Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

—
—
:
BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
the case; your soul is inside. The case—the body—may be taken
off and buried in the ground, and the soul will live and think,
just as well as the watch will go, as you see, when the case is
off.' "
279. I knew a man of eighty years of age who frequently
said: "Well, I really must set about thinking of my future."
And yet we are not without warning: everything speaks of
death. Alphonse Karr.
280. A French deist was once arguing against the immortality
of the soul. His Christian friend heard him through in silence,
then replied: "Probably you are right, probably you are not
immortal, but I am."— Lyman Abbott.
281. Why should love allow the end of what it loves? If it
cannot prevent the end, why does it create? It is as though a
father should rear children till their love for him had bloomed
into full sweetness, and then dig graves into which he thrusts
them while their hearts are springing to his and his name is
trembling upon lips that he smothers with eternal dust. It is
related of an Arab chief, whose laws forbade the rearing of his
female offspring, that the only tears he ever shed were when his
daughter brushed the dust from his beard as he buried her in
a living grave. But where are the tears of God as He thrusts
back into eternal stillness the hands that are stretched out to
Him in dying faith? If death ends life, what is this world but
an ever-yawning grave in which the loving God buries His
children with hopeless sorrow, mocking at once their love and
hope and every attribute of His own nature? T. T. Munger.
282. Over the triple doorways of the Cathedral of Milan
there are three inscriptions spanning the splendid arches. Over
one is carved a beautiful wreath of roses, and underneath is
the legend : "All that which pleases is but for a moment." Over
the other is sculptured a cross, and there are the words: "All
that which troubles us is but for a moment." But underneath
the great central entrance to the main aisle is the inscription
"That only is important which is eternal." If we realise always
these three truths, we will not let trifles trouble us, nor be
102