AND HE DIED by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 2, 1869

“AND HE DIED.”

By Dudley Marvin Canright

This short sentence, when considered in its connection, gives us a forcible idea of the shortness of human life. Of Adam it is said, “All the days that Adam lived was nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.” Gen. v. 5. “And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.” Verse 8. “And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty and nine years; and he died.” Verse 27. Here were men who lived, not fifty years, nor seventy, nor a hundred, nor two, nor five hundred years, but almost one thousand years—a sixth part of

the time that our world has stood! Yet each one’s record closes with, “And he died.”

Now men can hope to live only sixty to eighty or possibly a hundred years at the longest, and then they must die. However long and prosperous a life any man may have, it must close in the same way, “And he died.” The young, the noble, the honored, the rich,—all alike must soon have it said of them each, “And he died.” What a blight this puts upon all the joys and bliss of earth. They must all come to an end, and the cold, dismal silence of death must take their place.

There is something very sad and mournful in the language of the dying Jacob as he directs his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah. “There,” said he, “they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.” Gen. xlix, 31. Rachel was my best beloved wife; but I had to part with her and lay her in the grave with the rest. How many bitter tears we have dropped upon that lonely cave in Machpelah! Yes, and the world is all dotted over with tombs of the dead like Machpelah. How many times it has been said of lonely, bereaved, and bleeding hearts, “She goeth unto the grave to weep there.” “Friend after friend departs; who hath not lost a friend?”

Reader, have you ever wept beside the grave of a dear friend? How keen the anguish of that moment. How drear and cold and cheerless the world then looked. So your friends will soon weep beside your tomb; and as they recount your life they will close your history by saying, “And he died.” We are now in this world of the dying and of the dead. Is it reasonable for us to set our hearts upon the things here which are so soon to pass away? There is a world to come where it shall never be said of any one, “And he died,” but all shall be immortal and never die. May we all obtain a house there.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Richmond, Me., Dec. 25.