We often think and talk as if the possession of riches was the great antidote to sorrow, and as if money could secure us against sickness and death.
But it is the very extreme of blindness to think so. We have only to look around us and see a hundred proofs to the contrary. Death comes to palaces, as well as to cottages–to landlords as well as to tenants–to rich as well as to poor. It tarries no person’s leisure or convenience. It will not be kept out by locks and bars. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). All are going to one place, the grave.
But it is the very extreme of blindness to think so. We have only to look around us and see a hundred proofs to the contrary. Death comes to palaces, as well as to cottages–to landlords as well as to tenants–to rich as well as to poor. It tarries no person’s leisure or convenience. It will not be kept out by locks and bars. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). All are going to one place, the grave.
~ J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985], 104. {Mark 5:35-43}
