Benefits of the House of Mourning

Introduction and Prayer for Unction

0:01 The following sermon was preached by Pastor Albert N. Martin on Sunday evening, January 19, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This message is entitled, The Benefits of the House of Mourning, and the text is found in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 7 and verse 2. I believe that anyone possessed of any measure of spiritual discernment has been conscious that a special unction has rested upon the reading of the Word of God and upon our corporate prayer, and I trust it is God's index of His purpose to bless us with more than an ordinary portion of His presence and power in the preaching of His Word. Let us seek His face to that end.

1:00 Our Father, we cry with the psalmist that as the young man, the young dear pants after the water brooks, so pant our souls after You, O God. We long to see Your power and Your glory. We thank You for those little tastes that You give to us, even in the ordinary stated means of grace. When the reading of Your Word comes with peculiar unction, when we are led in prayer, when we are aware and together are conscious of being given a more than ordinary measure of largeness of heart and the things for which we seek You, and, O God, how we long that those mercy drops shall become a mighty deluge of the felt power and presence of Your Holy Spirit. To this end, we would be bold to plead that in the reading and exposition of the Word of God, now, that You will come by the Holy Spirit and arrest every mind, every conscience, O Lord, from the youngest to the oldest, so speak that some will mark this night as the night

2:24 when they were shaken out of their dream world of carnal ease and began to find themselves in the way of seeking God. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:36 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:37 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:39 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Context and Textual Introduction

2:41 Our Father who mark this night as the night that they closed with the offers of mercy in the Lord Jesus, when they shall for the first time pillow their heads with a well-grounded peace and with a well-grounded assurance that all is well with their souls, May your people mark this night as a night when we have been stirred to renewed devotion to you and renewed commitment to serve you against the backdrop of the brevity of life. O Lord, come and speak to us with power we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Most of the membership of Trinity Church are aware that during this past week we sought to obey the biblical injunction in weeping with several of our number who have wept at the loss of a loved one. And as I sought to be sensitive to the desires of these loved ones

4:01 in conjunction with the planning of the funeral service of a mother who was in the hospital, I sought to obey the biblical injunction in weeping with several of our number who was taken from two of our members. It was their request that I bring a brief meditation at the funeral home based upon Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 2. And since early Thursday morning when I reflected upon that text and then later on in the morning had the occasion briefly to expound and apply it at the funeral or memorial service, the text, the text has been with me along with the passage in Mark. They have been my meat and drink over the past days.

4:46 And as I prayerfully reflected on what I should bring this evening, this text would not let go of my mind and my spirit and in a sense it would almost have been impossible to preach on any other text. And so I would direct your attention to the book of Ecclesiastes tonight, the book of Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes. I had Song of Solomon in the wrong place. I'm sorry.

5:18 I hope you knew that.

5:21 After Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon comes before Isaiah. And chapter 7 and verse 2. The writer of Ecclesiastes declares, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of, for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart.

The Comparison: House of Mourning vs. House of Feasting

5:51 Bypassing the knotty problems of the authorship of the book of Ecclesiastes, bypassing the equally difficult matter of the overall structure and the principles of interpretation which must be present in any responsible handling, of the entire book of Ecclesiastes. I am asking you to go directly with me to this statement that is an accurate reflection of a wise man with reference to a very sensitive area of human behavior and reaction. And in the text there is set before us, first of all, a comparison. A comparison is stated, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. And after the comparison is stated, then an explanation is given. Why is it better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting?

7:03 Well, the explanation comes to us in two parts. For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. First of all, then, consider with me what the writer tells us in this comparison stated. In his comparison, he is contrasting two houses.

7:31 One is described. As the house of mourning and the other as the house of feasting. Now, what are these two houses? Well, the house of mourning is nothing other than a situation that would have its closest parallel in our that which we would call a funeral service.

7:56 Some would call it awake. Different terms are used in differing cultures and even within different parties. But the writer is comparing that house where people are gathered upon the occasion of the death of a friend or a loved one and are entering into that spirit of heaviness and mourning in the fusion of the grim, harsh reality of death. And so the house of mourning is the place where.

