Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

mind it all, yes, the blood-His blood-;" her voice faltered, she closed her eyes, and her head fell wearily back on the pillow. Mark thought she must be dreaming; he covered her up carefully with the scanty bed-clothes, and was soon again asleep; but when he woke in the morning, his wife was not beside him, only the lifeless clay remained, with a faint smile on the half-parted lips; the undying spirit had gone to be with that Saviour, in the merit of whose atonement, she had learned, though at the eleventh hour, to trust.

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR.

NEW YEAR'S DAY! Even the sorrowful will hail its dawn with a quiet smile, and not be angry at the bells ringing a merry welcome to it, although those bells have more than once wailed out sad music for the dear ones who fill their old places never more, and whose ashes repose beneath the clods of the valley. New Year's Day! Even the aged man, to whom the grasshopper is a burden, and who looks out on the young cheerful world round him through windows blinded by age, will welcome its approach as a new piece to be woven in the tattered, moth-eaten garments of the past, or as a child born to him in his old age, or as a new flush of vitality that for a moment makes even general decrepitude and decay appear radiant and transfigured. Young and old, in England and in far-off lands over the sea, the gipsy on the wild heath, and the poor tramp on the cold road side-all, if they remember it, will feel something on new year's day, that might do them good if they only allowed the emotion to exert its proper influence

over them.

With strange, inexplicable feelings, the thoughtful have approached the day which is now with us, having a dim belief that the new year is to do something for them and with them which all the past years of their lives have not done; though what that something is, they cannot tell.

We might be puzzled to put into words what there is to distinguish this new year's day from all the others we have ever known, or indeed from any other day which by its association is favourable to serious thought and prayer. The thoughts we think at this season we have had many a time; and the tasks of life, when we turned from Christmas-tide gatherings to the matter-of fact world in which

we had to live and labour, were just as monotonous years ago as they will be in a few days, when the laurel and holly are taken down, and the red berries drop withered on the hearth, and smiling faces have disappeared, and we are left to the family routine of another year's life of mingled joy and sadness. The anniversaries of the home life, too-birth-days, marriage-days, and those that carry with them painful reminiscences-are all so many stations on the road of life, when one can rest awhile in thankful and prayerful meditation. And, though we may have seen many new year's days, yet I venture to say that in the mind of the thoughtful man, the moment he was conscious that another year's life was begun-that he was really another year nearer to the judgment-seat-there was a distinction marked and manifest between this day and other days. And whatever new experiences we may have gathered in life's journey, whatever new lessons we may have learned from each year as it glided away, new year's day finds the Christian prayerfully turning his heart and mind to these two things-the PAST, the FUTURE.

As long as the world lasts, as new year's day comes round, these two things will occupy the prominent place in the Christian's thoughts and feelings. He may be perfectly acquainted with the thoughts which the returning season suggests, and mere memory may strive to take the place of deep heartfelt emotion; for years he may have been accustomed to regard new year's day as the annual halting-place, from whence in the quick race of life he may have momentary leisure to look more fixedly on the things of the soul and of eternity. The years become more strict and searching with us as they multiply; with an eloquence that gathers strength and emphasis as they become fewer, as the attractive power of eternity draws us through them with almost frightful rapidity. Years which once appeared never ending, now seem short as months; months shorter than weeks, and weeks than hours. They cry to us, "What have you been this year? what do you hope to be during the remainder of your existence?" To these queries most sincere replies must be given, if the Christian would have his life a precious growth, a passing on from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from glory to glory. The replies that were given years ago to these questions we have to give again on the morning of the new year.

If the Jews, ere commencing their new year, first prepare for it by a long and painful fast, and encourage everything that can inspire penitence and humiliation, surely Christians, ere they begin another large portion of their earthly life, should with contrite humility answer the question, "What have I been during the year that has now passed away for ever?" We shall not gain much by giving an ambiguous or a self-complacent answer; the more thorough the confession, the better. And so, truth to tell, we have again to confess that we have been unprofitable servants; that, though we have been growing older and older, we have not advanced to that religious maturity which might have been expected; that in motives, sympathies, words, and acts, we are still far from being conformed to the image of our blessed Lord. We do not wish it to be thought that life is all battle without any victory, all struggling without any satisfaction; something of a precious nature the faithful Christian adds to his experience every year, some victory of glorious kind he gains in each of his annual campaigns; but on review of the past the losses seem heavier than the gains, and thus the close of a year has always its portion of sorrow connected with it.

