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("Solitude Sweetened" by James Meikle, 1730-1799)
"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)
What is all this struggle in the world for? Why so many attempts to be something, and have something--in the sphere of nothing?
This struggle for passing vanities, is as if the foam and bubbles should contend for station on the rapid stream--but in a moment they are are gone!
We forget that we are but of yesterday--and tomorrow we are no more. It is a shame to think so much about these few fleeting days--and so little of endless ages of eternity!
Let me look to the generations past. How few of our deceased acquaintances are remembered! And how soon, like them, shall we also be forgotten!
How frail is our life! It is likened to a pile of grass, a withered leaf, dry stubble, a flower, a breath, brittle clay, fading flesh!
How swift is our life! It is likened to a weaver's shuttle, an eagle, a ship, a wind that passes away, and comes not again!
How short is our life! It is likened to a moment, a breath!
Surely I need not be so anxious about . . .
a life so short,
a state so uncertain,
and a world so vain
--where I am only a stranger, a pilgrim, a sojourner--and shortly leaving everything below.
Let the world, then, go with me as it will. This shall not trouble me, who am daily going through the world, and shall in a little while--go entirely out of the world, to return no more!
How, then, shall I spend this short life, my few winged moments, which are all appointed to me? Surely, in nothing better, than in looking out, and laying up for eternity!
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. " 1 John 2:17
"And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." 1 Corinthians 7:31
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18
~ ~ ~ ~ ~("Solitude Sweetened" by James Meikle, 1730-1799)
"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)
What is all this struggle in the world for? Why so many attempts to be something, and have something--in the sphere of nothing?
This struggle for passing vanities, is as if the foam and bubbles should contend for station on the rapid stream--but in a moment they are are gone!
We forget that we are but of yesterday--and tomorrow we are no more. It is a shame to think so much about these few fleeting days--and so little of endless ages of eternity!
Let me look to the generations past. How few of our deceased acquaintances are remembered! And how soon, like them, shall we also be forgotten!
How frail is our life! It is likened to a pile of grass, a withered leaf, dry stubble, a flower, a breath, brittle clay, fading flesh!
How swift is our life! It is likened to a weaver's shuttle, an eagle, a ship, a wind that passes away, and comes not again!
How short is our life! It is likened to a moment, a breath!
Surely I need not be so anxious about . . .
a life so short,
a state so uncertain,
and a world so vain
--where I am only a stranger, a pilgrim, a sojourner--and shortly leaving everything below.
Let the world, then, go with me as it will. This shall not trouble me, who am daily going through the world, and shall in a little while--go entirely out of the world, to return no more!
How, then, shall I spend this short life, my few winged moments, which are all appointed to me? Surely, in nothing better, than in looking out, and laying up for eternity!
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. " 1 John 2:17
"And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." 1 Corinthians 7:31
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18
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