8:37 People are forced by the very circumstances of the proximity of death to face its great reality. That's the house of mourning. What then is the house of feasting? Well, those who are very knowledgeable in the Hebrew language tell us that the house of feasting is literally the house of drinking, the place of banqueting, the place where under the influence of food and.

9:07 Wine abundance and atmosphere of gaiety is that the gritties of life and death are at least for a time forgotten or pushed very far of one's thinking. If you want to be the party pooper par excellence, introduce a discussion on the subject of death the next time you're in a banquet. You see. Thanks to think sober thoughts about death banquets are not a place where the mindset is at all prepared that of a house of mourning. And so in this comparison, the author is contrasting the two houses, the house of mourning and the house of feasting. Now, in considering the two houses, he says that it is better. If one has the choice.

10:26 To make his way to the house of mourning, that of banqueting or feasting now, no nations is in itself virtuous or sinful. There is nothing sinful into a house of feasting. We read in the scriptures that our Lord Jesus attended both. His first miracle was performed in a house of feasting.

11:01 Yeah. It was there that our Lord turned the water into wine, the joy and the legitimate gaiety of those who were gathered at a time of feasting. Furthermore, when Matthew is converted, he throws a banquet for Jesus and Jesus goes to the house of feasting as the guest of honor and so enters in with delight, albeit within the bounds of moderation in his eating and drinking. And so in this comparison, the author is contrasting the two houses, the house of feasting and the house of feasting.

11:34 And so in this comparison, the author is contrasting the two houses, the house of feasting and the house of feasting. Thinking that the Pharisees looking in are not only disturbed. He is in company with the riffraff of Israel, the publicans and sinners, but they said, behold, wine, liver, and when he goes, he pooper at a banquet with relish and delight, as do all inquiters. So the text in the light of the analogy of scripture, that there is something inherently evil in the house of feasting.

12:18 Or is there? Anything automatically virtuous in the house of mourning. Now you see, the attitude of a person is to grab language, let have a blast. Surely these words sound strange.

12:46 It is better mourning than to the house of feasting. Not only do they sound strange in the light of the prevailing our day of the word of God, they have a note of strangeness about them. But the scriptures tell us that the kingdom of God. It's not eating and drinking, but righteousness, joy in the Holy ghost.

13:16 Are we not told that the joy rejoice? Are we not told that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, go teaching how it is better if one has the choice to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. What led this wise man to reflect upon human experience? And to.

Explanation Part 1: Death is the End of All Men

13:50 And make such a statement as we find in the comparison here stated, well, that moves us to our second division, an explanation given an explanation given, why is it better to go to a funeral than to a festival?

14:11 Well, for two simple reasons given to us in the text, number one, for that is the end of all men. What is he saying? He is saying it. Is.

14:22 It's better to go to the house of mourning than the house to feasting because our presence at a house of mourning reminds us forcefully of our own inevitable end at a house of mourning for signs us of our inevitable end for this of morning is the end with me, a man who's denied.

15:07 He's at a company. He's at a company banquet and there and the speaker comes and makes everyone laugh. And let's assume there's nothing ribald and off, lecherous in the humor that it's wholesome humor. Someone gives a speech on the company's future and a pet employees.

15:35 There is nothing inherently sinful evening spent in a house of feasting at the local holiday in banquet hall. There is no likelihood that the successful young businessman who is there to be both re incentive in application of all his faculties to the company's concerns, very little likelihood that from the appetizer until the speech is made, he will reflect upon the fact in a few years at best, he will be a skit and carried to a funeral.

16:30 Little chance that that thought will. However, the next day at two o'clock in the afternoon income company of his fellow employees goes to a local funeral parlor to pay respects to a respected executive who was climbing his way up through the corporation ladder and at the height of his career in his late forties was taken away by a sudden and unexpected heart attack. He must stand by. By the open coffin and look at the remember earthly remains of that friend and it is much more likely if he will stand there and think for even 30 seconds that he will one day lie in a casket as his friend now lies and it's precisely that observation that caused the writer to say it is.

17:41 Better to go to the House of morning than to the House of feasting for that is the end of all presence at the House of morning vividly reminds us of now the Bible tells us that all of us in the language of Joshua 2314 will go away of all the Bible tells us in Hebrews 927. It is appointed unto men once to die. The generation of us. You and I.

18:06 You and I. We have been. The who. We are not sure.

