Eventide Constrains Thought
Genesis 24:63
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.


The twilight speaks of the flight of time, of the evanescence of all worldly glory, the vanity of all mere earthly hopes. It whispers that all days will soon be over as this is. Does it not require a most determined perverseness to shut out thoughts like these? And what a hardening process a soul must go through that has often and often, thousands and thousands of times, deliberately refused to listen to these twilight voices, and, it may be, sometimes laughed away the solemn, tender feelings as if they were idle phantoms of the brain. The great event of evening is sunset. The sun droops toward the west. As he approaches the horizon he darts rays of marvellous brilliance. The clouds become transfigured, glorified. No mortal tongue can tell the enchanting beauty of many sunsets. It is a thing in the world that stands alone without rival. Its magnificence arrests the most heedless. Men stand transfixed by the celestial vision. I have seen a man with a heavy burden on his back arrested by it. That is nature constraining men to think, and filling them with vague and vast delight, mixed with regret and longings. The setting sun is an appeal to the love of pleasure and glory. It does say that there is glory somewhere. It tells of joy beyond imagination.

(J. Leckie, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.

WEB: Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.




Evening, the Time for Meditation
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