What then is the future that awaits us as Christians?
Let me remind you again of our tragic failure to realise the truth about ourselves. What is it that awaits us when we come to die? I want to put this message to you by way of contrast.
Sailor's rest
I read a passage in a daily newspaper under the heading 'These great words'. And the great words were: 'I love to consider a place which I have never yet seen, but which I shall reach at last, full of repose, and marking the end of these voyages, and security from the tumble of the sea. This place will be a cove set around with high hills on which there shall be no house or sign of men, and it shall be enfolded by quite deserted land; but the westering sun will shine pleasantly upon it under a warm air. It will be a proper place for sleep. The fairway into that haven shall lie behind a pleasant little beach of shingle, which shall run out into the seas from the steep hillside, and shall be a breakwater made by God. The tide shall run up it smoothly, and in a silent way, filling the quiet hollow of the hills, brimming it all up like a cup - a cup of refreshment and of quiet, a cup of ending. Then with what pleasure I shall put my small boat round, just round the point of that shingle beach, noting the shallow water by the eddies, and the deeps by the blue colour of them, where the channel runs from the main into the fairway. Up that fairway shall I go and the gates of it shall shut behind me, headland against headland, so that I shall not see the open sea any more, though I shall still hear its distant noise. Under that failing light, all alone in such a place, I shall let go the anchor chain, and let it rattle for the last time. My anchor will go down into the clear salt water with a run, and then I shall tie up my canvas and fasten all for the night, and get me ready for sleep. And that will be the end of my sailing.'