_Go to now_, _ye that say_, _To-day or to-morrow we will go into such
a city_, _and continue there a year_, _and buy and sell_, _and get
gain_: _Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow_. _For what
is your life_? _It is even a vapour_, _that appeareth for a little
time_, _and then vanisheth away_. _For that ye ought to say_, _If
the_ Lord _will_, _we shall live_, _and do this_, _or that_.
“GO TO.” It is the language of rebuke, of remonstrance, and yet of
exhortation. “Come, come, what are you doing? cease from it, for it is
wrong. Come, let us reason together, ye that are forming worldly
schemes, and laying out plans and works for the future, counting not only
on _some_ continuance, but even on a definite time of your own marking
out, ‘We will continue there a year.’ Come, I say, be wise; consider
what your life is, how brief, how fleeting, how easily taken away—how
uncertain of continuance—and rule and consecrate every part of it, every
work, every prospective thought, with the limitation, ‘If the LORD
will.’”
Thus is the worldling reproved and exhorted—the man who is so foolish as
to reckon surely upon what he knows is very uncertain, who is so sinful
as to forget the providence of GOD, or at least not to submit himself to
it. And, further on he is plainly told that this reckless confidence is
sin:—“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him
it is sin.”
Observe here, my brethren—and you will thereby see how directly this text
is addressed, not to very gross and carnal offenders, but even to such as
ourselves—that the Apostle does not cry out against the going into the
city and proposing to buy and sell and get gain there, or even against
the fixing of a particular period of sojourn; but against the doing of
all this _without reference and submission to_, _without dependence upon
the will and providence of_ GOD; without remembrance that there is no
certainty of life, and power, and opportunity. “What is our life” “If
the LORD will?”
GOD does not forbid, rather He requires us to engage in worldly
occupations. He has sent us into the world in need of food and raiment,
which the majority of us can only get by working for them, and has
endowed us with faculties and powers which have their legitimate exercise
in worldly pursuits. There can be no question that by GOD’S appointment
man is to labour and trade, or employ himself in some way in worldly
things, for sustenance and for exercise of many of his powers. And if
this is so, then neither can there be any question, that it must be
lawful to think in some way of the morrow, to provide what we shall need
in it, to consider and plan for our employment and gain in it. It would
be quite impossible to carry on many callings—more especially those which
have distinctly the approval of GOD, as husbandry, for instance—if we
might not forecast, anticipate, provide, propose, and plan. And if all
this may be done, then we may and must mark out particular works and
places, and specific periods of time, wherein to perform what we propose.
If a husbandman may not think of the harvest, how shall he do the duties
of the seed time? If the merchant may not fix on a mart nor make
arrangements for sojourning there till he has disposed of his goods, nor
count the number of days which the ship will require for transporting
them, then how shall he know what wares to purchase? how shall he
persuade himself to have anything to do with merchandise? Surely, he
must take for granted—or at least he must act as if he took for
granted—some certainty of time and opportunity, and so he must in one
sense presume upon the future. Still, brethren, the very illustrations I
have chosen tell against counting on actual certainty. The husbandman
ploughs in hope and sows in hope; but knows all the time that the fowls
of the air may rob him of his crop, that the needful rain or sun may be
withholden from it, that the worm, and the mildew, and the blast may
destroy it. The merchant freights his vessel with full knowledge—(not
always without fear)—that fire or storm may cause it to be lost in the
sea, or that if it reaches the place of sale, there may then be no demand
for it. Each is obliged to admit contingencies; to prepare and act as if
all power and all time and circumstances were in his own hands, while he
knows and feels that it is far otherwise; that much may be uncontrollably
against him; that he may be disappointed of all his hope. Nor does he
omit altogether to provide for the contingency. He asks, “What if I
should be disappointed, if my plans should fail, if the time should be
prolonged or shortened against my expectation? What is to be done with
the gain, if anything happens to me?” So he insures his vessel, and
gives directions whither to carry, or what to do with his merchandise if
aught should render it unsaleable at the proposed mart, and he makes his
will! Wisely he takes into account what he calls “chance,” and therefore
sobers his expectations and rules his plans by the consideration of what
