The year was expired.
The end of the old year: a help to begin the new one
I. The end of the year presents a fit opportunity to enquire how we regard the Divine government. God governs the world according to natural and moral laws, through the medium of the Gospel, and by the arrangements of His providence. Let us try ourselves in relation to each.
1. Natural law, as seen in the works of His hands. That is not religion, but fanaticism, which pours contempt on these works. Every man should seek them out, and find pleasure in them. His eternal power and Godhead are declared thereby. The whole year, by night and by day, has been teaching you; “day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.” If you have been an attentive student of these great works, you have bowed with lowlier reverence at His footstool, confessing, “In wisdom hast Thou made them all.” If you have not, then go and learn with the little child.
2. Moral law. There was a law given from Sinai which has since been repealed; but that which substantially is understood by the moral law never has been, and never can be, abrogated. It is the law of this and all other worlds--the law for angels and men--the law of love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and soul, and strength; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
3. The Gospel. First, the Gospel is free. You need nothing to qualify you to receive its blessings; you may receive them freely, as you are. “All things are ready.” The second thing is, the Gospel is full. You need nothing else. “My God shall supply all your need out of His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
4. God governs the world by the arrangements of His providence. These try and determine the temper of our mind very decidedly.
5. But there are other arrangements of God’s providence which surround us as individuals, and which try us more accurately.
II. The end of the year suggests, the importance of trying our moral condition.
1. If we are going to heaven, we are nearer there than ever; and this night reminds us how very soon we shall pass the portals of glory. Are we better prepared than at the commencement of the sear for the employment of heaven?
2. Has the experience of the year taught us our weakness and worthlessness, and humbled us to repentance? “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent.” “Unprofitable servants!”
3. Are we distinctly conscious of pardon for the past?
4. Are we sure there is within us a disposition opposed to all sin? Can we say with the holy Mr. Corbett, “Upon the best judgment that I can make of the nature of sin, and the frame of my own heart, and course of life, I know no sin lying upon me which doth not consist with habitual repentance, and with the hatred of sin, and with an unfeigned consent that God should be my Saviour and Sanctifier, and with the loving of God above all.”
5. Has the year left us earnestly and sinerely desiring the accomplishment of all good in us and by us?
III. The end of the year suggests the propriety of examining and revising our plans for the employment of our time.
1. As to our devotional habits.
2. As to our walking with God.
3. As to our work. Are all our talents employed for God? “Occupy till I come.” “The time is short.” Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do--do it.”
4. As to our amusements. “Use no recreation or delight of sense, but thou canst at that very time desire of God, that it may be sanctified to spiritual ends.”
IV. And lastly, the end of the year reminds us of the “end of all things,” and bids us prepare for it.
1. Look forward to death.
2. Anticipate the coming of the Lord and the future judgment. (T. E. Thoresby.)
The flight of time
When Michael Faraday, the celebrated man of science, was a poor apprentice, he used every spare moment for making experiments. In a letter to a boy friend, after telling one of these experiments, he added: “Time is all I require. Oh, that I could purchase at a cheap rate some of our modern gents’ spare hours--nay, days! I think it would be a-good bargain, both for them and for me.” The youth had learned the first secret of success--not to waste time; not to throw it away on useless persons or useless pursuits. The frivolous think of nothing but pastimes and modes of “killing time;” but a day will come to even the most frivolous when they will value time as much as our own impetuous Queen Elizabeth did when she exclaimed on her death-bed, “My kingdom for a moment.” (Quiver.)
The time when kings go forth to battle.
A summons to battle
There seems to have been in the olden times, among the petty sovereigns of the East, regular seasons for warfare; perhaps they marched forth in the spring, when the grass would afford food for their horses, or possibly in the autumn, when the troops could forage upon the standing crops. These sovereigns of small territories were little better than the captains of hordes of robbers, and their revenues were rather derived from plunder than from legitimate taxation. We may thank God that we live in a happier era, for the miseries of nations were then beyond imagination. Desolating as war now is, its evils are comparatively little compared with those days of perpetual plunder. But I am not about to talk of kings. I must transfer the text to some other and more practical use. There is a time in our hearts when the inner warfare rages with unusual violence. At certain seasons our corruptions break forth with extreme violence; and if for awhile they appear to have formed a truce with us, or to have lost their power, we suddenly find them full of vigour, fierce, and terrible; and hard will be the struggle for us, by prayer and holy watchfulness, to keep ourselves from becoming slaves to our inward enemies. I thought of using the text in reference to Christian activities. There are times when Christians, all of whom are kings unto God, should go forth to battle in a special sense.
