HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Ecclesiastes 7:8

So the builder says. The mallet and the chisel can be laid aside now. The scaffolding is taken down. The rubbish is cleared away. Men look up at the perfected edifice.

My life is a building. Is its foundation Jesus Christ? And on this foundation have I been laying nothing flimsy and perishable? True thoughts, holy deeds, and quiet labours of love. Not wood and hay and stubble — but gold and silver and precious stones.

So the gardener says. Through spring and summer, he waits; but autumn comes, and the reapers sing in the fields, and the wagons carry home the grain.

My life is sowing. Is it a sowing to the Spirit? Trust and love and penitence and purity — have I kept casting these seeds into the soil of my soul? Ah well, I may have no golden harvest in this life — but in far-off worlds, among triumphant saints, in the presence of God, my reaping will come.

So the traveller says. He is home from the sea and hill. The goal is better than the toilsome march — the shore is better than the tossing billow.

My life is a pilgrimage. Is it the path which shines more and more unto the perfect day? The start was good if it was Christ’s redemption. The way is good if it is the way of obedience and communion with Jesus. But the end is best. It is the city of the glorified saints. It is the King in His beauty.

There are endings which are hopeless as midnight. But, my soul, there are endings among the things which the eye has not seen nor heart conceived — but which God has prepared for them that love Him!