CanTherebeUnity
corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty." [Job 5:17] What does Paul say? "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." [Hebrews 12:6] One great secret of happiness in this life is to have a patient, contented spirit. Strive daily to realize the truth that this life is not the place of reward. The time of retribution and reward is yet to come. Judge nothing quickly before that time. Remember the words of the wise man: "If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still." [Ecclesiastes 5:8] Yes! there is a day of judgment yet to come. That day will put everyone in their right places. At that time there will be seen a distinction "between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not." [Malachi 3:18] The children of Lazarus and the children of the rich man will in time be seen in their true colors, and everyone will receive according to his works. 3. Let us observe, in the next place, how "all classes of persons will eventually come to the grave." The rich man in the parable died, and Lazarus died too. Different and divided as they were in their lives, they both had to drink of the same cup at the end. Both went to the grave. Both went to that place where rich and poor meet together. Dust they were, and unto dust they returned. [Genesis 3:19] This is the fate of all men. It will be ours too, unless the Lord will first return in glory. After all our scheming, and contriving, and planning, and studying—after all our inventions, and discoveries, and scientific attainments, there remains one enemy we cannot conquer and disarm, and that is death. The chapter in Genesis which records the long lives of Methuselah and the rest, who lived before the flood, winds up the simple story of each by two expressive words: "he died." And now, after thousands of years, what more can be said of the greatest among ourselves? The histories of Marlborough, and Washington, and Napoleon, and Wellington, arrive at just the same humbling conclusion. The end of each, after all his greatness is just this— "he died." Death is a mighty leveler. He spares none and he waits for none. He will not wait until you are ready. Doors, and bars, and locks will not keep him out. A man boasts that his home is his castle, but with all his boasting, he cannot exclude death. An Austrian nobleman would not allow death and the smallpox to be named in his presence. But, named or not named, it matters little, in God's appointed hour death will come. One man rolls easily along the road in the most elegant carriage that money can buy. Another struggles as he walks along the path on foot. Yet both are sure to meet in the end under the earth, in the grave. One man, like Absalom, has fifty servants to wait on him and do his bidding. Another has none to lift a finger to do him a service. But both are traveling to a place where they must lie down alone. One man has in his possession hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another has scarcely a penny that he can call his own property. Yet neither one nor the other can carry one cent with him into the unseen world. One man owns nearly half of the farmland in a county. Another doesn't even have a small garden. And yet six feet of the earth will be fully sufficient for either of them when they are dead. One man pampers his body with every possible delicacy, and clothes it in the richest and softest apparel. Another scarcely has enough food to eat, and seldom enough clothes to put on. Yet both are hurrying on to a day when "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," will be proclaimed over them, and fifty years later no one will be able to say, "These are the rich man's bones, and these are the bones of the poor, for they will both be nothing but dust. I know that these are familiar thoughts. I don't deny it for a moment. I am only stating stale old things that everyone knows. But I am also saying things that not everyone "perceives" Oh, no! If they did perceive them, then they would not speak and act as they do. You wonder sometimes at the tone and language of ministers of the Gospel. You marvel that we press upon you for an immediate decision. You think we are extreme, and extravagant, and eccentric in our views, because we urge you to yield your total lives to Christ— to leave nothing uncertain—to make sure that you are born again and ready for heaven. You hear, but do not approve. You go away, and say to one another, "The man means well, but he goes too far." But don't you see that the reality of death is continually forbidding us from speaking in any other way? We see death gradually thinning our congregations. We miss face after face in our assemblies. We do not know whose turn may come next. We only know that when the tree falls there it will lie, and that "after death comes the judgment." We must be bold and decided, and uncompromising in our preaching. We would rather run the risk of offending some, than of losing any. We aim at the standard established by that grand old preacher Baxter, who said, "I will preach as though I would never preach again, and as a dying man to dying men" It was said of one bold and courageous preacher: "That man preaches as though death was following close behind him. When I hear him preach I cannot go to sleep." Oh, that men and women would learn to live with awareness that one day they are going to die! Truly it is waste of time to set our hearts on a dying world and its short-lived comforts and pleasures, and for the