may happen to frustrate them! A like consideration—not of “chance,” for
he does not believe in chance, but of the possible unexpected operations
of GOD’S providence—is to sanctify the Christian’s plans and
appointments, and to prevent him from becoming a worldling. He may think
and say, what he will do on the morrow; he may set out on a long journey,
or propose to himself a week, a month’s, a year’s, a ten years’ sojourn
in some distant city; he may make ample and long preparations for buying
and selling, and getting gain; he may pull down his barns (if they are
not large enough) and build greater; he may entertain some thoughts of
possibly enjoying, after years of toil and care, an old age of ease and
happiness, and so may make provision for that happiness. He need not,
and should not, be ever saying to himself, “It is of no use my
undertaking this business, I may not live to carry it out.” “If I were
sure of life, I would remove this and alter that, but let it be now, it
must do for my poor uncertain days.” (The world would stand still, if
men were to act, or refuse to act, upon such arguments as these,
arguments not suggested by God.) No, brethren, whatever your calling,
follow it honestly and heartily; whatever your possessions, use them, and
use them so as to get the most legitimate good out of them, and do not
despise the opportunities and the goods which GOD has given you. But
consider when you propose to yourselves anything which draws by
anticipation on the future, consider, I say, “What is my life? It is
even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away,”
and qualify your scheme by saying to yourselves, “If the LORD will, I
should live and do this or that.” Yes! and provide, as far as you can,
_lest the_ LORD _should not will_. And here, brethren, we have suggested
to us another reason for admitting an “if” into our counsels, and for
allowing it to have its say, and for heeding well what it suggests. The
Christian is allowed, and even required to follow a worldly calling, but
still he has a higher calling, which he must not neglect, which he must
most regard. Life was not given him only that he might eat and drink,
and take his pleasure, and grow rich, and build palaces, and be filled
with knowledge, and perfected in accomplishments. These are but the
lower employments of life, or its intermittent pastimes. Its business is
religion—the laying hold on salvation, and following the holy service to
which we are bound, wherein we are apprentices and probationers for
eternal glory, and whereby we are allowed and enabled to lay up treasure
in heaven—the dedication of ourselves to CHRIST our Saviour, to live
under His rule, and by His grace; to set forth His glory in all we do; to
become qualified by unlearning and renouncing what is amiss, and
acquiring new tastes, and inclinations, and powers, and fashioning
ourselves after His glorious image for the state to which He will call us
when this life is over. “If the LORD will I should live and do this or
that.” How does such a suggestion break in upon and check the presuming
worldliness of the called of GOD! “Here am I,” it makes him exclaim,
“actually laying myself out for the engrossing and long-continued pursuit
of worldly ends. Yet GOD may cut short my life in the midst of it, and
if He does, without giving me time to resume my higher calling, to repair
what is out of order, to fill up what is wanting, to make my peace with
Him, to become fit for death—oh, to what in that case will my folly and
my sin bring me! How shall I stand before Him at His awful Advent? What
account shall I render of my neglected stewardship? What will justify my
presumption in His delay? What excuse my want of the wedding garment?
Surely He will deal with me as with one who knew his Master’s will, yet
did it not; who refused the glory which he was created, and redeemed, and
sanctified to render; who has preferred Mammon to GOD, earth to heaven;
who has contracted the worldliness from which GOD shrinks, and despised
the holiness which alone He will accept!” It is an awakening, a
sobering, a solemn suggestion. It reveals to him the anomaly, the folly,
the sin, the peril of his condition, whatever the kind of worldliness
which engrosses him. He a servant of CHRIST, a votary of religion, a
worker for eternity, an heir of glory, forgetting his calling, neglecting
his best hopes and interests, perverting his time and powers, and
opportunities from their highest and most necessary use, to gratify self
with childish pleasures, to heap up gold, to make to himself a name among
the pigmies of the earth; to become admired or stared at for his
appearance or accomplishments; to excel in knowledge of languages, or
sciences, or history, or for any other earthly end; when not only what he
seeks must soon be yielded up (even if he succeeds in getting it), but
also through the seeking he must neglect all that GOD requires of him,
and forfeit all that GOD offers! Oh, how silly, how sinful, how awfully
hazardous the course he is pursuing!
