"Teach Us To Number Our Days Aright, That We May Gain A Heart Of Wisdom!"

He who trifles with it is a fool!

(J.A. James, "The Practical Believer Delineated")

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"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and 

the number of my days; let me know 

how fleeting is my life!" Psalm 39:4

If the man who trembles at death is a coward--

then he who trifles with it is a fool!

There is a thousand times more 

rationality in the trembler--

than in the trifler!

There is a phenomenon in the rational 

world well worthy of consideration, 

inquiry and solution--

the strange and fatal insensibility 

of men to the grand fact that 

they are mortal! 

Since it is infallibly certain that 

they must and will die, and since 

death is so solemn an event--

how does it happen that so few ever 

seriously think of it or really prepare for it?

One would think that so grand and 

solemn a fact as death, especially 

viewed in connection with the events 

which are to immediately follow it--

Heaven, Hell and eternity--

along with the uncertainty 

how soon it may be realized--

might operate with an unlimited and 

altogether overpowering influence 

upon men's minds and hearts!

But men wish to forget death. 

They try to forget it, and alas, too 

often succeed in accomplishing 

this fatal oblivion! 

Yet we can scarcely wonder 

at this, when we consider what 

their spiritual condition is--

and what death is!

It is the commonness of death, 

which deprives it of its extreme 

dreadfulness. If death happened 

in our world only once in a century, 

it would be felt like the shock 

of an earthquake--

and would hush the inhabitants 

of earth into a breathless silence, 

while the echoes of the knell 

of the departed soul were 

reverberating around the globe!

Death is . . .
  the moment of destiny;
  the seal of eternity;
  the cessation of probation;
  the commencement of 

retribution and judgment!

The antecedents of death are dreadful. 

So are the accompaniments, 

and so are the consequences! 

To every sense--

death is revolting!

To every social affection--

death is harrowing!

To reason--

death is perplexing!

To everything but saving faith--

death is overwhelming!

"Teach us to number our days aright, 

that we may gain a heart of wisdom!" 

Psalm 90:12

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If you desire additional reading, we have just published Arthur Pink's eight page insightful article, "GOD and War".