In a few years!
(Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847)
"For we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
and our days on earth are but a shadow." Job 8:9
"He springs up like a flower and withers away;
like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure." Job 14:2
"Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return!" Job 16:22
"My days are like the evening shadow;
I wither away like grass." Psalm 102:11
"Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow." Psalm 144:4
How transient is human life-yet no one lays it to heart. With the magnificence of eternity before us-let fleeting time, with all its fluctuations, dwindle into its own littleness.
In a few years our heads will be laid in the cold grave, and the green turf will cover us. The children who come after us will tread upon our graves.
They will weep for us a few days.
They will talk of us a few months.
They will remember us a few years.
Then our memory shall disappear from the face of the earth, and not a tongue shall be found to recall it!
The character with which we sink into the grave at death, is the very character with which we shall reappear at the final judgment!
"O God, impress upon me the value of time, and give regulation to all my thoughts and to all my actions. O God, help me to live for Your glory. As the years roll over me, may I withdraw my affections from time, and feel that in moving through the world, I am moving toward eternity!"
"So teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12
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Editor's note: My wife's unsaved brother died suddenly of a heart attack this morning. He was 56 and in the best of health. How true is God's Word: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" James 4:13-15