CLARENCE E. MOON by Clarence E. Moon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 21, 1912

CLARENCE E. MOON

By Clarence E. Moon

Opportunity

CLARENCE E. MOON

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:16. Who is there that can look out on the world and not see that the “whole world lieth in wickedness”? We are truly living in an evil time, and at this very time comes the admonition to “redeem the time.” Yesterday with its record for good or bad is gone forever. Then what are we to do? Is there no relief? The word to the church at Colosse gives us additional light: “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time;” or, “buying up the opportunity,” margin. Col. 4:5. The direct translation of Conybeare and Howson gives us still more, “forestalling or anticipating the opportunities.” By faithfully grasping each opportunity that Divine Providence affords us we can redeem the time. If we receive each opportunity for doing good as coming from the merciful hand of God, we can not but believe in daily divine guidance. Paul strikingly illustrates this thought in Phil. 3:12. “Not that I have already won, or am already perfect; but I press onward, if indeed I might lay hold on that, for which Christ also laid hold on me.”—Conybeare and Howson. The King James Version has it translated, “that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus,” but it means the same thing.

So Paul says to us, in effect, that Jesus Christ had reached down and stopped his mad rush toward destruction and had redeemed him, or laid hold of him, for a definite purpose; and this is what the apostle wished and prayed that he might lay hold of, that divine purpose in calling him.

O, that we might lay hold of his purpose and anticipate every opportunity that comes to us! But how many of us are slighting the most precious opportunities! Soon it will be too late; the cry will echo from the throne, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” and then will arise that awful wail, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jer. 8:20. Soon, very soon, God’s opportunities will be forever in the past in this earth. Just a few more years of self-sacrifice, and then the reapers will come bringing their sheaves with them. Then there will be no more opportunities for helping on this message with our means. What are we doing with our opportunities? Are we buying them up, or are we squandering them at the altar of the god of this world, mammon?

An incident in nature that came to my notice not long ago forcibly illustrates the point: The poet of the Sierras, Joaquin Miller, tells of a certain blue jay which he watched day after day flying across a brook and getting an acorn from the neighboring tan-bark oak-tree, and then flying back to Mr. Miller’s cabin. The poet was surprised to see the bird fly to a knot-hole in the wall of the cabin, and drop the acorn in the hole. The jay worked industriously throughout the long summer days. One day when the bird came to the hole, he was seized with a sudden notion to find out where all his labor was going. So he raised himself up, with head turned sidewise, and looked long into the hole. He had not filled the cabin, and all his summer’s work was out of reach.

This seems to me a forcible picture of those who invest their all in this world, and then when the winds of strife begin to blow, they open their eyes and see that they have missed the most blessed opportunities; then they would like to buy up these opportunities, but they find that they are out of reach.

“Woe will be pronounced against thee, if thou loiter and linger until the Sun of Righteousness shall set, the blackness of eternal night will be thy portion. O, that the cold, formal, worldly heart may be melted! Christ shed not only tears for us, but his own blood. Will not these manifestations of his love arouse us to deep humiliation before God?”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 73.

Geyserville, Cal.