sang the song. The eyes
of the sufferer gazed stedfastly above. A heavenly light beamed forth from
her countenance. A smile of joy was upon her face. Presently she called
the sorrowing relatives one by one and bade them a last good-by. I fell
upon my knees by her bedside and sobbed out my childish grief. She turned
and looked fondly down upon me and, laying her hand upon my head, said,
"Charlie, be a good boy and meet me in heaven."

A little while she was quiet. Then her life's sun sank to its rest. But
the afterglow of that beautiful life still shines in that community.
Circumstances later took me far away; but after sixteen years, I again
stood upon the scene, and over and over during my stay the neighbors told
me of her beautiful Christian life. Many a time during those years when I
was tempted to do evil, I would behold that scene again, and those last
words of my sainted mother would ring in my ears; they stood as a bulwark
between my soul and evil.

The same afternoon that the message so dreadful came to me grandmother
visited a neighbor who was drawing near to his life's sunset. When she
came back, she told what passed while she was there. The man was a
skeptic. There was no life beyond the grave for him. There was no hope of
reunion around the throne of God. Grandmother spoke to him of his
approaching end and asked him if he was prepared. His answer I shall never
forget. Young as I was, it struck me with terrible force. With a look of
deepest melancholy on his face he said, "It is taking a leap into the
dark."

A few days later he passed away, and he and mother lie there in the little
country cemetery waiting till the voice of the Son of God shall call them
forth. But ah, the difference between those two life-sunsets! One left the
glorious hope of a Christian shining forth, tinting the sky with beauty;
the other's sun sank into a dark cloud of despair, lighted only with the
lurid glare of the lightning of God's wrath.

Reader, what will be your life's sunset? Will it be serene and calm and
peaceful, lighted up with glory from the throne of God, or will it be
dark, without a promise or ray of hope? You are fast hastening to that
hour. It may be nearer than you think. If you live without God, you will
die without God. Take a view of yourself now. Would you like for your
life's sunset to find you as you now are? If not, what assurance have you
that it will be different? Good intentions will never change it. Goo