I could not live to think he had gone to the grave without God and hope.
Dear friends - dear, unsaved friends - I appeal to you that you will now
accept Christ. Seize the closing hours of this year; let not this year die
till the great question is decided. I plead with you once more to come to
the Lord Jesus. Oh, hear these blessed words of Christ, as I shout them again
in your hearing: "Therefore be ye also ready."
Now
death may take us by surprise. That's the way it has taken our dear friends,
Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. Little did they know, as they rode toward Cleveland last
Friday night, what was to be in the real end of the journey. About the time
I was giving out notice, last Friday night of their being here this afternoon,
they were then struggling with death. That was about the time they passed
into glory-land. It was a frightful death, by surprise. But, beautiful salvation!
Star of hope! In that time of gloom, darkness and death, they were both ready.
They were just ripened for the kingdom of God. I do not think I ever saw
two persons who have grown more in Christ than these dear friends have in
the past four or five years. I do not think a man walks the streets of Chicago
today who has so few enemies as P.P. Bliss. He was a man we will love in
another world.
When
the summons came, it must have been terrible; it must have brought cruel
pain for a few minutes, and - they were in glory. Only a few minutes - and
they were all together in that world of light, perhaps raising the should
of praise, "Alleluiah, what a Saviour!" I think the heavenly choir has had
a great accession today. I doubt whether many around the throne sing sweeter
than P.P. Bliss. I doubt whether many have loved the Son of God more than
he. With that golden harp of the glorified, how sweetly shall he
sing!
But,
my friends, while we are mourning here, are we ready? We cannot call them
back. We may mourn for them; we may mourn for the sad misfortune that has
befallen ourselves. But what is our loss is their gain. it is better for
them there than here. It is better to be "Absent from the body, and present
with the Lord." Shall you join him in that blessed land? Say, are you
ready?
Now,
there are three things which every man should be ready for in this world:
ready for life, ready for death, and ready for judgement. Judgement after
death is as sure as life; judgement is as sure as death. There are three
sure things. "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the
judgement." It is of very little account how we die, or where we die, if
we are only prepared, if we are only ready. We don't know what may happen
any day. It seems to me, we ought to be ready any hour, any moment; we know
not what may happen any moment. Oh, let us get ready! It seems the sheerest
folly to delay this matter a single moment. Look at that train, where great
numbers were ushered into eternity unexpectedly. Little did our friends,
Mr. Bliss and wife, think that they were going to be ushered into eternity,
as they stepped light-hearted on that railway train. It would seem that people
ought to resolve never to step aboard a railway train again, until they are
ready to meet their God. It would seem as though no one would lie down and
go to sleep tonight until he knows he is ready to meet the
Bridegroom.
Dear
friends, are you ready? This question, this afternoon, it seems to me, ought
to go down into all our hears. And then, if we are ready, we can shout over
death and the grave; that death is overcome, the sting of death is gone,
and the grave opens terrorless. Suppose we do go on and live thirty or forty
years; it is all only a little moment. Suppose we die in some lone mountain,
like Moses on Pisgah; or like Jacob, in the midst of our family; or like
Joshua, with the leaders of Israel around us; or suppose God lets us die
surrounded with the comforts and luxuries of home; or suppose Death comes
on unexpectedly and suddenly, as it did on Stephen; it may be we shall be
called on to die the death of the martyr, and be put to death unexpectedly...But
if we are only ready, what care we just ow our summons
comes?
It
I am ready, I would as soon die like Stephen, or Moses on Pisgah. I would
as soon die like our friend Mr. Bliss, as like Jacob with all his sons around
him, if only I am ready for my glorious inheritance beyond the grave. That
is the main question. It is not how we die. It is now where we die. At the
worst, it may be but the sudden shock of a few minutes, and all will be over;
and we enter upon eternal joy, joy for evermore. Millions and millions and
millions of years in this world will not yield the joy of one minute in heaven.
O my friends, shall you have a place in that heavenly home? Oh! Will you
not each one ask this questions just now, "Am I ready, am I
ready?"
I
believe that every man in this Christian land has had some warning; some
John the Baptist to warn him as Herod had, some Paul as Agrippa and Felix
had, some friend like Nathan, sent to warn him, as David had; some friend
to warn him such as Ahab had in Elijah. And, my friends, I think this is
a day of warning to you. Are you not coming to God today? Will you not hear
the Savior's loving voice today, "Come unto
me?" God will forgive your sins
and blot them out, and give you a new heart. Oh, let not the sun go down
tonight without being reconciled to God.
