John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work. A young prince asked his tutor to give him some instruction about preparing for death. "Plenty of time for that when you are older," was the reply. "No," said the child; "I have been to the churchyard and measured the graves, and there are many shorter than I am." A courtier, who had passed his life in the service of his prince, having fallen dangerously ill, the prince went to visit him, accompanied by his other courtiers. He found him in an agony of suffering, and at the point of death. Touched with the sad spectacle, he said, "Is there anything I can do for you? Ask unhesitatingly, and fear not that you will be refused. Prince, replied the sufferer, in the sad situation in which you see me, I have but one thing to ask of you; give me a quarter of an hour of life." "Alas!" said the prince, "what you demand is not in my, power, to give;, ask something else, if you wish me to aid you." "Oh, what!" said the dying man, "I have served you for fifty years, and you cannot give me a quarter of an hour of life! Ah! if I had served the Lord thus faithfully, He would have given me, not a quarter of an hour of life, but an eternity of happiness." Very soon after he died. Happy it he himself profited by the lesson which he gave to others on the nothingness of human life and the necessity of working out one's own salvation. (Ponder and Pray.) Parallel Verses KJV: I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. |
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