Habitual Preparation to be Made for Death
H. W. Beecher. Numbers 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous… There are few men, even among the most worldly, who do not expect to be converted before they die; but it is a selfish, mean, sordid conversion they want — just to escape hell and to secure heaven. Such a man says, "I have had my pleasures, and the flames have gone out in the fire-places of my heart. I have taken all the good on one side; now I must turn about if I would take all the good on the other." They desire just experience enough to make a key to turn the lock of the gate of the celestial city. They wish "a hope," just as men get a title to an estate. No matter whether they improve the property or not, if they have the title safe. A "hope" is to them like a passport which one keeps quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it; or, like life-preservers which hang useless around the vessel until the hour of danger comes, when the captain calls on every passenger to save himself, and then they are taken down and blown up, and each man with his hope under his arm strikes out for the land; and so, such men would keep their religious hope hanging idle until death comes, and then take it down and inflate it, that it may buoy them up, and float them over the dark river to the heavenly shore; or, as the inhabitants of Rock Island keep their boats, hauled high upon the beach, and only use them now and then, when they would cross to the mainland, so such men keep their hopes high and dry upon the shore of life, only to be used when they have to cross the flood that divides this island of Time from the mainland of Eternity. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! WEB: Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!"