A New Year's Gift!
Back to SERMONS Samuel Davies
by Samuel Davies, January 1, 1760
"Knowing the time—that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Romans 13:11
TIME, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on, and hurrying each of us into the boundless ocean of eternity! We are now entering upon one of those imaginary lines of division, which men have drawn to measure out TIME for their own convenience; and, while we stand upon the threshold of a new year, it befits us to make a solemn contemplative pause; though time can make no pause—but rushes on with its usual velocity. Let us take some suitable reviews and prospects of time past andfuture, and indulge such reflections as our transition from year to year naturally tends to suggest.
The grand and leading reflection is that in the text, with which I present you as a New-Year's Gift: "Knowing the time—that it is now high time to awake out of sleep!"
The connection of our text is this—The apostle, having enjoined sundry duties of religion and morality, subjoins this consideration, namely—that the time remarkably required them, as if he should say, "Be subject to magistrates, and love one another, and that because, knowing the time, that it is now high time, or the proper hour, to awake out of sleep. A sleepy negligence as to these things is peculiarly unreasonable at such a time as this!"
The Romans, to whom this epistle was written, were Christians indeed; they were such, whose salvation the apostle could point at as near approaching: "Now," says he, "is your salvation nearer than when you believed." And yet he calls even upon such toawake out of sleep. The fact is, that even sincere Christians are too often apt to fall into a spiritual lethargy. They contract an indolent, dull, lazy disposition, as to the duties of religion and divine things. Sometimes their love languishes, their zeal cools, and they become remiss or formal in their devotions.
Now such a state of dullness and inactivity is often represented by the metaphor SLEEP; because as sleep disables us from natural actions, and blunts our physical senses. Just so, this spiritual sleep indisposes the soul for the service of God and spiritual sensations.
Hence it follows, that to awake out of sleep, signifies to rouse out of carnal security, to shake off spiritual sloth, and to engage in the concerns of true religion with vigor and full exertion, like men awake.
And as even Christians are too often liable to fall into some degrees of spiritual sleep, as they often nod and slumber over the great concerns of piety, which demand the utmost exertion of all their powers, notwithstanding the principle of divine lifeimplanted in them, there is great need to call even upon them to awake. Thus the apostle rouses the Roman Christians, including himself among them, as standing in need of the same excitation. It is high time for us, says he, that is, for you and I, to awake out of sleep!
This is a duty proper at all times. There is not one moment of time in which a Christian may lawfully and safely be slothful and negligent. Yet the apostle intimates, that some particular times call for particular vigilance and activity; and that to sleep at such times is a sin peculiarly aggravated. NOW, says he, it is high time for us, to awake out of sleep: "This is not a time for us to sleep! This time calls upon us to rouse and exert ourselves! This is the hour for action! We have slept too long already! Now let us rouse and rise!"
The apostle also intimates, that the serious consideration and right knowledge of TIME, is a strong excitement to awake out of sleep. "Knowing the time," says he, "that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;" that is, your knowing and seriously considering the importance, the uncertainty, and the shortness of time in general, and the peculiar circumstances of the present time in particular, may be sufficient to rouse you. Natural sleep should be in its season: "Those who sleep—sleep in the night." But, says he, "we are all the children of the light, and the children of the day. We are brought out of darkness into the glorious light of the gospel;" therefore let not us sleep, as others do. Consider the time, that it is day-light with you; and you cannot but be sensible, that it is now high time for us to awake out of sleep! This is the hour to rise. Therefore let us awake to righteousness.
The reason the apostle urges upon the Roman Christians to awake at that time is very strong and moving; it is this: "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Salvation is hastening quickly towards us upon the wings of time. As many years as are past since we first believed in Christ—by so many years nearer is our salvation! Or, as he expresses it in the next verse, "The night is far spent—the day is at hand." The gloomy, turbulent night of the present state is near over; the dawn of eternal day is just ready to open upon us; and can we sleep at such a time? What! sleep on the very threshold of heaven! What! sleep, when salvation is just ready to embrace us! What! sleep, when the dawn of celestial day is just about shining around us! Is it possible that we should sleep at such a time? Must not the prospect of everlasting salvation so near us, the thought that in a very little time we shall be in heaven—rouse us, and fix us in a posture of eager expectation and constant watchfulness?
The text implies, that Christians should always be growing in grace; and that the nearer their salvation is—the more lively andzealous should they be; and since it is nearer this year than the last year—they ought to be more holy this year than the last. The nearer they are to heaven—the more heavenly they should be. The near approach of salvation is a strong motive to holiness; and the stronger by how much the nearer it is.
My chief design, at present, is, to lead you to know the time, and to make such reflections upon it, as its nature and circumstances require, and as are suited to our respective conditions.
The first thing I would set you upon as a necessary introduction to all the rest, is the important but neglected duty of self-examination. Methinks it should shock a man to enter upon a new year, without knowing whether he shall be in heaven or hell before the end of it! And that man who can give but a very poor account of the last year, and perhaps twenty or thirty years before it—cannot yet give any satisfactory answer to this grand question. Time is given us to determine this important point, and to use proper means to determine it in our favor. Let us therefore resolve, this day, that we will not live another year utterly uncertain what will become of us through an endless duration!
