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In September 1855, fifty-three-year-old Adolphe Monod was overtaken by a fatal illness. His life had been devoted to three periods of ministry of about ten years each at Lyons, Montauban, and Paris. He was described as “twice over the first of the Protestant preachers in France, first for the excellency of his oratorical genius, and then for the holiness of his life.” His active and much-blessed ministry was now reduced to a single bedroom. Beginning in mid-October, various friends gathered in his room on Sunday afternoons to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
Adolphe Monod’s Farewell is a collection of short discourses from a man who knew that his time was short. Beginning in mid-January, he gave a series of five meditations, which were called “A Dying Man’s Regrets.” The fifth of those focused on “Pre-occupation with Petty Interests.” Monod said:
We must not confuse pre-occupation with petty interests with attention to little things. We are called upon by God to occupy ourselves with a host of little things, and it is chiefly of such things that life is made up. The manner in which we fulfill our smaller duties is quite as true a measure, often more true, of our piety than the way we do the great [things].
As the end of the year approaches, I often find myself drawn to reread the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards (written in the early part of his life) or Monod’s Farewell (written as his life ebbed away). It’s a good thing to take stock of, to weigh in the balances, what has transpired during the past year, what has occupied my time and energy, and how focused I have been on glorifying and enjoying God. I think that none of us can come to the end of the year without regrets. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps. 139:23–24). We have never come to the end of a year when God has not been faithful to the uttermost and displayed His mercy to a lavish degree (86:15).
Returning to Monod’s bedside, we hear him speak to his friends:
My friends, if you knew how, when you see death at close quarters, . . . how one regrets not having lived more for God, as Jesus lived, and how, if one had to begin all over again, one would lead a more serious life, more full of Jesus Christ, of His Word and His example. . .
This is my desire for you and my ardent prayer, and it is also the prayer which I beseech you to make to God for me, so that during the time that is left to me, whatever it is, I shall think only of living for the glory of God and for the good of my fellow-men, and this will be to live at the same time for my own eternal joy! Amen.