The Great Divide

The grave divides this world from the Hereafter. The next world lies across this great divide. Today we are on this side of the divide; tomorrow we will cross it. All living men will taste death; no one will be able to escape it. But man is oblivious of death—the greatest reality of life.

We have all seen people entering the grave never to return, but few of us realize that we are also going to meet the selfsame fate. The door of the grave will open for us and then close on us for ever.

How strange it is that man witnesses others dying every day, but himself lives as if he was never going to die. He can see others being summoned before God every day, but he excludes himself from death’s list; he acts as if he was never going to come before the Lord to be judged.

We are closer to death than life. If we could realize this we would look on everyone’s death as our own; it would seem as if we ourselves were being carried to the grave when we saw someone else’s funeral.