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From this prayer it would appear that men are prone to forget their end. Why do men forget their last end?

I. NEGATIVELY.

1. Not because there can be any doubt as to its importance. What a momentous event is death! The termination of our earthly connection, and our introduction into a state, mysterious, retributive, probably unalterable.

2. Not because men have no reminders of it. If you see a painting, the artist is in his grave — a book, the author is no more — a portrait, the subject is gone to dust.

3. Not because there is the slightest hope of avoiding it. "It is appointed unto all men once to die."

II. POSITIVELY.

1. An instinctive repugnance to it. All men dread

2. The difficulty of realizing it. We cannot possibly know what it is to die. It is a knowledge that can only be got by experience.

3. The commonness of the occurrence. If only a few in a whole country died in the course of a year, and one or two in our neighbourhood, the strangeness might affect us.

4. The general hope of longevity.

5. The soul engrossing power of worldly things. "What shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed?" This is the all absorbing question. But why should men consider their latter end?

(1)  To moderate their attachment to earthly things.

(2)  To stimulate preparation for a higher state.

(3)  To enable us to welcome it when it comes.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

WEB: "Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.