This day let us put this question to our hearts: "What really am I? Am I an humble, dutiful servant of God? Or am I a disobedient, impenitent sinner? Am I a disciple of Christ in reality? Or do I only wear His name, and make an empty profession of His religion?Where am I bound for? For heaven—or for hell? Which am I most fit for in my disposition? For the region of perfect holiness—or for that region of sin and impurity? Shall I stupidly delay the determination, until it is passed by the irrevocable sentence of the Supreme Judge, before whom I may stand before this year is at a close? Alas, if it should then be against me—then my doom will be remediless! But if I should now discover my case to be bad, blessed be God, it is not too late to alter it. I may yet obtain a good hope, through grace, though my present hope should be found to be that of the hypocrite!"
If I should push home this inquiry, it will probably reveal two sorts of people among us, to whom my text leads me particularly to address myself:
the one, entirely destitute of true religion, and consequently altogether unprepared for a happy eternity, and yet careless and carnally secure in that dangerous situation;
the other, Christians indeed, and consequently habitually prepared for their latter end; but criminally remiss or formal in the concerns of piety, and in the duties they owe to God and man.
The one, sunk in a deep sleep in sin; the other, nodding and slumbering, though upon the slippery brink of eternity! Now, as to both these sorts of people—it is high time for them to awake out of sleep. And this exhortation I would press upon them, first, by some general considerations common to both; and then, by some particular considerations proper to each respectively. The general considerations are such as these:
I. Consider the UNCERTAINTY of your time! You may die the next year, the next month, the next week, the next day, the next hour, or the next moment!
I once knew a minister who, while he was making this same point—was made a striking illustration of it—and instantly dropped down dead in the pulpit! When you look forward through the year now begun, you see what may never be your own. No, you cannot call one day of it your own! Before that day comes, you may be done with time—and have entered upon eternity! Menpresume upon time, as if it was guaranteed upon them for so many years; and this is the delusion which ruins multitudes! How many are now in eternity, who begun the last year with as little expectation of death, and hopes of long life—as you have at the beginning of the present year? And this may be your doom!
Should a prophet be sent to open the book of the divine decrees to you—as Jeremiah did to Hananiah; some of you would no doubt see it written there by your name, "This year you shall die!" Jeremiah 28:16. Some unexpected moment in this year, will put an end to all the labors and enjoyments of the present state, and all the duties and opportunities peculiar to it!
Therefore, if sinners would repent and believe; if they would obtain the favor of God and preparation for the heavenly state; and if saints would make high improvements in piety; if they would make their calling and election sure, that they may not stumble over doubts and fears into the presence of their Judge; if they would do anything for the honor of God, and the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world; if they would be of service to their families, their friends, their country, and mankind in general; NOW is the time for them to awake out of sleep, and set about their respective work!
NOW is the time, because this is the ONLY time they are certain of! Sinners, you may be in hell before this year finishes its round—if you delay the great business of salvation any longer! And saints, if you neglect to improve the present time, you may be compelled to shoot the gulf of eternity, and launch away to unknown coasts—full of fears and perplexities; you may be cut off from all opportunities of doing service to God and mankind, of endeavoring to instill the principles of Christian knowledge and practice into the minds of your dear children, and those under your care—unless you catch the present hour. For remember, time is uncertain! Youth, health, strength, business, riches, power, wisdom, and whatever this world contains—cannot insure it. No, thethread of life is held by the divine hand alone; and God can snap it asunder, without warning, in whatever moment He pleases! "It is appointed unto men once to die—and after that to face judgment!" Hebrews 9:27
II. Consider the SHORTNESS of your time! Time in its utmost extent, including what is past from the creation, and what isfuture to the final conflagration, is nothing when compared to eternity. But the time of your life is vastly shorter! That part of time which is parceled out to you—is not only UNCERTAIN—but extremely SHORT! It is uncertain when it will end—but it is absolutely certain that it will end very soon! You cannot hope to surpass the common standard of long lives—and that is but seventy or eighty years. Nay, you have but very little reason to hope you shall arrive to this. There are at least ten who die before they reach seventy years—for every one who lives to the age of seventy. It is therefore far more likely that you will never spend seventy or eighty years upon earth. A shorter space than that—will probably convey you from this world—to heaven or hell. And is it not high time then for you to awake out of sleep! Your work is great—and your time is short! You have no time to spare—none to trifle away! It is all little enough for the great work which you have yet to do.
III. Consider how much of your time has been LOST and MISSPENT already! Some of you that are now the sincere servants of God, may recollect how late in life you engaged in his service; how long you stood idle in his vineyard, when his work was before you. How many guilty days and years have you spent in the drudgery of sin, and in a base neglect of God and your immortal souls!
