When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius there were many persons buried in the ruins who were afterwards found in very different positions.
There were some found in deep vaults, as if they had gone there for security. There were some found in lofty chambers. But where did they find the Roman sentinel?
They found him standing at the city gate where he had been placed by the captain, with his hands still grasping the weapon. There, while the earth shook beneath him, there, while the floods of ashes and cinders overwhelmed him, he had stood at his post, and there, after a thousand years, he was found.
Let us stand ready in the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, walking in holiness and standing eternally in Honour, that when He comes for us, we may be at our posts, dutiful, with a legacy that may grow a thousand years.