LOVING COUNSELS A NEW YEAR'S
ADDRESS BY JOHN MACDUFF IN 1868 My dear friends, At this season,
so long as the state of my health permitted me to address you from
the pulpit, it was my custom to direct your thoughts to a
consideration of God's goodness in the past, and to the duty
of more humble trust and confiding reliance on Him for the future. Standing, as it were, on the
border-line of two years, I endeavored to point backward to the path
along which you had traveled, and, from the countless tokens
of God's watchful care, His gracious condescension, faithfulness,
and love, I sought to lead you, while erecting another Ebenezer,
not only to inscribe on it the words, Hitherto the Lord has
helped me, but with a firmer trust and deeper love, to say,
This God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even
unto death. It has pleased our Heavenly Father
to withhold from me the privilege of addressing you this year from
my accustomed place. Yet do I feel most grateful that
He gives me strength of mind and body even from the sick-room,
to discharge a duty so solemn and important, and thus to hold
communion with those whom, from my inmost heart, I love so truly. It may be, also, that the words
I now address will not be less welcome or impressive, coming,
as they do, from one who has been lately snatched from the
very gates of death, and who has experienced more deeply than
language can describe, the goodness, the mercy, and the love of God. By His blessing, these pages
may be instrumental in awakening in some heart a livelier sense
of the divine faithfulness, and a more ardent longing for union
and fellowship with our unseen but ever-present Saviour. I have no wish so near to my
heart, none which so entirely occupies my thoughts and prayers,
as that all of us may be united, not only as pastor and people,
but as heirs together of the grace of life, partakers of Christ,
and children of God, by faith in Him. For all of you, my heart's
desire and prayer is that Christ Jesus may be formed in you, the
hope of glory, and that, by divine grace, you may be enabled to
walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love.
Both as pastor and friend, eleven years of fellowship have united
me more and more closely to you, in the bonds of affection, and
looking back on my ministry, I can say that in every home
I met a cordial welcome. From every parishioner I received
kindness and sympathy, and that no discord or division has ever
weakened my hands or discouraged me in my labors. It would be
strange indeed if, with such a retrospect, I could feel otherwise
than deeply interested in your present and eternal welfare. If any desire could be stronger
than that all of you should be followers of Christ and heirs
of everlasting glory. Allow me, then, dear friends,
while the year is closing in around us and making way for
the opening of another, to address to you a few words of faithful
earnest and loving counsel, and may the Spirit of all grace sanctify
and impress them on all your hearts. In reviewing the past,
the feeling which, at such a time as this, should be uppermost
in every heart, is that of fervent gratitude to God, for His unmerited
goodness and mercy. There are none of us who have
not experienced during the bygone year that the Lord our God is
gracious. We may have failed to realize
and acknowledge it, but it is not the less true, that every
step of our pilgrim path, every hour of prolonged existence,
every return of daily comforts and blessings, have been so many
tokens of God's goodness, so many evidences that his tender
mercies are over all his works. In the house, and by the way,
he has watched over and protected us, and in the midst of a multitude
of dangers, which our eye could not see, nor our arm avert, he
has guided and upheld us, so that we may well stir up our
souls, and all that is within us, to praise and magnify his
holy name. Some of us can look back on seasons
of special help and deliverance. We can remember how, when the
world, with its temptations and snares, had been gaining an undue
ascendancy over us, when faith was wavering, and hope was declining,
and love waxing cold within us, when doubt and fears were taking
possession of our souls, and we were driven in the very extremity
of our peril, to cry, Lord, save me, or I perish. Even then an
almighty arm was held out to rescue and uphold us, and a gentle
voice whispered, I am still with you. And receiving fresh grace
and strength, we bent humbly before the cross, and had our
faith invigorated, our love increased, our hope brightened. Oh, surely
With such a retrospect, our language may this day be, Whom have I,
O God in heaven, but You? And in all the earth there is
none whom I desire besides You. Some, whom I address, may be
looking back to times of sad and painful bereavement. The
desire of your eye has been removed with a stroke. death has plucked
from its stem the loveliest and fairest flower of your heart,
and you have felt stunned, bewildered, desolate. But even then, when
