1. I LOVE A NAME (Phil 1:20-21; Eccles 2:12-17)

Who does not want to be remembered, and have his name kindly recalled? But the sad fact is that even the memory of the greatest passes away into oblivion after a mere generation. Who remembers now the stars of yesteryear — luminaries of stage and screen, of battlefront and sports field? Men who ruled half the world and shook the nations —where are they today? Time is an ocean that drowns all things.

Some, more ambitious, hope to preserve their name from decay. They engrave their names in stone, erect edifices and carve statues. But time erases the memory of fool and wise man alike. Men are concerned more with the living than the dead. So, a billion Chinese soon forget Chairman Mao, the great father of the revolution. Every new generation raises its heroes. Only a short-lived day, and big name, small name, no name — all slip into oblivion.

Time is a great wrecker of names, a destroyer of fame. To hope for posthumous fame is merely courting a phantom. Sooner or later — and so often, too soon — comes the levelling stroke. Death, the great equalizer! How dieth the wise man? As the fool! Caskets may differ but contents, no difference. For all tread the inescapable eternal paths beyond.

"I HATED LIFE"

For the one whose destiny is earth-bound, whose hope lies in a name continuing after death, life is one colossal disappointment. To die and be forgotten as the fool, and to fade away like a nobody, robs this life of all meaning. Such a thought strikes the wise man so keenly that he exclaims, "Therefore, I hated life" (Eccles 2:7). So wrote Voltaire, "I hate life and yet I am afraid to die." This infidel had every reason to fear death: he faced a dark eternity with a tormenting conscience. For him, hell had begun on earth. So it is with the mass of Christless humanity.

But listen to the believer's cry of hope. Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him ..." (Job 13:15). Paul: "For to me . . . to die is gain" (Phil 1:21). What a contrast!

QUIZ: What made the difference between Voltaire and Job?

THOUGHT: Desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better.

2. IN THE WORLD: SORROW AND GRIEF (John 14:27; Eccles 2:18-23)

While Solomon was occupied with his great works of wisdom, this gave him satisfaction while it lasted. After a time the thrill wore off and they became to him objects of disgust. The mere thought that all the fruits of his labour must one day be left behind, to whom he could not tell, caused him to exclaim, "Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun…" (Eccles 2:18). How sad!

What sorrow fills the heart that is full of the world, and God displaced, left out. Wealth and power had captivated Solomon's heart, so that he was not perfect with God as David his father had been before him. He drifted from God, plunged into pleasure and laughter, into building and planting, into science and learning. The result he was soon to find out: "And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them … and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit…” (Eccles 2:10-11).

IN THE LORD: PEACE AND REST

We all seek for satisfaction. The fact is, nothing can satisfy us but God. He made us for Himself. So Augustine says, the heart will be restless till it finds rest in Him. To drive home this point with a little illustration: Take a shell, a good sized one and put it to your ear. What do you hear, but a sighing for the ocean whence it came and for which it was made! We too! Dear restless heart, whenever you sigh for rest and happiness, remember: you were made by God, and for God. Therefore to God you must go to find that perfect rest.

Do you sometimes feel restless because the ungodly prosper? Your neighbour or colleague is so profane and contemptuous of Christianity. Yet he does so much better in life. Do you wonder? Or, do you envy him? No, dear reader, such persons deserve your compassion and love, for they are without God, without life. They labour through days of sorrow and grief. At night their hearts have no rest. We must not follow in their steps or try to compete with them. Avoid their ways, and the ways of Solomon which were the ways of sorrow and travail.

We are travellers on this earth. God's provisions are as clear springs on the way, a way infested with robbers. The Lord's instruction to the traveller is: "Drink and move on!" So we must, snatch the cool refreshing drink of God's Providence, and hasten on. This world is not our home, we're just a passing through.

QUIZ: When you leave this world where will your possessions go?

PRAYER: Lord, help me journey through this earthly pathway with heavenly eyesight.

God bless you dear readers.