THE ending of the year brings with it family gatherings and happy holidays. The twelve month of toil is over, and its curtain falls on a brief period of relaxation and pleasure.
All very well, but a year is, after all, a good large slice out of life. The “three score and ten” fly away with extraordinary rapidity. Long in prospect they appear; when reached, very transitory in retrospect—so at least we are told, and so we may believe; and therefore it is wise, amid all that may be happy, to pause at the milestone, and cast the eye both back and forward. Here is the close of another year; here you stand—a traveler on a quickly passing journey—so much nearer the end. The past you know, the future you know not. You can recall many a mercy, and also many a sin and sorrow; you look forward—yes! but to what? Some would fain know their earthly future. Far better that we should not! It is infinitely better to know God, in the minuteness of His love and care, than to know tomorrow.
One thing is certain, that His only desire for you is your blessing. He finds no pleasure in the death of the sinner, and He does not afflict willingly. Hence, to know Him aright is the best knowledge of all. In such a case tomorrow may be calmly left in His hand—the hand of perfect love.
May I kindly ask you, dear reader, to turn aside for a moment from seasonable attractions, and put to your soul this question—Do I know God?
What God? The God of creation? No! The God of Providence? No! Of Law and Judgment? No! But the God and Father of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
Do you know Him in the full and perfect revelation He has been pleased to make of Himself, thus, as a Saviour-God? Your Saviour-God?
Pause, I pray you, and consider. Look back on your life. It has been one of sin. You are wretched and hopeless. The closing of the year seems but another nail in your coffin. You tremble as you anticipate the Judgment Day and the Lake of Fire!
Friend, God has taken up the awful question of sin, and has found, in the death of His Son, complete satisfaction. He has manifested His righteousness at the cross, and the gospel proclaims a risen Christ as the Saviour for sinners. Your sins may be pardoned and your wretchedness removed. There is hope for you in the blood of Christ, but only there.
Where God has found satisfaction, you may find it; and, in one moment, your dread give place to peace and joy in believing.
Oh! an immense point is gained when the sinner is brought to know that God has a very deep interest in him. If the devil can persuade him otherwise, he will. But one look at Calvary dispels the dreadful cloud of darkness and despair. So learned the dying thief! So may you, and this year may close, bright and blessed, as you find that the God against whom you have sinned is He who loved you and gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever (and does that not mean yourself?) should not perish but have everlasting life.
Yes, my friend, may ewe grant that 1902 may not close upon you unsaved, unpardoned, and not ready for the soon return of the Lord, but rather bearing witness that you have turned to Him in faith for the salvation of your soul.
J. W. S.