At the end of the year we naturally consider the fleeting character of life, and the nature of our transient stay on earth. This is good and right. Well would it be if we never forgot these things, and did most earnestly pray to God, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
But our own brief life and its uncertainty turns our thoughts also to God's ever abiding and unchangeable being: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." He changes not in the past, the present, nor the future—the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Christ is ever the same. Friends change, home changes, we ourselves change but God is ever and at all times the faithful God.
What a rest and a refuge is here for the soul who trusts in Jesus! Weak and erring, with a sense of many, many opportunities wasted, and much unfaithfulness during the year that is past, we can yet cast our very selves, just as we are, upon our abiding, unchanging, faithful God.
We look back at the mercies of the past year; we recall its sorrows and its trials; but every memory only leads us the more and more to throw ourselves upon our God—our ever faithful God.
"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."