your heart's sorrow was greatest and your anguish most intense,
there came one to your side whose presence soothed and comforted
your downcast spirit, one who encircled you in his everlasting
arms and whispered words of sweetest consolation. Lo, I am with you
always. I will never leave you, nor forsake
you. I will restore comforts unto
you. I have chosen you in the furnace
of affliction. O, when such words as these have
come to you in the sad and dreary hour of trial, when you have
been enabled to feel that instead of being left forsaken, desolate,
and bereft, Christ was never nearer to you than then, never
more tender and sympathizing, never more intent upon advancing
your best interests and securing your spiritual peace and comfort,
than at the moment when his dear hand laid your loved one low. You must, on looking back this
day, to that momentous period in your history, feel and acknowledge,
he has done all things well. Yes, he robbed me of that cherished
jewel that I might find, himself, the pearl of great price. He
plucked that lovely and cherished flower, that I might clasp more
tenderly to my heart, himself, the rose of Sharon. and the lily
of the valley. When I deemed myself forsaken
and friendless, he came to offer me a heart touched with my grief,
throbbing with a love far deeper and intenser than I could find
on earth. He enabled me, by his grace and
spirit, to bow in meek and humble submission to my father's to
say without one repining word or one murmuring thought. The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord! Now I can bear my testimony to
the truth. He has done all things well. Now I feel, in my inmost heart,
that in faithfulness He has afflicted me. Some of you can look back
to a time of sickness, when you experienced divine help and consolation,
when first you were summoned to retire from the busy throng
and from the scenes in which you delighted. All seemed dark
and mysterious, the consciousness that health had departed, that
disease was progressing, and pain and weariness confining
you, as a prisoner, to the bed of suffering. all this pressed
hard upon your spirit, and filled your soul with despondency and
gloom. The trying dispensation, instead
of appearing what it eventually proved, a precious blessing,
seemed a dire and heavy calamity. But he who works his purposes
of mercy and love towards his children, in a way often contrary
to their expectations and plans, left you not to linger in darkness
and despair. He came to you in the night watches. He made all your bed in your
sickness. He brought promise upon promise
to cheer your drooping spirit. He taught you that your sickness
and suffering were needed to refine, elevate, and sanctify
you. He taught you that God designed
thereby to draw you nearer to himself. to wean your affections
from the world and bring your will into sweeter and more perfect
harmony with his own. O Shirley, you have good reason,
this day, to bless God for that bed of suffering, that couch
of weakness, and those wearisome days and long, sleepless nights,
if, thereby, you have been enabled to realize more fully. that God
is your all, your portion, your Father, if you have been brought
into closer relation and more endeared intimacy and fellowship
with Jesus, the sympathizing brother, the tender, loving friend,
if you have become more deeply sensible of the Holy Spirit's
work within you, of His power to comfort, support and sanctify
you. Looking back upon that eventful
period, your feeling now is, I thank God for my trial time
of sickness, for calling me away from the busy throng that I might
be alone with Him. Thank you, God, for teaching
me my own weakness and your strength, my own emptiness and your fullness,
my own sinfulness and your pardoning love. my utter helplessness,
and your upholding, comforting, and sustaining grace. Thank God
that the anguish of that season of pain, distress, and suffering
was so often solaced by His love, that its loneliness was so often
dispelled by His gracious presence, that its gloom was so often brightened
with His smile, and that its calamity was so often sanctified
by his grace. Thank God that I can now sit
loosely to the world, and feel that I am only a stranger and
a pilgrim in it, journeying to my heavenly home. Thank God that
I can rest in the assurance of having one ever near to whom
I can reveal every doubt and care and perplexity on whose
arm I can confidingly lean in coming up from the wilderness,
from whose infinite fullness I can at all times obtain strength
for duty, patience for suffering, support under weakness, and comfort
in the midst of sorrow. His grace is sufficient to bear
me up amid all earthly trials and sorrows. temptations and
infirmities, and his strength can guide and uphold me in duty,
service and suffering, until that blessed hour, when the conflict
ended and the victory won, he shall conduct me safely to my
eternal home. Come health or sickness, come
joy or sorrow, as I travel onwards I can now say, I leave it all
