Gold Nugget 157 - The Deathless Influence

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      We do not like to think that the time is coming when we shall be wholly forgotten; we should like to live on in the memory of men, especially in the memory of the wise and good.  We shrink from the idea of being entirely forgotten; we do not care to think that the hour will come when the mention of our name will not awaken the slightest interest in any human circle.  There is something exceeding attractive in the thought of fame, and repelling in that of oblivion. …

      It is indeed true that “the memory of the just is blessed,” and that they who have lived well, loved faithfully, wrought nobly, suffered meekly, striven bravely, will be remembered and honoured after death; they may be long, even very long, remembered and revered.

      There are just a few men whose names and histories will go down the long stream of time, of whom the very last generation will speak and learn.  But the vast majority of men will soon be forgotten.  Their names may be inscribed on memorial-stones, but in a very few years none will care to read them; the eye that lights upon them will glance from them with indifference; there will be “no remembrance” of them.  The world will take its way, will do its work and find its pleasure, regardless altogether of the fact that these men once trod its surface and now lie beneath it. …

      We may be always living in the deathless influence our faithful lives exerted and handed down.  For good influences do never die; they are scattered and lost sight of, but they are not extinguished; they live on in human hearts and lives from generation to generation.

      We shall be loved and honoured otherwhere.  What if we be forgotten here upon the earth?  Are there not other parts of the kingdom of God?  And is there not one where God will have found for us a sphere, and in the minds and hearts of those who will be our friends and fellow-labourers there we shall hold our place, honouring and honoured, loving and beloved?

 

Gold Nugget 157

The Deathless Influence

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.23, Ecclesiastes 1: 11, (W. Clarkson)

 

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