XXIX. FIRST MEETING IN THE YEAR.
I. Look backwards on the past year.
1. On your sins.
They are many—great—mighty. You need forgiveness, and Christ is ready to forgive. Neh. ix. 17. Make this your prayer for the past year, ‘Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.’ Ps. xxv. 11.
On your sins towards your husbands. Provocation—temper—carelessness of their comfort—an unyielding spirit. Again must you say, ‘Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.’
On your sins towards your children. Neglect—bad example—prayerlessness—cross tempers—hasty slaps. Again you must say, ‘Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.’
2. On your sorrows.
Poverty—sickness—death. Yet your sorrows not so many as your sins. How have you been helped through them! Have you profited? Heb. xii. 10. God has been teaching you, have you learnt the lesson?
3. On your mercies.
You can count your sorrows. Try and count your mercies, they are more than can be numbered. Ps. xl. 5. How undeserved they were! You have counted your days of sickness—have you those of health? Your hours of mourning—have you those of joy? Your children taken—have you counted your children spared? &c., &c. Were you thankful? Gen. xxxii. 10.
II. Look forward on the opening year.
On what? Can you tell?
How uncertain, you know not what will be even on the morrow. Jam. iv. 4. Prov. xxvii. 1. Who will be taken? Whose husband? Whose child?
You know not.
Therefore, ‘be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.’ Matt. xxiv. 44.
Can you say, ‘Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly?’
XXX. LAST MEETING IN THE YEAR.
The Cradle and the Grave.
God has been speaking to us during the past year. Two mothers have gone to their long home, and ten of our children. Let us reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’ 1 Sam. iii. 9.
God speaks to us from the cradle, and the grave.
I. From the cradle, and says,
1. ‘Take this child, and nurse it for me.’ Exod. ii. 9.
2. Pray for it—train it—love it—comfort it.
3. He speaks in a voice of comfort from our cradles to our souls, if we are His people. ‘Mother, can you forget this sucking child? Yea, you may forget, yet will not I forget you.’ Isa. xlix. 15.
Again—Do you comfort your babe—do you soothe its fears? do you wipe its tears? Even so, believing mother, will God comfort you. Isa. lxvi. 13. Yes, even ‘wipe away all tears from your eyes.’
Oh! precious voice from the cradle to your soul!
II. God speaks from the grave—and says,
1. ‘Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayst be no longer steward.’ Luke, xvi. 2.
2. ‘Time is short.’
1 Cor. vii. 29. 1 Pet. iv. 7.
What a little life—gone as a spark!
You may die—your children may die—or Christ may come. Do not say, ‘to-morrow.’ Jam. iv. 13.
3. ‘Be ye also ready.’
Matt. xxiv. 44.
4. Your child shall rise again.
‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ John, xi. 25. (See Burial Service.) Jer. xxxi. 16, 17.
If both parent and child are in Christ, what a blessed reunion, for He adds, ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die!’
If it should be the Lord’s will during the coming year again to take many of our little ones from their mothers’ arms, and to lay them in His own bosom, may each sorrowing one amongst us be enabled to say in the spirit of true and loving submission, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’
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By the same Author,
Short Tracts for Mothers.
No. 1. Give an Account of thy Stewardship.
2. Praying Mothers.
3. In the Morning Sow thy Seed.
4. Shine as Lights in your Families.
5. Parental Affection.
6. Cast thy Burden upon the Lord.
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