BUT A STEP – Charles Spurgeon
There Is But a Step Between Me and Death
Introduction
“There is but a step between me and death.” 1 Samuel 20:3. THIS was David’s description of his own condition. King Saul was seeking to destroy him. The bitter malice of that king would not be satisfied with anything short of the blood of his rival. Jonathan did not know this. He could not believe so badly of his father as that he could wish to kill the champion of Israel, the brave, true-hearted young David. And so he assured David that it could not be so—that he had not heard of any plots against him. But David, who knew better, said, “It is certainly so. Your father seeks my blood and there is but a step between me and death.”
Now, it was by knowing his danger that David escaped. Had he remained as ignorant of his own peril as his friend Jonathan had been, he would have walked into the lion’s mouth and he would have fallen by the hand of Saul. But to be forewarned is to be forearmed—he was, therefore, able to save his life because he perceived his danger. It would have been a very unwise person who would have said, “Do not tell David about it. You see that he is very happy in Jonathan’s company. Do not disturb him. It will only make him fret. Do not tell him about Saul’s anger.” But a true and wise friend would acquaint David of his danger, in order that he might seize the opportunity to escape.
So also, tonight, somebody might say, “Many people now present are in great danger and do not dare to think about death. Do not mention the unpleasant subject to them.” Well, Sirs, if my objective were to please you; if my desire were to seem as one who plays a merry tune upon a goodly instrument, I certainly would not speak to you of death and danger. But, then, it would be infamous to allow men and women to stand in infinite jeopardy and not to warn them! And it is kindness to speak to those who are carelessly at ease and tell them salutary truth. It will not put them in danger, but it may, God blessing it, be the means of their escaping from eternal ruin.
So, I pray you, while I talk upon this theme which may seem to be a sad one, ask God to make it a great blessing to those who, up to now, have been sporting upon the brink of fate without thinking of the solemnities of eternity.
The Consciousness of Danger
It is rather a notable state of things, is it not, for David to be conscious of danger and to be telling his friend Jonathan that he is in danger? I do not often meet with the case! If I am the Jonathan, I have to keep on warning David of his danger, and I find it very difficult to wake up my friend to a sense of that danger. I would like to live to see the day in which David would come to Jonathan—I mean in which men in danger would come to me—and say, “There is but a step between me and death.”
We love to see care for the soul and concern about a future state. Whenever God’s Holy Spirit is at work, we see it—sinners begin to be aware of their condition and they come and tell us of their danger and inquire for the way of escape. It is the simplest thing in the world to tell the awakened sinner how he may find peace—the difficulty lies in awakening the sinner! To cheer those who are alarmed is such good work that we would sit up all night at it! We can never have too much of it! To bind up the broken in heart when the Master gives us His Gospel is the most pleasant duty out of Heaven. The worst of it is that we cannot persuade them that they need to be broken in heart, or lead them to feel that they are in peril—but still shutting their eyes to all the Truths of God, they will go wildly on, determined not to know. Too many act as if it were folly to look a few days ahead—as if it were a work of supererogation to foresee the evil—a needless sorrow to think of eternity!
The Certainty of Death
Tonight I want to press the truth home, as far as it is the Truth of God, upon each person here present, that there is, or there may be, but a step between him and death. First, in some sense, this is true of everybody—“There is a step, and but a step, between me and death.” Secondly, to some it is peculiarly true. There are many persons—and some of them are here tonight—who might say with emphasis, “There is but a step between me and death.”
I. The Step Between Us and Death: The Shortness of Life
First, then, there is a sense in which this text is no doubt literally TRUE OF EVERY MAN—“There is but a step between me and death,” for life is so short that it is no exaggeration to compare it to a step. Suppose that we should live to threescore years and 10, or even fourscore years, or to be, as some few of our friends are, here tonight, even past their fourscore years—yet life will occupy a very short time. Life is long to look forward to, but I appeal to every aged person whether it is not very short to look back upon!
I confess to my own experience that a week is now a hardly appreciable space of time to me. There seems to be very little breathing room between one Sunday and another. One has scarcely preached before one has to again prepare some other word with which to address you. As we grow older, time very sensibly quickens its pace. I know that this is an exceedingly trite observation, but I mention it all the more earnestly because the certainty of it should force it home with power upon our minds. You young people look to a month as being quite a period of time, but when you are getting 40, or 50, or 60, you will look upon a whole year as no more than a brief interval. Indeed, I do not wonder that Jacob said his years were few. Because he was an old man, he thought life short.
