(_Last Sunday of the Year._)
xxxviii. 19. _The living, the living, he shall praise Thee,
as I do this day._
Such was Hezekiah's burst of thankfulness when God heard his prayer,
and gave him fifteen years more of life. While the danger lasted, he
was surprised into more of alarm than became his place and character;
but now, marvellously spared, he calls upon the living everywhere to
praise God for His goodness. _His_ case, he feels, was _theirs_ too.
All men alike live upon God's bounty, and are debtors to His
patience. He guards them from evil,--sends them good things, without
which life must be presently extinguished,--renews their being, and
makes it over to them by a fresh grant, not only when the closing
year reminds us of the gift, but at each day's working time.
Therefore Hezekiah is not satisfied with a solitary strain of
thanksgiving. He looks round upon a world teeming with animated,
intelligent beings, and in every brother who God hath made and kept
alive he finds one who should bring in his tribute of praise. He
wants a chorus of rejoicing worshippers.
1. This season naturally makes us thoughtful. We think of what life
has been to us lately, and what it might have been. We have nearly
passed another stage on our journey to the grave, and we miss some
who began it with us. We stand, like unwounded soldiers on the
battlefield with the dead and the dying all round them. This is all
God's doing. He who gives life sustains it. If to have lived on be
deemed a blessing, and praise for the boon be due anywhere, it can
only be to Him whose providential government of the world is like an
hourly repetition of the creative power which called it out of
nothing.
2. But is life worth having? Is prolonged life a blessing, and may we
fairly require men to be grateful for it? This is assumed by
Hezekiah. Life and praise may go well together, because to so great a
degree life and happiness go together. Not always. Some are so
unhappy that they cry out under their burden, and almost wish, for a
moment, for deliverance at any cost. But the settled feeling of men's
minds is the other way. To almost all of them life is the hoarded
treasure which they will guard at any price. They will put up with
the worst they have to bear before they will accept release on the
terms of being banished straightway to an unknown world. The reason
is, that by the side of this harvest of woe, of which they reap a few
ears now and then, there groweth a harvest of blessing, of which they
are constant reapers (P. D. 2282, 2256).
3. Remember the "common mercies" of which through another year we
have been partakers. Our very senses are so many curious inlets by
which pleasures, more or less vivid, come thronging in from the wide
world around us. Continued health. Senses and faculties marvellously
kept from injury. The happiness of our houses; specially to be
remembered at this season. When we call upon the living to praise
God, we have much more to show for the demand than the bare fact that
God lets them live. He lets most of them live happily. He causes
their cup to run over with blessings. He does all this, in spite of
forgetfulness and disobedience on their part that would wear out any
other love but His (H. E. I. 2307-2309). Praise God for the "common
mercies" of another year.
4. While we live we are on mercy-ground. _That_ is the special mercy
beyond all our common mercies. Life, while it lasts, connects us with
all that is blessed and glorious in the scheme of salvation. While we
are here, "there is but a step between us and death;" but while we
are here, too, the door stands wide open through which we may pass
into the presence-chamber of our King. _While you are here,_ if you
will make Christ your friend, sin may be cast out, and the blessed
Spirit of truth become your daily Teacher, and your future years be
all rich in blessing and bright with hope. Praise God for the
prolongation to you of this great opportunity, and embrace it now!
Let the new year find you serving Christ.
5. Living saints, as well as spared sinners, should praise God for
His preserving mercy. They have had fresh opportunities for serving
God and for growth in grace. They have no righteousness of their own
wherein to stand before God, and never will have; but talents
improved and laid out for God will bring a blessing. He is too
bountiful a Master to let any of His servants work for nought. Heaven
itself is not alike to all, though it shall be satisfying to the
meanest child in God's family. The disciple whom Jesus specially
loved leant on His bosom at the Last Supper; and at the
marriage-supper, when all the guests shall be assembled from many
lands, they who have attained to the godliest stature in their days
of conflict shall sit nearest to the King, and wear the brightest
crowns (H. E. I. 2751-2753, 3288; P. D. 412, 1752). Every year is a
fresh sowing-time for a more abundant harvest.
6. Some among you have special reasons for saying with Hezekiah, "The
living," &c. (1.) This strain belongs to the aged man or woman, who
has already lived beyond the allotted term of human life. In your
feebleness, God has carried you through another stage. Beyond your
expectation, perhaps, you have seen another Christmas. Many are the
mercies of one year, but when they come to be multiplied by near
fourscore, what an array we have then! Praise the Lord! (2.) Some
before me, while the year was running out, thought they should never
see the end of it. Like Hezekiah, you prayed for life when death
seemed to be close upon you. God restored your life to you. What have
you done since to show yourself grateful for that mercy? Have a care
that your mercies do not make your case worse. If they do not melt,
they harden.
7. If the living should praise God, how largely is He defrauded of
His due! We are surrounded with living men. Each one of these has a
fresh grant of life with each day's sun-rising. What a tide of praise
should be going up unceasingly to His throne! Do we find the world so
full of praise? Alas! no; if praise be the sign of life, we seem to
be walking among the tombs. God is forgotten in His own world. While
common friends are thanked for trifling favours, the Giver of
mercies, repeated with every breath, is to many of us an unheeded
stranger.--_John Hampton Gurney, M.A.: Sermons, chiefly on Old
Testament Histories,_ pp. 297-312.