[for the soldiers.] Ho. 26* 
 
 ARE YOU READY 
 
 " Whit do ymc mean hy this question?" There la a great 
 event before you: its arrival is certain; but it is utterly be- 
 yond your power to ascertain at what hour it will arrive. 
 Ten or twenty years may elapse before its arrival — perhaps 
 not. as many minutes. Some have expected it long, but it 
 still delays. Millions have put it far off, but it has burst 
 unexpectedly upon them. This is a most momentous 'event. 
 It will sunder all your relations to the present world : it will 
 break ever}' tie ot mortality — strip oft' every disguise — expose 
 every error and deception — bring out to light your whole 
 character, even to every secret, thing — present you before a 
 just and holy Judge, and introduce you to an unchangeable 
 condition of joy or sorrow. This event is DEATH ; and the 
 question is, " Are you ready to die 1" 
 
 " Who asks this question?" Your Maker. Ho does it in 
 his word. Ono of the errand objects of that blessed volume 
 is to enable you to give it an affirmative answer. By judg- 
 ments and by mercies does his holy providence press this 
 matter upon you. Your own rational, niiure does the same. 
 When reason and conscience are permitted to speak, they 
 urge attention to this great concern. Dispel from your 
 mind the delusive charms of this world ; press your way out 
 of that torrent of cares or pleasures which sweeps every 
 serious thought away; rebuke every other appeal, and let 
 that only be hoard which the unblinded reason and the un- 
 seared conscience make, and you will perceive that this 
 inquiry is solemnly addressed to you. By your frailty and 
 
 r'ioCUty is this question pressed'. Nothing can' hernOre 
 
"2 ARE YOU READY ''. 
 
 precarious thau your hold on life. Your body ia the tie that 
 binds you to the earth. How frail a flower. " The wind 
 passeth over it, and it is gone.'' It is in health and vigor 
 to-day ; to-morrow it is lif'e'ess and cold, and full of corrup- 
 tion. "The worm is thy sister and thy mother." Your 
 frailty therefore cries, A re you rendyf and the voice waxes 
 louder and louder with, every wasting hour of your probation. 
 Eternity seems uttering the same appeal: as if with a 1 ving 
 voice, it presses every human mind with the momentous 
 truth, that beyond the grave man's destiny is irreversibly 
 settled; therigh:eous are "righteous stil," the filthy, "filthy 
 still." And it utters the earnest admonition, "Beware of 
 unprepareclness to die." But there is yet another voice — 
 and, reader, if there be any voice that should drown all 
 the appeals of the cares and pleasures of this world, which 
 should excite the soul's most intei se and devout attention, 
 which shou'd penetrate its lowest depths, and arouse its 
 strongest emot'ons, it should be the voice of the Redeemer. 
 "Be ye also ready," is his admonition. No voice breaks 
 upon human ears in so much tenderness and love; for no 
 friendship has man experienced like that shown by the Son 
 of God, and no voice is so suited to inspire solemnity and 
 awe as that of the final Judge. 
 
 " Why ash rais question?" Because none can be conceived 
 of so much importance. Because, disturbing men's sinful 
 minds as it does, they are not disposed to press it honestly 
 and earnestly upon themselves. Because an honest, serious, 
 enlightened dec : sion of this -question may be of everlasting 
 benefit to your. soul. Because, amid the hurry of business 
 or the whirl of pleasure, you may at this hour need some- 
 thing to lead you to consider your character and eternal 
 prospects. Because, if the subject which this question urges 
 upon you is not attended to, the soul will be lost. 
 
 " Why ask me this question?" Because it respects interests 
 of yours of infinite value — interests in fearful peril, if you 
 cannot answer this question in the affirmative. Because this 
 question is suited to arouse attention to what you may have 
 totally neglected. Because you may be the very person of 
 of all living who most need such an appeal ; being, perhaps, 
 the victim of ■< false hope, or of fatal error, and borne farther 
 and farther every day from God by the growing power of sin. 
 Because it is of infinite importance that you make a correct 
 
AUK Vol' RKA1)V '. '■'<■ 
 
 decision of this question. And especially, because the nc-M 
 bosom pierced by the dart of death may he, your oivn. 
 
