“Life is a flower of paper-white,
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two, and then comes night.”
THESE were the lines that caught my eye when I entered the office one day in January last. They were surrounded by a wreath of flowers which were shortly to accompany the dead body of a colleague to the grave. Were they true — true of him who had just answered to the dread mandate: “This night thy soul shall be required of thee”?
I felt sad as I thought of the meaning of such words — a meaning which perhaps had never crossed the mind of the writer of them:
“and then comes night,”
nothing but the black and dark night.
As I stood looking at the flowers and the lines, there came to my memory several portions of God’s Word — words of truth which men, young and old, do well to heed. Life is a flower; yes, the Word of the Lord says, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the Word of the Lord endureth forever” (1 Peter 1:24, 2524For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:24‑25)).
Reader, have you ever pondered this — that your life is as a flower? The icy wind blows over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof knows it no more. But men speak and act as if there were no such words as — “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment”; rather do they live as if possessing a lease of life, to be renewed at will. But who can stay the cold clutch of the king of terrors? Who can say “nay” to that summons And, young man, is there not a voice for us in this? One after another do our fellows go whence they cannot return, cut off before their prime; which of us shall be the next?
Prepare to meet thy God.
“Whereon each one of us may write his word or two”... yes, and although the flower may fade, and the life pass away, yet there abides in God’s record those words written by us on the pages of our lives. Did not the Lord Christ declare that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account of in the day of judgment? and that our words either condemn or justify us? When the appointed day arrives and the ordained Judge sits upon the throne, then shall these records be brought forth — call them paper-white or what you please, and men shall be judged according to the things written in the books; and, reader, if your name be not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you will be cast into the lake of fire.
But blessed be God, He has found a way of escape from the due reward of our deeds, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Those who so believe are those whose names shall be found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Reader, is your name there? Are you found among those whose only trust is the precious blood of Christ? Faith in the once crucified but now glorified Saviour is the only way of escape from the wrath to come. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”
But perhaps you care for none of these things; it may be that the world only occupies you, its pleasures of sin which last but for a season. The question is often asked, “Where is the harm?”
This is one of the means the devil, the god of this world, uses to blind the minds and hearts of men to the needs of their souls. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment” (Eccl. 11:99Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. (Ecclesiastes 11:9)).
“And then comes night” — yes, night, eternal night; blackness of darkness forever will be the unrelieved portion of every one who refuses God’s testimony concerning His Son. Christ came into the world that sinners by faith in Him might not abide in darkness but become light in the Lord and walk in the light. “He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth,” but he that follows the Son of God has the light of life and knows whither he goes. “There shall be no night” for those who know Jesus: for them to depart this life is to be in the blissful presence of Christ, because they have been already made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, made meet by the blood of Christ.
Reader, which portion is yours? If the call of death came today to you, would it be the night that you would enter, the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; or would you depart and be with Christ in His bright glory, joining in that song of joy “unto Him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen”?
E.