Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2023 10:49:51 GMT -5
THE BREVITY AND TRANSITORINESS OF LIFE
The brevity and transitoriness of life are Scripture facts that people avoid and dread to think about. This is true, especially for those who already have much of the things of this world. The more they possess, the more they crave for more. Their insatiability manifests as telling, much like the materially obsessed man (the rich fool) Jesus referred to in Luke 12:16-21.
Abraham Kuyper, one of the most prolific writers and influential theologians of his time, elaborates on his observations about the frailty and shortness of human life in an article in his book, ‘In the Shadow of Death.’ Following is his article:
_____________________________
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
‘What Is the Measure of My Days?’
(Thou too must die)
Transitoriness is an easily spoken word, and the thought, expressed therein, is by no one contradicted. But how long it takes, before you apply this transitoriness to yourself, and indeed begin to exist to yourself and before your God as a transient creature.
All men are mortal, this was taught you already at school, but what boy, as he sees this in writing, thinks for one moment that this includes him.
And this not because no children die. Rather mortality among little ones is greater than among adults. But a child does not grasp this. He looks on.
He sees the dear little corpse, and will weep honest tears, but no sooner has he is gone away from it, than your boy again plays and romps, and lives as though he had seen no death.
And he who thinks, that this thoughtlessness occurs only with our little ones, thereby shows, that he knows neither his environment, nor his own heart.
The fact cannot be denied that however dreadful death may be, nothing is so fleeting and quickly cursory, as the impression, which the dying of one of our own and the sight of a corpse makes.
For one moment we are moved; we come together and mourn, our dead is carried out to the grave; and then we go into mourning; but long before the time for mourning is ended, life has resumed its ordinary course, and it happens but all too frequently, that almost no more word is said about our dead.
Sometimes this is different. There are cases of death, wherewith so terribly much went into the grave, and which brought about so great a change in the life of those who remained behind, that a long time all of life holds in memory the departure of him who passed away.
But even then it is ever yet the love or the need that operates after, and also this has nothing in common with the application of the transitoriness to ourselves.
2. David too was troubled by this.
Through what vicissitudes of life and dangers of death had not this son of Jesse passed. How many had not fallen by his sword and been struck down by his side?!
How frequently he had been in danger of death! How oftentimes the dark shadow of death in battle had passed over him!
And still David was not able sufficiently to realize that he himself was a ‘transitory creature’.
He well knew, that no one escapes death. He by no means denied, that his way also would end with the grave. And even that he hoped for a very long life, is nowhere evident.
But what he missed, what he was not sufficiently aware of in his own soul’s perception, was the sense, the inner and continuous conviction, that he himself was but a transitory creature before his God.
Even when in serious illness he lay upon the sickbed, or when dangers of death surrounded him, it was ever yet as though the sense of transitoriness would not take hold of him.
And this troubled him. He felt that in this his position was false. And therefore he prayed, that as a special grace his God would teach him *how transitory he was*.
And to learn this, he prayed in Psalm 39, ‘Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is.’
3. To this teaching every child of God ought to accustom himself.
Not to desire a revelation, whereby we might foretell the year of our death, and like Hezekiah calculate, that we still have so and so many years before us.
That would lead to the very opposite idea.
No, what we have to make our own is, how short our duration of our human life is; how many little flowers wither without unfolding; how many young men and maidens have been cut off just when they were ready to enter upon the fullness of life; how many a man is stricken down as an oak, that still exhibited the glory of its foliage; and how far beyond 65 years of age only 5 per cent are spared of all that are born of man.
Of every twenty people but one.
Just as is said in Psalm 90, that as a rule seventy years is the uttermost boundary, and that only a few, who are very strong, come to eighty.
And when one is young, this seems long, but how short in reality it is?
Of those 60 or 70 years you sleep away 20, 10 are spent in all sorts of insignificant interests and amidst all sorts of idle chitchat; another 10 are spent at the table; and for real life there rests at most some 20 years, even with those who live longest.
And what is this compared to centuries? To the presently 20 countries which went since Bethlehem, and the 60 centuries since Adam?
Twenty years to work, even though one lives 60 or 70 years, what is this
compared with eternity?
And then one must work 8 hours a day, steadily and continuously and who does this?
You at least did not do this in your 10th year, neither in sickness nor when you were on a journey; and this does not include your Sabbaths.
Accurately counted, a good deal is subtracted from these 20 years, and it is much, when a life of 60 or 70 years you can count 15, in which work is done and something is accomplished.
4. Complaint here is of no avail.
Our life is no longer what it is. A third must be taken off for sleep. Meals take time, and time the many little activities, connected with the care of the body. Also against sickness we have no safeguard.
