December 27
Buy Up the Opportunity
In the Hour of Silence"When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee."
THERE are two sworn enemies of my soul. Their names are Yesterday and To-morrow.
Yesterday slays his thousands. What he seeks to do is to plunge me down into darkness and despair. "You have had your chances," he says, "such golden chances, such unnumbered and innumerable multitudes of them; and you have trampled them all under foot. There will be no more priceless opportunities for you. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and you are not saved." Nay, but God's word is, Now; To-day; After so long a time; Yet there is room. There is mercy still, and hope, and healing, and life everlasting for thee.
Ah, but To-morrow slays his tens of thousands.
He has recourse to just the opposite expedients from those of Yesterday. Brave vows and valiant promises that will never be fulfilled; good resolutions that may lull my conscience into sleep, but that have no value of any substantial sort—these are his deadly weapons. When I have a convenient season, he bids me say to the Saviour and the Spirit of God, I will send for Thee. And how pitifully often the convenient season never dawns!
Behold, now is the acceptable time. Believe it, needy soul of mine, and, while Jesus of Nazareth passes by, make sure that thou dost touch the hem of His garment. By and by it may be quite too late. By and by He may come no longer along the road where thou dwellest. To-day the silver trumpets are ringing out their glad message for thee, and the year of the Lord is only beginning—the halcyon year when every debt is remitted and every slave goes free.