18:13 We are not sure. I'm glad to be with you. I appreciate it. You know I appreciate our honor.

18:17 And I appreciate the things that you do. But I don't. I think it's a. The fact that.

18:21 affirms the teaching of the word of god we see grandmother taken from us in death and then father and mother and relatives and work associates and we see on every hand but inescapable reality that the only thing certain about life is from the moment that little babe is taken from its mother's womb and cries its first cry and in its first lung full of the air that life and that is that it will end that life will be surrounded with luxury or poverty whether that life will become a noble tragic life none of these things can be predicted with certainty but that that life

Explanation Part 2: The Living Will Lay it to Heart

19:34 will and can be as surely it shall breathe its last but all has wrought that we will about this great reality and therefore the house of mourning is better than the house to feast house of feasting because our presence in the house of mourning of our then he adds a second part of the explanation in these words and the living will lay to his heart what is he saying he is saying our presence at a house of mourning should product prepare for our essence at a house of mourning should product to his heart now what does

20:47 that phrase me well when you lay something to your heart you know long things simply to have a glancing blow upon your thinking or upon your actions or your attitudes for example you may have a neighbor that has a chronic habit of cutting short it could get asked him what are you talking about so many times the the answer to the question yes but how do you find yourself that way aired at least some interest don't know about that in your family i mean it's not quite easy to hear someone think it matters but here's our case when you think that with the root of our mind i all the baked art in a laufen und s gorgeous the那個が to heart it begins to bother you it begins to be something that concerns you enough that you're going to do something about it you have laid it to heart we use similar terminology all the time and that's precisely what the writer is saying that the house of mourning is better than the house to feast house of feasting not only because our presence at the house of mourning reminds us

22:07 vividly of our own end but our presence at the house of mourning should prod absolute it is not so some of the most delirious conversation i have ever heard has been carried on in a funeral parlor and some of the most action i've ever with a cemetery instead of is the blind sin

23:21 in context where people were strangers both to the knowledge and the powers uttered out of place i am not talking about at a funeral at which they gather i am not speaking of that but i am speaking of that irresponsible that damning that dilute difference and insensitivity which the house of mourning ought at least temporary and cause men to remember as a boy dreading the first time i would have to go to a funeral and witness a dead body laid out and i was quite old before i did i had such a dread of such a fear of dying in my sin going to meet my all of my sins

24:40 of every sort and the thought of being mourned it was horrible but then in his early teens with whom i had been running and playing and jumping in the water at long island sound in stamford connecticut where we lived one day did something we often did in jumping off the side of the canal over several fellows who stood there with their backs bent over it was just a way we sort of uh... cavorted as fellows will do but he flipped a little bit too much and when he landed he hit the back of his neck and snapped his neck and by the time they pulled him out of the water he was dead and i can remember when i saw that lifeless body lying there for the first time i had seen a dead person i'm sure i've had a life of that kind of love i love what i do at my own pace i'm glad i was able to live when i can enjoy life the way i am now seen a dead person and how i was tortured for days why why because i knew if that had been me my soul would be in the company of demons and devils and all of the damned in hell but tragically

25:57 to heart everything i could to push my spirit back and of judgment to come is better to go to the house of mourning for our presence should prod us to prepare that's why the writer says by way of comparison that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting two reasons and i've sought briefly to open them up now then let me lay before you three very simple principles

Principle 1: Natural Aversion to Sober Thoughts

27:02 that grow out of the text and i trust god will write them upon our hearts and the first is this this text indicates that none of us naturally is as sober as we ought to be about the great issues of death and of judgment none of us is naturally as sore as he ought to be about the issues of death and judgment the writer and when middle i must need it but manana told some other time some other

28:11 of the most horrible acts of the blind is that he so works in us as the sons and daughters of disobedience that none of us is as naturally so about the great issues of death and judgment as we ought to be and that's why the house of mourning the funeral parlor by the cemetery how i thank the cemetery that presses up on both sides for acres and acres of blood and blood and acres garden state parkway in the 140 section in the irvington area how it's to me hundreds of times over these 22 years when i've been on my way to preach somewhere it's caused me to say oh god tonight in the light of stone will be all the rotting remains and oh god awaken men to the great reality that every tombstone is an eloquent thundering voice from heaven concerning the devil you are a liar you are a liar you are a liar for he

