A poor infidel, dejected and miserable, was found lying in the grasp of "the last enemy," death. His feverish eyes searched eagerly for a resting place that seemed always to elude him. His bony fingers nervously plucked the covers on the bed. In his emaciated countenance there was an unutterable agony of anxiety and woe.
His visitor, desiring to revive the courage of his sinking friend, whispered in his ear the exhortation, "Hold on!” The dying man turned his ashy face to fix his eyes with a piercing look upon the speaker. Bitterly he cried: "What have I to hold on to?”
Poor fellow! To "hold on" was just the thing he most wished to do. It was the hour of dissolution, and he was exceedingly conscious of the need of something to hold on to.
The philosophy in which he had vainly trusted had vanished "as a dream when one awaketh." Now in the presence of the realities of eternity he was left without a shred of comfort or hope.
"Hold on! Hold on!" The words were as mocking irony on his miserable fate. There was the extremity of blank despair in his dying groan, "What have I to hold on to?”
The believer in Jesus, in His death and resurrection, has something to which he may hold on. But better far it is that he has assurance that he is eternally held in the Savior's everlasting arms.