Wordly Honor
DAY SEVENTEEN
PONDER THIS ENGRAVING
MEDITATE ON THESE VERSES
Acts 12:21-23 | Daniel 4:30-37 | Hosea 4:7 | Psalm 49:12 | John 5:44 | 1 Peter 1:24 | Habakkuk 2:16 | John 2:16
…the pride of life is not of the Father, but is the world. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof. 1 John 2:16-17 –– Man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:12
POETIC REFLECTION
Lo! here are honors, floating in the breeze,
That wafts them changeful o’er the land and seas:
The air-inflated bubbles pass along,
Attract the gaze, and fascinate the throng;
Away they go, pursuing and pursued,
O’er leap all bounds, the legal and the good;
Through fields of fire, and seas of blook and woe,
Through broken hearts, and blasted hopes they go.
On others’ carcass, see! they strive to rise,
And grasp the phantom that before them flies;
In blook-red garb, the butchering-knife one bears,
Nor friend, nor foe, if in his way, he spares.
All this for what? For what this vast outlay?
This sum infinite, squandered every day?
Of those thus fool’d , some answer in despair,
”We clasp’d the phantoms, and we found them air.”
Not so the honors that from God descend,
Substantial pure, and lasting without end.
DEVOTION OF INTERPRETATION
This emblem is a representation of the vain pursuits of mankind. Honors, titles, and fame are borne upon the wings of the wind, which is ever changing, as are the sources from whence worldly honors are derived. Numbers are seen pressing after them with all their mind and strength, and in their haste to possess them, they sacrifice all that is good and holy, all that is benevolent and divine.
One, with his tongue, assails the prepared, and longs to depart and be with Christ; but the interests of earth exercise an influence over him and bind him down with the golden bands of affectionate love. When a sinner becomes a saint, his relations become changed, “old things have passed away. Behold all thing have become new.” A “new heart” is given, filled with love to God and man. A new world is presented full of glorious realities, substantial and eternal. A new God is given, Jehovah is his name. He formerly worshipped the gods of this world. A new Savior is embraced, who is the “altogether lovely.” New companions, the noblest, the wisest, and the best. He is the subject of another King, one Jesus; the citizen of another city which is out of sight, whose Builder and Maker is God; the heir of an inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away.
No wonder, then, if he should often times desire to depart in order to possess all this happiness. Wandering on earth, “here he has no abiding city;” a stranger and pilgrim as all his fathers were. Nevertheless, he has interests, affections, and duties of an earthly kind; these have a weighty claim upon him; they are connected with God and eternity. The religion of the Bible, while it strengthens the powers of the intellect, and sanctifies the soul, does also increase the power of natural affection, and makes us capable of the most lively emotions.
The true minister of the Gospel, like the great Apostle, would cheerfully lay down his work an away to Jesus, but the interests of his master demand that he should stay, and build up the waste places of Jerusalem; therefore, he says, “all the days of my appointed time will I wait til my change come.”
The pious parent, when visited by sickness, would fain regard it as a call to heaven, but the dear pledges of love are weeping round the bedside, and their youthful state demands a faithful guardian. He can only say, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for your; the will of the Lord be done.”
“How happy is the pilgrim’s lot!
How free from every groveling thought,
From worldy hope and fear!
Confined to neither court nor cell
His soul disdains on earth to dwell,
He only sojourns here.
”Nothing on earth I call my own:
A stranger to the world, unknown,
I all their wealth despise;
I trample on their whole delight,
And seek a country out of sight,
A country in the skies.”
––Wesley
Barber, John Warner, 1798-1885. Bible Looking Glass: Reflector, Companion and Guide to the Great Truths of the Sacred Scriptures, and Illustrating the Diversities of Human Character, and the Qualities of the Human Heart.
Philadelphia, Bradley, Garretson & Co., 1861