29:35 said you shall not surely die and every graven stone is god's eloquent thunderous exposing the devil for what he is a liar and the father of it no none of us saved or unsaved is as naturally sober about the great issue of death and judgment as we ought to be then therefore it is better for us without a deep tendency two shy away and to ignore and hope that by clinking weekend review these grim realities far better to go to the house of mourning what we cannot deny the reality the lifeless bobby lives before us the morning loved ones stand around us and Everything thunders, it is appointed unto men once to die. But then secondly, our text teaches us that anything, anything that jars us to serious and concentrated attention to the issues of death is ultimately our friend.

Principle 2: Anything Jarring Us to Serious Attention is Our Friend

30:56 Anything that jars us to serious and concentrated attention to the issues surrounding death is ultimately our friend. You see, if there's to be a house of mourning, someone must feel the pain of the loss of a loved one. If there's to be a house of mourning, someone must feel the sting, the stab, the wrench. Reaching loose from all the living present exchange of mind and thought and word and touch and all that makes human interchange a living reality. That's a sad thing. Jesus wept in the presence of death. But, but, if it can jar us to serious and to concentrated attention to this issue, the house of mourning in all of its tragedy and madness is our great.

32:05 If the house of mourning can burst the bubble of giddy self-deception and carelessness and indifference. For you see, no man, woman, boy or girl ever came from a giddy, carefree, unconcerned state of being to being a Christian man by magic. You hear me? No one ever came, young or old, from being a giddy, carefree, unconcerned sinner on his way to hell under the wrath and judgment of God with hell on such a state into one who was trusting in the Lord Jesus. One who had repented of sin, forsaken all hope of salvation in himself, laying the weight of his guilty soul upon him. One who had repented of sin, forsaken all hope of salvation in himself, laying the weight of his guilty soul upon him. And in the power of that new life imparted by the living God, seeking to love and serve God, out of motive of gratitude for his free salvation,

33:10 seeking to love and serve God, out of motive of gratitude for his free salvation, no one ever came to that state from this state by magic.

33:22 You know what had to happen, first of all? A young man or woman, old man or woman, had, first of all, to begin to think serious thoughts about God and about himself, about God and about his cancer, about his life. as a righteous God about himself as an unrighteous sinner he had to think some serious thoughts about the reality of judgment and the subsequent horror of hell and the reality of the fact that his sins deserve the judgment of God and its ultimate expression in outer darkness no one becomes a Christian who doesn't begin to become a Christian with serious thoughts about God serious thoughts about sin serious thoughts about death and judgment and hell in the meaning of life and generally speaking except in the case of some who come into life as it were like the opening of a flower before the sun and they do so from their infancy I know there are such but generally speaking God's way is to bring us to those serious thoughts then to bring us to serious searching of the Word of God to serious prayer to serious crying to God serious

34:46 attendance upon preaching and then these lead to true repentance true faith open confession of Christ taking the badge of discipleship being placed in the way of a visible saint in the community of the people of the world. of God that's how people become Christians so my friend listen listen to me if you refuse to think serious thoughts about God about death and about judgment you are refusing the very first steps to salvation if you're so determined to live in feasting though your feet may not be there if you're so determined that wherever you are and hell is horrible

35:55 state to be in that's par law wherever you go from the sixth three wise walked man the man who owns in his radio why doesn't want to be quite thing he wants to be in the house of feasting where he can forget why all the hype about Super Bowl what is it 20 two weeks of hype why well one thing is the commercial isn't if you were a company that stood to get over with some of the bad things all the time. I just don't think about it. It stood to get over a quarter of a million dollars for a 30-minute spot ad. You'd be concerned about Super Bowl XX.

37:05 But what is it that the average man and average woman are looking forward to? A Sunday when for six hours, with all of the falderal surrounding the Super Bowl, they can gather in homes and in bars surrounded with their bottles of beer and other...

37:25 And have a blast! Why? They want to be in the house of feasting, in the house of reverie. Why?

37:36 They do not need to think sober thoughts about God and sin and death and judgment in hell. But, oh, dear friends, listen to the text. It is better to go to the house of mourning. And as I thought of this text and thought of next week, when they estimate 70 or 80 or possibly 90 million Americans will be glued to their television sets on the Lord's Day.

