The Quotable Spurgeon
Ready for the Great DayWe will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-54
When Bernard Gilpin was privately informed that his enemies had caused thirty-two articles to be drawn up against him in the strongest manner, and presented to Bonner, bishop of London, he said to his favorite servant, “At length they have prevailed against me. I am accused to the bishop of London, from whom there will be no escaping. God forgive their malice, and grant me strength to undergo the trial.” He then ordered his servant to provide a long garment for him, in which he might go decently to the stake, and desired it might be got ready with all expedition. “For I know not,” says he, “how soon I may have occasion for it.” As soon as this garment was provided, it is said, he used to put it on every day until the bishop’s messengers apprehended him. If we all thus realized to ourselves the hour of our departure, we ought by anticipation to sleep in our shrouds and go to bed in our sepulchers. To put on our burial clothes now is wisdom.
