"Remember all the way the Lord hath led thee" during the past year.
REMEMBER HIS MERCIES.--Calmly review, as far as you can, what God has
given you these bygone months.
Have you been blessed with _bodily_ health? If so, consider what
a gift it is to be spared the tortures some endure: the restless,
feverish nights; the long weary days; the unceasing pain; the no-hope
of relief in this world.
Have you been blessed with _mental_ health? If so, think of the mercy
of not having been visited with insanity, or of having been freed from
the suffering of even mental depression, so touchingly described by
the poet as
"A grief without a sigh, void, dark, and drear,
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassion'd grief,
That finds no natural outlet, no relief,
To word, or sigh, or tear;"
Think of the mercy of having been able to _enjoy_ God's beautiful
world, and to feel the life in its scenery, its music, and its blue
sky, during the summer that has passed, as you walked along the
sea-shore, among the woods, across the green fields, up the glen,
over the moorlands, or gazed on the glorious landscape from the windy
summits of the old hills. Health of body and of mind!--Oh, common,
most blessed, yet, alas! how often unnoticed, gifts of God!
Have you received other mercies connected with your _temporal_
well-being? Perhaps at the beginning of the year (as at the beginning,
maybe, of many a year before) things looked very dark for you and
yours. Yet "hitherto" God has helped you. You may never have had more
light on your path than what enabled you to take the next step with
safety, but that light has never failed you. God has been pleased thus
to discipline many of His people. You may, possibly, remember also
peculiar deliverances:--from sickness; from money difficulties; from
bodily dangers; with unexpected additions to your means of comfort and
of usefulness.
Again, call to remembrance your _social_ mercies, which have come more
indirectly through others. Think of the relations and friends who have
been spared to you! Begin with your dearest, and pass on from those
to others less closely allied, but still most valued, and number them
all, _if you can_. Do any remain whom death threatened to remove
during the past year? Have any, have many, been a comfort to you?
Have your anxieties regarding the temporal or spiritual well-being of
others been lessened? Have beloved ones been given to you during the
year--such as a wife, a husband, or a child? If God hath led you in
this way during the past year, it ought indeed to be remembered!
And if any of those Christian friends have fallen asleep in Jesus,
then it is a great mercy to know most certainly that they are your
friends still, and your _best_ friends too; and you should thank God
for the happiness which they now enjoy, and which you hope to share
with them.
But you have other mercies to remember besides these. Surely much has
been done for your spiritual good by your Father in heaven. He has
shewn patience, forbearance, and long-suffering towards you; and has
been teaching you during these past months by faithful ministers or
faithful friends; and has been striving within you to bring you
to Himself, and to keep you there. Have you enjoyed no peace in
believing, nor gained any victories over self and sin? Have you
possessed no more calm and habitual fellowship with God? Have you done
no good? Has prayer neither been offered in truth, nor answered in
love? Has all been fruitless and dead? Oh, let us beware of the
falsehood of denying spiritual mercies bestowed on us by God! "If I
should say I know Him _not_, I should be a liar like unto you,"
said our Lord. The graces of the Spirit, the least of them, are the
earnests of eternal good, the assurances of enjoying the whole fulness
of God.
BUT YOU HAVE SORROWS TO REMEMBER. Alas! we are in little danger of
forgetting these. The sunny days may come and go unheeded, but the
dark ones are all registered. We cannot forget that "the Lord taketh
away;" but why do we not as vividly remember that the same Lord
"_giveth_" and that in both cases we have equal cause, did we only
see it, to exclaim, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!" I ask not what
these sorrows have been. Enough that they are very real to you, or to
those who are bound up with you in the bundle of life. It was a weary
time to you in the wilderness, and it is well to remember that portion
of the way in which you have been led, which was as a dark valley and
shadow of death.
AND WHAT OF SIN? That is what makes it so hard for us to remember the
past journey. The backslidings and falls in the way; the careless
straggling behind; the lazy resting-places; the slow progress; the
careless devotions; the misspent days of the Lord; the opportunities
lost of doing good to others, or of receiving good ourselves, through
procrastination, sloth, and indifference; the manifestation of our
unloving and selfish spirit towards our brother, in envy, bad temper,
backbiting, jealousy, or unguarded speech; the little done or given
for God's work on earth, in charity to the poor, or to "our own flesh"
who required assistance;--the everything, in short, which deters
memory from looking steadily at what it would if it could blot out for
ever from its records! Yet it is of great importance that this portion
of the journey should be remembered; although it is not the way in
which God led us, but which we chose for ourselves in our ignorance
and self-will. Ponder it well! Recall what your conduct has been in
avoiding temptation; how you have made use of the means of grace; the
days in which you may have lived without God, or if you prayed to Him,
when you did so as a form, without any real faith or love; the days in
which you have been so presumptuous as to live without "faith in the
Son of God," and to meet trials, temptations, and duties, without
seeking strength from the Holy Spirit; the Sundays that have come and
gone without having been improved, and sermons heard in vain, and
public worship joined in outwardly only, without reality; the little
help, or possibly great discouragement given to Christian ministers
and Christian members by your very coldness; the time lost never to be
recalled, and of all that could have been done for the ignorant, the
afflicted, the wicked, the sick and dying, for friends and relations,
which has been left undone, and never can be done in the other world.
Think of what your Master has said, who is to judge you--that "herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit"--that "if any
man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross _daily_, and follow
me"--that "many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten
and drunk in thy presence? hast thou not taught in our streets? have
we not done many wonderful works in thy name? and I will say
unto them, I know you not; depart from me, all ye workers of
iniquity:"--think of this _now_, for think of it one day you must: and
if you do so with any degree of truthfulness, I am sure you cannot
enter another year without pouring out your heart in humble
confession, and laying down your burthen at the foot of the cross,
crying out, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" "Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy loving-kindness, and according to thy tender
mercies blot out all my transgressions!"