But actually the sum of real life comes down to a very small cipher.
Only one in 20, who 15 years actually accomplish anything, and the others still far less.
But to be up to this, and then ever yet to live on, as though it would go on forever, is a misleading of self that goes too far, an unpardonable shortage of clearness of our own spirit.
With a child of the world this can be understood. When a child of the world dies he loses everything. He is not always afraid of death, some even altogether not. But with death the enjoyment of life ends. And therefore it is so understandable, that a child of the world rather dreams along, in the expectation of after today finding yet another day, and for the rest prefers not to think of the future.
But with a child of God this must be otherwise. For him death does not end all, but only after death it really begins.
He dares to think of his end, because he knows that this end shall be peace.
For him therefore there is no single reason, why he should always sweetly dream life’s dream. He can and must awaken.
Even when he looks into his condition altogether soberly, he is still happy.
5. And then there is indeed no thought, which in works more fruitfully upon his life, than the clear sense, to learn to know himself before God as a transient creature.
Nothing so much as this sense stimulates to restless labor.
‘Let us work while it is day, the night cometh wherein no man can work.’
You are here on earth for a purpose. You have a task. This task must be finished. And then only does God relieve you.
Nothing so much makes generous and loose from earthly goods.
Nothing of what your hand acquired, follows you in the grave. Naked you came from your mother’s womb, and naked you return into the grave. You take nothing with you.
Nothing implies you so strongly to hold yourself fast to your God, since He alone is mighty to maintain you as a transient creature, and when it is done here, with eternal arms of compassion to bear you up in eternal existence.
This transitory life, and that eternal, that follows after, is such a powerful stimulus, not to value too highly what is before one’s eyes, and to reach out after the crown, that sparkles of invisible diamonds.
‘Transitory’ and if then you still desire to live and know that the everlasting is only with your God, then that same sense drives you so mightily, so restlessly on toward the Eternal, and you feel so much more deeply than otherwise, what it says, that He the Eternal, is the only One not transitory, He Who alone has immortality.
And therefore, it is well with you, when the Holy Spirit leads you into this thought, imprints it deeply in your soul, and so penetrates you with the same, that the breath of your life is no more a fruitless hoping, but is in unison with the reality which is hard, and yet so glorious.
– Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)[/
_________________________
The brevity and transitoriness of life are Scripture facts that people avoid and dread to think about. This is true, especially for those who already have much of the things of this world. The more they possess, the more they crave for more. Their insatiability manifests as telling, much like the materially obsessed man (the rich fool) Jesus referred to in Luke 12:16-21.
Abraham Kuyper, one of the most prolific writers and influential theologians of his time, elaborates on his observations about the frailty and shortness of human life in an article in his book, ‘In the Shadow of Death.’ Following is his article:
_____________________________
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
‘What Is the Measure of My Days?’
(Thou too must die)
Transitoriness is an easily spoken word, and the thought, expressed therein, is by no one contradicted. But how long it takes, before you apply this transitoriness to yourself, and indeed begin to exist to yourself and before your God as a transient creature.
All men are mortal, this was taught you already at school, but what boy, as he sees this in writing, thinks for one moment that this includes him.
And this not because no children die. Rather mortality among little ones is greater than among adults. But a child does not grasp this. He looks on.
He sees the dear little corpse, and will weep honest tears, but no sooner has he is gone away from it, than your boy again plays and romps, and lives as though he had seen no death.
And he who thinks, that this thoughtlessness occurs only with our little ones, thereby shows, that he knows neither his environment, nor his own heart.
The fact cannot be denied that however dreadful death may be, nothing is so fleeting and quickly cursory, as the impression, which the dying of one of our own and the sight of a corpse makes.
For one moment we are moved; we come together and mourn, our dead is carried out to the grave; and then we go into mourning; but long before the time for mourning is ended, life has resumed its ordinary course, and it happens but all too frequently, that almost no more word is said about our dead.
Sometimes this is different. There are cases of death, wherewith so terribly much went into the grave, and which brought about so great a change in the life of those who remained behind, that a long time all of life holds in memory the departure of him who passed away.
But even then it is ever yet the love or the need that operates after, and also this has nothing in common with the application of the transitoriness to ourselves.
2. David too was troubled by this.
Through what vicissitudes of life and dangers of death had not this son of Jesse passed. How many had not fallen by his sword and been struck down by his side?!
How frequently he had been in danger of death! How oftentimes the dark shadow of death in battle had passed over him!
And still David was not able sufficiently to realize that he himself was a ‘transitory creature’.
