The Inevitable Hour

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 6, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 39.

The Inevitable Hour

John Temple Graves in the Hearst papers draws a wonderfully dramatic picture of the meeting of J. Pierpont Morgan with Edward Harriman shortly before his death. These two men had met in conflict before, and Harriman had been too much for Morgan; but Harriman had met one greater than himself—Death, and he knew that in a few hours he must bow to Death’s scepter. Yet the instinct of ruling was so strong within him that he could not bear to see the great system which he had built up fall to pieces, and he sent for Morgan. Morgan becomes now an important element in the great trust which controls the Harriman property. Mr. Graves wonders what must have been the thoughts of Pierpont Morgan as he walked away from Arden, of the “pale, passing king dethroned—yea, and of that other and mightier King never to be dethroned—that gray, restless monarch of the shadows, before whom Pierpont Morgan himself must bow in time, and at whose relentless beckoning he, too, must relinquish his scepter of gold yet to another, who in his turn must abdicate to Death!”

“Sing once more, O Solemn Bard, the lines that epitaph our lives:

“ ‘The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Alike await th’ inevitable hour; The path of glory leads but to the grave.’”

How much better it is to be content with a few things in this life, to live for others as well as ourselves, to send the fruit of our best efforts on before us, that we may have part in that glorious kingdom where death reigns never.