Parish Papers Part 13

Doth not that omnipotent Spirit of light and love, who uniteth all in one, and who hath led the Church of Christ from grace to glory, dwell in thee? Wherefore, then, dost thou dishonour G.o.d and His word by unbelieving fear?

Finally, the experience of the past may strengthen your faith in G.o.d for the future. You have never trusted Him in vain. He has never failed you in time of need. You have always found His _strength_ sufficient to uphold you, and His _wisdom_ able to arrange for you, and His _love_ inexhaustible in supplying your manifold wants. Ah!

had you foreseen, years ago, all the past journey, so often dark and perplexing, which you have since pursued; and also all the duties which have successively claimed your energies for their performance; and all the trials, so many, so varied, which you have had to endure; would you not have sunk down in despair before the spectacle? But you did _not_ foresee what is now past. G.o.d in mercy concealed it from you, as He does what is now future. And therefore you did not then, as you cannot now, despair. The Lord _has_ hitherto helped you, and led you through the wilderness, and held you up, and kept you from falling; and so it is that both in your inward and outward state, you _are_ this day a monument of His power, mercy, patience, grace!

And now, in peace of heart, say with Paul, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princ.i.p.alities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of G.o.d, _which_ is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Lord, it is enough! Never separated from Thyself for one moment in our existence, here or anywhere, we can never be separated from the chief object of our affections, from Him who is the fulness of our whole being, the never-failing source of our blessedness and joy. Believing in Thee our Father, we enter another year, and advance along our endless journey, not knowing what a day or an hour may bring forth; but knowing this, as all we care to know, that during every day and hour we are "continually with Thee." A long life on earth may be ours, but neither its labours nor its cares, its temptations nor its trials, shall be able to destroy our peace, because unable to separate us from Thy love. Thy love will give life to every duty, deliverance from every temptation, guidance in every perplexity, and comfort in every trial. Death may come, in what form or in what circ.u.mstances, how soon or how late, we cannot tell; but we fear no evil, however dark its shadow, for "_Thou_ art with us." Eternity must come, and may come to us ere the year ends. But whatever things beyond the grave are hidden from us, Thou Thyself, our Father, art revealed! We know Thee, and this is life eternal!

ADVICES ON ENTERING A NEW YEAR.

1. Let a short portion of time be spent each day this year in private prayer, in reading G.o.d's Word, and, if possible, some devotional book.

2. Let it be the great work of the year to become better acquainted personally with Jesus Christ as the living and ever-present Friend, Brother, and Saviour.

3. Endeavour to concentrate your efforts to do good upon some definite unselfish work in your family or out of it, which may help others, as it certainly must help yourself.

4. In all things try to live more towards G.o.d, seeking His approval of your inner and outer life. The less you talk about yourself or your doings before men, the better for yourself and for them.

5. Aim this year at being a peacemaker between professing Christians; to allay disputes, and to heal breaches among friends and relations; and to make men respect and esteem each other more.

6. Do not leave behind you in the old year guilt unpardoned, but believe in Jesus for the remission of sins; nor enter a new year with sin loved and cherished, but accept of and rely upon His Spirit to sanctify you. Begin the year without enmity to any man on earth, "forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, even so do ye."

7. If you are the head of the house, resolve to read a portion of G.o.d's Word once a-day at least to the family; and either read or offer up, always with them, a short but hearty prayer.

8. Endeavour to keep an account of your income and expenditure, that you may be able to live justly and generously. Give what you can to a.s.sist poor relatives, and poor Christians, and the Church of Christ.

Try this one year to tax yourself ten per cent, on your free income for such purposes.

Learn to do these things, and many more will the Lord teach thee to know and do; and may the G.o.d of love and peace be with thee!

THE CLOSE OF A YEAR.

"Remember all the way the Lord hath led thee" during the past year.

REMEMBER HIS MERCIES.--Calmly review, as far as you can, what G.o.d has given you these bygone months.

Have you been blessed with _bodily_ health? If so, consider what a gift it is to be spared the tortures some endure: the restless, feverish nights; the long weary days; the unceasing pain; the no-hope of relief in this world.

Have you been blessed with _mental_ health? If so, think of the mercy of not having been visited with insanity, or of having been freed from the suffering of even mental depression, so touchingly described by the poet as

"A grief without a sigh, void, dark, and drear, A stifled, drowsy, unimpa.s.sion'd grief, That finds no natural outlet, no relief, To word, or sigh, or tear;"

Think of the mercy of having been able to _enjoy_ G.o.d's beautiful world, and to feel the life in its scenery, its music, and its blue sky, during the summer that has pa.s.sed, as you walked along the sea-sh.o.r.e, among the woods, across the green fields, up the glen, over the moorlands, or gazed on the glorious landscape from the windy summits of the old hills. Health of body and of mind!--Oh, common, most blessed, yet, alas! how often unnoticed, gifts of G.o.d!

