Silently but surely we are being carried forward on our journey from time to eternity and at the close of another year we approach another milestone on the way. Reflecting on the past, most of us will readily agree that the days and weeks and months have very rapidly passed by. “The spending of our years,” says Matthew Henry, “is like the telling of a tale. A year when it is past is like a tale when it is told. Some of our years are as a pleasant story, others as a tragical one; most mixed, but all short and transient.” Whether, in general, our recollection of 1985, if we are to see its end, be predominantly sorrowful or joyful, when the last day of the month ends it will have gone, with its account, before us. The mystery of Divine providence is such that we, in our personal circumstances cannot always trace the hand of Him who is “wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working,” but His hand is in it nevertheless. Here, our view of events and our knowledge of the relationship between them, can at best be only partial and imperfect so that it is little wonder if we are often perplexed especially when in adversity. But we shall know hereafter. “When the records of eternity shall be exposed to view, all the counsels and results of that profound wisdom looked into; how will it transport when it shall be discerned: Lo, thus were the designs laid: here were the apt junctures and admirable dependencies of things, which, when acted upon the stage of time, seemed so perplexed and intricate.” (Howe) Even death, that unwearied visitant, enters our homes only according to His appointment.
At such a time we believe those who have a concern for the Cause of Christ and who seek its good will be taking stock. “Who hath believed our report?” was the mournful complaint of the prophet Isaiah, himself pre-eminently one who was commissioned to speak for God, and did so with no ordinary measure of eloquence and fervour. It is clear that he was not speaking on behalf of himself alone but for a particular class — “them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” Other reports receive credence without much difficulty but experience teaches us that this Report, the most momentous of all — “A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” — is carelessly disregarded by most hearers. Over another year the Gospel has been preached from our pulpits, often in weakness, often with a feeling of discouragement, we believe, yet at the same time with the sincere desire that sinners be saved; but how many have believed the Report? The Gospel reveals Christ as being so worthy of our love and devotion that He ought to be received without hesitation or delay on the part of sinners. After all that the Holy Spirit has testified of Him in Isaiah, and in all the Scriptures so wonderfully placed in our hands, and after so long a period of the Spirit’s striving with us, the solemnity and significance of Paul’s declaration ought to be apparent, “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.”
At the end of the year it is proper and comely that we should acknowledge the Lord’s kindness and sparing mercy. In this connection we have, among others, the God-honouring example of David, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,” and of Jeremiah, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed; because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” The “mercies” we receive so freely, so abundantly and so constantly, were dearly bought by the blood of the Son of God in our nature and the bearing of that in mind will surely have a humbling effect upon us. How precious is Christ Himself and how desirable that we should be found with a humble and contrite spirit exclaiming, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!”