Jesus said to them, "Walk while you have the light, lest
darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not
know where he is going." John 12:35
Sometimes darkness is very welcome. It is welcome to the weary
man who can scarcely wait until the sun sets to cease his toil.
To him darkness means rest. It folds him in its curtains, away
from the noise and strife, and restores his exhausted strength.
Darkness is welcome in many a home, for it is the signal for the
home gathering of loved ones and the joys of the evening
fireside. All day the hearthstone has drawn upon the hearts of
the scattered household, and the coming of the night—is the
signal for the home gathering.
But it is not a friendly darkness to which our Lord refers. The
figure his words suggest is that of a wild beast coming upon the
traveler, pursuing him, overtaking him, pouncing upon him,
devouring him! Thus it was that Jesus urged his disciples to
walk in the light while they had it, to be quick to use the few
moments of the day that remained, before the devouring darkness
should swoop down upon them!
The lesson is for us. Most of us live as if we had a thousand
years to stay here in this world! We loiter in the golden hours
of our little days—as if the days were never to end! We do not
see how swiftly the sun is whirling toward his setting, while
our work is but half done, our task perhaps scarcely begun.
We fritter away days, weeks, months—not noticing how our one
little opportunity of living in this world is being worn off, as
the sea eats away a crumbling bank until its last shred is gone!
We set slight value on time, forgetting that we have only a
hand-breadth of it—and then comes eternity!
What did you do yesterday that will brighten and glorify that
day forever? What record of blessing in other lives did you give
it, to carry to God's judgment? What burden did you lift off
another heart? What tear did you wipe away? On what soul did you
leave a mark of beauty? Where is your yesterday?
Many of us fail to appreciate the value of 'single days'. "A day
is too short a space," we say, "that it cannot make much
difference if one, just one, is wasted—or idled away in
pleasure!" Yet the days are links in a chain, and if one link is
broken—the chain is broken. In God's plan for our life—each
little day has its own load of duty, its own record to make. We
never know the sacredness of any particular day—what it may have
for us amid its treasures.
Its sunshine may be no brighter than that of other days, there
may be no peculiar feature in it to mark it as 'special' among a
thousand common days, and yet it may be to us a day of destiny.
If we fail to receive it as God's gift—we may miss and lose that
without which we shall be poorer all our life and in eternity.
How often do we see afterward, that the days which are gone,
were bearers of heavenly gifts to us—which we had not the wit to
recognize, nor the grace to take? When they have passed beyond
recall—then we see what we missed in wasting them. How these
lost days shame us—as they turn their reproachful eyes upon us
out of the irrevocable past!
"Walk while you have the light—before darkness overtakes you!"
There are many illustrations of this coming of darkness, this
ending of opportunity. The lesson touches everyone's life. There
is the darkness that comes—as season after season of privilege
closes.
Here the teaching is especially for the young: Some things God
gives often; some only once. The seasons return again and again,
and the flowers change with the months—but youth comes twice to
none! Youth is the time for preparation. The success of the
after life depends upon the diligence of the first years. A
wasted youth—is followed by the darkness of misfortune and
failure.
Youth is the time to gather knowledge. It is the time, too, to
form good habits. It is the time to make good friendships. It is
the time to follow Christ. It is the time to train the
faculties, for the best work in life. It is the time to prepare
for life's business. When youth closes, with its opportunities,
leaving one unready for the days of stress, struggle, duty, and
responsibility that must come—perilous indeed is the darkness
that wraps the life and drags it down!
Many young people are wasteful of time. They fail to realize its
value. They appear to have it in such abundance, that they never
dream it can end. They do not know that a day lost in golden
youth may mean misfortune or failure for them sometime in the
future. They do not know that missed lessons, squandered hours,
minutes spent in idleness, may cost them the true success of
their life, bringing failure or disaster, and may even blight
their destiny. Young people should walk earnestly while they
have the light, redeeming the time, buying up the opportunity,
lest darkness overtake them. They should not make the mistake of
imagining they have so much time that they can afford to let
days or hours or even minutes be wasted. They cannot afford to
lose one golden minute of any day. That may be the very minute
of all that day on which their destiny hangs.
Says a thoughtful writer: "One of the illusions—is that the
present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on
your heart—that every day is the best day in the year. No man
has leaned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is
doomsday." This is very true. We do not know what momentous
issues, affecting all our future, are involved in any quietest
hour of any common-place day. There is a time for everything—but
the time is short, and when it is gone and the thing is not
done—it never can be done!
"Never comes the opportunity that passed;
That one moment—was its last!"
"Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you!"
While you have your eyes, use them! A young man was told by his
physicians, that in six months he would be blind. At once he set
out to look upon the most beautiful scenes in nature, and the
loveliest works of art in all parts of the world—so that, before
his eyes were closed forever, his memory might be stored with
visions of beauty to brighten the darkness into which he was
surely moving. Use your eyes while you have the light. See as
many as possible, of the lovely things God has made. Read the
best books you can find, and store your mind with great and
noble thoughts. Learn while it is easy to learn. Be a student.
Be a worker, too. Fill your days full of intense activities—for
it will be only a little while till darkness shall overtake you,
when you can work no more. What you do—you must do quickly. What
you make of your life—you must make in a few years at the most;
for the human span is short, and any day may be your last one!
This lesson is for those who are in life's prime, and for those
who are advancing toward old age, as well as for the young.
Every day that passes—leaves life's margin a little less for
each of us. Our allotment of time is ever shortening. We must
work—while the day lasts. We must do good—while our hearts are
warm. We must speak the words of life—before our lips grow dumb.
We must scatter kindnesses in the world—before our hands grow
feeble. We must pour out love to bless the lonely—before our
pulses are stilled.
We must not crowd God's work out of our busy days, hoping to
have time for it by and by—when leisure comes. Ah! By and by—it
will be too late! Those who need us now—will not need us then.
The deeds of love which we should do today—we cannot do
tomorrow. The sick neighbor who now longs for our warm sympathy
and gentle ministry—will not need us when our tasks have been
finished and we have leisure time; there will be death-crape on
the door then, and there will be no use in our calling with our
word of love.
The child needs the father's care, guidance, counsel, and loving
patience—NOW! A few moments given each day, would make indelible
impressions upon the boy's soul, and bind him fast with chains
of gold about the feet of God. But a little later—it may be no
use to try to bless his life. He will have passed beyond the
period when even a father's hand can mould his life!
Never leave out of your busy days—love's duties to your heart's
own, whatever else you may leave out. It were better to miss
almost anything else in life—than what affection demands. Work
while you have the light; do the things that are most important,
most sacred, most vital.
Over the doorway of a certain church, is the inscription: "Only
the eternal is important!" There are a great many things it is
not worth our while to do. Some of us spend our days in poor
trivialities which bless no one, and which will add no lustre to
our crown. "Only the eternal is important!"
Therefore "Walk while you have the light, before darkness
overtakes you!" Waste no opportunity. Despise no privilege.
Squander no moment. There is just time enough in God's plan for
you to live your life well—if you spend every moment of it in
earnest, faithful duty. One hour lost—will leave a flaw. A life
thus lived in unbroken diligence and faithfulness, will have no
regrets when the end comes. Its work will be completed. It will
not be night that then overtakes it in the mystery which men
call death—but day, rather, the morning of eternity!
"It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I could learn
Thy statutes."
Psalm 119:71
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