Others of you, who have the noble pleasure of reflecting that you devoted yourselves to God early, in comparison with others—are yet sensible how many days and years were lost before you were saved—lost in the sins and follies of childhood and youth. And the best of you have reason to lament how much of precious time you have misspent, even since you heartily engaged in the service of God; how many opportunities, both of doing good to others—and receiving good yourselves, you have lost by your own carelessness. How many seasons for devotion have you neglected or misimproved! Oh! how little of your time has been devoted to God—and the service of your souls! How much of it has been wasted upon trifles, or in an over-eager pursuit of this vain world! Does not the loss, upon the whole, amount to many days—and even years? And a day is no small loss to a creature, who has so few days at most to prepare for eternity!
And to many of you, is it not sadly evident, that you have lost ALL the days and years that have rolled over your heads? You have perhaps managed time well, as to the purposes of the present life; but that is but the lowest and most insignificant use of it. Time is given as a space for repentance and preparation for eternity; but you have entirely lost it—as to this grand use of it! Nay, are not your hearts more hard, and you less prepared for eternity now, than you were some years ago? Have you not been heaping up the mountain of sin higher and higher every day, and estranging yourselves from God more and more?
To heighten your loss of precious time—you should consider it as IRRECOVERABLE. Nothing is more impossible, than to recall past time. It is gone! it is gone forever! Yesterday can no more return—than the years before the flood! Power, wisdom, tears, entreaties, all the united efforts of the whole universe of creatures, can never cause it to return!
And is there so much of your time lost? Lost beyond all possibility of recovery? And is it not high time to awake out of sleep! Have you any more precious time to throw away? Shall the time to come—be abused and lost, like the past? Or will you not endeavor to redeem the time you have lost—in the only way in which it can be redeemed; that is, by doubling your industry in time to come? You have MUCH to be done—in a little time, since you have now but little left. You have indeed had ten, twenty, thirty, or forty precious years; but, alas! they are irrecoverably lost. And may not this thought startle you—and cause you to awake out of sleep! the loss of the same number of kingdoms would not be half so great. To a candidate for eternity, whose everlasting state depends upon the improvement of time—a year is of infinitely greater importance, than a kingdom can be to any mortal man!
IV. Consider, that the great PURPOSES of the present life, can be accomplished only in time; for there are certain important duties peculiar to this world, which, if unperformed here, must remain so forever, because eternity is not the season for them.
Both worlds have their proper business allotted them; and the proper business of the one—cannot be done in the other. ETERNITY and TIME are intended for quite different purposes. The one is seed-time; the other, harvest! The one is the season for working; the other, for receiving the wages! And if we would invert the unchangeable order of things, and defer the business of life until after death—we shall find ourselves miserably mistaken!
Therefore if saints would make progress in piety; I mean that religion which befits our present sinful state; that religion which is a course of discipline to prepare and educate us for heaven; which is a painful process for our refinement, to qualify us for that pure region; if they would nourish a noble ambition, and not only ensure happiness—but high degrees of it; if they would be of service to mankind, as members of civil or religious society; and particularly, if they would be instrumental to form others for a blessed immortality, and save souls from death, by converting sinners from the errors of their way: if they would do these things, the present life is the only time. In heaven they will have more noble employment. These things must NOW be done—or never!
And oh! what pious heart can bear the thought of leaving the world while these important things are undone? Would you not desire to enter into heaven—ripe for it? To be completely formed by your education, before you enter upon a state of maturity? Oh! does not your heart burn to do something for your gracious God and Savior, who has done and suffered so much for you? Oh! Do you not long to be an instrument of some service to the world, while you are passing through it? If this is your desire—NOW is the time. When once death has laid his cold hand upon you—you are forever disabled from such services as these. Then farewell to all opportunities of usefulness in the present life. Then, even your children and dearest friends may run on in sin, and perish, while it is not in your power so much as to speak one word to dissuade them! Therefore, enter upon this new year with hearty resolutions to be more zealous and laborious in these respects, than you have ever yet been.
Again, if unrepentant sinners, who are now in a state of condemnation, would escape out of it; if those who are at present slaves to sin, would become sincere converts to righteousness; if they would use the means of grace for that purpose—then NOW is the time. There is none of this salvation work in hell! They no sooner enter into the eternal world—than their state will be unchangeably and eternally fixed! The present life is the only state of trial; and if we do not turn out well in this trial—we shall never have another! All are ripe for eternity—before they are removed into it! The godly are ripe for heaven—and the wicked are ripe for hell! The godly are vessels of mercy, prepared for glory; the wicked are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and for nothing else! And therefore they must remain forever in their respective lodgings!
Sinners do indeed repent when in hell—but their repentance is their punishment, and has no tendency to amend or save them. They mourn and weep—but their tears are but oil to increase the flame! They cry, and perhaps pray in hell—but the hour of acceptance with God is past—past forever! The means of grace are all gone! The sanctifying influences of the Spirit are all withdrawn forever! And hence they will corrupt and putrefy into mere masses of pure unmingled wickedness and misery!
Sinners, realize this thought—and surely, it must rouse you out of your lethargy and sleep! Trifle on a little longer—and it is all over with you! Spend a few days more as you have spent your time past—and you will be engulfed in as hopeless a misery—as any devil in hell!
Back to SERMONS Samuel Davies