What, then? Shall he abandon it all in terror? Shall he hate the world
and flee from it? Shall he become a hermit, refusing to receive good,
and to do good in his generation? Shall he give up his earthly calling,
foregoing the temporal advantages which are held out to him; not
exercising the powers which are entrusted to him; supposing that the GOD
who put him into this world, and qualified him to fill a place in it, and
stimulated him by pressing necessities, or by indwelling desires to seek
profit or pleasure, nevertheless meant him to have nothing to do with the
world; that because presently he is to die, now he ought not to live; but
to drag a sad, inactive, solitary, impatient existence. Surely not! His
place now is in the world, his work is in the world; he refuses GOD
service in not exercising his worldly calling; he gives up the means of
probation, and the opportunities of development and improvement in the
highest powers and best graces, and disqualifies himself for heaven, if
he fulfils not his destiny on earth. Let him abide in his calling; let
him discharge its obligations; let him pursue its advantages, and cull
its pleasures, and perform all its bidding; but throughout all, let him
remember, and act upon the remembrance that he is not a mere worldling;
and to keep him from being absorbed in the world, or grovelling in its
pursuits, to quicken him in concern for higher responsibilities and
privileges, to impress upon him that all that is of the world is
temporary and fleeting, that the world is passing away from him, and he
from it, let him reflect frequently and seriously, “What is my life? It
is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away;” and so let him temper the lower life (and raise himself above it),
by piously resolving that its present occupations, its plans and hopes
shall all be subject to the condition, “If the LORD will I should live,
and do this or that.”
That we all want to be influenced by such thoughts is too evident to need
proof. The very best of us are wont practically to regard this earth as
our abiding home, or the only stage upon which we shall ever act a part,
and earthly pursuits and pleasures as the only aims and rewards of our
being. We may write “D. V.,” or say, “If the LORD will,” after every
engagement, every proposed scheme. We may make our wills and set our
houses in order, and purchase a burial place, and carry about a shroud,
and yet forget that we have to die. Grey hairs, or enfeebled frames, and
the perceptible growth within us of the seeds of mortal disease, and sick
beds, and sudden deaths around us, may cause us momentary misgivings, may
make us perhaps permanently a little uneasy: but still we live on, as
though there were no end of life; we put off preparation for death, and
for another state after death, as though we could not die till we chose
to do so. Not for want of knowledge, of constant testimonies and
reminders of the contrary are we thus confident (for we all know that our
life is but a vapour which the heat may presently dispel, or the wind of
the next moment cause to vanish), but because we do not feel ourselves to
be so entirely in the hands of an Omnipotent and mysteriously exercised
Providence, as to need to be constantly depending upon it, and asking of
it, “If the LORD will;” and so presenting to ourselves, in all its force,
the consideration that perhaps “The LORD may _not_ will.” I speak to
men, and women, and children, full of present occupations and future
plans. I bid you consider your occupations and review your plans. Do
you imagine that the first may be at any moment interrupted, and the last
never begun to be carried out? Some of you are almost exclusively
pleasure seekers; others, careless creatures of the present; others
intent upon business, or profit, upon obtaining power, or knowledge, or
fame; either reaping a worldly harvest now, or sowing for a future
worldly harvest. Others are divided in care and desire between this life
and the next. Others are in theory, and in much practice, living above
this world, using it but not abusing it, in it but not of it. Put the
question to yourselves, all and each of you. Do you feel your life to be
such a vapour, that it is in momentary risk of vanishing away; that only
if the LORD will, will it appear a little time; that possibly He may not
will? You would say, “yes,” doubtless, if you were forced to answer
aloud, as you sit in church, interrogated by the messenger of CHRIST out
of the Bible, just as to a question out of the Church Catechism, you
would give an answer out of the Church Catechism. But do you _feel_
“yes”? Is it your sure and strong conviction? Do your lives say “yes”?
