working side by side at the same occupation, passing through the same
circumstances. So far as physical changes go, these men are the same.
Both lose much. Both leave behind much. Both cease to be interested in
much that was dear to them. Both die at last, and leave it all. Is there
any difference? The transitoriness is the same, and the eternal
consequences are eternal alike in both; and yet there is a very solemn
sense in which the one man's life has utterly perished, and the other's
abides. Suppose a man, educated to be a first-rate man of business,
dies. Which of his trained faculties will he have scope for in that new
order of things? Or a student, or a lawyer, or a statesman?

Oh, it is not our natural mortality that makes these thoughts so awful;
but it is the thought that the man who is doing these things is
immortal. The head which wears the fading wreath will live for ever.
'What will ye do in the end?'

II. Godly life brings unfading joys.

Communion with God yields abiding joys. The law of change remains the
same. The law of death remains the same. But the motives which direct
and impel the godly man are beyond the reach of change.

The habits which he contracts are for heaven as well as for earth. The
treasures which he amasses will always be his.

His life in its essence and his work are one in all worlds. What a grand
continuity, then, knits into one a godly life whether it is lived on
earth or in heaven!

Communion with God gives beauty and ornament to the whole character. It