"NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME."
By Newman Hall
"AWAKE, thou that sleepest," awake now! "Seek the Lord while he may be found," seek him now! "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," believe now! Confess to him your sins, ask pardon through his blood, rely on his atonement, implore the help of his Spirit, devote yourself entirely to his service! Do it now! "Strive to enter in at the strait gate" now! Offer the prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner" now! Too much time has been wasted already. Lose no more. This may be your only opportunity. Seize it now! It is the devil who suggests it would be better to wait. "He was a liar from the beginning." Better to wait? Does death wait? Does the judgment wait? Will he himself wait as soon as he gets the signal to seize you as his prey forever? While you are waiting, does the wheel of your life stand still, and the thread of your probation cease to be twined? Have you an unlimited store of days to trifle with? Can you tell that when you next thrust your hand into that chest of opportunities you will not find it empty? May not the one you are now trifling with be the very last? Why do you act as if sure of twenty years? Are you sure of twenty hours—of twenty minutes—of a single second beyond this very now? What is it you are putting off to this uncertainty? The work on which depends the question of your final bliss or woe! If your house were in flames, would you wait till to-morrow before you tried to put out the fire? If your leg were broken, would you delay having it set? If you had been poisoned, would you put off taking an antidote? And will you postpone the saving of that soul which is infinitely more precious than all the world contains? Neglect every other business; trifle with your property, your health, your life; this would be wisdom compared with delaying for one day the salvation of the soul. But you comfort yourself with the thought that though you defer repentance till to-morrow, you are encouraging good intentions to-day! Of what value will they be, if you die before they are fulfilled? If the law apprehends you in the act of theft, will the plea avail that if you had escaped you intended to lead an honest life? If you linger in the city of destruction, will the purpose to flee screen you from the tempest of fire when it bursts? A good intention to be religious to-morrow is only a bad resolve to remain wicked to-day. But it shows you have some sense of the importance of repentance. This even may be gone to-morrow; improve it now! If you have difficulties to-day, you will have other and greater to-morrow. The devil, who persuades you to wait, knows that "you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Therefore the Holy Ghost says, "To-day, harden not your heart." Therefore we are to "exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day!" The longer you wait, the harder will be the toil. You pamper two deadly foes—the habit of practising wickedness, and the habit of deferring repentance. You are daily becoming more of an adept in both these methods of suicide. Are you not then mad to think you will ever have a more convenient season than now? What? Find the path more readily when you have wandered from it more widely? Tear up a tree more easily when it is rooted more deeply? Draw a nail more quickly when it is clenched more firmly? Stem a torrent more safely when it rolls more rapidly? The poisoned robe clings to you every day more tightly: off with it now; lest if you wait, your very skin must be torn away with it! But suppose you were sure of repenting to-morrow, and that delay would not increase the difficulty: still you should repent now. Religion is a work for every day. There is so much to be done that those who are most diligent feel that there is not a moment to be lost. Besides, religion preserves from present evils, and bestows present blessings. Can you be delivered too soon from the dreadful sense of insecurity? Is it not a terrible thing to have the Ruler of the universe your enemy for even one day? Or do you think the list of your sins is not long enough, nor the Judge angry enough, nor hell hot enough, but that you must for another day labor to increase the store of guilt, and wrath, and punishment? Yet if you desire it, you may obtain his favor at once. Why wait? Can the poor be enriched, the sick be healed, the sorrowful be gladdened, the outcast be restored, too soon? Even if you should be saved hereafter, will you be no loser by having so long been busy heaping up rubbish which might have proved fuel for your own destruction, when you could have been gathering incorruptible treasure? But there is a still higher motive. Your Creator demands obedience now. Did he make you to be your own master? While you say you will serve him to-morrow, do you not rebel against him to-day? Though sure of a thousand to-morrows, ought you not to obey now? Should you not, with David, "make haste, and delay not to keep his commandments?" If not awed by his authority, will you not be won by his love? Will you trifle while the King of kings draws near to entreat a hell-deserving rebel to receive a free pardon purchased by the blood of his own Son? He offers to receive you into his own family, to number you among its children, to take you to dwell with him in blessedness forever. Treat not with indifference such love, lest the threatening should be fulfilled. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel; they despised my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." Oh, reject no longer the love of God! Provoke no longer his wrath! Now, now is the day of salvation. Even this book, small and insignificant as it is, has made your case more critical. Before the devil snatches up the seed it has sown in your heart; before any slight impression produced by it has faded away, lest such impression, by being effaced, should make you less impressible; give heed to its warning now. Now! for time is short, and death is near, and judgment threatens! Now! for in eternity it will be too late, and your very next step may land you there. The only season of which you can be sure is now. The only season in which you can work is now. The purpose may not last till to-morrow—fulfill it now. Fresh difficulties will flood the channel to-morrow—wade it now. The chain of evil habit will bind you more tightly to-morrow—snap it now. Religion has work for every day—begin it now. Sin exposes to present miseries—escape them now. Holiness confers present joys—seize them now. Your Creator commands—obey him now. A God of love entreats—be reconciled now. The Father from his throne invites—return now. The Saviour from his cross beseeches—trust him now. The Holy Spirit in your heart persuades—yield now. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!"—Newman Hall.