I shall not be unjust to you, if I say that I stand in doubt of many of
you; that, alas! I have no doubt of some; that your hearts do not thus
respond; that your lives give a manifest contradiction.
Brethren, I am not here to accuse, but to admonish and help. Let me
suggest, then, why you fail to realise such a palpable truth. It is,
first, because you have an idea that the Advent is far off; and,
secondly, because, as I have reminded you in so many ways lately, you
shut GOD too much out of this present world. The first disciples, as you
may see from St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s Epistles, were filled with the
conviction that the Advent was very near, that the next moment might
reveal it. This did not take them out of the world, for they believed
that CHRIST would come to them in the world. Neither did it make them
forsake their earthly calling, for they knew that it was in that calling
that they were to serve GOD, and to prepare for His coming. But it
caused them always to have regard to the end, and it sanctified every
pursuit and plan with the thought, “The LORD may come,” and so constantly
suggested the proviso, “If the LORD will.” We have no such conviction of
CHRIST’S nearness, and therefore have little reference to it, and are
faintly impressed with it. We argue, the Judgment has tarried so many
years, it may therefore tarry many more. Death has so long spared us, he
will not come to us yet. We shall have time to finish our present
occupations, we can enter upon and execute many fresh plans. We need not
raise a doubt, “If the LORD will.”
But, secondly, we shut GOD out of this present world. We forget that He
is ever with us; that He is constantly exercising His providence over us;
that He is not ignorant, or indifferent, much less distant, when we
propose and proceed to execute; that it is by His exercised permission,
by His actual letting us go in anger, that we fall into sin; by His
inclining, and helping, and carrying us, that we think, and attempt, and
perform what is good; that thus watching and caring for us, and
surrounding us, He is at once the Witness, the Judge, the Rewarder of our
every thought and way; that consequently, when He has tried us enough, or
when we have long wearied Him, He is at hand to decide about us, and,
deciding, to execute the decision. His forbearance and interference, the
length of the probation, the numbers and kinds of trial, are different in
different cases. He knows what is right and sufficient for each, and He
applies it, and then He says, “It is enough. Thy righteousness is as
length of days. Well done, good and faithful servant;” or, “It is of no
use that thou shouldst be stricken any more. Thou wilt revolt more and
more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. Depart from
me!” And in either case the vapour is dispelled—it vanisheth away.
O for the full perception and realisation of this truth; that we are in
the hands of a watching, proving, waiting, judging, visiting GOD. It
would be hard then to do or propose anything, without immediately adding,
“If the LORD will.”
Two concluding thoughts suggest themselves.
First, that life is of such different duration in different cases,
because we have individual capabilities and responsibilities, and some by
many trials and length of days are proved, others quickly and easily made
perfect, or wholly hardened; and because a discerning, ruling GOD is ever
at hand to close the trial at the fit moment.
Secondly, that we are individually kept uncertain of the duration of our
life, to counteract the sad proneness which belongs to us, of putting off
eternal interests, and following our own ways to the uttermost; to give
to every moment, and every act of life, such vital importance, that we
may fear to squander or pervert it; to keep us ever mindful of our latter
end, and always intent upon doing the LORD’S work, and preparing
ourselves for heaven; that the GOD at hand may never be slighted, and the
world be always so loosely held, that we may easily and readily let go of
it whenever the LORD will.
“Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye
know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even
a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For
that ye ought to say, If the LORD will, we shall live, and do this, or
that.”
SERMON IV.
THE UNKNOWN GOD.