What is all this struggle in the world for? Why so many attempts to be something and have something in a realm that will not last? This struggle for passing vanities is like foam and bubbles contending for a place on a rapid stream—gone in a moment!
We forget that we are here today and gone tomorrow. It is a shame to think so much about these fleeting days and so little about the endless ages of eternity! Let me look to the generations past. How few of our deceased acquaintances are remembered! And how soon, like them, shall we also be forgotten!
How frail is our life! It is likened to a pile of grass, a withered leaf, dry stubble, a fading flower, a breath, brittle clay, fading flesh! How swift is our life! It is likened to a weaver’s shuttle, an eagle, a ship, a wind that passes by! How short is our life! It is likened to a moment, a breath!
Surely, I need not be so anxious about a life so short, a state so uncertain, and a world so vain, where I am only a stranger, a pilgrim, a sojourner, shortly leaving everything behind!
Let the world go its way. This shall not trouble me, as I am daily passing through the world and shall, in a little while, go entirely out of it, to return no more! How, then, shall I spend this short life, these few winged moments appointed to me? Surely, in nothing better than looking out and laying up for eternity!
“This world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever!” 1 John 2:17
“Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away!” 1 Corinthians 7:31
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom!” Psalm 90:12
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things!” Colossians 3:2
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!” 2 Corinthians 4:18
– James Meikle 1730-1799 (Updated for Today’s Reader)
The Fight of Faith 