OUR readers may wonder at this curious title to the following lines, for it is not very customary to unite French and English words in one sentence. They form the motto of a well-known Scotch earl, and are inscribed in large letters over the handsome stone gateway standing at the entrance to the grounds which surround his splendid country mansion. “Je pense,” I think. “Je pense forward,” “I think forward.” What suggestive words for any whose thoughts are not limited to time and the comparatively small circle of human life on earth! “Je pense forward.” Would that all did! What a much happier world would this be!
We have no idea what the origin of this motto was, nor what it signifies for its’ possessor. But we are assured that whoever thinks forward is wiser than he who only thinks for the present. Man in his natural state, being a sinner, and with a conscience ill at ease, shrinks from thinking forward. To think of that which will surely succeed his short span of life, the eternal future, would fill him with an undefined dread. If he does so at all, he seeks to lessen in his own mind the gravity of sin in God’s sight, defers death, which may come upon him at any moment, to the far-off future, and closes his eyes to the judgment after (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). All this is the essence of folly.
It is true wisdom to think forward, and to think seriously, for the eternal future must be faced. Satan seeks to dazzle men’s eyes with the pleasures, wealth, and fame of this world, a world which is about to pass away. Long ago, the wisest of Adam’s fallen race, who possessed far more than any one of us, passed his well-weighed verdict upon it, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit (Eccles. 2:1717Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. (Ecclesiastes 2:17)). Why, then, pursue the empty bubble of the devil, when God offers you His rich and glorious salvation forever? Think forward. Sin is here, and its wage is death, and after that the judgment (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23); Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). But God in His great love sent His Son to put sin away, to overcome death, and to deliver from judgment. The whole necessary work was performed by Him once for all at Calvary, and now He lives, a glorified Saviour, seated at the right hand of God. Think forward. God declares over and over in His blessed Word, that whosoever believes in Him shall now be pardoned all his sins, delivered from death and judgment, and be claimed by Christ to share His glory forever.
Apart from the revelation of God, no one could think forward aright. All men’s histories tell of the past; the newspaper gives the history of the present (a sad one, indeed); but of the future, apart from the Word of God, who can tell? But He has not kept the future hidden from us; He has lifted the veil. And we learn that, though there is only one sphere where men now dwell on earth, there are two where they will dwell in the future. The former is but a temporal place of sojourn, both the latter in the unseen world are eternal. In this world there is a great mix are of good and evil; but in that world there is one eternal abode of unmixed good, and another eternal abode where evil will meet its eternal due reward.
Many are the questions agitating the world; questions of all kinds and of varying importance; many that in every age have puzzled the greatest natural wits; but the one question of all questions which infinitely outweighs every other in importance, is for you. In which of the two abodes named will you spend eternity? Now, think forward. In which? Do you know? Maybe you reply in your heart, No, I don’t; nor do I believe that anyone else does.” Ah, friend, there you are utterly at fault, and if you are a professing Christian, you thereby manifest the utter hollowness of your profession. Satan has well succeeded in deluding you. Tens of thousands know where they are going.’ Every true Christian may have certainty as to the future. We know, because God has spoken. We believe and are sure. God has wrought in us in His grace and exercised us. He has led us to think forward, and to accept His thoughts, and to forsake our own. Hence we know that on the ground of the finished work of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our sins are cast into the ocean’s depth, no more to be remembered. And death, being conquered by Him, has become but the portal to His blessed presence, who bore the whole judgment for us at Calvary.
Moreover, we know that if He come before we are called to face the death of the body, we shall, according to His promise, be claimed by Him among His living ones, conformed to Him by His mighty power, to share with Him in His Father’s house for eternity the blessed fruits of His victory, in that glorious home of light, and love, and holiness, and joy. Be wise, then, whilst ’tis the day of salvation, lest death find you in your sins, and, missing all the blessed present and eternal fruits of divine love, you find, when it is too late, you are reaping in eternity what you sowed in time, eternal darkness and misery; and all for the sake of a few worthless bubbles!
Oh, sinner, once again we appeal to thee, wake up from thy folly, and think―think forward.
Sin has such a terrible hold that the multitude does not seriously think. “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat” (Matt. 7:1313Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (Matthew 7:13)).
“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:1414Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14)). Reader, think, think forward, that you may be one of that few. The company of the lost multitude will surely be no solace in that awful darkness, outside the presence of God. But the company of Christ, and of all His heavenly saints, now and evermore, is the blessed portion freely offered you this day. Stop, then, on your career of carelessness and folly; think forward; look eternal realities in the face. Satan’s empty bubbles will very soon all have burst. In Christ you will find everlasting substance. Believe on Him, and in the blessed and holy presence of God to all eternity you will praise Him for the grace that led you to think forward, and to receive Jesus, the present Saviour of the perishing. Then, as in His blessed footsteps through this poor world you pursue the pathway of faith, you will find it an ever-present preservative from all its corruptions and temptations to think forward. “Je pense forward.”
E. H. C.