We stood on the brow of the hill gazing out over the valley beneath us. In
the distant west the sun sank quietly and serenely toward the horizon. The
purpling shadows of the hills grew longer in the valley. The clouds
overhead, which scarcely seemed to move, were in broken, fluffy masses. As
we gazed upon the scene, the sun as a mighty king in stately majesty and
resplendent glory sank to his evening repose. The clouds caught the
afterglow, looking as if a gigantic brush had swept across the sky
scattering gold and orange and crimson and purple. The sun had gone, but
the glory of his vanished presence still lingered in the beauty of the
clouds.
At the close of another day we stood on the same hill-top. The sun was
hanging low. The purpling shadows lengthened in the valley. The sun did
not sink in glory tonight, but passed out of sight into a bank of dark and
threatening clouds. The voices of the day were stilled. A solemn and
foreboding hush seemed over all, and our spirits felt the general gloom.
There was no afterglow. There was no resplendent painting of the sky. All
was somber and gloomy; nature seemed to await what would come, in
expectancy and awe. And as the darkness fell, we saw a gleam of lightning
play across the distant cloud.
How like the sunsets of some lives were these two sunsets! In my mind,
unfading while I live, are the memories of two life-sunsets. When but
seven summers had passed over my head, my little sister and I were at a
neighbor’s two or three miles from home. In the early twilight a horseman
came galloping down the road bearing the fateful news that Mother was
dying. Quickly placing me behind him on the horse and taking my little
sister in his arms, he galloped away through the early night.
When we arrived at home, we found the house filled with neighbors. Upon
her bed lay Mother with pallid face. Through the hours of the night we
watched by her bedside. About three o’clock in the morning she asked them
to sing that old song “Shall We Gather at the River?” With choking voices
and tear-dimmed eyes the little band of neighbors sang the song. The eyes
of the sufferer gazed stedfastly above. A heavenly light beamed forth from
her countenance. A smile of joy was upon her face. Presently she called
the sorrowing relatives one by one and bade them a last good-by. I fell
upon my knees by her bedside and sobbed out my childish grief. She turned
and looked fondly down upon me and, laying her hand upon my head, said,
“Charlie, be a good boy and meet me in heaven.”
A little while she was quiet. Then her life’s sun sank to its rest. But
the afterglow of that beautiful life still shines in that community.
Circumstances later took me far away; but after sixteen years, I again
stood upon the scene, and over and over during my stay the neighbors told
me of her beautiful Christian life. Many a time during those years when I
was tempted to do evil, I would behold that scene again, and those last
words of my sainted mother would ring in my ears; they stood as a bulwark
between my soul and evil.
The same afternoon that the message so dreadful came to me grandmother
visited a neighbor who was drawing near to his life’s sunset. When she
came back, she told what passed while she was there. The man was a
skeptic. There was no life beyond the grave for him. There was no hope of
reunion around the throne of God. Grandmother spoke to him of his
approaching end and asked him if he was prepared. His answer I shall never
forget. Young as I was, it struck me with terrible force. With a look of
deepest melancholy on his face he said, “It is taking a leap into the
dark.”
A few days later he passed away, and he and mother lie there in the little
country cemetery waiting till the voice of the Son of God shall call them
forth. But ah, the difference between those two life-sunsets! One left the
glorious hope of a Christian shining forth, tinting the sky with beauty;
the other’s sun sank into a dark cloud of despair, lighted only with the
lurid glare of the lightning of God’s wrath.
Reader, what will be your life’s sunset? Will it be serene and calm and
peaceful, lighted up with glory from the throne of God, or will it be
dark, without a promise or ray of hope? You are fast hastening to that
hour. It may be nearer than you think. If you live without God, you will
die without God. Take a view of yourself now. Would you like for your
life’s sunset to find you as you now are? If not, what assurance have you
that it will be different? Good intentions will never change it. Good
desires will never change it. God only can make you ready for that hour.
Unless you seek him, you too will take a “leap into the dark”; for you
there will be only the “blackness of darkness forever.” “If ye will hear
his voice, harden not your heart.”