#1965

Happiness or "Wantingness"

I always carry an oil can in my pocket!

(J.R. Miller, "Intimate Letters on Personal Problems" 1914)

There is a good illustration in one of Dr. Parkhurst's books. He tells of a workman who was in a trolley-car one day. As the door was opened and shut, it squeaked. The workman quietly got up and, taking a little can from his pocket, dropped some oil upon the offending spot, saying as he sat down, "I always carry an oil can in my pocket, for there are so many squeaky things in this world which a little oil will help."

Dr. Parkhurst applies this to life, saying that love is a lubricant with which we can soften or prevent a great many unpleasant frictions with others--if we always have love and will speak the gentle word, the soft word, the kindly word, at the right time. I used the illustration recently in my church in a sermon, and suggested to the people that they all carry oil cans, thus trying to make the world a little sweeter place to live in.

"I am not writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning--that we love one another." 2 John 1:5

"The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself." Galatians 5:14

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you--so you must love one another." John 13:34

Addition, Dr. Morris

            Only in America, do you find so many active/memorialized cemeteries. Our farming ancestors, almost without exception, had a family grave-yard near the farm home. On islands in the Pacific, I saw burial plots with tombstones in the front yards of most homes. In our sanitized world, when death is involved, and some families don't even look at their dead, I often wonder what people think about when they visit a cemetery.

            For the Christian, those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus and the eventual resurrection of their own loved ones, the cemetery "grave-mounds" of their loved ones are only historical reminders of what has happened to a worn-out body. We rejoice in the fact that the soul is already enjoying eternity/eternal bliss with God. There will be a resurrection of the deceased body from that grave, but for those who buried their loved ones unregenerated/unsaved, it was truly the second death, and there is neither hope nor happiness; only bleak "wantingness."

            Even the friends and disciples of our blessed lord, those who walked and talked with him every day...those who saw his miracles, evidently did not believe that he would resurrect. I believe that if they had believed his words about rising again on the third day succeeding his death, that they would have been at the graveyard "when the stone was rolled away." But, his resurrection made an eclysmic change in their lives...none of his disciples were ever the same again, each of them (expect John, who lived to be the oldest, and was only 17 years of age when called), went to their deaths as martyrs; Peter crucified...tradition tells up upside down. Luke hanged from an olive tree in Greece, Mark dragged through the streets of Alexandria, Bartholomew skinned alive, Thomas, always a doubter/fearful...going all the way across the Himalayas to India (The most religious place in the world).

            This writer stood at Madras, India where Thomas was killed by a Brahma Hindu sword. The resurrection is the greatest part of your Christian life because, in the death of your family and friends, if they are saved, you know that they will live forever. Your soul, which has no mass/no identity. Your soul makes you what you are, your individuality; other parts of your body can be transplanted...heart, liver, cornea, etc, but the soul is in the blood...(Leviticus 17:11). Your soul leaves the body at your death; last breath here, first breath there. But, a cemetery will never look the same if you realize that is only a place to put the remains of a worn-out body...awaiting resurrection.