Have you received other mercies connected with your _temporal_ well-being? Perhaps at the beginning of the year (as at the beginning, maybe, of many a year before) things looked very dark for you and yours. Yet "hitherto" G.o.d has helped you. You may never have had more light on your path than what enabled you to take the next step with safety, but that light has never failed you. G.o.d has been pleased thus to discipline many of His people. You may, possibly, remember also peculiar deliverances:--from sickness; from money difficulties; from bodily dangers; with unexpected additions to your means of comfort and of usefulness.

Again, call to remembrance your _social_ mercies, which have come more indirectly through others. Think of the relations and friends who have been spared to you! Begin with your dearest, and pa.s.s on from those to others less closely allied, but still most valued, and number them all, _if you can_. Do any remain whom death threatened to remove during the past year? Have any, have many, been a comfort to you?

Have your anxieties regarding the temporal or spiritual well-being of others been lessened? Have beloved ones been given to you during the year--such as a wife, a husband, or a child? If G.o.d hath led you in this way during the past year, it ought indeed to be remembered!

And if any of those Christian friends have fallen asleep in Jesus, then it is a great mercy to know most certainly that they are your friends still, and your _best_ friends too; and you should thank G.o.d for the happiness which they now enjoy, and which you hope to share with them.

But you have other mercies to remember besides these. Surely much has been done for your spiritual good by your Father in heaven. He has shewn patience, forbearance, and long-suffering towards you; and has been teaching you during these past months by faithful ministers or faithful friends; and has been striving within you to bring you to Himself, and to keep you there. Have you enjoyed no peace in believing, nor gained any victories over self and sin? Have you possessed no more calm and habitual fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d? Have you done no good? Has prayer neither been offered in truth, nor answered in love? Has all been fruitless and dead? Oh, let us beware of the falsehood of denying spiritual mercies bestowed on us by G.o.d! "If I should say I know Him _not_, I should be a liar like unto you,"

said our Lord. The graces of the Spirit, the least of them, are the earnests of eternal good, the a.s.surances of enjoying the whole fulness of G.o.d.

BUT YOU HAVE SORROWS TO REMEMBER. Alas! we are in little danger of forgetting these. The sunny days may come and go unheeded, but the dark ones are all registered. We cannot forget that "the Lord taketh away;" but why do we not as vividly remember that the same Lord "_giveth_" and that in both cases we have equal cause, did we only see it, to exclaim, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!" I ask not what these sorrows have been. Enough that they are very real to you, or to those who are bound up with you in the bundle of life. It was a weary time to you in the wilderness, and it is well to remember that portion of the way in which you have been led, which was as a dark valley and shadow of death.

AND WHAT OF SIN? That is what makes it so hard for us to remember the past journey. The backslidings and falls in the way; the careless straggling behind; the lazy resting-places; the slow progress; the careless devotions; the misspent days of the Lord; the opportunities lost of doing good to others, or of receiving good ourselves, through procrastination, sloth, and indifference; the manifestation of our unloving and selfish spirit towards our brother, in envy, bad temper, backbiting, jealousy, or unguarded speech; the little done or given for G.o.d's work on earth, in charity to the poor, or to "our own flesh"

who required a.s.sistance;--the everything, in short, which deters memory from looking steadily at what it would if it could blot out for ever from its records! Yet it is of great importance that this portion of the journey should be remembered; although it is not the way in which G.o.d led us, but which we chose for ourselves in our ignorance and self-will. Ponder it well! Recall what your conduct has been in avoiding temptation; how you have made use of the means of grace; the days in which you may have lived without G.o.d, or if you prayed to Him, when you did so as a form, without any real faith or love; the days in which you have been so presumptuous as to live without "faith in the Son of G.o.d," and to meet trials, temptations, and duties, without seeking strength from the Holy Spirit; the Sundays that have come and gone without having been improved, and sermons heard in vain, and public wors.h.i.+p joined in outwardly only, without reality; the little help, or possibly great discouragement given to Christian ministers and Christian members by your very coldness; the time lost never to be recalled, and of all that could have been done for the ignorant, the afflicted, the wicked, the sick and dying, for friends and relations, which has been left undone, and never can be done in the other world.

Think of what your Master has said, who is to judge you--that "herein is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit"--that "if any man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross _daily_, and follow me"--that "many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence? hast thou not taught in our streets? have we not done many wonderful works in thy name? and I will say unto them, I know you not; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity:"--think of this _now_, for think of it one day you must: and if you do so with any degree of truthfulness, I am sure you cannot enter another year without pouring out your heart in humble confession, and laying down your burthen at the foot of the cross, crying out, "G.o.d be merciful to me a sinner!" "Have mercy upon me, O G.o.d, according to thy loving-kindness, and according to thy tender mercies blot out all my transgressions!"

