To Know That Life Never Ends…

With deeply moving insight a poet left us these words:

Who that hath ever been

Could bear to be no more?

Yet who would tread again the scene

He trod through life before?

There is much earnest searching as to basic beliefs, much searching for certainties. The world, nations, people personally have their problems and each day the problems seem more complex. There is much running, much seeking of solutions, while moral tone, moral standards, and the foundations of belief seem to recede and soon there comes a time when we turn to look at our lives, at values and eventualities, and what really matters most. If this life were all, there is the question of how much it would really matter. If, at some moment of illness or accident, all this were as if it had never been, the meaning of life would certainly be less. Its greatest significance comes with the assurance that life and personality are perpetuated, and that whatever we are within ourselves we shall take with us into eternity. This is the assurance of our Lord and Saviour, who rose from the tomb, who gave us the pattern and taught us the purpose and opened the way to the highest opportunities of everlasting life. And as men run to and fro, looking elsewhere for answers, they will find them given by the Master of mankind. And to you with problems, to you whose hearts are heavy, to you who ache with loss of loved ones, to you who search for the purpose and meaning of life, we would share this day the conviction that the answers are there, that the loved ones lost are there; that the assurances are there. And as we turn to Him in faith, and keep His commandments, we can have, as Jesus promised, peace in this world and “eternal life . . . in the world to come.”  “Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? . . .”