38:04 Oh, that we could somehow by force go into all the homes and all the bars and drag everyone out, make them stand open grave and watch a body, Lord, hear the sobs of loved ones and say, You too shall be lowered, my friend, and your soul will have made its flight to go out into... into a fixed state of eternal bliss or eternal misery.

38:37 Super Bowl Sunday into a... And sit and reflect upon the fact that it's appointed unto men once to die.

Principle 3: Resist Neutralizers of Serious Thought as Mortal Enemies

38:56 Anything that jars us to serious and concentrated attention to these issues is ultimately our friend. And then thirdly and finally, in my...

39:10 In my application, I want to say this. Anything or any person which neutralizes the possibility of serious thoughts about death and judgment, heaven and hell, should be resisted as our mortal enemy.

39:31 You hear me? If it is better to go to the house of mourning, there to be reminded, that's my end. And in the light of that, that reminder to be stirred up. If it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, where I am forced by the very context to put off sober thoughts about God, then I say, anything or any person that neutralizes the possibility of my going to the house of mourning, that neutralizes the possibility of my thinking serious thoughts about God, and sin, and heaven, and hell, and this, that, and it's pointed application that gets me in trouble, but I love your soul enough to go after it in hand-to-hand wrestling.

40:37 I'm convinced that there are dear and precious young people in this congregation who from the human side are never going to get saved until you are willing to change a very fundamental pattern. You know what that pattern is? It's the pattern of congregating with other giddy young people after every service to talk giddy talk about giddy things and have no sober thoughts about what you heard in the preaching. Some of you have sat here under the preaching and unless I've been grossly deceived in spite of yourself, you've listened. In spite of yourself, you have stopped. sensed the earnestness and the love and the genuine compassion of those who preach to you and you have sat there and inwardly trembled and you've said oh i must begin to think seriously about these issues i must begin to seek the lord to enfold receptive heart every seed but then the

42:04 pressure of your peers the moment the service was over less than five minutes later you were gathered with your peers each one whistling a little louder in the dark to prove that nothing got to me anything get to you of course not didn't get to me you're a young person in the name of god what kind of friends are those that'll drag you into hell airless thoughtless blind friends are they drag you into hell air to say tonight when they tap you on the shoulder hey come on you know what they want you to say come on for you say no thanks and you sit for a few moments and reflect or you talk to mom and dad and say mom and dad i want to talk to you when we get home tonight i see the truth of that passage i can't deny i'm gonna die and i don't know when and i'm not ready seek out one of us and we might take you aside in one of the many rooms here privately and speak with you

43:25 and pray with you pray for you dear young person don't let peer pressure neutralize the pressure of the word of god for if you're ever to be saved you'll be saved not until then what about some of you who can't be classified teenagers or young people what happens to you you come you hear the word you sense the reality that throbs through the singing of god's people you sense the earnestness that tinge of spiritual reality and unction in the prayers you know that these things are real you can't afford the luxury of even trying to suggest to yourself for ten minutes that it's all a lot of hot air you know better but what happens you leave this place and instead of going home shutting yourself alone and taking out your bible and turning to the text that was preached upon that brought an impressed upon your spirit the passage that impressed you in the regular reading what do you do you go to the table and light conversation follows and then you watch the ten

44:49 o'clock news and by the time you've had a look at the house of feasting instead of turning your bedroom into a house of morning all do you feel you hear me anything any person which neutralize is the possibility of this build up in that house will be a said or would be a u.s. courts of serious thoughts about person or thing is your mortal enemy and you ought to treat it as such most of you are familiar with at least the broad outlines of pilgrim's progress aren't you and you remember what happened when pilgrim through reading the book of god became convinced he was in the city of destruction and when he began to leave so determined was he that he would not be destroyed that he placed his fingers in his ears to make himself deaf to the voices of

