THE commencement of a new year reminds us of many things. And first of all it recalls the past, for few can meditate upon the beginning of another year without recalling those that have gone before, and are now gone forever!
The PAST! with what mingled feelings the thoughtful must regard it! Its joys and sorrows — how much they were meant to teach us; its opportunities used or lost — how intimately they are connected with the believer’s eternal future, the judgment seat of Christ, reward or loss. To some who saw last New Year’s day, the past includes not alone the varied experiences of the wilderness, but even the wilderness itself. Yes. They once “dwelt” in the “land of the shadow of death” (Isa. 9:22The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2)); but, called by grace, they arose, and, passing on through the valley, found the Lord their Shepherd faithful, and his grace sufficient for them (Psa. 23:44Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)). Onward and upward was their path. Many were their afflictions, but out of them all the Lord delivered them (Psa. 34:1919Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)). Many, too, were their joys, but none greater than those that sprang from the sweet consciousness of his presence, sympathy, and approval, And now, the journey ended, the wilderness itself a thing of the past, the valley of the shadow of death behind them forever, they have entered into their rest. The “clouds” can no more “return after the rain” (Eccl. 12:22While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: (Ecclesiastes 12:2)). The “pools” of the valley of Baca are needed no more (Psa. 84:66Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. (Psalm 84:6)). They are with the Lord, whose very presence is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures forever-more. Who shall express the blessedness they now know in
“Those courts, secure from ill,
Where God himself vouchsafes to dwell,
And every bosom fill?”
Bereaved of their presence here, those they have left behind them cannot help but mourn when they miss the well-known voice, the welcome hand, the familiar, much-loved features but it is only for the passing moment. They
“Cannot linger o’er the grave.”
Faith lifts the bowed head, and bids the weeping eye look onward to that glorious hour (who shall tell how near?) when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise,” and when “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” and so shall both be “Forever with the Lord,” and with them who, have reached the journey’s end a little while — and but “a little while” —before us. Happy thought! for “yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.”
The beginning of a new year, moreover, does not alone recall the past, but reminds us of the present. To the believer it speaks of further space for service in the wilderness — another opportunity for laying up “treasure where neither moth nor rust Both corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.” “There remaineth a rest to the people of God,” but before we enter upon it we are called to labor. Some have entered into rest in the very act of laboring for their dear master. Others there are who appear to think, that having everlasting life through faith in Christ Jesus they have only now to labor for themselves. The intense selfishness of this thought is sad to contemplate. Let not us, dear young Christian reader, be of this number. But there are those again who, while supposing that they are laboring for the Lord, are but pleasing the flesh after all. This is a grievous delusion into-which it is possible at any time to fall for lack of watchfulness. “The heart is deceitful above all things.” Those who would truly labor for the Lord must labor in his way, his time, his place — not their own. We are not free to choose how we will serve the Lord. “Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do?” was the question of the astonished and converted Saul. The answer was: “Arise, and go into the city (Damascus) and it, shall be told thee what thou must do.” Thus the plan being pointed out to him he had to await the Lord’s time and manner of service, both of which were afterwards given him. Because a work is good in itself it by no means follows that you are to engage in it; still less because it is pleasing or agreeable to yourself. To preach the Gospel to the benighted Bithynians may have seemed a good work, yet when the servants of the Lord assayed to go thither, “the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:77After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. (Acts 16:7)). To go to Cyprus (Acts 15:3939And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; (Acts 15:39)) was most probably agreeable to Barnabas because it was his native place. But from the moment that he chose that path we hear no more of him. Ominous silence! how much it conveys to the listening ear.
The beginning of another year reminds us, too, of all beginnings. We begin this month another volume of GOOD NEWS. Who shall say that either you or I will remain on earth to see the closing number issued? What if we were sure that we should not? Oh, with what deep earnestness and solemnity we should seek added grace to serve the Lord with reverence and godly fear, in holy energy, and with an intense and burning zeal which, like a coal of fire in the heart would burn the brighter as day by day rolled on! It is this which makes the coming of the Lord of such importance when received, not as a mere matter of knowledge, but of faith; not as mere doctrine which even an unconverted man might accept, but as a motive principle hidden in the heart, and stimulating its possessor to renewed diligence in the blessed hope of soon seeing face to face the dearest, the best, the most intimate FRIEND the soul has ever known or can know — so faithful, so true, so patient, so full of grace, so omnipotent to help, so ready to prove it; who “sold all that he had and bought” us; “who gave himself” (could he do more?) and from the first hour that our souls have known his love has done Naught but do us good — often, alas! in spite of our willfulness; nay, not unfrequently making our very failures and naughtiness the occasions of unlooked-for loving kindness! Truly “his love is better than wine;” HIMSELF more precious to the believer’s soul than even the joys that spring out of his own ways of grace towards us!
