death is preaching to us

This morning, I saw a dead pigeon. I think it must have flown into a window. It was lying there on the concrete, looking almost as if it were asleep. Nope. It was dead.

We don't usually think just how short our lives are - let alone if we die by sickness or accident - but as a Christian, there's so much to look forward to, and so much to live for now.

"Each fading leaf admonishes you. You will most surely have to die; why not think upon the inevitable? It is said that the ostrich buries its head in the sand, and fancies itself secure when it can no longer see the hunter. I can hardly fancy that even a bird can be quite so foolish, and I beseech you do not enact such madness.

If I do not think of death, yet death will think of me. If I will not go to death by meditation and consideration, death will come to me. Let me, then, meet it like a man, and to that end let me look it in the face. Death comes into our houses, and steals away our beloved ones.

Seldom do I enter this pulpit without missing some accustomed face from its place. Never a week passes over this church without some of our happy fellowship being caught away to the still happier fellowship above. This week a youthful member has melted away, and her mourning parents are in our midst. We as a congregation are continually being summoned to remember our mortality; and so, whether we will hear him or not, death is preaching to us each time we assemble in this house." - C.H. Spurgeon

taken from Concerning Death by C.H. Spurgon