[302 words]
A merchant sat at his desk, and all around him were letters, bills and other evidences that he was much absorbed in the details of his business. A gospel preacher entered and said, “I have come to try to interest you in a matter of great importance. I would like to talk to you about the destiny of your soul, and the gospel of Christ.”
“Oh well, you must excuse me preacher,” said the merchant. “I am very busy,” was his reply. The preacher excused himself and with a sad and heavy heart, left. The merchant turned again to his papers.
Just a few days after this incident, a disagreeable stranger stepped into the merchant’s office and laid a cold moist hand upon his brow and said, “Come home with me,” and the merchant laid down his pen and closed his books and went home. He felt dizzy, faint and sick.
A cold chill settled on the merchant’s heart, specters of ships, notes, ledgers, houses and lands flitted through his excited brain. His pulse beat slower; his heart heaved, a thick film gathered over his eyes; his tongue refused to speak, and death’s clammy dampness was on his brow.
He knew the name of the strange visitor was “Death.” He was too busy to attend to spiritual matters and the salvation of his soul but he was not to busy to die.
What about you? What is your life? God warns, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit,” whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away’” (James 4: 13-14).
via Findlay church of Christ
Sparta, TN