Other sources of grief may be present in the mind of the Christian; but the primal, ever-welling source of trial is his want of complete sympathy with his Lord and Master. Year after year is cut off from the thread of his existence, and yet natural instinct, hereditary tendencies, and the power of original sin, still exert too great an influence over him. With fresh sorrow, but with undiminished confidence, let us on this new year's day turn to our Lord's gracious and sufficient atonement, that in the lowly attitude of faith and repentance we may be helped to feel that whatever our sins and shortcomings may have been, they may be blotted out, and cast no gloomy shadow over the clean page in the book of life which the new year opens.

But the future also claims our attention at this season. Cleared, in respect of the past, through faith in a Saviour's merits, we turn our gaze upon the future. It is with fear and trembling that we do so, for who can tell what the new year has in store for each of us? We may have lived many years, and experience has shown us that every year of our existence, has had something in it to distinguish it from every other. Be well assured that this year also will

be unlike any that you have seen as yet, and it says to you to-day, "Ye have not passed this way heretofore." The past year had a life of its own, its special days of darkness and of pleasure; joys, casualties, and changes it brought with it that you little anticipated when you commenced it. And this year, as it gradually lengthens out into weeks and months, will unvail many a hidden mystery that now lies covered by the darkness of the future. It has its evil tidings in store for many; on certain days in it, wives will be made widows, and children fatherless. Losses and disappointments innumerable it may have hiding in its bosom; banks may fail, fortunes may be made out of your loss, victory gained through your defeat. Temporal dangers and disasters there may be awaiting many upon whom the new year to-day smiles so hopefully.

Spiritual dangers also, we are sure, will the new year contain in it. Old temptations and old afflictions will appear again under new forms and circumstances, and trials of heart and mind that have never before been experienced, may be, and ought to be expected. But in regard to both temporal and spiritual anxieties, the new year brings a hopeful message to the child of God. It is the message contained in the experience of the royal psalmist :"I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of his righteousness, even of his only." The blessed gospel has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. And on this the first day of the new year, the Christian, as he surveys the future, is privileged to believe that body and soul, time and eternity, things present and things to come, are under the direction of his Lord and Master; that the hairs of his head are all numbered; that all things must work together for his good. Whatever darkness may be awaiting him in the future, he is privileged to believe that Christ, the great light, is already behind that darkness, waiting to reveal to him its mystery and meaning, and to strengthen him to bear the burden imposed upon him. Temporal disaster may fall to his lot; but as the vision rises before his imagination, another appears at its background, bearing the inscription on its frontispiece, "Our light afflictions are but for a moment;" "The things which are seen are temporal." Spiritual trials, too, may be surveyed with equal confidence; the strength which has been experienced

amid old temptations will not be found wanting amid those that are to come; and the new year in hopeful language utters to the sincere Christian the words, "As thy day, thy strength shall be."

With the atonement of the Saviour as sufficient for past transgressions, with the promised aid of the Holy Spirit as adapted for all future anxieties, I may, on this the first day of the new year, wish my readers "a very happy new year." And if I might add another wish, it would be this, that the new year's day might be the spiritual birthday of the still undecided, whose eyes these lines may meet. The year upon which you have just entered is

certain to be the last year of many of those who read the "Tract Magazine," as well as of those who never take a religious book into their hands; and if the past is always a subject of pain to the faithful persevering Christian, what must it be to the thoughtless and impenitent?

Yet even to such the new year brings its message of mercy; it tells of Him who died for our sins, who rose again for our justification, and who prayed the Father for the descent of the Holy Ghost, by whose converting power sins red as crimson become whiter than snow. Therefore to-day, this new year's day, the last you may ever see, to-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

[ocr errors]

THE COMMANDMENT WITH PROMISE.

"A LETTER for me!

[ocr errors]

Who can it be from, I wonder?" Open it, father, open it," said the little girl who had just taken it from the postman; and two other little ones toddled up to his knee, to gaze at the white packet.

"You'd better open it, George," said his wife, as he still continued to turn it over in his hand,-"it's the only way to know what the news is."

6.6

Well, it comes from home, Martha, I can see; but the writing I can't make out, for it isn't father's, I know." And he proceeded to break the seal slowly, almost unwillingly. The next minute the letter dropped from his hand. "Father's dead!" he exclaimed, with a groan: "died the day before yesterday."

"And they never let you know he was ill," said his wife, looking very angry in spite of the tears that had sprung to her eyes.

« VorigeDoorgaan »