Deuteronomy 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth… Time is a great mystery. "Time," says Carlyle, "is forever very literally a miracle — a thing to strike us dumb; for we have no word to speak about it." Strictly speaking, it is we who move, and time stands still, although the contrary appears to be the ease; as to travellers in any speedy kind of locomotion, the objects close at hand seem to flit rapidly past them, whereas they know that it is themselves that are in motion. Of nothing are we more slow to think than of the nature and value of time, both as regards its highest present uses and its relation to that eternity from which, by Divine fiat, it was first drawn, and into which it shall finally return. "The past" is a very solemn word. It is irrevocably gone, marked on the part of us all by manifold follies and sins; replete with painful accusations of conscience. Although the past is so irrevocably gone from our reach that it cannot be used for the purpose for which it was originally given, — that of living in its duration to God, — yet a serious review of the past year, for instance, may and, if rightly made, must, be productive of profit to us all. Just as the ship which has been totally wrecked, although it can no more traverse the sea, yet its shattered planks may be rendered serviceable for many useful purposes. Let us ask of the days that are past — I. THAT WE MAY ENTERTAIN A HUMBLING CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR OWN UNPROFITABLENESS IN THE USE WE HAVE MADE OF OUR TIME. Constituted as we are, it is imperative upon us that we should give much of our attention to the care of the body and to the regulation of our temporal affairs; yet it is a humbling reflection that beings possessed of such amazing capacities as those enfolded in every human soul, should have so much of their attention engaged in things which bear unequivocal marks of insignificance. Much of the past year has passed in sleep, in providing and partaking of food, in humble domestic arrangements, in the dull routine of business or the idle lassitude of relaxation. And who amongst us can plead guiltless to such charges as these? Who can say of the past year, "Its time has gone just as I could have wished; I could not desire any future year to be better spent than this has been"? Alas! none. II. THAT WE MAY HAVE A GRATEFUL SENSE OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS AND FORBEARANCE. III. THAT WE MAY, BY DIVINE HELP, RESOLVE TO CORRECT IN THE FUTURE THOSE THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN EVILS IN THE PAST. (J. Foster.) Parallel Verses KJV: For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? |
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