On every forehead!

(George Everard, "Help and Consolation from the Sanctuary" 1868)

"There is a time to be born - and a time to die!" Ecclesiastes 3:2

All generations of mankind are traveling along the same road - and at the end of their course, an open grave waits to receive them! On every forehead, whether that of the little child all blithe and mirthful, or that of one wrinkled by age - may be seen as it were inscribed the words, "Dust you are - and unto dust you shall return!" At every turn we are reminded that in the midst of life, we are in death - and that even now the swift arrow may be on its way that shall bid us cease from all earthly toil.

And is there not a shrinking, and dread, a drawing back from the blow of the destroyer? The most sensitive natures ever feel it the most - yet with all, there is a fear of the last enemy that it is hard to overcome.

And where sin has been indulged, where the world has been set up as an idol within the temple of the heart - doubly fearful must be the thought of that summons which forever robs a man of the world, and calls him to a strict account for his sins!

"The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away!" Psalm 90:10

"So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12