AS we sit and meditate by the fireside at this season of the year, our minds have an instinctive tendency to recall the past. The departure of the old year and the advent of the new, have the effect of carrying back our thoughts to similar occasions in the past, and of thus reviving in our memories the events and experiences with which we were familiar in years gone by. Reflections upon “the days of old” in personal experience form an interesting part of the mental exercise of the children of God, and when these reflections are guided by the Divine Spirit, they never fail to prove spiritually profitable to their souls. No doubt their history, in many of its natural details, is very much the same as that of the rest of the world, but viewing the various incidents of their common life in the light of God and eternity, the Lord’s people may discern elements of far-reaching importance in things that otherwise might seem most trivial and commonplace, and so they may derive corresponding benefit from the thoughtful contemplation of them.
In calling to mind the days of old, it is natural and becoming for us to think first of the days of childhood and youth. The scenes and associations of the home of our birth rise up before our mental vision. We recall affectionate parents, and perhaps godly friends, who cared for us and took a deep and abiding interest in our welfare. We remember their little deeds of kindness to us, and also their occasional sharp but loving rebukes, administered when we erred from the right path. We also recollect our youthful companions and acquaintances, not a few of whom may be now in eternity, and others scattered in various parts of the world. These days of youth were often days of folly and sin, and as they pass before our mind’s eye, we would do well, like Augustine, to confess with sorrow unto God the errors of them, and cry with the Psalmist, “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness sake, O Lord.” It is well, however, also, if we can recall with gratitude a childhood blessed with Christian privileges—the worship of God in the family, and instruction in the truths and doctrines of sound Christianity. The bread cast upon the waters may be found after many days. And, indeed, eternity alone will reveal what the Lord may have done by means of His Word, cast into the memory in early youth—bringing it to fruition by His Spirit perhaps when the subjects were in distant lands, far from all outward privileges, and lying on a sick-bed on the brink of a lost eternity.
We may next pass on to recall the days of first spiritual impressions. The memory of those days may remind some of a startling event in providence that shook every fibre of their frame; others, of a sermon from the pulpit that seemed to speak only to them in the great congregation; others again, of some word of reproof or warning dropped by a Christian friend; and others still, of a text of Scripture that secretly yet powerfully, at an unexpected moment, broke into their minds, and fastened conviction upon their consciences. These were days of sadness and misery, when we moved about like guilty criminals, as we were, thinking that every passer-by could read our guilt in our very face. Possibly such a season of alarm as this passed away—as it has done with many—and we went back to the world again, and plunged deeper into its mire than ever. But the Lord, in His rich and sovereign mercy, did not leave us there; and so we may be able to recall subsequent seasons of conviction and a day of Gospel deliverance, when our souls were taken out of the horrible pit and from the miry clay, and our feet were set upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, a new song put into our mouth, even praise unto the Lord. It is not affirmed that the transition from death to life, or darkness to light, stands out with equal distinctness in the consciousness of all the children of God alike, but certainly all His children recall moments and seasons of spiritual hope and comfort, when they were enabled, in a way they never knew before, to behold the Lamb of God, and to delight in the thought of a finished salvation through His obedience and blood. They recall some little blinks of divine favour, when the Lord seemed to speak comfortably to them, and to shine with His countenance upon their souls. These, indeed, were sweet days, never to be wholly erased from the page of memory, and the after recollection of them often proves an occasion of renewed quickening and consolation to the soul.
The remembrance of those times of spiritual joy and liberty is fitted also to call up the figures of worthy ministers and gracious men and women of the past, whom we knew and learned to value for the excellency of their personal character, and for their usefulness, publicly and privately, in the Lord’s vineyard. Most, if not all, of these may now be in eternity—the righteous have been taken away from the evil to come—and we mourn the desolation that has been made by their removal, and the loss sustained by the Church of God on earth. Indeed, no one who has any true knowledge of divine things can do anything else than recall, with sorrow, the removal of so many living and lively witnesses for Christ as have passed away in Scotland during the last twenty or thirty years. Their character, conversation, and testimony still remain, however, as hallowed recollections to the living in Jerusalem. They, being dead, yet speak. “The memory of the just is blessed.” The very remembrance of the words of truth that fell from their lips, of their humble and heavenly walk, their ups and downs, joys and sorrows, proves oftentimes, by the divine blessing, a means of revival to the souls of those left behind in the wilderness, stimulating and encouraging them to “run with patience the race set before” them, and to anticipate the day of victory and rest.
Some, at least, of the children of God, will no doubt at this season feel strongly moved to call to remembrance the sore days of trouble of various kinds through which they may have passed in their wilderness journey. The Lord alone is able to bind up their wounds that are apt to bleed afresh at the touch of memory, and it would be a happy thing in their experience if they were enabled, in the strength of grace, to rise above their sorrows, and recognise the Lord’s great goodness to them amid their severest trials. He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. His way is often in the sea, and his path in the mighty waters. It is hard to sense to discern the hand of love in many of His providential dealings, but His people, generally, after a period, come to see the reason for the path in which they have been led, and are enabled to acquiesce in the sovereign will of Him of whom it is written that He doeth all things well. “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” The will of God is their sanctification, and he uses sharp as well as pleasant means for the accomplishment of this great end. He will starve pride and feed humility in His people, and conform them to the glorious image of Christ. If they are to meditate upon their troubles at this season, let it be in order that they may be driven more and more in lowliness and self-abasement nearer the Lord Jehovah, who is their everlasting righteousness and strength.
Let those, then, who profess the name of Christ, remember the days of mercy as well as the days of misery. All our days, from the beginning of our career, are stamped with mercy. If God had dealt with us according to our sins, we would have been in hell long ago, but He is long-suffering, slow to wrath, and in mercy plenteous, and every temporal comfort we enjoy is an unmerited mercy direct from the hand of God. And what an unspeakable, incalculable favour it is, if we have been made heirs of the “good hope through grace!”
In conclusion, what shall we say on this subject to our readers who are still “without God and without hope”? Remember, dear friends, that if you do not now, in time, seek and find pardon and salvation, your olden days—both in respect of sin and privilege—will yet rise up in judgment against you. You may have forgotten your old days of sinning, but they are written down in the book of God’s remembrance, and will yet appear to your endless confusion, unless you repent and believe the Gospel. Further, your days of privilege will even be more terrible to you than your days of sin. For they speak of warnings neglected and invitations despised. You have heard almost numberless times of your sin and danger, and of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, and yet you have paid no heed, but have hardened your hearts against the truth and against your own mercy. May the Lord, in infinite compassion, incline you to pause and consider and turn, ere it be too late! Hell is at your very feet, and you have need to be snatched even as brands from the burning. The Lord Jesus even now says, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”