These lines were found among the papers of a renowned educator. He had spent his life in devotion to the quest of honor and fame. His attainments would, no doubt, be highly commended by the world. The lines speak for themselves with a seriousness and intensity which cannot be overstated, and stand as a solemn warning to all who would walk ambition's glittering pathway.
"Why labor for honor? Why seek after fame?
Why toil to establish a popular name?
Fame! aye, what is fame? A bubble—a word,
A sound that's worth nothing, a hope that's deferred;
A heart-sickening hope that's too often denied,
Or withheld from the worthy, to pander to pride.
Then out upon fame! Let her guerdon be riven!
Nay, hold! Let me strive as I always have striven.
Out, out upon fame! Too late will she come.
Her wreath mocks my brow. Will it hang on my tomb?
Too much have I labored, too willingly gave
My thoughts to the world—AND HAVE EARNED BUT A GRAVE."
Such lines need no comment. Let us turn from them to an extract from the last writings of one who had renounced the most ambitious career, to take up the cross and to follow the Lord Jesus into the place of rejection.
At the end of a life of trial and suffering, such as few are called upon to undergo, he was cast into a Roman dungeon. Almost all his earthly friends had forsaken him. He had appeared once before that cruel tyrant Nero, and before him lay the lions or perhaps some other fiendish torture. Truly it was "a latter end" to be naturally greatly dreaded.
What had this man earned? No thoughts of the grave filled his soul when he wrote to his young friend Timothy: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim. 4:6-86For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6‑8).
Again no comment is needed. The language of Paul the Apostle is too sublime to require human praise.
Now we would earnestly ask every reader of these lines to ponder well the striking contrast, remembering always that no man can serve two masters. It must be God or the world. I beg you to be wise, understand the truth, and consider the latter end of these things.