The transitoriness of life.
I. COMPARED WITH THE PERMANENCE OF THE EARTH. Objects of nature remain. There are changes, but they are not so great within the limit of our brief lives as to attract much notice. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever" (Ecclesiastes 1:4).
II. COMPARED WITH THE CONTINUITY OF THE RACE. The individual withers; families disappear; kingdoms decay and fall; but the race of man remains. Our life is as a tale that is told, but the story of the generations of the past reaches back beyond our ken.
III. COMPARED WITH THE IMMENSE LABOUR BESTOWED ON MEN. What a preparation going before! What long and arduous toils there have been to fit us for our place and our work! and then how short the time we have for accomplishing anything! How often early promise fails, and the dear hopes cherished are disappointed!
IV. COMPARED WITH THE EXPECTATIONS FORMED. What plans, schemings, enterprises! What high ambitions! And yet how little is achieved! Man's promise is always better than his performance. Once, perhaps, we took a forward place; our names were on the lips of many—looked to win great fame. But the end is "vanity."
V. COMPARED WITH THE IMMORTALITY OF GOD'S WORD. Fathers and prophets alike pass away. They cannot continue by reason of death. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:24, 1 Peter 1:25).—F.