Sadly as this announcement may present itself to us at the first, writing vanity on so many of the toils, and hopes, and accumulations of men, yet, looked at a little closer, it is not so sad as it appears.
I. For, in the first place, that a man shall carry away nothing with him when he dieth is true only of his earthly goods, which are therefore not goodsin the highest and truest sense of the word. Here then is a thought of encouragement, of strong consolation: that it is only the meaner things of earth which lie under the bondage of corruption, on which the sentence of vanity is written, which refuse to accompany their owners on that long last journey which, one day or other, every man must make.
II. Even in regard of earthly things, while it is quite true that a man can carrynothing of them away with him whenhe dies, he may sendmuch of them before him while he lives. The Apostle Paul declares no less when, urging those who are rich that they be glad to distribute, he proposes this as a motive, that they will be thus "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come." God is not unrighteous, to forget the least of these things that are wrought for His name's sake.
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey,p. 364.
References: Psalms 49 Expositor,1st series, vol. x., p. 466. 1. 1-6. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xix., p. 276. 1. 5, 6. G. Calthrop, Temptation of Christ,p. 311.Psalms 50:11. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Children's Bread,p. 95. 1. 12. D. G. Watt, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 292.