There are many ways of calculating time and its length or brevity lies more in idea than in fact. I have sometimes noticed it—I dare say you have—that an hour has seemed to me very long, indeed. In certain states of mind I have looked to the clock again and again and I have thought that I never lived such a long hour. But often and often does it occur to me that I sit down to write and that I go on writing—and when I lift up my head an hour has passed and I think to myself—“It cannot be. There is a mistake. Somehow that clock has made a mistake!” I have even referred to my watch and I have found that it was even so, but where that hour went, I do not know.
When one is very busy, the hours glide away, so that you say, “Time is, after all, only a dream.” Time may appear to be long, while it is short, and it may be really short when, according to human calculation, it is long. But all men, when they come to die, confess that their life has been brief—that it was but a step. Yesterday I was born; today I live; tomorrow I must die! Ephemera are born and die in the space between the rising and the setting sun—their life is a fair picture of our own. We are shadows and we come and go with the rising and the setting sun. Truly, “there is but a step between me and death.” O my God, if my life is so short, prepare me for its end! Help me to stand ready for its close, so that I may give in my final account with joy.
II. The Uncertainty of Death
But, in another sense, there is but a step between us and death, namely, that life is so uncertain. How unexpectedly it ends! Strong and hearty men, if I might make a judgement from observation, seem to be among the first to fail. How often have I seen the invalid, who might almost long for death, draw out a long existence of continuous pain—while the man who shook your hand with a powerful grip and stood erect like a column of iron, is laid low all of a sudden and is gone!
No man can reckon upon the full term of life—not one among us can be sure of reaching threescore and ten. We cannot be sure that we shall see old age! A bubble is more solid than human life and a spider’s web is as a cable compared with the thread of our existence. There is but a step between us and death. And this is all the more true when we consider that there are so many gates to the grave. We can die anywhere, at any time, by any means.
Not only are we in danger abroad, but at home in security we are still in peril. I am in my pulpit now, but I am not secure in this citadel from all-besieging Death! I remember a dear servant of God in a country town, on a certain Sabbath morning, stood up and repeated as the first hymn of the morning, the sacred song which I gave out just now— “Father, I long, I faint to see The place of Your abode: I’d leave Your earthly courts and flee Up to Your seat, my God” and he fell back and was gone! His wish was granted. He saw the place of God’s abode, I do not doubt. There is no safety from death in the pulpit, nor in your own house!
III. The Shortness and Uncertainty of Life: A Call to Action
Therefore I would say, as I leave this point, let nobody here reckon upon life. Let him never postpone what ought to be done, at once, to some future time. I do not know whether any Brother here remembers old Mr. Timothy East. I knew him well in his old age. He was a man of careful observation and retentive memory and, in his later days, he was full of stories which had happened in his pastoral experience. He used to tell this one—A certain woman was very much attached to his ministry, but still a very foolish woman. She used to sit regularly on the pulpit stairs and she did so for many years, while Timothy East preached the Gospel.
One thing seemed to shut her heart against all his appeals. She told a neighbor that if she had five minutes before she died, she so understood the way of salvation that she would get all right in that time. She told her minister that and Timothy said to her, “Oh, that will never do! You may not have that five minutes in which to set things right. Be right at once.”
Amazingly enough, one day as Mr. East went down the street, a child came to him and said, “Please, Sir, come and see Grandmother. Come and see Grandmother.” He turned in and there was grandmother struck for death. She looked at him with an entreating glance, and said, “I am lost! I am lost!” She died then and there, before Mr. East could say a word to her about her salvation. Dear Friend, I do beseech you not to imitate her folly, but rather say to yourself, “There is but a step between me and death. Therefore, now, God help me, I will lay hold upon eternal life and seek and find in Christ the salvation that shall fit me to live and fit me to die—and fit me to rise again and fit me for the Judgment Day, and fit me for eternal Glory.”
Conclusion
There is but a step between me and death. There shall not be a step between me and Christ.