HUMAN FRAILTY

THE past year has flown by and passed into eternal reckoning for each and every one of us again. All our past deeds, be they good or evil, stand recorded in the book of God’s memory until the great day of judgment. Then they will all be charged upon us with an irrevocable sentence. Appear we must, and that without excuse! Our great Eternal Judge will summon every human being, from Adam to the last person that is to be born upon this earth, into his court of justice to meet out to every one their due reward.

Even so shall we be called to account for this newly begun year and for all the days. of our life here upon earth. Can you appear before God your Maker as you are now? Can you stand in his very presence? I know very well that a variety of answers will be given to these questions, but, do they hold any water? Can you put your answer in God’s scale for testing? and will it then be approved, accepted or rejected ? Oh, that is the most important matter of our life: whether or not we are found wanting; lacking that which is essential to our eternal happiness. What will all the Happy New Years profit us if we only celebrate them in a worldly sense; eating, drinking, dancing, and reveling, sporting along with the world, and following after the lust of our eyes, and the desires of our corrupt wicked hearts? If that is the only happiness we enjoy, then we are most miserable creatures. If such be your state then we cry earnestly with Moses: “they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” All that are truly wise do consider their latter end. Do you consider yours? Have you considered the end of the past year by sitting out the old year with your families and friends? Very well, let us so consider that one day each of us will pass. from time into eternity. How shall we sit in that hour, my friends ? Happy, or unhappy? only one of the two!

By nature we all are frail creatures. But by sin we vain imagine within ourselves that we are almighty gods. And through sin we now glory in the vain and perishable things of time and sense. So the words of Moses “O that they were wise,” implies that they were unwise or foolish, blind, ignorant, and without true understanding. And so are we all by nature ruined and undone; frail or infirm, sickly, weak, and without strength. We are mortally wounded by sin; and death now reigns over all in its threefold sense; corporal, spiritual, and eternal. Yet we say in our hearts, “we are gods!” Nay, my friends, we are only creatures of a span. What does that mean? That our life here on earth is only as long as the width of our hand. Only four fingers wide. So long is our lifetime here compared to eternity. That is how frail we are in ourselves. Do you ever consider this? Truly wise persons do consider this at times within themselves as we find was the case with David. Likewise, with every one of God’s dear children they find the same experience and prayer within their heart: “Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.” (The margin reads: that I may know what time I have here.)

David does not mean that he desires to know the exact number of days and years of his life. But he prays to God begging for grace and mercy to be so enabled to live before God as ever considering how short a time (or the brevity of his life) he has to live on this earth and that he may spend his life in meditating upon God and the life to come. He desires a daily consciousness of and a communion with God in his heart. He craves to be kept by God averse to his own foolish heart and wicked imaginations and to walk humbly before God as owing all his life to Him. David well testifies of the true heart experience of every true believer, saying: “verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.” Beloved, isn’t that so ? Indeed it is!

When you are at your best state in soul whether praying, reading, meditating, or hearing, don’t you have to say, alas, vanity creepeth in every where? I’m sure you will have to confess it, if you are truly reduced by the blessed Spirit of God. Well, then if you are so vain while praying in secret or in public, don’t you need this blessed grace for which David prays so earnestly for: “that I may know how frail,—weak, sick, infirm, how wicked and corrupt my heart is—I am?” And don’t we need this daily also for this newly begun year? Indeed we do!

Again David breathes a heart prayer: “How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?” Here is the soul of God’s dear children in distress and anguish under God’s just wrath and hot displeasure against sin in their bosom. He hides his face, as it were, from their soui’s eye of faith and they feel his wrath, like as fire smarts the flesh so God’s wrath consumes their spirit. And in such soul agony they sigh, cry, and groan, “How long, O Lord, how long;” and then they plead, “O Lord, remember how short my time is.” O when wilt thou come unto me and make me truly happy in my Redeemer? My days are so short, have mercy and cause me to redeem the short time wisely. Friend, do you know of such heavings of soul within your breast?Well then may the blessed Spirit of God so teach you to number your days, and cause you to come, in your hearts experience unto that wisdom in whom alone your salvation is, namely Jesus. By the illuminating operations of the Holy Ghost our soul is enlightened and our darkness and ignorance is dispelled, bringing us to a truly happy experience in our soul to a knowledge of Jesus Christ as our hope for years to come.

Look again at David the man after God’s own heart. See how his soul fainteth for the salvation of God: yet in hope cleaveth to the Lord and his word. While his eyes fail him, and he begs of God “O when wilt thou comfort me?” Behold, he has become, “like a bottle in the smoke.” You know what happens to a bottle in the smoke—it becomes black, dirty, soiled, heated, and dried up, and finally bursts. Well, such is David’s soul experiences beloved. He withers away under the hidings of God’s face from him. He turns black, and is dried up too, and his flesh is consumed under affliction and chastisement. Therefore, he begs again: “O Lord, how many are the days of thy servant?” He desires to have a constant attendance of God in his soul to keep him every where he goes. That his footsteps slip not. He experiences in his soul what a bitter thing it is to sin against his God. And how foolish, and vain he is in his heart by nature. Thus he craves after that grace and mercy of the Lord his God to preserve him day by day, and year in and year out.

Beloved, this is the blessedness and the prosperity that a sinful worm of the dust, unworthy of the breath it draws, desires for thee and wishes unto thee, at this season.

Solomon instructs all men: “Give not your strength—nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. It is not for kings, nor for princes— strong drink—Lest they drink, and forget the law,” O sinner, have you been spared another year and privileged to enter a new year? O consider thine end! Consider how frail thou art, only four fingers wide is the allotted time here on this side of the grave. Thou hast passed from the old year into this new year under the curse of God resting upon thee. Estranged from God in your soul, thus spiritually dead. Your body or earthly tabernacle of clay has decayed and rotted another year in sin and corruption. Hell is gaping upon your soul and body to swallow you alive into eternal death of woe and burnings. That is the end of all who die in their sins without a hope in Jesus. This is the frailty, sickness, corruptness, and ruined state of all men through sin. Therefore, I cry unto thee with Solomon, drink no more of the wine of iniquity nor of the strong drink of the lust of thine flesh, for that destroys even princes and kings and causes men to forget the law of God, which restoreth those that stray. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Oh turn ye to the law and to the testimonies of God thy Maker. He waiteth to be merciful. He has spared thy life in his providence another year. Consider his tender mercies towards thee.

It is true, a dead sinner cannot hear, nor stir, toward God, but wilt thou, O blessed Spirit of God, whose glorious work it is convict sinners in their hearts; convince them in their souls; and turn their hard and stony hearts into flesh, to serve the only true and living God. Then sinners will be truly happy and prosperous in this year to the glory of Thy name and the redemption of their souls.

This is our sincere desire and wish for our unconverted readers.—Editor.

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