Man, thou must die, Sirach 14:18. Therefore, be not deceived, God is not mocked; for what a man sows that shall he reap. Galatians 6:7.
A certain true and faithful servant of God declared upon his death bed, that the last thing, should be more frequently laid before people and seriously pressed upon them. This was the practice of St. Paul himself, though he was of an uncommon evangelical spirit. Acts 24:25. Such representations may be very useful at this time, and perhaps still more for the time to come, to restrain that growing levity and indifference in spiritual and gospel matters. For this false, and unevangelical method of playing with the wounds of Christ, does not stand its ground, nor will it avail us in the hour of death. Many will then find their joy changed into heaviness, and others their heaviness into joy.
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to ensure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.
The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie,
Their memory and their sense is gone
Alike unknowing and unknown.
Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy buried in the dust:
They have no share in all that’s done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.
There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair
Reign in eternal silence there.