I. The time for the kings to go forth to battle is come. The special time for Christian activities is just now. In some senses nay, in the highest sense, believers ought to be always active. There should never be an idle day, or a wasted hour, or even a barren moment to a servant of God.
1. The time for kings to go forth to battle will be always when the king’s troops are fit for battle; I mean, the time for spiritual work is when the worker is especially fit for it.
2. Another season of especial work should be, when discerning Christian men feel the motions of the Spirit of God calling them to unusual service. “When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself,” said God to David, and then David did bestir himself, and the Philistines were smitten. Do you not, some of you, hear the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees?
3. One other mark of the time for kings to go forth to battle is surely when the Lord Himself works. The presence of good men with us is encouraging, but oh, the presence of the God of good men should much more stimulate us. Mahomet in one of his first famous battles, stimulated his soldiers to the fight by declaring that he could hear the neighing of the horses of the angels as they rode to the conflict to win the victory for the faithful. We speak not so, but surely the horses of fire and the chariots of fire are round about the faithful servant of God, and faith’s discerning eye can see the God of providence moving heaven and earth to help his church, if his church will but arise from the dust and put on her beautiful garments, and resolve to conquer in her Master’s name.
II. Since the time for battle has come, it behoves every soldier now to go to the wars.
1. All believers belong to Christ. You are His bond servants, you bear in your bodies His brand, the marks of the Lord Christ, for “ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price,”
2. I will add, all of you believers love Christ. Your belonging to Him has wrought in you a true affection for Him.
3. Moreover, let me remind you that there is strength promised for each of you. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Shall I say that there is work for all of us to do which lies very close to hand? The preacher will never be without his. God will take care to furnish all His servants with sufficiency of work. I remember to have read in Cotton Mather’s book upon plans of usefulness, that he remarks that sometimes at the expense of a shilling, under God’s blessing, a soul has been converted. Such books as Alleyne’s “Alarm,” Baxter’s “Call to the Unconverted,” and Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” have wrought wonders in years gone by; and at this hour you may have for a penny or less, truths so set forth as to ensure the reader’s attention. Mr. Cecil says he had to be very grateful to God for his mother, not so much because she pressed him to read good books, as that she took care to put good books where he was likely to take them up.
III. There are great motives to excite us to fight earnestly for Christ. The motives gather round five points.
1. The first is our King.
2. Remember next the banner under which we fight--the banner of the truth, of the atoning blood.
3. Remember, next, another word--the captives whom it is your hope by the Holy Spirit’s power to redeem from the slavery of sin. How our soldiers of the Indian mutiny advanced like lions against the mutineers when they remembered Cawnpore and all the cruelties to which their brethren had been exposed! How unweariedly they marched, how sternly they fought when they were within sight of the foe! After this sort should we fight with those who have enslaved and injured our brethren.
4. Remember, again, and this word ought to stimulate us to fight well, the enemy, the black and cruel enemy.
5. Yet one more encouragement, and that is our reward. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”
IV. The highest encouragements readily present themselves to induce you to join the warring armies.
1. It is quite certain that God has an elect people still upon the earth; then see ye not that it is hopeful work to find out these elect ones by the preaching of the word?
2. Remember, also, that God has never failed a true worker yet.
3. Remember, too, that if you did not see any souls converted, yet God would he glorified by your exaltation of Christ, and your talking of Christ, and your earnest prayers and tears for the good of others.
IV. The solemn danger of inaction. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Glad response to the battle call
Even the most disagreeable duty, if done in love, may be a means of blessing. When we come really to believe this great truth we shall seek for no other reward for our service than Christ’s glad presence at the goal. We shall go to every task with eager joy, because Christ will await us in it. We shall grow to be like that English soldier in India. The doctor was inspecting the troops to see who were fit to join in the attack of Delhi, and passed by this youth, who looked sick. “Don’t say I am unfit for duty,” exclaimed the young hero; “it’s only a touch of fever, and the sound of the bugle will make me well.” Such is the ardour with which we Christians should leap forward at Christ’s summons.
The Divine presence an incentive
“As soldiers fight best in their general’s presence, and scholars ply their books most attentively when under their master’s eye, so, by living always in the sight of God, we are the more studious to please him. The oftener we consider the Lord, the more we see that no service can be holy enough or good enough for such a God as He is.” This needs no comment, but it needs to be realised. See, soldier of the cross, the eye of the Captain of our salvation is fixed upon thee! Jesus cries,, “I know thy works.” Will not this incite thee to valorous deeds, and make heroes of them? If not, what will? (C. H. Spurgeon.)