Job 7:16 I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity. There is nothing to which human nature is more averse than to dissolution. Death presents himself to the imagination of every man, clothed with terrors. 1. A due respect to the Divine will would deter us from wishing to "live alway." Our life is not made transient by any malignant power. Why should we turn with regret from any allotment to which it is the will of God we should submit? There is, in submission to the laws to which the all-wise Creator hath subjected our nature, both safety and virtue. 2. We may be reconciled to the necessity of dying by considering who have passed through the gate of death. 3. The condition of this present state is such that no Christian can wish to live in it always. Not that it becomes us to find fault with the circumstances of our present existence. It is problematical whether our virtue or our trials would prevail, if our probation were prolonged; but discretion would seem to plead for the shortest exposure to evil. Death releases us from the temptations, ignorance, and sorrows of this probationary existence. 4. A just consideration of the future life will reconcile us entirely to the transitoriness of this. If to die were to cease to be, we might with a desperate tenacity cling to this present existence, chequered and unsatisfactory as it is. 5. By His death, the "Captain of our salvation" hath overcome death, and made the passage through the grave the ordinary entrance to the reward of our inheritance. What a body of motives is here to induce you, when your Creator shall call you out of this life, to depart willingly! Lay them up in your memories. (Bishop Dehon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.WEB: I loathe my life. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. |
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