Ecclesiastes 8:5 Whoever keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. I. THE CHRISTIAN'S SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT OF TIME. 1. The wise man marks with a discerning eye the successive developments which time has made of God's gracious purposes towards our guilty race. 2. The man who is spiritually "wise," and divinely taught, solemnly ponders the devastations of time. And how fearful have been his ravages! He has overturned the mightiest empires, sapped the loftiest towers, and laid low the proudest cities. But above all, time has with irresistible flood swept away in succession the countless millions of our race. Tamerlane the Tartar reared a vast pyramid, formed of the skulls of those victims whom he had slain in battle; but death wages a more fatal contest over a wider field; and for us "there is no discharge from that war." Diseases in all their sad variety are his ministers; and were a pyramid to be erected by him of human bones, it would pierce the clouds of heaven. 3. The Christian marks and ponders the shortness of time. What are six, or ten, or a hundred thousand years? They are but units in eternity's countless reckoning; they are but drops in eternity's unfathomable and shoreless ocean. But when we reckon time by the period of man's life, "the days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength" in some "they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for we are soon cut off, and we flee away." Life is truly like the bridge which the moralist describes; a mighty multitude presses to cross it, but it is filled with openings through which the passengers are continually dropping into a dark and rapid river beneath, and but a few are left; and as these approach the other side they, too, fall through and perish. The Christian, "knowing the time," learns to die daily; he cherishes more and more of the pilgrim spirit, and in all his plans and prospects he acts continually under the practical influence of the apostle's appeal (James 4:13-15). Ye merchants and busy tradesmen, I ask, is it thus in your case? Is such wise discernment of the shortness of time yours? 4. The wise man's heart also discerneth the swiftness of time. And thus it is that human life is compared to "a tale that is told," to "the weaver's shuttle" flying rapidly across the web. 5. Finally, the Christian discerns that time is a precious talent for which he must give an account. II. THE LESSONS AND DUTIES SUGGESTED BY THE YEAR THAT IS PAST, AND THAT WHICH HAS NOW BEGUN. 1. In a public and national sense this has been a truly memorable year. 2. The past year is memorable in the review of it, in your history as families. 3. How solemn and affecting to you as a congregation is the review of the past year! III. IN REFERENCE TO THE YEAR ON WHICH WE HAVE NOW ENTERED, WHAT IMPORTANT DUTIES DEVOLVE UPON US! 1. Let us never forget that as we live in a world of change, it becomes us to expect changes and trials, and to calculate upon the probability of being called away by death, ere the year has closed. 2. Let the disciples of the Lord Jesus remember their solemn responsibility to live for the glory of God. 3. Finally, let us unite our prayers with those of the people of God of every name who are met at this season to supplicate, with one accord, the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the Church and the world. (John Weir.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. |
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