All is shadow here below! The world is a shadow; and it passes away! The creature is a shadow; and the loveliest and the fondest may be the first to die! Health is a shadow; fading, and in a moment gone! Wealth is a shadow; today upon the summit of affluence, tomorrow at its base, plunged into poverty and dependence! Human friendships and creature affections are but shadows; sweet and pleasant while they last, but, with a worm feeding at the root of all created good, the sheltering gourd soon withers, exposing us to the sun's burning heat by day, and to the frost's cold chill by night! Oh, yes! “Passing Away” is indelibly inscribed upon everything here below! Yet how slow are we to realize the solemn lesson: “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!” Unconverted reader, what is your life but a vapor that passes away?and what are its pursuits but shadows; unreal, unsatisfying, evanescent? Your rank, your wealth, your honors, your pleasures, are but phantoms which appear but for a little while, and then are lost in the deeper shadow of the grave, and the still deeper and longer shadow of eternity! Oh, turn from these dreams and hallucinations, and, as a rational, accountable, immortal being, on your way to judgment, fix your mind upon your solemn, endless future! You are going to die! And, oh, when that dread hour comes, so real and appalling, how will your past life appear?
Octavius Winslow

Bible – German Luther Psalm Chapter 60:1-12.

Index: German Luther

 

Psalm 60

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60:1 (Ein gülden Kleinod Davids, vorzusingen; von der Rose des Zeugnisses, zu lehren; da er gestritten hatte mit den Syrern zu Mesopotamien und mit den Syrern von Zoba; da Joab umkehrte und schlug der Edomiter im Salztal zwölftausend.) Gott, der du uns verstoßen und zerstreut hast und zornig warst, tröste uns wieder.

60:2 Der du die Erde bewegt und zerrissen hast, heile ihre Brüche, die so zerschellt ist.

60:3 Denn du hast deinem Volk Hartes erzeigt; du hast uns einen Trunk Weins gegeben, daß wir taumelten;

60:4 du hast aber doch ein Panier gegeben denen, die dich fürchten, welches sie aufwarfen und das sie sicher machte. (Sela.)

60:5 Auf daß deine Lieben erledigt werden, hilf mit deiner Rechten und erhöre uns.

60:6 Gott redete in seinem Heiligtum, des bin ich froh, und will teilen Sichem und abmessen das Tal Sukkoth.

60:7 Gilead ist mein, mein ist Manasse, Ephraim ist die Macht meines Hauptes, Juda ist mein Zepter,

60:8 Moab ist mein Waschbecken, meinen Schuh strecke ich über Edom, Philistäa jauchzt mir zu.

60:9 Wer will mich führen in die feste Stadt? Wer geleitet mich bis nach Edom?

60:10 Wirst du es nicht tun, Gott, der du uns verstößest und ziehest nicht aus, Gott, mit unserm Heer?

60:11 Schaffe uns Beistand in der Not; denn Menschenhilfe ist nichts nütze.

60:12 Mit Gott wollen wir Taten tun. Er wird unsre Feinde untertreten.