The Moral of Accidents
T. T. Lynch. Matthew 24:38-39 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage… I. What are we to THINK? Let us now collect and enumerate a few thoughts that we ought to think when we are considering sad things that happen. 1. How many accidents are but slight as to the hurt they do in comparison with the service of the lesson they teach. 2. From how many things "going to happen" we are saved when loss and danger appear imminent. 3. How manifest and honourable are the work and courage of man in averting accidents, and in lessening the harm they do. 4. How incessant is the beneficial operation of the great natural laws, and how varied in kind is their benefit. 5. How careless and untrue is the work of many men; how needful is it that they should have a warning they will heed. And how often, after all, does the right accident happen obviously at the right time and to the right kind of person. 6. How certain it is that unfaithfulness in work will bring disasters, small and great, which are misnamed when we ca!l them "accidents;" for, though we knew not, we might have known that they were sure to happen. And — 7. How certain it is, too, that, if anything favourable to us unexpectedly occurs, we shall not be able to take advantage of it unless we are men of some resource and some character. II. We come now to our second question: WHAT ARE WE TO DO? What are we to do, then? We are not to eat, drink, and marry, careless of the way in which we do these things, and unmindful of our duty to God in them, as if the world, that can take care of itself, would take care of us without any good heed of our own. We are to ask and get answered the question, "What must I do to be saved? " Let us, seeing that so much we have may at any time be the prey of the spoiler, store up the inconsumable, imperishable riches. Many men have lost their lives by accident; no man ever lost his soul by accident. (T. T. Lynch.) Parallel Verses KJV: For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, WEB: For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,