(Mary Evelyn Heaton)

You have a terminal disease - how dreadful that pronouncement. When we or one of our loved ones hear these words, we all react with shock and disbelief. If in the case of a child or young person we say he never really had a chance at life. With a more mature person we say they had so much to live for.

And we grieve - we speak in whispers or not at all about their illness. Sometimes when they are unaware, we look at them and our eyes fill with tears and our heart is wrenched at the thought of the loss of this one we love. Even people we don't know, a public figure or movie star, we experience grief.

Are we so ignorant, brethren, that we do not know that even as we were delivered into this world, the sentence of death hung over us all? I read frequently of people who are caring for their children whom doctors have pronounced terminally ill. If they are able to do so, they take them to see distant lands, they buy and do for them - crowding into the few months all the expectations of a lifetime. Love is showered down. Patience is unending, each day is lived to it's fullest. Parents forgo other pleasures to make them happy.

Just so it is if it is a husband or wife. Reassurances of love and care. People themselves under such a pronouncement say, "I'll live each day to its fullest. I will see things I've never seen before. I will try to deeply experience each facet of life." Of course there are darker moments of giving up - rage of lost hope.

If one could realize as we all live from day to day, we are not assured more than the last breath we have drawn. What a pity we cannot enrich our lives each day with the joys God has given us. Why must we only react with such depth of love if we have been told "only a few months left." Why do we get caught up in our daily life to the extent our values are warped. To leave unsaid things we may never have a chance to say. Feeling secure in the fact that we have years yet to live.

If I could say but one thing before eternal silence, I would say, "Life is a terminal illness - live each day as under that sentence. Drink deeply of the beauty and joy of life, experience love, share your life. Above all, trust God in all he says."

The poet writes:

Art Is Long, Time Is Fleeting

And Our Hearts Though Stout And

Brave Still Like Muffled Drums Are Beating

Funeral Marches To The Grave.

Truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death." (1 Samuel 20:3) "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am." (Psalm 39:4) "And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life." (1 John 2:25)

A Living Presence

(A Parable)

A young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is the way long?" she asked. And the guide answered, "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."

But the young mother was happy and she could not believe that anything could be better than these days. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way. And the sun shone on them and life was good. And the young mother cried, "Nothing can be lovelier than this."

Then came night and storm; and the path was dark and the children shook with fear and cold. But the mother drew close to them and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "We are not afraid, mother, for you are near; and no harm can come to us." And the mother said, "This is better than the brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage."

And the morning came and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary. But at last she said to the children, "A little patience and we will be there." So the children climbed and when they reached the top they said, "we could not have done this without you, mother."

And that night the mother looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardship. Yesterday I gave them courage; today I gave them strength."

And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth - clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled. The mother said, "Look up: lift your eyes to the light." And the children looked and saw above the clouds the everlasting light, and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness. And that night the mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."

And the days went on and the weeks and the months and years, and the mother grew aged, and she was little and bent. But the children were tall and strong and walked with courage. And when the way was hard, they lifted her over the rough places. At last they came to a hill and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and the golden gates and they flung wide.

And the mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey, and now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them." And the children said, "You will always walk with us, mother!" They stood and watched her walk through the golden gate; then the gates closed after her. And they said, "We cannot now see our mother but she is with us still - she is a living presence."

A man's reputation and his character are seldom the same. Reputation is the human evaluation ... what men say of him; character is the divine evaluation ... what God knows him to be. A man's reputation may be good and his character bad; or his reputation may be bad and his character good. (Selected)

Quiet a few women who claim to be Christians are now smoking as much as the men. But I never heard of a man saying that he wanted a wife that was a heavy smoker. Many women are becoming professional wrestlers and attract large crowds, but I never heard of a man requesting that his wife must be an expert wrestler.

Several are now making great boxers, but men do not require that the wife be able to knock them out of the ring. Many women are cursing as big as any man but I never heard a man say he had to have a woman that could curse more than he to be his wife. Women now try to see how much of their body and limbs they can expose before the public eye, in bathing suits, sun suits, shorts, abbreviated dresses, but I never heard a man say he would select a wife among the women who exposed themselves more than all others.

To be sure, I have not heard all that has been said; but if I hear what is said in keeping with the word of God, these things mentioned will not be heard. The Bible is too clear for anyone to meet the Lord without knowing the right and the wrong of them.

What we need is to have more men who respect women who respect the word of God and more women who are willing to respect the Lord's teaching. That means adorning themselves in modest apparel, having a meek and quiet spirit with shamefacedness and sobriety.

Homes are not what they used to be mainly because woman has lowered herself and carried the home down with her. Let her return.

A preacher bought eggs from a lady in the country. One day she couldn't make correct change, so the preacher would up owing her a dime. He said, "Don't worry about it, just come hear me preach; but I remind you, I don't have any ten-cent sermons." To which the lady replied, "Well, then, I guess I'll have to hear you twice."

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