Perishing things.
"Nothing shall be left." How true is this of all things of earth, as contrasted with essential being—with the life of our own souls! We can look at nothing material without being able to say, as we look to the inner world of personal consciousness, "They shall perish, but thou remainest."
I. COMPREHENSIVE LOSS. "Nothing shall be left." "All that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carded to Babylon." Exactly. There is always a Babylon which itself becomes a ruin. Grecian art is taken to Rome, there to be demolished in the sacking of the city. Treasures are taken in after years to Paris, there to be lost in flames. How few relics of any time or nation remain! and in due course these are lost to the possessors. If this is true on the great scale of nations, how manifestly true it is of ourselves! Let us look around on all the present possessions of earth, and remember that, so far as we are concerned, "nothing shall be left." "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?"
II. IMMORTAL GAIN. The prophet is true in this revelation of loss. So is the apostle true when he says, "All things are yours." All that a man is remains, and all that a man does in loyal service remains. So there is permanence amid impermanence. The tabernacle totters, but the tenant lives. "The outward man perisheth, but the inward man is renewed day by day." All that is in thine house is lost, but all that is in thine heart is immortal. It behoves us, therefore, to remember that the true jewels are soul-jewels; the true ornament is in the hidden man of the heart; the imperishable wealth is in the sanctities of Heaven and the smile of God. "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."—W.M.S.