The middle-aged, who, like the firmly-rooted oaks of Bashan, are so deeply engrossed in, and joined to, earthly affairs and household cares, that it is next to an impossibility to detach them therefrom because of their inseparable desire for the goods of this world; will see here people in the flower and prime of life, who might have gained much, but sought it not, because they would not miss the heavenly gain. These had a contented heart; they were clothed with coats of skins, only against cold and nakedness; they lived in huts or plain cottages, to be sheltered from rain, wind, hail and snow; they ate bread to satisfy their hunger, and drank water to quench their thirst; more they had not.[15] [15] Surely no man in the world can derive advantage from the abundance of his temporal possessions over and above the necessaries of life. Why then, the manifold anxieties and cares to provide for the future in regard to the things which concern the body; since nature is so soon separated by death from all this? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” Matt. 6:33. “Casting all your care upon him,” (the Lord) etc. 1 Pet. 5:7. There they shall see that these contented people surrendered to God the strength of their bodies, their station in life, and whatever they had; so that they, having become members of his church, esteemed it greater riches to suffer with the same the reproach of Christ, nay death itself, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. The aged, who have neglected their youth and middle life, and are now come to the eleventh hour,[16] and yet are still not working in the Lord’s vineyard, may here behold persons whose hoary head is a crown of glory, since they are found in the way of righteousness; who devoted their feeble powers, the short span of their life, yea their last breath, to the service and praise of their God and Savior, watching and waiting for the hour of their departure and the day of their redemption, that they might become an acceptable offering to the Lord. They longed for the clock to strike twelve, so as to be admitted by the Lord and be seated at his glad feast. [16] Though it is not advisable in temporal things to put off doing the day’s labor until evening, yet it is better late than never. This holds good also in spiritual things. When two of our last martyrs, Jan Claess of Alckmaer, and Lucas Lamberts of Beveren, an old man of eighty-seven years, received their sentence of death, at Amsterdam, Holland, in the forenoon of a certain day in the year 1544, Jan Claess said to the old man, Lucas Lamberts: “My dear brother, fear now neither fire nor sword. O what a glad feast shall be prepared for us, before the clock strikes twelve.” See II Book, year 1544. All this and infinitely more the worldly-minded, ignorant and unbelieving are taught here. O that each of them would consider this well!