Little
did those people on that train, as it neared Cleveland Friday night, little
did they think the sun was going down for them the last time, and that they
should never see it rise again. It is going down tonight - as I am speaking
- the last sun of the year; and some of you in this assemblage may never
see it rise again. Dear friends, are you ready for the call, if it comes
to you between now and tomorrow morning? This very night you may be called
away; your soul may be required by God your Maker. Are you ready to meet
the King and Judge of all the earth? Let me put, urgently but kindly, these
questions to every soul here tonight. Can you say, "I have Christ. I have
eternal life through Jesus Christ my Savior?" If not, dear friends, let me
ask you, what will you say when He shall come to judge you? If, this very
night, he should summon you to stand before Him, what would you
say?
Oh,
how deceitful death is! Something may fall on us as we walk home tonight,
or we may fall down and break some part of our body, and be ushered into
eternity. We may be seized by some fit, and we're gone. We may have some
disease around the heart, that is hidden from us and that we know nothing
about, and this may be our last day on earth. "Boast not thyself of tomorrow."
We don't know what will happen, even before tomorrow. And then, another
deception: A great many people, you know, because their parents have outlived
the alloted years, because their parents were long-lived people, think that
they're going to live long also. How many are deceived in that way. Then,
there is that lying deception: "Oh, it is time enough to be a Christian,
time enough to cry out to God, when He calls
us." Look at that wreck! Look
at those people being dashed down that frightful chasm to frightful deaths!
That is no time to get ready; that is not the time! They have all they can
do trying to get out of the wreck - bleeding, burning drowning, frozen! How
many in eternity in five minutes! How many instantly! No time for prayer
in such chaos as that. I would not say God is not merciful; He may have heard
even then, the penitent cry; but I would not dare to say "Put it off till
some calamity overtakes you." The Word comes, now, at this moment: "Prepare
to meet God," "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." Oh,
that is the first duty and pleasure of life, not its last! It is more important
that you seek the kingdom of God today - just now, this very hour - than
anything else, than anything else, in life! It is more important than going
home to look after the highest earthly affairs; more important than if you
could win the wealth and honors of the universe! Let business be suspended
and everything be laid aside, until this greatest question of life - this
greatest question of time and eternity - is settled. "Prepare to meet they
God." Oh, prepare!
My
friends, I call upon you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. I call upon you
to prepare this day and this hour to meet your God. I lift up my voice in
warning to all in this assembly. Would you not rather be in the place of
Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, and die as they did, in that terrible wreck, by that
appalling accident - would you not rather choose that, than to live on
twenty-five years, or a hundred years, and die without God, and go down in
despair to dark rivers of eternal death! Oh, it was appalling! But I would
rather, a thousand times, have been on that train that dark night, and taken
that awful leap and met my God as I believe Mr. and Mrs. Bliss have met Him,
than to have the wealth of worlds and die without God and without hope! Oh,
if you are not ready, make ready just now! I think a great many tears should
be shed for the sins of the past year. If you take my advice, you will not
go out of this tabernacle this night until you have tasted repentance, and
the joy of sins forgiven. Go into the inquiry - room and ask some of the
Christian people to tell you the way of life, to tell you what to do to be
saved. Say, "I want to be ready to meet my God tonight; for I don't know
the day or the hour He may summon me."
I
may be speaking to some this afternoon who are hearing me for the last time.
In a few days, I will be gone. My friends, to you I want to lift up my warning
voice again tonight once again. I want to speak as to brethren beloved, hastening
on to judgement: "Prepare to meet they God." I beg of you, I beseech of you,
this moment, don't let the closing hours, these closing moments of '76 pass,
until you are born of God, born of the Spirit, born from death. This day,
if you seek God, you shall find Him. This day, if you will turn from sin
and repent, God is ready to receive you. Let me say, He never will be more
willing than today; and you'll never have more power than today. If you are
ready, He is ready now to receive and bless you forever! Oh, may the God
of our fathers have compassion upon every soul assembled here! May our eyes
be opened, and all flee from the wrath to come! May the Divine warnings take
hold on every soul! May we profit by this sad calamity, and may many be raised
up in eternity to thank God that this meeting was ever
held.