Indifference to Life Urged from Its Shortness and Vanity, pt. 1 by Samuel Davies (1724-1761)   [Here we continue a series that urges a certain indifference to life, and the things of this world, due to the shortness of life, and the vanity of the things of this world.  This series is taken from a funeral sermon by Samuel Davies.]—Ed.   29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; 30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. (I Cor. 7:29-31 AV).    A creature treading every moment upon the slippery brink of the grave, and ready every moment to shoot the gulf of eternity, and launch away to some unknown coast, ought to stand always in the posture of serious expectation; ought every day to be in his own mind taking leave of this world, breaking off the connections of his heart from it, and preparing for his last remove into that world in which he must reside, not for a few months or years as in this, but through a boundless everlasting duration.  Such a situation requires habitual, constant thoughtfulness, abstraction from the world, and serious preparation for death and eternity.  But when we are called, as we frequently are, to perform the last sad offices to our friends and neighbours who have taken their flight a little before us; when the solemn pomp and horrors of death strike our senses, then certainly it becomes us to be unusually thoughtful and serious.  Dying beds, the last struggles and groans of dissolving nature, pale, cold, ghastly corpses: The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave: The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm; These are very alarming monitors of our own mortality:  these out-preach the loudest preacher; and they must be deep and senseless rocks, and not men, who do not hear and feel their voice.  Among the numberless instances of the divine skill in bringing good out of evil, this is one, that past generations have sickened and died to warn their successors.  One here and there also is singled out of our neighbourhood or families, and made an example, a memento mori, to us that survive, to rouse us out of our stupid sleep, to give us the signal of the approach of the last enemy, death, to constrain us to let go our eager grasp of this vain world, and set us upon looking out and preparing for another.  And may I hope my hearers are come here today determined to make this improvement of this melancholy occasion, and to gain this great advantage from our loss?  To this I call you as with a voice from the grave; and therefore he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. One great reason of men’s excessive attachment to the present state, and their stupid neglect of the concerns of eternity, is their forming too high an estimate of the affairs of time in comparison with those of eternity.  While the important realities of the eternal world are out of view, unthought of, and disregarded, as (alas!) they generally are by the most of mankind, what mighty things in their esteem are the relations, the joys and sorrows, the possessions and bereavements, the acquisitions and pursuits of this life?  What airs of importance do they put on in their view?  How do they engross their anxious thoughts and cares, and exhaust their strength and spirits!  To be happy, to be rich, to be great and honourable, to enjoy your fill of pleasure in this world, is not this a great matter, the main interest in many of you?  Is not this the object of your ambition, your eager desire and laborious pursuit?  But to consume away your life in sickness and pain, in poverty and disgrace, in abortive schemes and disappointed pursuits, what a serious calamity, what a huge affliction is this in your esteem?  What is there in the compass of the universe that you are so much afraid of, and so cautiously shunning?  Whether large profits or losses in trade be not a mightier matter, ask the busy, anxious merchant.  Whether poverty be not a most miserable state, ask the poor that feel it, and the rich that fear it.  Whether riches be not a very important happiness, ask the possessors; or rather ask the restless pursuers of them, who expect still greater happiness from them than those that are taught by experience can flatter themselves with.  Whether the pleasures of the conjugal state are not great and delicate, consult the few happy pairs here and there who enjoy them.  Whether the loss of an affectionate husband and a tender father be not a most afflictive bereavement, a torturing separation of heart from heart, or rather a tearing of one’s heart in pieces, ask the mourning, weeping widow, and fatherless children, when hovering round his dying-bed, or conducting his dear remains to the cold grave.  In short, it is evident from a thousand instances, that the enjoyments, pursuits, and sorrows of this life are mighty matters!  Nay, are all in all in the esteem of the generality of mankind.  These are the things they most deeply feel, the things about which they are chiefly concerned, and which are the objects of their strongest passions. But is this a just estimate of things?  Are the affairs of this world then indeed so interesting and all- important?  Yes, if eternity be a dream, and heaven and hell but majestic chimeras, or fairy lands; if we were always to live in this world, and had no concern with anything beyond it; if the joys of earth were the highest we could hope for, or its miseries the most terrible we could fear, then indeed we might take this world for our all, and regard its affairs as the most important that our nature is capable of.  “But this I say, brethren,” (and I pronounce it as the echo of an inspired apostle’s voice), this I say, “the time is short”;  the time of life in which we have anything to do with these affairs is a short, contracted span.  Therefore “it remaineth”, that is, this is the inference we should draw from the shortness of time, “they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it,” (or using it to excess); “for the fashion of this world”, these tender relations, this weeping and rejoicing, this buying, possessing, and using this world “passeth away”.  The phantom will soon vanish, the shadow will soon fly off; and they that have wives or husbands in this transitory life, will in reality be as though they had none; and they that weep now, as though they wept not; and they that now rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that now buy, possess and use this world, as though they never had the least property in it.  This is the solemn, mortifying doctrine I am now to inculcate upon you in the further illustration of the several parts of my text; a doctrine justly alarming to the lovers of this world, and the neglecters of that life which is to come. When St. Paul pronounces anything with an unusual air of solemnity and authority, and after the formality of an introduction to gain attention, it must be a matter of uncommon weight, and worthy of the most serious regard.  In this manner he introduces the funeral sentiments in my text.  “This I say, brethren”; this I solemnly pronounce as the mouth of God:  this I declare as a great truth but little regarded; and which therefore there is much need I should repeatedly declare; this I say with all the authority of an apostle, a messenger from heaven; and I demand your serious attention to what I am going to say. And what is it he is introducing with all this solemn formality?  Why, it is an old, plain, familiar truth universally known and confessed, namely, that the time of our continuance in this world is short.  But why so much formality in introducing such a common, plain truth as this?  Because, however generally it be known and confessed, it is very rarely regarded; and it requires more than even the most solemn address of an apostle to turn the attention of a thoughtless world to it.  How many of you, my brethren, are convinced against your wills of this melancholy truth, and yet turn every way to avoid the mortifying thought, are always uneasy when it forces itself upon your minds, and do not suffer it to have a proper influence upon your temper and practice, but live as if you believed the time of life were long, and even everlasting?  Oh!  When will the happy hour come when you will think and act like those who believe that common, uncontroverted truth, that the time of life is short?  Then you would no longer think of delays, nor contrive artifices to put off the work of your salvation; then you could not bear the thought of such negligent, or languid, feeble endeavours in a work that must be done, and that in so short a time. “This I say, my brethren, the time is short”:  the time of life is absolutely short; a span, an inch, a hair’s breadth.  How near the neighbourhood between the cradle and the grave!  How short the journey from infancy to old age, through all the intermediate stages!  Let the few among you who bear the marks of old age upon you in gray hairs, wrinkles, weakness, and pains, look back upon your tiresome pilgrimage through life, and does it not appear to you, as though you commenced men but yesterday?  And how little a way can you trace it back till you are lost in the forgotten unconscious days of infancy, or in that eternal non- existence in which you lay before your creation!  But they are but a very few that drag on their lives through seventy or eighty years.  Old men can hardly find contemporaries:  a new race has started up, and they are become almost strangers in their own neighbourhoods.  By the best calculations that have been made, at least one half of mankind die under seven years old.  They are little particles of life, sparks of being just kindled and then quenched, or rather dismissed from their suffocating confinement in clay, that they may aspire, blaze out, and mingle with their kindred flames in the eternal world, the proper region, the native element of spirits.   (This study will continue in the next issue.)