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In youth life seems unending, but as the years pass, we become conscious of life’s inadequacy. We’ve not accomplished what we planned, not achieved what we had hoped, and doubtless never will. We learn that life is short and that for all of us there’s so little time! So much of life passes almost without notice, and suddenly we awaken somewhere in the middle years deeply conscious of life’s brevity. The masters of litera ture have penned majestic passages based on that realiza tion. Lord Byron, a very clever, if dissolute man, while still young in years but old in experience, wrote: “My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker and the grief Are mine alone.” Shakespeare has Macbeth, probably his most tragic character, say in defeat’s bitterness: “ To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Of course Macbeth was a pessimistic sinner. Life may be a brief candle, but it may also be a glorious flame. It depends on whether our lives are kindled by the Son of God. The 90th Psalm presents God’s wisdom on growing old. Moses says: “ Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations . . . For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” So little time! (continued on next page) 9
D r a m a t ic , t r a g ic 1962 is dying. With Tennyson we say: “ The year is dying in the night. Ring out, wild bells, and let it die.” But more than a year is dying. A whole era—an age— is dying. Many feel that we are in the closing minutes of the “ 11th hour” of our era. What is the world posi tion? Are the nations marching to Armageddon? Is man’s scientific genius to reap a harvest of worldwide destruc tion? There is feverish haste among the nations. Hurry, hurry! There are conferences, national trouble, slander, retaliation, charge and countercharge, till minds reel and a mild insanity grips all of us. Suddenly millions have awakened to the fact that there is very little time. The rumbling volcano of human hatred is erupting here and there, as in the Berlin con flict, the Cuban threat, Laos, Vietnam, the Congo. The main eruption is yet to come, and there seems to be so little time. Paul wrote to the Roman church (Romans 13:11-14): . . Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us live and conduct ourselves honestly, as in the day; not in carousing and drunkenness, not in prostitution and debauchery, not in strife and envy. But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires.” What an exhortation for our day when there is so little time! LEARN THE DIVINE PURPOSE Life itself is brief and world conditions should remind us to prepare fully for the hereafter. The Apostle chal lenges (James 4:13, 14): “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and con tinue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” We think of its personal application. JANUARY. 1963
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