A New Year’s Exhortation
By C. Monroe
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: May the new year which we have recently entered upon be a happy one to you all. Not as the world wish, wish I you this blessedness. No, my views extend beyond this dusky scene of things—the loaves and fishes so much prized by the men of the world, who have "pitched their tents on this side Jordan," and have their portion in this life. I ask for you greater, better, more substantial things. I wish you to stand firm and complete in all the will of God, at this time especially; and this implies felicity, such as the world can neither give nor take away; for in keeping his commandments we find the great reward; we gain the position required, a perfectness of all that is attainable here. For, Be ye therefore perfect, says Jesus, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. This is it; this is a character in which no flaws can be found; the likeness of God, loveliness itself, for God is love. O what a being! No tongue can tell! With anything short of this, no child of God can be satisfied, completely so. Hence the perpetual internal warfare. Satan pressing for preferment, and God within, like a refining fire which will go on to the expulsion of the enemy, and with him, the least and last remains of sin and guilt. Hail, sweet victorious hour! for thee we sigh and languish! but come it has, or will have come. Glory to God in the highest! God, who hath greatly purposed the overthrow of the powers of hell, and the peaceful, permanent establishment of his new and everlasting kingdom. The wish aforesaid, therefore, does not imply simply to "love God more and serve him better;" this would be neither saying or doing much, in view of a poor, slender service now; but to love him supremely, and like Caleb and Joshua, "follow him wholly." This would bring a year of felicity before unknown, a year that seems quite too long delayed. Why then not the present, brethren, be that sweet, jubilitant year? God grant it. This miserable, lukewarm way of living to self, or to the halves, is no way to live at any time, especially so near the close—the issues of life and death! It is time, long since, I need not say, for the remnant to heed, as they have never heeded, the voice of the true Witness. Rev. iii, 18. Blessed be God! there is a shaking among the dry bones, with unwonted signs of life; and we hope soon to see a "squadron of troops equipped for the skies." Come then, brethren, let us thank God and take courage. The prize is in view. The remnant should simultaneously rise; rise together; rise, and run like Lot, run for life! How rise? Plainly, lay aside every weight, every sin, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, and a lawless use of the tongue. As no man can do a miracle in Christ's name, and lightly speak evil of him, so no one can rise or run with any of these clogs about him. Small leaks that sink a ship, with all on board, are as fatal as large ones; so small sins, so-called, if known and cherished, will as certainly sink us in the deep of death as large ones. Let us beware. The terms of salvation are strict and severe; but none too much so. Terms less cutting, less severe, would be weak and powerless. They would fail to reach our desperate case. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. They would fail to cut us loose from all sin; fail to lift us from our deep, dismal state of ruin; fail to remove right-hand and right-eye sins, darling sins, which the formalist or hypocrite will never renounce; but God's people, made willing in the day of his power, cheerfully give up; choose the humble, self-denying way of the cross, and glory in their choice. Thus the religion of Christ makes a clean sweep of all that offends, and prepares his church to be presented faultless before the Father's throne, with exceeding joy. Such are the pure in heart who shall see God, and live forever. Such are his children who have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, and have purified their hearts by obeying the truth; have received the present truth in all its power and purity, and in the love of it, and are rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Now then, brethren, to secure a happy immortality beyond the grave, let us heed the voice of the Third Angel's Message, and of the true Witness, and show by our daily walk and conversation, as we have never shown, that we have taken our leave of this world, its maxims, fashions and follies, and are beyond controversy the children of the living God, bound to Canaan's new, fair, and happy land, where our possessions lie. Such are the prospects of the righteous, bright and glorious beyond compare; and such are my best wishes for you all to-day, dear brethren and sisters; not for the ensuing year merely, or a handful of years, that pass away in haste, but for a new and endless year of joy in the kingdom of God, where pains and groans, and griefs and fears, and death itself shall die. There, there I am bound to meet you, and the dear Saviour, with songs and joys as yet unknown.