In the inspired records, we read of our Lord standing on the Mount of Olives, and beholding with grief many who should soon be overwhelmed by the sword of destruction. But his eye followed them far beyond death and the grave. He saw those, indeed, who should, through submission to his sceptre, rise to glory; but mourned over the many who should, by rejecting him, sink at last into everlasting perdition. He wept in the sight of many spectators. But it was not over the mere loss of the body, but over the loss, the awful,—the tremendous,—the irretrievable loss, of the immortal soul ! Now this Omniscient One, who wept on the brow of Mount Olivet, beholds our history during this new period of our existence. He sees us, either dying before the termination of the year, and immediately commencing to reap in heaven or in hell the fruit of what we sowed on earth;-or he beholds us enduring to its close, advancing in true holiness through faith in the blood of the cross;-or, ripening for eternal woe by neglecting the great salvation. How does he now regard us? My dear reader, I do not ask the presumptuous question, where you shall certainly be six months or a year hence? You cannot, you dare not answer. Ere then we may be gone, and the green turf growing over our grave. But I am warranted by the word of God to ask of you, in all affection, a bolder question, even where, you have good grounds to conclude, you shall be, a thousand, and ten thousand years hence; and through all eternity? For just as we are in the sight of God at the moment of death,-reconciled or unreconciled to Him,-holy or unholy,-so shall we be for ever afterwards. If you know not,-and seek to waive the question by a vague hope of being in heaven, a mere peradventure,—when you are giving no sure indications, by a holy and devoted life, of having been renewed by the Holy Spirit through faith in the Redeemer, you are walking in darkness-the darkness of ununpardoned sin. If you ask how you may know where you have reason to expect you shall be a thousand or ten thousand years hence, tell me how you have spent the past year; or, how you have begun the present one?-Was it in peace with God through the blood of Christ ?-Was it with a solemn determination, in God's name and strength, and from grateful love to the Redeemer, that, whatever others did-a -as for you and your house, you would serve the Lord? If so, then you may hail your glorious prospect, and exult in hope of your bright inheritance! You have no cause to be afraid of your departure. The world of spirits is but another part of the empire of Him whom not having seen you love, and who, when you go through the valley and shadow of death, shall prove that He is with you, in all the fullness of His unchangeable love,— delivering you from fear,-lighting up that otherwise dismal region with the peace which passeth understanding. With such brightening prospects before you, I charge you, in the name of your Lord and Master, who redeemed you by His blood,—to give your whole heart and soul to the pursuit of vital holiness, and to the promotion of the cause for which He lived and died. Ask every day, What can I do this day to promote my personal holiness and the salvation of immortal souls? Let us begin this year, through the grace of God, so that it may be one we shall look back upon from heaven with the greatest-most triumphant--joy and gratitude. But our starting point, if we wish to quicken our journey, must be from Calvary. It is in vain to accelerate our spiritual progress if we do not begin by a visit, of no ordinary kind, to "the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." Here alone do we get new grace, new life, new vigour. And when a soul is thus pardoned, healed, constrained by the love of Christ,-drawn onwards and upwards by the sure and stedfast hope of eternal glory,-how rapid is its advance in meetness for that eternal state! Like a vessel under a press of sail, borne on by wind and tide, entering the peaceful haven, and about to receive the warmest congratulations of beloved friends; so will such arrive in heaven, welcomed by saints and angels, and above all by the Lord of angels. To them—an abundant entrance shall be administered into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But, on the other hand, do I address any who have not, under a sense of guilt and danger, fled to the Redeemer and submitted to his sceptre; any, who are not, through obedience to His revealed will, laying up treasure to eternal life,—any, not seeking the Lord habitually as the friend of their heart, the saviour of their soul, their hope for time and eternity;not having continual recourse to His blood to cleanse them from all sin;-not desiring that frequent intercourse with God which is the mark of genuine affection? What can I conclude regarding you from the word of God? If we look to that standard, and to the account which it gives of those who are on the road to glory or destruction, we have too much reason to fear, that, in place of laying up treasure in heaven during bygone years, you have hitherto, like Dives, been gathering every day together the materials of endless wrath for your funeral pile,-on which, if grace prevent not, you shall lie down; while the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brim stone, shall kindle it! O! unpardoned sinner,-if you die this year in your present state, it had been better for you that you had died many years ago,-and still better that you had never been born. May you now awake from the sleep of death;-and behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, as now waiting to welcome, pardon, and sanctify you, through His atoning blood and by His Holy Spirit. May you now begin the race to glory, honour, immortality. Well am I aware that Satan, or your own heart, may now be comforting you that it is not in the least likely you shall die this year. You may be practically adopting the words of the man described by our Lord, saying, "Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But ah! many so reckoned last year, who have long since heard the mandate which it was impossible for them to disobey, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." How vain, then, to speak of likelihoods in regard to the prolongation of life. As well might a soldier on the morning of the battle-field lay the flattering unction to his soul, that because of his strength, vigour, and prudence, he should that day escape every danger! No. Death spares no rank, no condition. All alike;-including the most vigorous, -youthful,-elevated in society,- talented,-successful, or beloved, are every instant, day and night, exposed to his fatal darts. Our life is entirely in the hand of God. The keys of death and the invisible world are at the girdle of the Redeemer; and when he speaks the word, or gives the awful signal, the spirit is before him just in the state in which it left the body. No matter how the person is situated, or how ardently engaged. He may be on the bench,-like the late lamented Judge Talfourd,-administering justice;-or be in the midst of his affectionate family circle, anticipating a harvest of future enjoyment through their growing prosperity, like the late Count Molè;-or be engaged in business; or on a journey for amusement or recreation;-or actually ministering in the sanctuary to a deeply attentive congregation, like several eminent servants of God thus recently called away;—when, if God speak the word,—all the physicians in the world,—all the medicines and means ever employed, are utterly in vain,unable to detain the spirit for a moment longer. What, then, is wisdom,-seeing that our life hangs on such a slender thread, and seeing that we must all soon appear, prepared or unprepared, at the bar of God, to hear a sentence which never can be reversed? Is it to banish the subject from our minds, lest conscience be awakened,-as multitudes will be too successfully tempted to do, and press forward heedless, through the year, as the horse rusheth into the battle-field? No! that would be indeed moral cowardice, not to speak of its wickedness. Such a course would proclaim the stifled verdict of your own conscience, that you are without true hope, because living without God in the world; that for you, dying as you are, there remaineth a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation;-that you find ease by banishing from the mind the reality of your circumstances! But true wisdom consists in boldly looking forward to the future,—and duly preparing for it. It consists, not in sacrificing the future for the present moment's ease or pleasure, like Esau, who for a morsel of meat sold his birthright--but in so acting that our present conduct shall ever be a foundation for future happiness. For such is the mysterious relation of the present to the future, by the appointment of God,-that our every day conduct, thoughts, and feelings, are constantly touching springs which shall respond in happiness or woe through all eternity. Happy, then--thrice happy he, who shall throughout this year live to God, as he would wish to have done, when reclining his head on the dying, pillow. E. C J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW AND AND W.INNES, BOOKSELLER, SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH. J. & W. Rider, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close, London. |