How many people have worked hard in early years of life so that in later life they may enjoy leisure-their “golden years.” Ads show gray- and white-haired couples on bicycles, boats or golf courses smiling and looking very healthy. They are enjoying their “golden years.”
For many, these years are anything but golden. A man in his mid-seventies said, “Golden years? Who said, ‘golden years’? You know when you wake up in the morning with all your aches and pains that these are not golden years!”
As a young man he had seen the horrors of war -had seen some of his buddies torn apart with the shrapnel of exploding shells. The war ended; he survived it. He came home and tried to forget about it. He worked hard, and he now has an ample living. Everything is going well for him - or is it?
Now he is old, and his wife of many years has died. He is lonely. Arthritis and other ailments trouble him so that he cannot get a good night’s sleep. Bitter, he complains about the so-called “golden years.” He looks back and remembers the horrors of war, the happy years with his wife, and the aches and pains. What has he to look forward to? He doesn’t realize it, but without Christ it is only the “blackness of darkness forever” - under the judgment of God. Yet he doesn’t want the remedy. He expresses no interest, though he has had the gospel presented to him. How sad is the end of one like this. We can only pray that the Lord will break through and save him. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
Another man went to war with him. This man knew the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. He rejoices in his Lord. We spoke of the Father’s house and what it will be like to be there. He exclaimed, “That’s lovely!”
He, too, had seen the carnage of war. He, too, has aches and pains, the ravages of years. In that sense his years are not so golden either. But what a difference there is between the two! The second man has something to look forward to. Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ is available to both; one receives it, and one rejects or neglects. One is on his way to glory with Christ for eternity. The other, if he keeps on without Christ, is on the way to a lost eternity - “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 1313Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude 13)).
Eternity! Where? Eternity! Where?
With saved ones in glory, or the lost in despair?
Eternity! Where? Oh, Eternity! Where?
With one or the other - Eternity! Where?
Eternity! Where? Is aught worth a care?
Friend, oh, shall we - oh, can we e’en venture to dare,
In life that is passing as mist in the air,
Do aught till we settle Eternity - where?
Eternity where? The choice is yours. Make your decision now, and enjoy the golden years of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Friend.