Allow me now to put what I have to say in a practical form:--

1. When you review your _mercies_, consider how you are affected by them. It is easy, I know, to say, and to say so far truly, "Thank G.o.d for them!" Yet the whole spirit in which they are possessed may be intensely selfish. We may have been seeking our life in them to the very exclusion of G.o.d from our hearts, forgetting that "a man's life,"

says our Lord, "consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." What things? Any creature things whatever! To make these our _life_, that is, our happiness, or to esteem them as essential to our happiness, is, as our Lord adds, for a man "to lay up treasures for himself, and not to be rich towards G.o.d." This is that "covetousness which is idolatry,"--the wors.h.i.+p of _Self_, through what ministers to Self.

2. As you remember your _sorrows_, remember not only how you were sustained and comforted under them, but, what is of incomparably more importance, consider how far you have been realising G.o.d's purpose in sending them. That purpose may have been to perfect you by trial; or to prove your loyalty to Him; or to _prevent_ evil in yourselves and others. But never forget that the lesson of all lessons is, that we or others should find _life_, and life eternal--that is, as I have said, life in the knowledge and in the love of G.o.d, which will satisfy and endure for ever; or, if this is already found by us, that we should possess it "more abundantly." Now, whatever tends to make us realise that what we often call and think to be "our life" is yet no life--that money, friends, or earthly enjoyments cannot fill the immortal soul, or be its portion for ever;--whatever awakes us from this dream and dispels the delusion, and makes us know the excellence and reality of true life in G.o.d, must be a blessing of the highest and richest kind. Yet what has such a tendency to do all this as sorrow, and the very trials which we so much deplore? The pain is no doubt great--often agony--a very cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye; but the gain intended by the operation is incalculable and endless. Yet, what if all the good is lost through our blindness, ignorance, hardness of heart, pride, self-will, and unbelief? Alas!

alas! if we too "go away sorrowful" from Christ when He threatens to take away our "much riches," though He does so in order only through this very discipline to induce us to follow Himself, and by the cross to gain life eternal! Alas! when it can be said of us, "Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day; that ye might know that I am the Lord your G.o.d."

And what is their punishment? "They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.

_Why should ye be stricken any more?_ Ye will revolt more and more!"

What a real loss of friends would this be! For by separating ourselves through unbelief from Christ, we thereby for ever separate ourselves from our friends in Christ, if they are with Him!

Ye who have experienced comfort from good in affliction, bless G.o.d!

"O Lord, my strength, my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction!" "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." Let the remembrance of the past, also, strengthen your faith for the future. As you "let your requests be made known to G.o.d with prayers and supplication," do not forget the "_thanksgiving_" for this will help you henceforth to "be careful for nothing." He who has led you out of Egypt, through "the depths," and across the desert, will never leave you nor forsake you.

3. As you remember your _sins_, consider how very ignorant you are of their number or their heinousness. But if you could enumerate each sinful thought, word, and action committed during the past year and during your past life, there is something in you _worse than sins_, and that is _sin itself_, _the evil heart_, the wrong mind, out of which sins proceed; for the corrupt tree is worse than any definite quant.i.ty of fruit which it has produced; the ever-flowing bitter fountain is worse than any definite quant.i.ty of water which has come from it. But whatever you have been or done in time past, what do you intend to be and to do _now_? Is it your intention to continue in sin? However dreadful the thought is, yet many, if such is your real intention, will sympathise with you. For many _do_ continue in sin, and resolve to do so, for the present at least. Will you, then, permit the year to close, and with an unconcerned eye behold all its sin and sins added to those of other impenitent years, finally sealed up for judgment? How will you then stand the reading of your autobiography?

Read over any page now, peruse the life of any day, and ask, Has this been the life of one who believes there is a G.o.d to whom he is responsible? Point out one solitary proof, and such as you think Christ will accept, in all these twelve chapters of the past year, of a heart which loved G.o.d, or had one mark of a sincere though an imperfect follower of Jesus Christ. And if you cannot do so, will you permit the volume to close for ever without a cry for mercy, without imploring G.o.d to wipe out or destroy in the atoning blood of Jesus these pages, which cry "Guilty" in every line? Will you not resolve rather, through the grace given to every honest man who wishes it, to begin and write a new volume, which shall witness to a changed life, and be inscribed no longer with all that is selfish, and of the earth earthy--"without G.o.d or Christ in the world." Let it be so, I beseech of you, my reader. Have done, now and for ever, with this shocking _mutiny_ against your G.o.d. End the weary, shameful strife. Be, then, at peace with G.o.d, and remember that for _you_, if you believe in Jesus, there is free pardon, restoration to favour, a new heart, a new life, which is now life eternal.

And for you who have long given up sin as a master--who know that while the "flesh wars against the spirit, the spirit wars against the flesh," thank G.o.d and take courage! "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Hear the words of our invincible Leader, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world;"

"Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world."

This year we may die. Let this mere possibility lead us to redeem with greater earnestness what remains of life to the service of our G.o.d; so that when the next year dawns upon this world it will find us, if we are in the other world, remembering our mercies before G.o.d's throne, our sorrows for ever vanished, and our sins for ever blotted out; but that if we are still here, it will see us living more worthy of our mercies, finding true good in our sorrows, and obtaining the victory over our sins!