Last Updated on : November 23, 2014 | |||
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Sojourning In Fear Awaiting ChristBY ROBERT ROBERTS |
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David says -- "Our days upon earth are as a shadow" (Psa. 144:4); John -- that "the world passeth away" (1 John 2:17); James -- that "our life is but a vapour that appeareth for a very little while and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). The Bible uniformly holds this fact in the front. The Bible is not therefore a gloomy book. It appears so to some people, only because they lack the mental habit of noting truth. The Bible deals with facts rather than fancies, and appeals to sober discernment rather than sensation. In this it is the sweetest book under the sun, for truth is sweet, even if it sometimes has an ugly side. The happiest men are those who delight in truth and know it. The transitoriness of the life we now live is part of the truth. It comes home with more striking force at some times than others. Today, a brother has announced the death of a sister who has bourn us company for many years. This last week the papers have announced the death of one, who has been before the public for two generations. When I came to England, thirty years ago, one of my first duties was to report one of his political orations for the press. He was then a fixed brilliant star in the political firmament. Today, that star has ceased to shine. The contrast between now and then is great and striking. In the presence of it, most men realize the vanity of human life. The pity is, they don't see it sooner. The truth teaches us to discern it in the steady current of things beforehand. The change from the political brightness of thirty years ago to the eclipse of today's coffin has been in progress all the time, like the slowly shifting sky at night. It is so with us all. "Time and change are busy ever; man decays, and ages move." Wise men note the fact and adjust themselves to it; and in this there is no gloom. The real gloom is with those who shut their eyes to the fact, and drown the sense of it in frivolous occupations and delights. The time comes, sooner or later, when they can no longer shut their eyes, and when pleasure loses it power to charm away the horrors of sin and death which are quietly with us whether we give attention or no. We turn our attention from the transitory and the apparent to everlasting and real. These are exhibited to us in our readings of the Scriptures. Nowhere else can we meet them at present. The day will come when they will be displayed on earth in the living power of actuality. Meanwhile we make their acquaintance here beforehand, as a matter of information and faith. Let us get as close as possible. They are our life. They all cluster in Christ, who has no meaning apart from them. |
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