'As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as
he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away
in his hand.'--ECCLES. v. 15.
'... Their works do follow them.'--REV. xiv. 13.
It is to be observed that these two sharply contrasted texts do not
refer to the same persons. The former is spoken of a rich worldling,
the latter of 'the dead who die in the Lord.' The unrelieved gloom of
the one is as a dark background against which the triumphant assurance
of the other shines out the more brightly, and deepens the gloom which
heightens it. The end of the man who has to go away from earth naked
and empty-handed acquires new tragic force when set against the lot of
those 'whose works do follow them.' Well-worn and commonplace as both
sets of thought may be, they may perhaps be flashed up into new
vividness by juxtaposition; and if in this sermon we have nothing new
to say, old truth is not out of place till it has been wrought into
and influenced our daily practice. We shall best gather the lessons of
our text if we consider what we must leave, what we must take, and
what we may take.