Let us make the most of it. Shall not the new opening for usefulness
find us prepared to enter in? Must it ever be said again that the pulpit
was open to us, but we were not ready to fill it as it ought to be
filled? Could an angel from heaven desire anything better than the
opportunity which will come to so many, next Sunday, of preaching, or it
may be, of teaching a class of young people out of the Word of God?
If we need a stimulus, let us ask ourselves the question,--How shall I
feel, looking at my past chances of usefulness from the observatory of
the sick room and dying bed? Are we to fill our dying pillows with
thorns, as we remember Sabbaths when we gave way to indolence and self-
indulgence, instead of crowding them with well-aimed efforts after
usefulness, and diligently employed occasions for study and teaching.
To the unconverted reader we say,--Beware, lest this New Year be wasted
as its predecessors were. Is it to be like all the rest? Is that which
comes to thee as a friend, wishing to give thee space for repentance and
faith, to become another lash in the scourge which is to punish thy soul
for ever? Is God's ledger still to chronicle thy unforgiven debts;
unforgiven, not because there was no mercy, but because thou wast too
indolent to pray. Rouse thyself, sinner, lest these very opportunities
should add to thy doom! They fly past thee, but where do they go? They
are on their way to the bar of God, to witness against thee. What a
crowd of them to testify! Wouldst thou silence them? Come, ere this
year closes, and the new one begins, to the feet of Jesus, where thou
shalt find pardon and peace, and where thou mayst receive power to live a
life of devotion and holy labour--thus making opportunity thy willing and
true yoke-fellow.