The last day of the year!
("Daily Bible Readings in the Life of Christ" J.R. Miller, December 31, 1890)
"JESUS said unto him:
Follow Me!" John 1:19
We have come now to
the last day of the year!
For a whole year in these daily
readings, we have been walking
with CHRIST. Is there any better
word with which to close this book
and close the year, than this last
invitation of JESUS,
"Follow Me!"
This is the true outcome of all learning
of CHRIST. Mere knowledge, though
it be of spiritual things, avails nothing--
except as it leads us to follow CHRIST.
We have seen JESUS in all
the different phases of HIS life.
We have heard many of HIS words.
Now it remains only for us to follow HIM.
The outcome of seeing and knowing JESUS--
should be holy living and doing. The last day
of the year suggests also the same duty.
Who is satisfied with his life
as it appears in retrospect?
The past, however blotted, must
go as it is; we cannot change it, and
we need not waste time in regretting.
But the new year is before us,
and if we would make that better than
the stained past, it must be by following
CHRIST more closely. To follow
CHRIST is to go where HE leads--
without questioning or murmuring.
It may be to a life of trial,
suffering, or sacrifice--
but it does not matter; we
have nothing whatever to do
with the kind of life to which
our LORD calls us. Our only
simple duty is to obey and follow.
We know that JESUS will lead us
only in right paths, and that the way
HE takes slopes upward and ends
at the feet of GOD!
The new year on which we are about
to enter is unopened, and we know not
what shall befall us; but if we follow
CHRIST we need have no fear.
So let us leave the old year with
gratitude to GOD for HIS mercies,
and with penitence for its failures
and sins; and let us enter the new
year with earnest resolve in CHRIST
name to make it the holiest and most
beautiful year we have ever lived.
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