Job 16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way from where I shall not return. I. THE FACT ITSELF. It is in accordance with the representations of Scripture. Our life nearly resembles Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night and perished in a night. Our life is short, if you consider — 1. The actual span of life. Seventy years, and infantile tenderness is transformed into decrepitude, — the infant at its mother's breast becomes the man of hoary hairs, tottering beneath the pressure of infirmities, and sinking fast into the cold and silent grave. 2. The millions who die young. It is said that by far the greater number of human beings die in infancy. And how many die in youth! 3. The momentous objects to which we have to attend in this life. We came not into this world just to exist, or just to spend a mere animal life; we came to prepare for eternity, for our final and irrevocable destinations beyond these narrow confines. Here we have to repent, to seek an interest in Christ, to love, to serve, to glorify our Creator, to labour in His cause, to cultivate our faculties, to discipline our hearts, prior to our entrance upon a deathless state of existence beyond the tomb. All this to do, and yet so short a time for its accomplishment. 4. The momentous interruptions which we experience in our attention to these essential duties. What cares fill up this little life of ours! what sorrows, what temptations, what losses and crosses, to call off our attention from our grand concerns! 5. The uniform testimony of Scripture respecting it. 6. Its contrast with that dread eternity to which we haste. Our life beyond this present scene will be commensurate, in its duration, with the life of God, eternal as the throne on which He sits and sways the universe. II. IMPROVE THIS FACT. 1. By meditating on the brevity of life; using whatever can aid you to impress your minds deeply with this solemn fact. 2. Take care not to waste life. 3. Improve life. "Seize the fleeting moments as they pass." 4. Ever keep in view the uncertainty of life. 5. Remember that these few years of your existence will soon be past. 6. Remember that there will be no return to this present world. Let us live while we live. Let us all keep the end of our journey in view. Let us learn to die daily. Let us seek an interest in the grace, and blood, and righteousness, and intercession of the blessed Redeemer. (F. Pollard.) Parallel Verses KJV: When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.WEB: For when a few years are come, I shall go the way of no return. |
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