Now, if that is so, if there is anything that enables us to carry out Christ’s commands, is it not in the very bowels of the commandments to do that? If God has pleased to put into the hearts of wise men to devise something that should in some way ameliorate the misfortunes of their kind, and relieve them from the distresses and casualties of God’s providence, how can it but be our duty to avail ourselves of that wisdom which, doubtless, God gave to men, that we might thereby in these times be enable to carry out in the fullest extent the meaning of that passage, “Take no thought for the morrow.” Why, if a man says, “I shall take no thought for the morrow, I will just spend all I get, and not think of doing anything or taking any thought for the morrow,” how is he going to pay his rent? Why, the text could not be carried out, if it meant what some people think. It cannot mean that we should carelessly live by the day, or else a man would spend all his money on Monday, and have nothing left for the rest of the week; but that would be simple folly. It means that we should have no anxious, distressing thought about it. I am preaching about benefit societies; I would not attempt to recommend many of them, and I do not believe in the principles of half of them; I believe a great deal of mischief is done by their gatherings in alehouses and pothouses; but wherever there is a Christian society, I must endeavour to promote its welfare, for I look on the principle as the best means of carrying out the command of Christ, “Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself.” Allow me to recommend this Asylum to your liberality as a refuge in adversity for those who were careful in prosperity. It is a quiet retreat for decayed members of Benefit Societies, and I am sorry to inform you that many of its rooms are vacant, not from want of candidates, but from a lack of funds. It is a pity that so much public property should lie unemployed. Help the committee then to use the houses.
And, now, in concluding, let me remind the Christian that there is one thing he has not do, and that is, he has not to provide salvation, nor grace, nor sustenance, nor promises for the morrow. No, beloved; but we often talk as if we had. We say, “How shall I persevere through such and such a trial?” “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” You must not boast of to-day’s grace, as though it were enough for to-morrow. But you need not be afraid. With to-morrow’s difficulties there will be to-morrow’s help; with to-morrow’s foes, to-morrow’s friends; with to-morrow’s dangers, to-morrow preservations. Let us look forward, then, to to-morrow as a thing we have not to provide for in spiritual matters, for the atonement is finished, the covenant ratified, and therefore every promise shall be fulfilled, and be “yea and amen” to us, not only in one to-morrow, but in fifty thousand to-morrows, if so many could run over our heads.
And now just let us utter the words of the text again, very solemnly and earnestly. O young men in all your glory! O maidens in all your beauty! “Boast not yourselves of to-morrow.” The worm may be at your cheeks very soon. O strong men, whose bones are full of marrow! O ye mighty men, whose nerves seem of brass, and your sinews of steel! “Boast not of to-morrow.” “How, fir tree,” for cedars have fallen ere now; and though you think yourselves great, God can pull you down. Above all, ye grey heads, “Boast not yourselves of to-morrow,” with one foot hanging over the unfathomable gulf of eternity, and the other just tottering on the edge of time! I beseech you do not boast yourselves of to-morrow. In truth I do believe that grey heads are not less foolish on this point than very childhood. I remember reading a story of a man who wanted to buy his neighbour’s farm next to him, and he went to him and asked him whether he would sell it. He said, “No; I will not;” so he went home, and said, “Never mind, Farmer So-and-so is an old man; when he is dead, I shall buy it.” The man was seventy, and his neighbour sixty-eight; he thought the other would be sure to die before him. It is often so with men. They are making schemes that will only walk over their graves, when they will not feel them. The winds shall soon howl across the green sward that covers their tomb, but they shall not hear its wailing. Take care of the “to-days.” Look not through the glass of futurity; but look at the things of to-day. “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
