Bewitching Balm Hides The Real

Your life is brief, like a buning taper*,
And so cheaply sold; death may come by sword,
Famine, or disease; in its short caper,
You will meet the scythe that severs its cord,
And it frees you from the suff'rings of earth.
You needn't fear final toll of the bell,
Nor losing the life whose living brings dearth;
For you know life's not much sweeter than hell;
Better to live in service to the Lord,
Than for lesser grail**! If life you cherish
More than your soul, on you has Satan poured
Bewitching balm, and you vainly perish!
Let not love of life dampen Christian zeal,
Nor hell-sent balm becloud that which is real!

*candle **achievements

In the joys of youth each of us loses sight of how brief life really is. As you read this, your death is not even a whisper in your mind; the longer you live, the shorter is the time you have yet to live. How wise God is! He gives us that invincible feeling that we will live forever! There will come a day, and it comes sooner than you expect, when you suddenly realize that your life is one-half used up, or two-thirds, or three-fourths. or nine-tenths.

Old age may be the years in which we are the wisest, but then the time is past when the wisdom can be of much benefit. If we become very, very wise, we realize that a lot of life has been eaten up struggling against poverty, disease, trying to gain knowledge of what is the meaning of life, or repaying society precious time that we could have used serving God.

When we are young, we love our youth, and we hate to give it up to serve others; but when we are old, we realize we should be serving others, but we are not physically able, or we have very little time left for service. We begin to see, as we grow older and wiser, that large chunks of our brief spare time have been used selfishly, gratifying our own desires, of which we had plenty. At that point, if we are very, very, very wise, the thought occurs, why didn't I live more of my younger days in service to God? My life would have been equally or more enjoyable, and my service would have guaranteed an eternity of happiness with God in heaven.