 *f Who are not ready f Common opinion, in a gospel land, 
 sweeps a large circle, and there stand within it the murderer, 
 the thief, the drunkard, the idolater, the profane swearer, 
 the adulterer, the ecoii'er, the liar, and the hypocrite. But 
 the word of God sweeps a 1-arger circle still, including not only 
 those, but these: the covetous, the lewd, the lovers of plea- 
 sure more than of God, the frau<iule"t, the unmerciful, the 
 formalist, the prayerless, the wordly — indeed every soul 
 which has not been washed in the blood of Christ, and is not 
 a habitation of the Holy Spirit, Not one of all these can 
 give an affirmative answer to the question now urged. ~Nvt 
 one of them is ready to die. Death's arrival if they under- 
 stood their own condition, would fill them with inexpressi- 
 ble consternation. 
 
 "// lam ready, what theu?" As this is one of the most 
 important decisions mortal man can make — as it involves 
 interests of infinite value — as a wrong decision would be 
 unspeakably perilous, make it not without the most careful 
 examination. Spread before you the holy Scriptures, and 
 ponder deeply their descriptions of Christian ^character. 
 Apply the line and plummet to your own heart and life. 
 Rest on no man's gnod opinion. Keep in mind the final 
 trial of your case. How solemn, how searching that trial! 
 How momentous the result! If, after all, you can humbly 
 hope you are accepted in Christ, then honor with the warm- 
 est zeal, and in every possible manner, the Author and Fin- 
 isher of your faith. Let all men see that your hope purifies, 
 and your faith works by love. Let them see that your whole 
 character has been cast anew in the mould of the gospel. By 
 every energy you can employ, endeavor to make your fellow- 
 men possessors of a like glorious hope. 
 
 " If I am not ready, what then?" Then you have already 
 run a moot desperate hazard of losing your soul. You could 
 not have said, in any hour of life, the next should not be 
 your last; and as you are now unprepared to die, you have 
 run as many risks of everlasting ruin as you have lived 
 hours. You have stood on the d zzy height of a most fright- 
 ful precipice. Your feet had well-nigh slipped. Look b;ick: 
 it would peem your heart would grow faint and sick at the 
 dreadful peril to which you have been exposed. Youroot 
 
4 ARK YOU RKAT>Y f 
 
 being now ready also implies very great, guilt. It implies 
 insensibility to the most powerful and affecting motives: 
 stubborn refusal of a thousand kind and affectionate invita- 
 tions; contempt of most solemn warnings; reckless indif- 
 ference to the 60ul's value. I appeal not to vices and crimes 
 in proof of sin ; there is evidence enough without this to 
 prove you stained with crimson guilt. But if you are not 
 ready, there is no work so important, no obligation so press- 
 ing, as your immediately seeking the favor of God. Bid the 
 world retire. Its highest 'and most pressing claims should 
 not impede you for a moment in the great work of getting 
 ready to die. 
 " " But I am in health, in the fulness of my strength, why press 
 this matter so earnestly upon me V You are just the person to be 
 addressed. If you lay upon a dying bed, life's lamp expiring, 
 and all your powers sinking into ruin — if you had reached 
 such a point unprepared, had crowded this great work into 
 that most unfit hour, there would be scarce the slightest 
 prospect that any appeal would avail. 
 
 Once more, the question. Arcyou ready? though now asked 
 in affectionate earnestness, will not be asked by that unre- 
 lenting destroyer, Death. He asks no man if he is ready. 
 He drives bis dart alike through the ready and the reluctant 
 soul. Furnished or unfurnished for the world to come, it 
 must obey the dreadful summons. Eeader, by all that is 
 blessed in a death of pence and hope, lie entreated to regard 
 the solemn expostulation of your Lord : " Be ye also ready ; 
 for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." 
 
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