Hebrews 4:7 Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice… Let us take that short division of time — to-day — the now — and consider what is the duty, the preciousness of each passing hour and day. 1. Let us notice that each day has its own gifts. A writer speaks of the hours passing by him like solemn virgins in long and silent procession. He sits in his garden and sees them pass. Their faces are veiled in their hands, they bear caskets full of various gifts, some trivial, some of inestimable value. Among these gifts are stores of brilliant diadems and fruits and faded flowers. He forgets his morning wishes, he lets the day pass by idly and neglectfully. At last, just as the evening is about to fall, he hastily snatches some of their slightest gifts, some harsh apple or withering rose, and as they turn and pass away in silence into the evening shadows, the veils slip from their faces, and he sees the look of scorn which their faces wear. Yes, every day has its gifts, but all good gifts are exactly what we make of them. Let us pray that God will teach us rightly to use His gifts of every day. 2. Each day has not only its own immediate gifts, but also its immediate opportunities. When the Roman emperor sadly lamented to his friends, "I have lost a day," he meant that on that day be had not conferred a kindness upon any one. How often by selfishness and temper, by egotism, by vanity and want of thought, we miss those opportunities of helping others in little ways which the angels in heaven might envy us. We may see men and women on every side of us, not by any means only among the poor, but among our social equals, staggering along under heavy burdens, which it does not even occur to us to put out even so much as our fingers to help. A word spoken in due season, how good It is! When good John Newton saw a little child crying over the loss of a halfpenny, and by giving it another dried its tears, he felt that he had not spent a day in vain. But it is not only by our daily neglect of a thousand little kindness and courtesies of daily life that we so lightly regard as mere grains of coarse sand in the hour-glass — moments as precious as if they were grains of gold. We lose them in a thousand other ways — not only lose, but squander and fling them away, and, worse than all, pervert them into opportunities of unkindness. In the words of the man of business, Time for us is money. But that is the least thing it is — for time is eternity. 3. Again, every day has its own stores of pure and innocent happiness. To those who walk through the world with open eyes every day reveals something beautiful. We are self-tormentors only because we are selfish and egotistical and vain. Our taste is corrupted; there are few of us to whom God wholly denies the grassy field of contentment, the simple wild flowers of innocent gladness, the limpid spring of the river of the water of life. That was a true saying of the ancients, "Carpe diem" — pluck the blossom of to-day. Our best hopes, our richest treasures, our destiny on earth, yes, even our heaven itself, lie not in the visionary future, but in the here and in the now. 4. And again, every day has its duties. What a special gift of God is this! Riches may fly away, fame may vanish, friends may die, but duty never ceases. This saves our poor little lives from most of their perplexities. Are we happy? Let not our felicity make us falter in the performance of a single duty, for on these duties that happiness itself depends. Are we unhappy? Strenuously try not to grieve over the bitterness, for action is the surest of solaces. In every case we cannot do better than obey the brave old rule, "Do the next thing." While we are doing our duty, it is always ours to say that we are doing the very thing for which God made us. One of the most charming of the Greek idylls tells us how two poor fishermen, weary and cold, before the earliest dawn, while the moon still rides high in the heavens, rise from their beds of dried seaweed in their miserable hut, and while the waves dash fiercely on the shore hard by, repair their nets by the dim and uncertain twilight; and while they repair them, one of the men tells the other the story of how on the evening before he had fallen asleep very hungry and weary, and had dreamed that he stood on the reck where he was used to fish, and had thrown his line and caught a huge fish. When, with straining rod and line, he drew it to land, he found the fish to be made of pure and solid gold. And in his dream he thereupon took a solemn oath that he would sell his prize, and get wealth, and never dip line in the waves again. And now his poor ignorant thoughts were troubled with his oath, and he doubted whether he should renew his fishing. "Cheer up," says his old comrade, "you may fish. You did not take the oath, for you see you have not caught the fish of gold. What are dreams? But if not in a dream, in broad waking if you toil and watch, some good may perhaps come to your vision. Look out for the real vision, lest you die of hunger with your golden dreams." Is not the moral of this Greek idyll to be found even in Scripture? When the apostles waiting through those great forty days after the resurrection, when the appearance of the risen Lord seemed for a time to be hopeless, conscious of the pressure of their want and waiting, when it lay heavily upon them, what was to be done? Thank God, there is always something to be done. Each day has its duty, and He who gave the day and the duty gives also the desire to fulfil it. But not only has each day its duty, but each day has its one supreme duty before which all others sink into insignificance — the duty of repentance if we are living lives of sin; the duty of getting nearer to God and seeing His face if by our Saviour's mercy we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Oh, if this duty be left neglected, no other duty can be a substitute for it. Everyday is but a single spoke in the swift wheel of the revolving week, and the weeks flash into the months, and the months into the years, and the years roll on into the world beyond the grave. How many days are there even in a long life? How very few may be left to us! If, then, as we have seen first, every day has its gifts which we often despise; and secondly, every day has opportunities which we often waste; and thirdly, every day has its sources of happiness which we often forget; and fourthly, every day has its duties which the best so imperfectly accomplish; and fifthly, every day has its one thing needful Which if left unaccomplished is utter ruin — ought we not to thank God that every day has also its gracious help. There is One of infinite help always at hand — God is our help and strength. He loves us, He will not forsake us. He who gave His own Son for our sins, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? And is it not the Son who shall be our Judge? Is He not standing in heaven to make intercession for us at God's right hand? Is not conscience His voice within us? Has He not given us His Holy Spirit? Is not duty which He makes so clear to us His eternal law? and though He is infinitely far above us, He has given us a ladder between heaven and earth, so that we may ascend heavenward in our supplications, and His answer will fall back in blessings. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Parallel Verses KJV: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. |
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