Daily Declining

Notice the DD – must be why they say D-Day, the one event comes unto all and the end of the race.
[Ecc. 9:3] This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
There is an evil among all things so it is all little enough to make your passage through this world easy and comfortable: The days of your life are the days of your vanity; there is nothing here but trouble, and disappointment. You will have time enough for sorrow and grief when you can not help it, and therefore live joyfully while you can, and perplex not yourself with thoughts and cares about to-morrow; sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. Let a gracious serenity of mind be a powerful antidote against the vanity of the world.
Prov. 2:18; 9:18. The doctrine of the happiness of the righteous (whatever you may suffer, they and your works are in the hands of G-d, and therefore in good hands, and concludes with the doctrine of the misery of the wicked; however they may prosper, madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Envy not the prosperity of evil-doers:
1. They are now madmen, and all the delights they seem to be blessed with are but like the pleasant dreams and fancies of a distracted man.
They are mad upon their idols (Jer. 50:38), are mad against G-d's people, Acts 26:11.
When the prodigal repented, it is said, He came to himself (Lk. 15:17), which intimates that he had been beside himself before.
2. They will shortly be dead men. They make a mighty noise and bustle while they live, but after awhile, they go to the dead, and there is an end of all their pomp and power; they will then be reckoned with for all their madness and outrage in sin.
Though, on this side death, the righteous and the wicked seem alike, wolves in sheep’s clothing, on the other side death there will be a vast difference between them.
The advantages which the living have above those that are dead in verses 4-6:
1. While there is life there is hope. It is the privilege of the living that they are joined to the living, in relation, business, and conversation, and, while they are so, there is hope. If a man's condition be, upon any account, bad, there is hope it will be amended. If the heart be full of evil, and madness be in it, yet while there is life there is hope that by the grace of G-d there may be a blessed change shaped; but after men go to the dead it is too late then; he that is then filthy will be filthy still, for ever filthy. If men be thrown aside as useless, yet, while they are joined to the living, there is hope that they may yet again take root and bear fruit; he that is alive is, or may be, good for something, but he that is dead, as to this world, is not capable of being any further serviceable. Therefore a living dog is better than a dead lion; the meanest beggar alive has that comfort of this world and does that service to it which the greatest prince, when he is dead, is utterly incapable of.
2. While there is life there is an opportunity of preparing for death: The living knows that which the dead have no knowledge of, particularly they know that they shall die, and are, or may be, thereby influenced to prepare for that great change which will come certainly, and may come suddenly. They know they are under a sentence of death; they are already taken into custody by its messengers, and feel themselves declining.
Whereby we are taught to improve life by following what the Good Book teaches. This is a needful useful knowledge; for what is our business, while we live, but to get ready to die: The living knows they shall die; it is a thing yet to come, and therefore provision may be made for it. The dead know they are dead, and it is too late; they are on the other side the great gulf fixed.
1. There is an end of all our acquaintance with this world and the things of it: The dead know not any thing of that which, while they lived, they were intimately conversant with. It does not appear that they know any thing of what is done by those they leave behind. Abraham is ignorant of us; they are removed into darkness, Job 10:22.
2. There is an end of all our enjoyments in this world: They have no more a reward for their toils about the world, but all they got must be left to others; they have a reward for their holy actions, but not for their worldly ones. The world can only be a pension for life, not a portion for ever.
3. There is an end of our name. There are but few whose names survive them long; the grave is a land of forgetfulness, for the memory of those that are laid there is soon forgotten; their place knows them no more, nor the lands they called by their own names.
4. There is an end of their affections, their friendships and enmities: Their love, and their hatred, and their envy have now perished; the good things they loved, the evil things they hated, the prosperity of others, which they envied, are now all at an end with them. Death parts those that loved one another, and puts an end to their friendship, and those that hated one another too, and puts an end to their quarrels. The person and his actions die together. There we shall be never the better for our friends (their love can do us no kindness), nor ever the worse for our enemies--their hatred and envy can do us no damage. There the wicked cease from troubling. Those things which now so affect us and fill us, which we are so concerned about and so jealous of, will there be at an end.
5. Man's love and hatred can no longer be exercised for good or evil in the same way as on earth; but the fruits of them remain. What he is at death he remains for ever, that all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
[7] Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
It is our wisdom to make the best use of life that we can while it does last, and manage wisely what remains of it. Let us relish the comforts of life while we live, and cheerfully take our share of the enjoyments of it. We may use the world, but must not abuse it, take what is to be had out of it, and expect no more.
Make this use of what I have said, and get into a better temper of mind, let the ladder days be better than the former.
1. Let thy spirit be easy and pleasant; then let there be joy and a merry heart within, a good heart. We must enjoy ourselves, enjoy our friends, enjoy our G-d, and be careful to keep a good conscience, that nothing may disturb us in these enjoyments. We must serve G-d with gladness, in the use of what He gives us, and be liberal in communicating it to others, and not suffer ourselves to be oppressed with excessive care and grief about the world. We must eat our bread as Believers, with gladness and liberality of heart, Acts 2:46; Deut. 28:47.
2. Make use of the comforts and enjoyments which G-d has given you: Eat your bread, drink your wine, yours, not another, not the bread of deceit, nor the wine of violence, but that which is honestly got, else you can not eat it with any comfort nor expect a blessing upon it--your bread and your wine, such as are agreeable to your place and station, not extravagantly above it nor basely below it; lay out what G-d has given you for the ends for which you art entrusted with it, as being but a steward.
3. Our first care must be to make our peace with G-d, and obtain His favor, to do that which He will accept of. Your own worshiping services, when performed with holy joy, are pleasing to G-d; He loves to have His servants sing at their work, it proclaims Him a good Master.