It is a vanity to rejoice much in any thing which we cannot rejoice in long. What the apostle saith, 1 Cor. 13.8, “Prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, knowledge shall vanish away;” the same I may say of all common and sublunary mercies and comforts, they shall fail and vanish: “The fashion of this world passeth away,” 1 Cor. 7.31.
What pleasure can that man take in his expedition, whose voyage is for a year, and his victual but for a day? who sets out for eternity with the pleasures and contents of nothing but mortality? therefore though you may have all that heart can wish of the comfort and prosperity of this world, yet “notwithstanding, in this rejoice not.”
Why should we rejoice much in that which cannot rescue us out of the hands of eternal misery? None of these things we glory in can: they are poor lying delights, which, like Jordan, empty all their sweetness into a stinking and sulphurous lake.
When I see the rich man in the parable “clothed with purple, and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day,” Luke 16.19, methinks I could wish my lot might lie at his table, rather than with an ulcerous Lazarus “begging for crumbs at his door;” but when I look again, and find him paying his reckoning in tormenting flames, who would have his pomp and glory at this price? He buyeth his pleasures too dear, who pays for them with the loss of his soul.
May we have all the comforts that this world can afford, and yet die comfortless? may we be rejoicing in our relations today, and yet shut out of all relation to God tomorrow? then whatever we possess of the comforts of this world, yet “notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
—Matthew Mead ‘A Name In Heaven’
No comments:
Post a Comment