In this view the body, and in a larger degree the mind, becomes a
sepulchre for the soul. All the attention given to education, to
refinement and culture, to the develop ment of gifts--for instance, such
as music or inventive science--to the practice of self-restraint and the
pursuit of morality, is so much attention to the casket that will perish,
to the neglect of the eternal jewel that is enclosed. It may be possible
to present a kindly, honest, law-abiding, agreeable life to our
neighbours; to go through business and family life without rinding
anything of great moment with which to condemn ourselves; to be thought,
even by those nearest to us, to be living up to a high standard of
morality, and yet--for all this has to do with the casket only--to be dead
all the while in trespasses and sins.
The young man who should spend his fortune upon his tomb would be scarcely
so great a fool as he who spends his life on those things in himself which
are temporal, to the neglect of those which are eternal. Only think of the
absurdity of devoting the splendid energy of youth and manhood, the grand
force of will, the skill of genius, and the other gifts which commonly men
apply to their own advancement and success, to the adornment, enriching,
and extension of one's _grave_!
And yet this is very much the case of those of whom I am thinking. All
their advances, whether in moral attainment, in personal achievement, or
in worldly advantage, are, at the best, but enlargements and adornments of
a tomb, and of a tomb destined itself to perish!