xiv. 11. _Thy pomp is brought down to the grave._
We are perpetually reminded of the shortness and uncertainty of life
(H. E. I., 1561). But these truths, so elementary, so familiar, so
important, and so much forgotten, are most vividly brought before our
minds when a prince is laid low. Then we see that only one thing is
important, because only one thing is permanent, and that is
_character,_ by which our whole future is determined. Happy is he,
whether peasant or prince, whose is the character of the regenerate,
who possesses a good hope through grace; wretched is he, whether
slave or monarch, who lives and dies without it. Reflect--
I. ON THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. Always solemn, but especially so when
it is that of a wicked man who was prosperous. Everything succeeded
with him; he had everything his heart wished for. But death came;
broke up a whole system of being and comforts, without furnishing any
equivalent for it; and introduced him to eternal perdition. Death
obscures the glory of the prosperous transgressors, robs them of that
in which they delighted, reduces their wealth to poverty, their
honours to eternal shame, their happiness to eternal misery. What a
transition--from the vanities of earth to the realities and
retributions of the eternal world! from the flattery of their
dependants to the presence of the Judge of all! You who are living
only for earthly things, think of these things. (H. E. I., 1567-1569;
P. D., 684, 741).
II. THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 1. The hour of terror, of consummate
terror, to the wicked, is to the Christian the hour of peace, of
hope, of joy. This arises from his union with Christ, the Conqueror
of death. What will make a deathbed easy?--a broken league with sin,
a good hope through grace, a lively faith in Christ (H. E. I.,
1590-1593). 2. The hour that terminates the prosperous worldling's
glory, introduces the Christian to an eternal weight of glory (P. D.,
669, 694, 757). 3. The hour that brings the sinner to the second
death commences the perfectness of the Christian's life (H. E. I.,
1595-1600; P. D., 711).--_Samuel Thodey._