[203] παραγεται. It has been said that this is not the real point; that what St. John here describes is not the general attribute of the world as transitory, but its condition at the moment when the Epistle was written, in presence of the manifestation of "the kingdom of God, which was daily shining forth." But surely the world can scarcely be so completely identified with the temporary framework of the Roman Empire; and the universality of the antithesis (ὁ δε ποιων κ.τ.λ.) and its intensely individual form, lead us to take κοσμος in that universal and inclusive signification which alone is of abiding interest to every age.
[204] Job xiv. 1, 2. Cf. x. 20-22.
[205] Such seems to be the meaning of אַבְלִינָה (Ps. xxxix. 14).
[206] Ps. xc. 9.
[207] James iv. 13-17. The passage 1 Pet. i. 25 is taken from the magnificent prophecy in which the fragility of all flesh, transitory as the falling away of the flowers of grass into impalpable dust, is contrasted with the eternity of the word of God. Isa. xl. 6, 7, LXX.
[208] "Possessa onerant, amata inquinant, amissa cruciant."—St. Bernard.
[209] The view here taken of Bouddhism follows that of M. J. Barthelemy St. Hilaire. Le Bouddha et sa Réligion. Prémière partie, chap. v., pp. 141-182.
[210] "These populations neither deny nor affirm God. They simply ignore Him. To assert that they are atheists would be very much the same thing as to assert that they are anti-Cartesians. As they are neither for nor against Descartes, so they are neither for nor against God. They are just children. A child is neither atheist nor deist. He is nothing."—Voltaire, Dict. Phil., Art. Athêisme.
[211] It is noteworthy that in the collects in the English Prayer-Book, and indeed in its public formularies generally (outside the Funeral Service, and that for the Visitation of the Sick), there are but two places in which the note of the "world passeth away" is very prominently struck, viz., the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, and one portion of the prayer for "The Church Militant." One of the most wholesome and beautiful expressions of the salutary convictions arising from Christian perception of this melancholy truth is to be found in Dr. Johnson's "Prayer for the Last Day in the Year," as given in Mr. Stobart's Daily Services for Christian Households, pp. 99, 100.
[212] The old "Memento Mori" timepiece of Mary, Queen of Scots, is a watch in the interior of a death's-head, which opens to disclose it. Surely not a symbol likely to make any soul happier or better!