By Ida M. Roberts
Another New Year! How fast the years go speeding by! Soon they will all have been lived out and we all will be in eternity. What a solemn thought and yet how true. The question arises in my mind, who, oh, who of us will have to answer to the death call in 1913?
Looking back over the year we recall many we knew who passed away with 1912.
The solemn summons came to them, and ready or not ready, willing or not willing they had to go. Their race is run their destinies forever sealed whether for weal or woe. They had their day of grace, their state of probation here and if they frittered away their time, wasted their lives and died in sin they are lost just as certain as the Bible is true. They may have had a grand funeral, some minister may have spoken sweet words of consolation on that occasion, but the stern fact remains that if not saved from sin here, they can never see God in peace.
Another thought about the year just closed. It is forever gone. We can never call it back to improve its slighted opportunities. If well spent, it will be a source of pleasure to us as long as eternity lasts, if misspent we are guilty before God of squandering the precious moments He gives us in which to get right with him, and live to his glory for our lives are not our own. Our stay here is not that we may lay up treasures on earth, seek selfish ease, and carnal pleasure but that we may get ready for eternity, and help others to get ready.
Well I am glad that whatever may have been our mistakes in the past, those of us who are living have the privilege of seeing another year that we may make use of the opportunities it presents. How thankful ought we to be for this New Year! How unspeakably precious this life is, for in it we fix our destinies for eternity.
Oh there is so much to live for if we are truly awake to what life really means. The trouble is the people are so blinded and so fast asleep in sins that they fail to recognize what they are here for. May God wake us up and let us see things as they really are. I will tell you when we get fully awakened by the power of God's spirit, we see there is no time to waste. Death, judgment, and eternity are before us and we are bound to meet them. That thought is enough to solemnize every thinking soul and bring to view what this life means. Christians, let us be fully awake and take advantage of every opportunity to work and witness for God during this year. Oh, may God send power upon his true ones, that they may go forth to battle against the awful powers of wickedness. Surely if we are of God we hate sin in its every form, then let us wage war against it.
Let us see to it that our own garments are spotless, let us give proof by our lives that we are saved from sin, and then let us hasten to the rescue of others. God will help. Look around us. Everywhere are precious, deathless souls sinking into ruin and woe. Look how busy and wily Satan's servants are to get in their deadly work. By every evil means they seek to decoy, ensnare and capture precious souls. Can we not be as earnest and faithful in the service of our beloved Master as the wicked are in the service of the Evil one. May we watch labor and pray this year, as if it were going to be our last, for it may be. It will surely be the last for many. As I stand in the opening light of this hallowed New Year, and realize to some extent its importance and responsibilities, I feel like saying in the words of another:
"Oh God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blasts
And our eternal home."
Source: Crittenden Record-Press. (Marion, Ky.), January 16, 1913, Edition 1, Image 8 - Chronicling America - The Library of Congress.