_Man that is born of a woman is of few days._ THE BREVITY AND BURDEN OF LIFE The knowledge and the conduct of mankind are very frequently at variance. How general is the conviction of the brevity of human life and of the certainty of death! How wise, virtuous, and happy would the human species be... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?_ ON THE CORRUPTION OF HUMAN NATURE The disobedience of our first parents involved their posterity, and entailed a depravity of nature upon their descendants; which depravity, though it is not a sin in us, till the will closes with it, and deliberately... [ Continue Reading ]
_But man dieth. .. and where is he?_ AM I TO LIVE FOREVER I. The belief indicated that man’s nature is two fold. There are two distinct processes ever going on within our frame. We may lose our physical organs, but the soul may think, wish, or purpose, as energetically as ever. The brain is the or... [ Continue Reading ]
_Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep._ THE SLEEP OF DEATH 1. Death is like sleep in its outward appearance. This likeness should remind us, when we lie down to sleep, of that death which sleep resembles. It should teach us to look upon it without dis... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man die, shall he live again?_ THE ONE QUESTION OF HUMANITY, AND ITS MANY ANSWERS I. The one question. 1. It has always been asked. In all periods of history it has been proposed; time has not diminished its interest; it will always spring naturally from man’s heart. 2. It is asked everywh... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee._ GOD CALLING IN DEATH Mr. Moody used to say, “Some day you will read in the papers that Dwight L. Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it. When they say I am dead, I shalt be more alive than I ever was before.” Now, it is very easy to say that when one is well... [ Continue Reading ]
_For Thou numberest my steps._ GOD COMPASSING OUR PATHS Some people think this idea is oppressive. They shrink from it. It contracts their being, and depresses their energy. You have seen a ripe apple that has been kept in the storeroom all the winter until all its juices have evaporated, and its s... [ Continue Reading ]
_My transgression is sealed up in a bag._ MEMORY The figure here employed to denote the certainty of a future investigation into all the secret transactions of a man’s life is drawn from the peculiar manner in which payments, for convenience sake, were sometimes made by oriental merchants. A certai... [ Continue Reading ]
_And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought._ THE LAW OF NATURE AND OF LIFE If the patriarch of Uz could listen to all the criticism of his commentators, his patience would be more severely tried than by his contemporaries. 1. Job intentionally uttered a solemn truth. He speaks of the chang... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away._ MAN’S MITTIMUS I. The change. The human countenance an instructive book. All its changes are not of God’s working, or ordering. The sharp lines of greed, the curves of pride, the flush of sensuality, etc. These are the brands of sin and Satan;... [ Continue Reading ]
_But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn._ PHYSICAL SENSATION AFTER DEATH Was it not the opinion of the ancient Jews that the soul retained somewhat of the sensation of the flesh until the body had entirely dissolved? It would not be strange if such were the fact... [ Continue Reading ]