A New Year’s Message

Since last we sent our salutations, twelve months have been added to our lives; and it is important to pause and consider whether that twelve months have been a period of Christian activity and holiness, or a time of worldliness and indifference. Let us never forget that Jesus, our Lord and Master, has sent this Message to the Churches: “I will give to every one of you according to his works,” (Rev. ii.23), and has issued the inexorable decree “The unprofitable servant shall be cast out” (Matthew xxi.30). Are we fully alive to this? Are we adding yearly to our stock of good works – of profitable service? We cannot, it is true, do all that we could wish – we cannot altogether get at that blissful perfection which, in our hearts, we may desire to attain; but do we give ourselves as much ordinary concern to be profitable servants of Christ as we do to be prosperous and respected in worldly matters? Are we equally good Christians as we are good tradesmen and men of business? Are we as much interested in the future as we are in the present? Do we love Christ and his precious promises as much as we do this world and its concerns? It is to be feared that if these questions were very truthfully answered, most of us would be found lamentably shortcoming. Most of us can understand, argue, and perhaps preach about the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Most of us can give a reason for the blessed hope of life that is within us; but it is to be feared that in too many instances we carry our faith more in our heads than our hearts – having our understandings enlightened but our affections little softened by that gracious love of Christ which passeth all understanding. It is perhaps but too true of most of us that while we may know sound doctrine, we fail in the practical part of Christianity, being but superficially acquainted with the precepts, as affecting our everyday behaviour, and still more backward in obeying them when we know them. In a word, the good seed may have been sown in our hearts, and yet the fruit may be of tardy growth on account of the abundance and vigour of those other plants which find but too ready a vegetation in its soil. It is to be feared that we allow ourselves to be influenced by the strongly secular spirit of the age, and our Christianity to be diluted with prevailing worldliness. Let us fear! For neither the worldly-minded nor the lukewarm shall inherit the kingdom of God. Let us guard against faint heartedness. Let us strive to make our Christianity honest, straightforward and unblushing. We are apt to be overridden by the external circumstances of the time. Let it be otherwise. Let our characters be known in our circles; let our light shine in the surrounding darkness; and so may we glorify our Father in heaven and receive His approval at last.

With regard to the affairs of this life, hear the words of our beloved Master: “Take no thought for tomorrow, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things the Gentiles seek), for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things; but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all those things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. vi.31-33). How very few of us act in this spirit? Are we not apt to worry ourselves about the affairs of this life? Are we not apt to make them the chief subject of our thoughts, and the supreme object of our efforts, instead of throwing our heart and soul into the Christian life and cherishing the love of Christ, the love of the brethren, and the desire for the spread and triumph of the Truth, as the passions of our souls? Are we not apt to lose sight of this blessed assurance of our Master, and to make our secular business the chief concern of existence, when it ought to be altogether secondary and subordinate?

Brethren, let us take heed lest “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.” Let us not weary in well doing. Many have run well for a time and have at last made shipwreck. Several lamentable instances of this have occurred during the past year. Let us take warning. Let us give diligent attention to the precious Word of God, which is able to build us up in our most holy faith. This is a most important exhortation; for if a man neglect the reading of the Scriptures, or if he only attend to it in an occasional manner, his spiritual life will fade, and his mind will be gradually but certainly leavened with the deceptive principles around him.

In regard to our own personal condition, we know whether we are warm in our hearts towards Christ, his truth, and his brethren, or no; for “where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,” (Matt. vi.21), and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. xii.34). There cannot be any mistake. Are we doubtful? Have we qualms of conscience? “God is greater than our heart,” and will disapprove what it condemns. Are we pleased with ourselves, and looking forward with confidence to the coming of our Lord and Master? Only one thing can justify that confidence – the consciousness of a holy Christian life – the answer of a good conscience toward God. “Not everyone that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom, but he that doeth the will of my father, that is in heaven” (Matt. vii.21). “He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me” (John xiv. 21). “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John xv. 14). There can therefore be no mistake about the terms of friendship and ultimate acceptance. Mere sentiment is idleness; unwarrantable self-complacence is delusion. “The words that I have spoken, the same shall judge you in the last day” (John xii. 48). “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John xiv. 23). Let us measure ourselves by this standard. We have believed the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and eternal life; and have been baptised into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is the first act of obedience – the first act of consecration, but what a work remains to be accomplished! “All things WHATSOEVER I have commanded” (Matt. xxviii.20). That is the measure of our duty, of our goodness. Have we filled it?

Brethren, let us devoutly study the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his apostles, and be careful to obey them all in our lives, for upon that depends our ultimate salvation. If we do so, we shall be patterns of excellence – beautiful characters – noble men and women – glorifying the name of our Father in heaven.

A few words in conclusion in regard to the spreading of the Truth. We have come to know God’s blessed word; and hereby has been given to us a most precious talent. Are we alive to its true value, and to the obligation that rests upon us to increase it? It is to be feared not. Some altogether neglect the duty of helping to disseminate the glorious gospel among their perishing fellow men; and it is to be regretted that some even go further, and discourage efforts in that direction. This is a misfortune; for our common benevolence prompts us to proclaim salvation to our fellow men, and to place within their reach the same opportunities of obtaining it that we ourselves enjoy. Moreover, does not imperative duty call upon us to do so? “Let him that heareth say, come.” What higher commission do we require? Have we not heard? And shall we not then say “come?”

It is not enough to say that they have the Bible, (although upon them is cast the fearful responsibility by this circumstance). They have the Bible it is true, but is it not a sealed book among the people; and more, is it not a neglected book? There might as well be no Bible in the world as far as the great body of mankind are concerned. We have thus an exalted function to perform – a noble opportunity to turn to account; and shall we indulge in ignoble indolence? Shall we shrink from the task of unfolding the Bible’s blessed truths to the perishing, and unsealing its gushing inspiration? To put the matter in another light – shall we refrain from giving a testimony for God in this conceited, hard-hearted, unbelieving generation?

The common instinct of the brethren will supply the right answer; and if in the estimation of some that answer be a wrong one, we put it to them whether such an occupation for brethren would be displeasing to Christ, or altogether unprofitable to themselves? Or whether the retrospect of their lives is likely on a death-bed to be any the sweeter for having acted otherwise?

Bro Robert Roberts