What, then, dear young christian, if you were sure that ere this year, but just beginning, can close, you should see his face, behold his beaming smile of welcome, and hear that voice like the music of many waters saying, in inimitable grace, “Well done!” You are not sure of this; but you are assured by faith that “yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.” God says so! A year, a whole year, might seem a long while; but faith says “a little while” and if active, makes the future present; and thus to faith in exercise the coming of the Lord is almost wow. Seek then the power thus to actualize the coming of the Lord, and then, although we are now beginning another year, you will not be waiting for the end of ‘66, but for God’s “Son from heaven” the Lord of Glory.
We are beginning the eighth volume of GOOD NEWS, —eight is the resurrection number — may its pages prove instrumental in the Lord’s hands of bringing about a resurrection from death unto life of many a one now “dead in trespasses and sins!” Last month saw the close of the seventh volume — seven is the complete number — and with it closed the completed labors of a dear servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, who now awaits that most happy hour symbolized in the number of this volume just begun: the Resurrection Morning!
Beginnings then teach many things. Nor can we meditate upon this beginning of months without recalling that “first month of the year” to Israel which witnessed their redemption out of Egypt.
Thus we are brought at once to the subject of redemption. And what theme more sweet to those who know its blessedness can we meditate upon? “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exod. 12:22This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exodus 12:2).) Thus spake the Lord to Israel in Egypt. Ah, dear reader, can you recall the hour when in the very midst of your bondage, and when it seemed truly at its worst, you first heard the blessed word of your salvation, and, as one redeemed by blood through faith, experimentally began the new life, a new creature in Christ Jesus, born from above? Are you conscious now that your heart is not so warm, your affections not so lively, your sense of the value of redemption not so strong as in that ever-to-be-remembered beginning of months to you?
Are you less lowly in your own eyes, less zealous in the service of your Lord, less desirous to see, if that were possible, all men brought to Jesus? Have you begun to build upon a little bit of knowledge, and to value it for its own sake rather than what it should lead you to? Does the memory of the unspeakable joy of that glad hour, and the intensity of love you then felt for the person of the Lord, at times almost rebuke you? Ah, you have not fed upon the Lamb! and have forgotten the word of exhortation which bids you “pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: for-as-much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver, and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:17-2017And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1 Peter 1:17‑20)). For you! Oh what love! And should not the remembrance of it beget love? How well he knew our hearts who said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Redemption! what tongue shall tell its all-importance? what pen describe the cost at which its great and glorious Author accomplished it! But perhaps reader you are one of those who as yet know nothing experimentally of its value. You have often heard about it, you know its history, assent to its necessity, and so call yourself a Christian — yet are not Christ’s. Better far for you had you been born in some far-off heathen land, where the name and sufferings of God’s dear Son are utterly unknown. Do you inquire wherefore? I reply by quoting the words of one you will never hear again on earth. “Dear reader, do you take your stand with Abel at the altar, or with Cain at the scene of murder and of blood? There is but this alternative — it divides mankind so far as they have heard the Gospel” (vol. 7 p. 387). You have heard the Gospel. You may deny that you have consciously rejected, but most certainly have willingly neglected its solemn but gracious invitation and command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ—HIMSELF I mean, not merely his history. You do not intentionally “take your stand with Cain at the scene of murder and of blood;” but being left where the preaching of the Gospel found you, because you have at the least, neglected to pass over to the other side on its gracious invitation, you have taken your stand with the murderers. “It divides mankind so far as they have heard the Gospel. Oh, that this question may fasten on your conscience and be the turning-point in your eternal affairs!” Then this “beginning of months” will be “a time to be remembered” by you, and redemption the ground of eternal praises in your mouth, to him who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son:” praise
“To Him who loved us, gave Himself,
And died to do us good.”
May this be your happy experience, for his sake Amen.
JOHN L. KRAUSHAAR.