Alas! what is man? Whether he
be a recipient of that light which is from on high, Christ Jesus,
or whether he discards Him, man is a frail and trembling creature,
standing on time, that bleak and narrow isthmus between two
places. For the born again Christians, a better world awaits
them, of heavenly peace. However, for the unsaved, everlasting
anguish awaits as a result of rejecting the only Son of God.
The hourglass is truly emblematical of this world. As its sands
run out at the termination of a given period, so it shows that
all things must have an end. It shows that man may devise-may
even execute--but the ere long time, that restless destroyer,
comes and mows all before him, and leaves naught but a wreck,
a barren wasteland behind him. Surely all will give credence
to this who watch the daily dying of cherished hopes, of delightful
anticipations. The flame burns brightly at first, but it soon
fluctuates, and finally dies without restriction.
We must, some time or the other, enter on the last year of
our life; fifty or one hundred years may yet come, and the procession
may seem interminable, but the closing year of our life comes.
There are many years memorable in history, within them died
men of renown; but the year of death will be more memorable
to the unsaved than any other year. Eighteen hundred and fifteen
was a memorable year, for in that Waterloo was fought; but there
will be a more memorable year for them--the year in which they
will fight their own losing battle with the great enemy, death.
That year will open with the usual New Year's congratulations;
it will rejoice in the same orchard blossoming, and the sweet
influences of Spring. It will witness the golden glory of the
harvest, and the merrymaking of Christmas. And yet to them it
will be vastly different, from the fact that it will be their
closing year. The Spring grass may be broken by the spade to
let them down to their resting-place; or while the Summer grain
is falling to the sickle, they may be harvested for another
world; or while the Autumnal leaves are flying in the November
gale, they may fade and fall; or the driving sleet may cut the
faces of the black tasseled horses that take them on their last
ride. But it will be the year in which their body and soul part--the
year in which, for them, time ends and by their choice a terrible
eternity begins. All other years fade away as nothing. The year
in which they were born, the year in which they began business,
the year in which their father died, are all of them of no importance
unlike the year of their death."Oh, if only"... will
be their cry, for no more will the chances be, all is gone now
into eternity.
It is only when on the border of eternity that the fleeting
period of the life is comprehended by some. Human life, what
is it? It is but a vapor. In youth the other world seems a great
way off, but later we feel and realize that it is very close
at hand. We come, like the ocean wave, to the shore, but scarcely
strike the strand before we roll back into forgetfulness, whence
we came. For a life lived without Christ is all for loss. What
a terrible lesson to learn, as one steps into eternity, never
to undo what was done.
In light of eternity, how vain and foolish appears the contentions
and strife of mankind! Addison beautifully expresses this thought
in these lines: "When I look upon the tombs of the great
every emotion of envy dies; when I read the epitaph of the beautiful,
every inordinate desire forsakes me; when I meet with the grief
of parents upon a tombstone my heart melts with compassion;
when I see the tombs of the parents themselves I reflect how
vain it is to grieve for those we must quickly follow; when
I see kings lying beside those who deposed them, when I see
rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men who divided
the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow
and astonishment on the frivolous competitions, factions, and
debates of mankind." --First published 1880.
If you are unsure of where you will spend eternity please visit
this
page... TIME is wasting and
ETERNITY is very near!