He well knew, that no one escapes death. He by no means denied, that his way also would end with the grave. And even that he hoped for a very long life, is nowhere evident.
But what he missed, what he was not sufficiently aware of in his own soul’s perception, was the sense, the inner and continuous conviction, that he himself was but a transitory creature before his God.
Even when in serious illness he lay upon the sickbed, or when dangers of death surrounded him, it was ever yet as though the sense of transitoriness would not take hold of him.
And this troubled him. He felt that in this his position was false. And therefore he prayed, that as a special grace his God would teach him *how transitory he was*.
And to learn this, he prayed in Psalm 39, ‘Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is.’
3. To this teaching every child of God ought to accustom himself.
Not to desire a revelation, whereby we might foretell the year of our death, and like Hezekiah calculate, that we still have so and so many years before us.
That would lead to the very opposite idea.
No, what we have to make our own is, how short our duration of our human life is; how many little flowers wither without unfolding; how many young men and maidens have been cut off just when they were ready to enter upon the fullness of life; how many a man is stricken down as an oak, that still exhibited the glory of its foliage; and how far beyond 65 years of age only 5 per cent are spared of all that are born of man.
Of every twenty people but one.
Just as is said in Psalm 90, that as a rule seventy years is the uttermost boundary, and that only a few, who are very strong, come to eighty.
And when one is young, this seems long, but how short in reality it is?
Of those 60 or 70 years you sleep away 20, 10 are spent in all sorts of insignificant interests and amidst all sorts of idle chitchat; another 10 are spent at the table; and for real life there rests at most some 20 years, even with those who live longest.
And what is this compared to centuries? To the presently 20 countries which went since Bethlehem, and the 60 centuries since Adam?
Twenty years to work, even though one lives 60 or 70 years, what is this
compared with eternity?
And then one must work 8 hours a day, steadily and continuously and who does this?
You at least did not do this in your 10th year, neither in sickness nor when you were on a journey; and this does not include your Sabbaths.
Accurately counted, a good deal is subtracted from these 20 years, and it is much, when a life of 60 or 70 years you can count 15, in which work is done and something is accomplished.
4. Complaint here is of no avail.
Our life is no longer what it is. A third must be taken off for sleep. Meals take time, and time the many little activities, connected with the care of the body. Also against sickness we have no safeguard.
But actually the sum of real life comes down to a very small cipher.
Only one in 20, who 15 years actually accomplish anything, and the others still far less.
But to be up to this, and then ever yet to live on, as though it would go on forever, is a misleading of self that goes too far, an unpardonable shortage of clearness of our own spirit.
With a child of the world this can be understood. When a child of the world dies he loses everything. He is not always afraid of death, some even altogether not. But with death the enjoyment of life ends. And therefore it is so understandable, that a child of the world rather dreams along, in the expectation of after today finding yet another day, and for the rest prefers not to think of the future.
But with a child of God this must be otherwise. For him death does not end all, but only after death it really begins.
He dares to think of his end, because he knows that this end shall be peace.
For him therefore there is no single reason, why he should always sweetly dream life’s dream. He can and must awaken.
Even when he looks into his condition altogether soberly, he is still happy.
5. And then there is indeed no thought, which in works more fruitfully upon his life, than the clear sense, to learn to know himself before God as a transient creature.
Nothing so much as this sense stimulates to restless labor.
‘Let us work while it is day, the night cometh wherein no man can work.’
You are here on earth for a purpose. You have a task. This task must be finished. And then only does God relieve you.
Nothing so much makes generous and loose from earthly goods.
Nothing of what your hand acquired, follows you in the grave. Naked you came from your mother’s womb, and naked you return into the grave. You take nothing with you.
Nothing implies you so strongly to hold yourself fast to your God, since He alone is mighty to maintain you as a transient creature, and when it is done here, with eternal arms of compassion to bear you up in eternal existence.
This transitory life, and that eternal, that follows after, is such a powerful stimulus, not to value too highly what is before one’s eyes, and to reach out after the crown, that sparkles of invisible diamonds.
‘Transitory’ and if then you still desire to live and know that the everlasting is only with your God, then that same sense drives you so mightily, so restlessly on toward the Eternal, and you feel so much more deeply than otherwise, what it says, that He the Eternal, is the only One not transitory, He Who alone has immortality.
And therefore, it is well with you, when the Holy Spirit leads you into this thought, imprints it deeply in your soul, and so penetrates you with the same, that the breath of your life is no more a fruitless hoping, but is in unison with the reality which is hard, and yet so glorious.
– Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)[/
_________________________