eternity as rapidly at least as our world travels in its orbs around the sun. How do we meet you ? We ask the question which travellers by sea call to each other from a distance-" Whither are you bound?" How can we offer you the congratulations of the season, when, for aught we know, you may be hastening forward to irretrievable ruin? Our purpose is urgent. We have no time for ceremony. We demand of you, therefore, with all the abruptness of genuine affection in circumstances of danger, are you the reconciled friend, or still the enemy of God? Have you discovered the necessity for the atonement of Jesus, in your own guilt and fearful danger? Have you been awakened to cry for pardon and eternal life, as earnestly and importunately as a drowning mariner calls for the hand of deliverance ? Do you really believe and cling with all your heart to the good news of the love of God, in the gift of his beloved Son to a lost world, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but might have everlasting life ?"-and have you obtained from above a new disposition to love and serve God-to seek his face-his favour and his glory? We ask not what church you belong to ;-nor by what class of professing Christians you may be denominated. No! Names go far in this world :—but, at the day of Christ's appearing, names, certificates, and testimonials from churches and ministers will not avail. Yes! a man may arrive at "that day" loaded with such testimonials, and being found without one from the Lord Jesus, (even the abiding witness of the Holy Spirit) they will be all rejected. Suffer us, therefore, affectionately to present one criterion more of your condition in the view of eternity. But of what avail will it be if you are unwilling to know the truth in regard to yourselves, be it ever so painful,-or having known it, to follow it out with your whole heart? It is easy to stifle conviction, and evade the truth of God; but they who are determined to speak peace to themselves at any risk, shall do it, as a judgment from God. The criterion we offer, is in the simple questionwhere do you seek-where do you find your happiness? This is the real test of character. Every human being has by his very constitution an incessant thirst for happiness, and must necessarily seek it somewhere. Where, then, do you seek habitually to allay your thirst for enjoyment? Is it in the element of this world?-or in the realities of God? Search and see. Ask for a light from above, if you are doubtful of the answer. Many are very zealous in outward ordinances of religion, who nevertheless in heart seek for their happiness, not in God, but in the things of time. and sense-in that which is created. And because these things may in themselves be honourable or lawful, therefore such are ready to conclude that all is well. But no. He that is of God is spiritually-minded; he finds, or habitually desires, his felicity in an increasing acquaintance with Godwith his book, with his laws, with his people, with his eternal inheritance! while he that is not of God seeks it in those things and employments which he must for ever leave behind him when he dies. Which of these is your character? Your day of probation is fleeting away. Every hour you are viewed from on high, as filling a cup of mercy, by following Jesus; or a cup of wrath, by neglecting "the great salvation." When your day is over, and your cup is full, you will be at once borne away, by holy or unholy spirits, and numbered with the hosts in glory, or precipitated amongst the crowds of the damned! Your sentence may be delayed, but the cup is filling. The righteous frequently complain that their days of trial and suffering are prolonged-but oh ! they have no cause for complaint-for their sanctified sufferings are but strengthening them to receive an exceeding weight of glory. The unregenerate, on the contrary, laugh and rejoice that their days are prolonging; and when a new year comes round, how glad are they in their convivial meetings! But have they any cause for this joy?-this maddened mirth? No verily. Their cup of anguish and of woe is rising higher and higher;-and the longer it is of reaching its climax, or greatest elevation, the more fearful will be its draught throughout eternity. Why then, O reader, do you delay, if you still remain under this impending wrath? you not a contradiction to yourself? Do you not admit the truth of these realities, while the whole tenor of your life is a practical lie? Are you not resisting the convictions of your own conscience, and rendering yourselves more and more morally incapable of being influenced by the truth of God? But whatever be the extent of your guilt hitherto, we entreat you to believe that Christ is exalted to save-he waits to receive you. His name, his character, his finished righteousness and shed blood-his present attitude to every sinner, on this side of eternal burnings-all declare, as with the sound of a trumpet, that he desires your life and glory, and not your destruction ;-that he awaits and longs for your return more vehemently than did the father of the prodigal for his long-lost son! Why, then, we ask you, in the name Are of God, why will you die? O reader, if you perish, your blood will rest on your own head; not with the Lord. He declares with an oath that he hath no pleasure in your death, but rather that you should "turn and live." "Be wise today: 'tis madness to defer." Another year has now begun its rapid course-who can see to its termination? A celebrated general of ancient times, it is said, erected a lofty scaffolding, that from its height, he might take a view of his mighty army,—and, if possible, see to its utmost boundary. But when he ascended, he could not discern on either side, the terminating limits; -the ranks on ranks stretched out till they seemed lost in the distant horizon. He sat down to weep, that in a limited period the whole of this army would be with the clods of the valley. He saw no further than this world—and the funeral pall of everlasting oblivion covered his last thoughts of them. Reader, may we not even in imagination, stand on an eminence, and contemplate the many, who, by the kind providence of God, shall receive this address into their hands; and who, ere long, shall be numbered with the dead ;-not one left behind? But our eyes, by the wondrous grace of God, extend farther than that of the general of old ;-and by the light of Him who hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel, we are enabled to look beyond death and the grave into the world to come; where each one of our readers shall dwell throughout eternity—either in ineffable blessedness or inconceivable agony and hopeless despair. Say, have we not cause to weep more bitterly than did the soldier in such a contemplation? Oh! is it not to be feared that many, many whom we now address, shall go on in their sins to destruction, and never see the land of glory but at a mighty distance? to whom death shall not be the entrance to a state of oblivion, so earnestly desired by the finally awakened conscience-but to a state of being-to a suffering compared with which all death and all suffering in this world, from that of righteous Abel to the present moment, dwindle into nothing. Reader, if this becomes your awful state, you will remember that you were warned against descending into that "place of torment;" that you were pointed again and again to the " 'Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world"-whose blood "cleanseth from all sin." But in the midst of these dark and fearful forebodings, we rejoice to contemplate not a few of our readers, as having been enabled through the grace of God, to renounce the world as a portion, and all its sinful enjoyments;—and by faith to receive the Lord Jesus into their hearts as the sum of their blessedness, and the foundation of their hopes for time and eternity. Beloved in the Lord, the year that is past may have been to you one of conflict and difficulty, but fear not, -these are but the landmarks in the way to glory. The Captain of your salvation fought his way to his eternal crown: and so must each of his followers. He has triumphed over principalities and powers not to exempt them from the warfare, but to insure their victory, and make them “ more than conquerors." Another year has dawned upon your pilgrimage; ere it has passed away, you may be called to leave this world of sorrow. But if you are really joined in spirit to the Lordseeking your delight in the communications of his grace, and fervently desiring the glory of his name-you have no cause to fear the hour of your departure. The world of spirits is but another part of the empire of Him "whom having not seen, you love." All its regions, however dark or unknown to us, are open to his gaze and under his control. At your dying couch he will stand by, to finish the work he has begun in your hearts, and to welcome you into the everlasting sunshine of his countenance! Happy prospect! Thrice blessed anticipation! With such brightening hopes before you, we charge you in the name of your Lord and Master, to give your whole heart and soul throughout this year, to the concentrated pursuit of vital holiness, and to the promotion of that cause for which the Redeemer shed his blood. Look around you, and when you perceive (as you may on every side,) multitudes training themselves for the abodes of everlasting woe;-oh, ask individually again and again, what have I done hitherto-what can I do for the salvation of these immortal beings? But a little, and you or they shall be removed from praying ground." Whatsoever, then, your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might-for there is no work-nor device-nor knowledge-nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, J. & W. Rider, Printers, Bartholomew Close, London. |
