185. ECC 6:3. THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE WITHOUT RELIGION

Ecc_6:3. The Sorrows of Old Age Without Religion

By the Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, of New York.

"If a man live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, I say, that an untimely birth is better than he."’97Ecc_6:3.

In the text the wise preacher supposes a man to have seen the utmost possible limit of human existence. And then he estimates the worth of the whole of this proud and protracted life, if it has passed without the acquisition of that object which the Bible proposes. "If his soul be not filled with good, I say, that an untimely birth is better than he; for he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness."

The text leads me to consider,

I. The Great Object of Human Life.

"That the soul be filled with good." It was for this object that man was placed in a course of earthly education, and it is for this alone, that divine forbearance lengthens out to gray hairs the life of man; to see if the hour will ever come when men will be wise, and think of the things which belong to their peace. The possession of an immortal soul forms man’s chief distinction from the brutes which perish. A soul which must be rejoicing in unspeakable good, or lamenting amid unutterable evil, ages after the body in which it has dwelt has returned to dust as it was. Nothing on earth can offer a recompense for its loss. That man’s soul is filled with good who has found a reconciled God’97he who has received Jesus in his heart by faith’97who possesses the privileges of the gospel. The soul which is the "habitation of God, through the Spirit," is filled with good.

Let us consider,

II. The Sorrows of the Man who has passed through Life, and his "Soul is not filled with good."

1. He has passed through a life, the reflection upon which gives him no comfort.

Past days and years rush involuntarily upon his recollection, and bring to him their load of sorrow, and lay it down before him for cool and inevitable inspection. The Christian looks back with pleasure. Job. David. Paul. Polycarp. But what sorrow, anguish, and self-crimination arise in the heart from the retrospection of a wasted life! Youth, manhood, old age, without a cheering ray of light!

2. He is passing forward to an eternity for which he has made no preparation.

This eternity cannot be avoided. With resistless force he is pressed onward to the valley and shadow of death, and to the judgment-seat of Christ. The man is now upon the very margin of the ocean It spreads itself before him with inconceivable magnitude. But he sees it agitated with tempests, lashed into fury with a mighty wind, rising up in anger to the heavens, only that it may the better expose the deep abyss of hell, and proclaiming in every roaring, which strikes upon his ear, that there is no safety for his soul. Unprovided for such an eternity, it would have been better for him if he had not been born. Another sorrow of old age without religion is 3. That he has experienced the vanity of the world, and has nothing to supply its place.

The world recedes and disappears; its cisterns are all broken’97its springs are all dried up’97and its joys have become entirely tasteless; and in the midst of this wilderness of the soul, he can find no fresh springs of peace and hope. Thus they are left without one source of comfort, to struggle with wretchedness and despair.

Application

1. Urge an immediate attention to religion on the part of the hoary-headed sinner. Not one moment to be lost! Soul on the verge of ruin. And,

2. Warn the young against the ruinous evil of procrastination. It may be, now or never. "Behold, now is the accepted time," &c.

Autor: JABEZ BURNS