“To everything there is a season,” and the season for the gospel worker is this present moment; “the night cometh, when no man can work.” Never again will he have a better opportunity for working for eternity than this day offers. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Now is the period which may be brought to a close at any moment, for when the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, this “now,” this day of salvation will be over, Now, the golden present, the opportunity which will never return. Therefore, let us heed the Scripture exhortation, “Be instant in season and out of season,” remembering that in and out of season means always everywhere.
Nor is it only because the day is far spent and the night is at hand, that we need exhort one another to the work, for a deep desire after reality in divine things abounds in many hearts, and calls for the, loving energy of every true servant of God. The only ease infidelity offers is “a leap in the dark,” and the only balm formalism presents is an undefined shadow of a substance which may or may not be found when life is passed! The no-belief of the skeptic covers unrest of soul; the ceaseless effort of the formalist to reach to rest evidences that the desired end is not attained. But the true Christian has rest, for he has Christ, and Christ dwelling in the heart by faith fills the breast with life, light, and liberty, and it is the unanswerable witness to theories of darkness and doctrines of unrest.
Christians, you have “the treasure” (2 Cor. 4:77But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)); in you is the fountain of living waters (John 7:3838He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)), and you are set here upon the earth to bestow of the treasure and to communicate of the living waters to others. Men, women, and children around you thirst: they are poor, they need Christ, and God has given you His salvation not merely for your own blessing, but that you may be a blessing to others—even as He said to Abraham, “I will bless thee... and thou shalt be a blessing.” And certain it is that the nearer a Christian dwells to the source of all blessing—God himself—the fresher, the sweeter, the richer are the streams of blessing that, through the Spirit, flow out of his heart to the refreshment and blessing of others.
Let us then arise, and shake off the dust from the earth from our souls, and go forth as from Christ to the christless world, with hearts and hands laden with Divine bounties to the unsaved and the unsatisfied. Be instant in season and out of season, for always do men need Christ, and peace, and rest, and joy.