46:02 any friends who would seek to keep him and with fingers until he crossed the river he did not rest till he came through the gate came by the house of interpreter stood before a cross and his burden rolled on and after all the ups and downs of his sojourn he crosses the way of his enemies and his people take away all the treasures of the pomp and attacking the poor and their followers and his own people and his fellow soldiers and hisfeltings, river and is ushered into the celestial city and he is home safe at last. But it all began when he got into the house of mourning long enough to have sober thoughts about hell and judgment and the world to come and set his heart upon obtaining eternal life. For some of you, it may mean nothing less than the relinquishment of some of the toys that you've

47:17 gathered around you as a grown adult, hobbies and pursuits that demand so much time and make you feel so good, put you out of touch with the sobering realities of death and of judgment. For some of you, it may mean severing a very dear relationship. you may have your heart set upon a young man or a young woman and you know that they are not desperate to lay hold of eternal life and you know if you become desperate you run the risk of having them shock you my friend when that person that you are thinking of exchanging for Christ has the power to present you faultless before God in the day of judgment then cling to them but until God confers upon that man or woman the ability to vindicate you in the last day you better drop them if they stand between you and Christ because if Christ does not stand with you in the last day to vindicate you and plead your cause you've had it you've had it and you've had it for eternity

Joyful Christianity and Final Exhortation

48:36 now am I advocating a joyless Christianity that only you can do and lives in the house of mourning of course not that would be contrary to the whole teaching of the word of God I am not advocating becoming morose I am not in any way propagating a notion of the Christian life that simply lives continually under a dark of the sobering realities of death but what I am saying is the house of mourning can afford the luxury of being a happy man or woman because then you can live you can say to depart from this body is to be with Christ which is much much better you see in a real sense the only person who has any right to be in the house of feasting is one who's learned the lesson of the house of mourning isn't that right because you see our feasting is not to neutralize and to stop the voice of conscience

50:00 it is not to stop the voice of conscience It is not to shut out the great realities. In the midst of our feasting, we can say, if life can be so full of joy now, in union with Christ, hallelujah, what will it be to sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb? God's true people are a happy people, but they've got grounds for their happiness and a base for their happiness that will never be removed.

50:33 My friend, it's better to go to the house of mourning. Oh, go there tonight. Get alone and get quiet and picture in your mind's eye the slab on which you'll be laid, the coffin in which you'll be laid out, to which you will be placed, and then think of that soul, that never-dying immortal, that world from which there is no return,

51:04 eternal torment, eternal joy, awaiting the day of resurrection that body will be joined to that spirit, and then the intensification of that state fixed at death will be ushered in. Eternal bliss in resurrection body and perfected soul for those in Christ. Eternal torment of body and soul for those that are out of Christ.

51:33 Thank God was at the price of grief and pain to some very dear among us in this, in this assembly. Thank God He's brought us as a congregation in His providence into the house of mourning. It's better to go there than into the house of feasting. Why?

51:55 For that's the end of each one of us. And those who are wise will lay it to heart. Oh, lay it to heart. Think soberly enough to get desperate to be in Christ and desperate to be in Christ.

52:11 Rest not until you know, Rest not until you know, that you are in Him. Repent, believe the gospel, throw the weight of your guilty, vulnerable soul upon Him who is mighty to save, and find His promise true to you. Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray.

52:37 We thank you for the observation of the wise man who saw the spirit of Christ and who saw the spirit of Christ and who saw the salutary effects of going to the house of mourning, who saw the spiritually debilitating effects of frequenting the house of feasting. And we pray that you would write this text upon our hearts and oh, that we may lay these great realities to heart. May they not merely make a glancing blow upon our minds and spirit, but may the arrows of your truth stick fast as it were in the bullseye of our hearts and of our consciences. And may there be no rest until the hand of Jesus extracts the arrows by the application of His saving mercy. Oh Lord, save sinners, save children, save teenagers, save men and women. Lord, save us.

53:52 Lord, don't let people leave this place and cooperate with the devil in the damnation of their own souls. Don't let those who are arrogant in their determination to damn themselves, don't let them influence others who may have felt the arrows of conviction. Oh God, have mercy, have mercy and draw to yourself and help us to be saved. And help us who are your children.

54:25 We confess, Lord, amidst the pressures of daily responsibility, we so seldom reflect on the brevity of life. We pray with Moses, the man of God, so teach us to number our days that we may get us a heart of wisdom. Hear our prayer, seal your word to our hearts and to your name be praise, honor, and glory now and forever. Amen.