noting, _I. A few things that hinder the convenient season;
II. The delusion of putting it off._
We have heard Felix' plea; it was not an abrupt turning away from
the topics Paul had spoken to him of. He did not declare in express
terms that he would never embrace the faith in Christ, that he would
not renounce iniquity and prepare for the final account. No, his
answer implies that he would do all this, but he begs to be excused
from doing it for the present. "When I have a convenient season, I
will call for thee."
Felix' plea is still a most prevalent plea. Perhaps it is the most
prevalent plea, never advanced so much as in our times. It is not
that people are deliberately determined to rush into the arms of
the devil and hell; many of the most thoughtless and the most
profligate, convicted by the emotions of conscience within and the
presentation of religion, still have the intention that some time
or other, bye and bye, they are going to become more serious, to
reform. The drunkard will some day abandon his cups, the swearer his
profanity, the lewd man his profligacy, but not just now. And not
only these, the thoughtless, the profligate, but those who are very
thoughtful and of excellent standing and morals. What a universal
plea it is!
There is one class, they are "too young to be religious. Youth is
the time of gayety. Even if they do not sow wild oats, they must
have their pleasure. As they advance in years, they will eventually
grow more serious." Let me caution you, my young hearers! Of all
other seasons, youth is the fittest for God and godliness. No man
ever became more disposed to be religious by mere age. He may become
more thoughtful and serious, but thoughtfulness and seriousness is
not yet religion. The duty enjoined is: "Remember thy Creator in the
days of thy youth," and it is a solemn fact that the greater number
of those who are Christians indeed have been so in early life.--So
be not deceived! The present time is the most convenient season. You
can never enjoy a better.
Another apology and hindrance which multitudes offer against the
convenient season is what they style "business." I suppose Felix
had occasion to offer that, too. The office of a governor was no
lazy one; he had a large docket of pending cases, a considerable
correspondence, many distracting cares.
Correspondingly, at the present, there be those who are occupied in
providing for their wants, gaining a livelihood for their families,
accumulating a fortune. It is impossible for them just now, but in
a few years they will have more leisure; their property will be
greater, their anxiety lessened, and then, relieved of pressing
cares, they will devote their time and their attention to God's
service. Sad mistake! Business never lets up. The world gives no man
leisure for the consideration of the greater business of salvation.
I have known those who have urged this excuse ten, nearly twenty
years ago; they still urge it, and will continue to do so so long as
they live. Some may regard it as a witticism, but it was immensely
serious when a child recently informed its mother that the child
did not think papa was going to heaven, and asked why, replied, "He
can't possibly leave the store." We have a number of that class in
connection with our membership. It is a sorry business that keeps
any man away from the main business, the one thing needful.
One more plea would we regard, that is health. How many, when
aroused to the importance of attending to matters spiritual, will
seek to soothe the clamors of conscience by the reflection: It is
true, I must be renewed and holy, or I will perish. I cannot go
to heaven as I am, but I hope to be better before I die. I will
look after these things when I get sick; then I shall have leisure
for reflection. With nothing else to do then, I will repent and
make my peace with God. Oh! the folly and the wickedness of such
reasoning! Not only does it reflect on God's religion, as if it
were a tyranny and a grievous yoke that one puts off as long as it
is possible, not only is it God-dishonoring, giving unto the devil
and to the world, the Lord's foremost rivals, the best fruits of
one's days, and turning over to Him the stubble and the dregs left
in the cup of life, but who knows the time of his death, the time
appointed when he shall go hence, and whether occasion shall be
left for any reflection? Like a lightning flash it may summon us
into the presence of the Almighty. And even granted that everything
shall be propitious in that respect, have you ever seen persons on
a sick- or death-bed? Their pulse feverish and their body weak;
their senses so impaired that they seem utterly unable to collect
their thoughts; and this is the time that people want to select for
religious reflection? Then, too, when does the Bible say that a man
can convert himself at any time that he chooses? The Bible speaks of
only one solitary case of death-bed, or eleventh-hour repentance,
and that is the instance of the dying thief on the cross. And there
is a tremendously wide difference between him and the people who
offer up that plea. The dying malefactor had never deferred his
conversion to his dying day; he had never put religion off until
then. So his case does not belong under consideration at all, though
it is always quoted by such delinquents. No, there is only one
convenient season, and there is only one course to pursue in view of
it. That one convenient season is now, and the only one course to
pursue in view of it is to seize hold upon and attend to its demands.
We have all seen mottoes on the walls of business offices: "Do it
now," "Never put off until to-morrow what can be done to-day," "Now
or never," "Make hay while the sun shines." And as you see them at
their worldly interests, they follow those mottoes; they are up
and about, straining every nerve, using every moment to gain an
advantage. Yes, as you study the whole working creation of God,
you will discover that everything is on time: The birds know when
to fly southward; the stars of heaven meet all their appointments;
the earth is believed to make a circuit of five hundred millions
of miles and back again at the winter and spring solstice on the
second, yes, on the millionth part of a second. There is only one
who wastes time, and that in the most important matter, and that
creature is _man_.
Observe in this the terrible delusion of procrastination. And
it cheats us all, more or less; or how--to make the application
to ourselves who are church-members--how is it that we can hear
the things which we hear Sunday after Sunday, and on many other
occasions, things which, so far from denying or contradicting, we
like to hear, we would be uncomfortable not to hear, and agree with
them and still go on living and doing as if they were mere words
and meant nothing, if it were not that we fancy to ourselves a time
when it will suit us not only to agree with them, but actually to
put them in practice,--a time when we shall pray in earnest, though
we are careless about praying now,--a time when we shall take up
the reading of the Bible, though we neglect it now,--a time when we
shall be gentle, and loving, and heavenly-minded, and pure, whatever
to the contrary we may be now? But is it not a delusion? If you are
putting off saying your prayers regularly and earnestly because it
is not convenient now, do you really think that the time will come
when it will be easier, and more natural for you to do this? If you
are still putting off, as so many have, and are putting off for
years, what yet they acknowledge to be a Christian's bounden duty,
employing the much-needed means of grace, the coming to the Lord's
holy Sacrament, can you really expect that anything will happen to
you which somehow or other will be the opportunity you cannot find
now of hearing the Gospel and drawing near to that blessed communion?
Reflect! Felix waited for a convenient season. It never came; it
will never come where he is now. Let him be a lesson to us. The
convenient season is just now,--and let us beware of trifling with
it.
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these, It might have been.
And of all devices by which the devil throws a loop around the
sinner's neck, the most effective is this: "A more convenient
season!" "Not yet."
My dear hearers, I have again, like my great predecessor, the
apostle, made an appeal to you to accept the faith as it is in
Christ Jesus. What say you? With Felix: "Not now," or, "I will"? O
for the right choice! God gives you the opportunity to make it now.
Will you not seize it? Amen.