LECTURE 4
OF THE SEDUCTIVENESS OF TOMORROW
“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:13-15.
Tomorrow is an uncertain day and all who count on it do so at their own peril. Many in waiting for tomorrow have been taken by death unawares.
Time past and time to come are not;
Time present is our only lot;
O God! henceforth our hearts incline
To seek no other love than thine.
---James Montgomery
Tomorrow is a great seducer and we all have to be careful of her. She always promises people wonderful careers, happy marriages, good business deals, and so on but hardly does she fulfill any.
She specializes in drawing men by enticement. She draws them with her beauty and then hands them over to death. We are all admirers of her beauty. Not the playful kid only; but that eloquent preacher who is so much sought after to speak in conferences is also a victim. He also, is a secret admirer of tomorrow and a man misled by the contemplations of tomorrow. He steals glances at tomorrow in his heart and then promises himself to deliver an astounding message when the midday service is due.
But how do you know that you shall have tomorrow, dear friends? Because many have said tomorrow-tomorrow until they finally fell into the hands of death.
TODAY is the best day and NOW is the best moment. It is NOW that you ought in every deed and thought order yourself as though we were to die. An hour or even a minute late may be too late for the bliss of eternity; if you have any activity to engage, it should be NOW. How can you say TOMORROW, if you are not even sure that you will live to witness the full episode of TODAY?
“. . . behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Discipline is the key! You ought to discipline yourselves and engage each passing day or moment as though it were your last. As you experience the morning, you should reflect and consider diligently that it could be that you may not get anywhere close to the evening. And at evening, you should reflect that it could be that you may not wake up to a new dawn. These Holy contemplations pushes us to place ‘the urgency of assignment and activity’ in the immediate MOMENT, I mean the ‘NOW’.
Truly, tomorrow is an uncertain gift. It belongs not to all of us but a few. If today we are not ready to die, how shall you be ready tomorrow?
This instruction however does not prevent us from planting works whose impact may be seen tomorrow to benefit the future generation. Neither does it prevents us from storing provisions intended to nourish us in days ahead. All I seek to say is, be discreet in your relationship with tomorrow and do not be enticed by her beauty into slothfulness.
Let me conclude by saying this; we have to be always thankful to God when we are fortunate to see a new day. Just that we shouldn’t allow it to seduce us into slothfulness and fooleries.
And so to us men of tender years, I admonish that we become proactive in our dealings with TODAY. NOW is the time to surrender everything to Christ. Let us not schedule any good work in the distant future when it lies in our power to start or complete NOW. Let TODAY and NOW be the motivator of our zeal, for we know not how tomorrow will turn out. Who knows . . . It could be that big day of our departure.
TO-DAY IS ADDED TO OUR TIME
By James Montgomery
To-day is added to our time,
Yet while we sing, it glides away;
How soon shall we be past our prime;
For where, alas! is yesterday?
Gone--gone into eternity:
There, every day in turn appears;
Tomorrow--O 'twill never be,
If we should live a thousand years!
Our time is all to-day, to-day,
The same, though changed;--and while it flies,
With still small voice the moments say–
"To-day, to-day, be wise, be wise!"
Then wisdom from above impart,
Lord God! send forth Thy light and truth,
To guide our feet, inform our heart,
And make us Christians from our youth
NOW
By Bishop Thomas Ken
The Past can be no more-–
Whose misemploying I
deplore: The Future is to me
An absolute uncertainty:
The Now, which will not with me stay,
Within a second flies away.
I heard GOD often say,
Now, of salvation is the day,–
But turn'd from heaven my view,
I still had something else to do;
Till GOD a dream instructive sent,
To warn me timely to repent.
Methought Death, with his dart,
Had mortally transfix'd my heart;
And devils round about,
To seize my spirit flying out,
Cried-'Now, of which you took no care,
Is turn'd to Never and despair!
I gave a sudden start,
And waked, with Never in my heart:
Still I that Never felt,
Never upon my spirit dwelt;–
A thousand thanks to GOD I paid,
That my sad Never was delay'd.