with Jesus. But there is yet another class
who are at this season solemnly called upon to remember with
gratitude the goodness and the mercy of God. They are such as
have been exempt from painful sickness and sad bereavement,
whose paths have been unmarked by trial, and whose homes have
been unvisited by the fell destroyer. They have rejoiced in the bright
sunshine of prosperity, and the bygone year has been to them
uncheckered, serene, and tranquil. Business has prospered, health
has continued unbroken, their family circle has been undiminished,
and everything has gone well with their earthly plans and
prospects. O my friends, see to it that
with grateful hearts you recognize in your prosperity the good hand
of God. It is His love which has so brightened
your pathway. It is His love that has filled
your cup of blessing. It is His love that has exempted
you from trial and sickness and sorrow. It is His love that has
crowned the year to you with goodness. and shielded your homes
from calamity, disease, and death. Let that love flow into your
hearts and excite love and gratitude in return. Pray for grace to
bear your prosperity with a humble, thankful spirit, to use it for
God's glory and for the good of others, and let not the bright
sunshine, which now gladdens your pathway, RENDER YOU FORGETFUL
OF THE SOLEMN TRUTH, THAT IN A MOMENT THE DARKNESS MAY GATHER,
THE STORM AND TEMPEST BEAT, AND THE PRESENT CALM AND SERENITY
BE CHANGED FOR THE FIERCE WINDS OF ADVERSITY. that he only takes from you,
but what he first gave to you. Remember that he alone can abundantly
supply all your needs, relieve all your wants, compensate for
every loss, and help you in every emergency. Above all, see that
temporal prosperity is not rendering you less diligent in working
out your salvation with fear and trembling, less anxious to
make progress in the divine life, less careful in the discharge
of pious duties, and less watchful against the onsets of temptation. There is a danger in prosperity. There is a peril when the world
is smiling upon you, peril from its customs, its businesses,
its pleasures and its friendships, and you can only be safe so long
as you continue watchful and prayerful, so long as you are
walking with Jesus amid daily duties, enjoyments and pleasures. By His side the world cannot
harm you. In His presence its temptations
and bribes cannot deceive you. Relying on His grace prosperity
will not ensnare you, nor will worldly success unduly elate
you. O pray, then, that you may be
enabled to live unto the Lord, to live truly, usefully, and
acceptably to Him whose you are, and whom you are bound by every
tie of love and gratitude to serve. Pray that you may have
grace to travel onward through life, with Christ acknowledged
in every step, entwined with every affection, as the source
of each joy, and the sharer of each sorrow, of your personal
history. Let your walk be one of firm,
unshaken faith in your Saviour God. Go to His inexhaustible
fullness, with every need Go to His tender sympathy with every
sorrow. Go to His prevailing grace with
every infirmity. Go to His precious blood with
every sin. Draw all your strength and grace
from Christ and seek earnestly the aid and anointing of the
Holy Spirit, and, whether in prosperity or in adversity, you
will be able to accomplish that which will bring glory to God,
happiness to those around you, and peace, comfort, and serenity
to your own soul. In reviewing the past, the goodness
of God will be all the more conspicuous if we reflect on our individual
demerits and sinfulness. Instead of loading us with benefits
and watching over us with parental care, sustaining and comforting
us amid our daily trials and vicissitudes, he might justly
have withdrawn his favour from us, and left us to reap the fruit
of our own doings. How often have we shared in the
bounties of his providence, without acknowledging the hand which
bestowed them! How little have we done to shewn
our gratitude, either by the praises of our lips or the devotion
of our lives to His service? Where has been the exercise of
a living faith? Where has been the exercise of
an ardent love? Where has been the exercise of
a holy zeal? What progress have we made in
our homeward path? What advancement have we made
in holiness and purity? Have we loved God's Word more?
Have we been more fervent and persevering in prayer? Have we
been more faithful as the soldiers of the cross? Have we been more
animated by the humble spirit of Him whom we profess to serve
and obey? Has Christ been made more precious
to us, and have we been living in close and daily communion
with Him, betaking ourselves to Him? with every care and doubt
and perplexity, ever traveling to the fountain of his precious
atoning blood for the pardon of our many sins, and pleading
earnestly for more of his sanctifying, sustaining, enlightening, and
comforting grace. Alas, who among us is not filled
with sorrow and self-reproach as we turn the eye backwards
and think of our ingratitude, our unbelief, our waywardness
and rebellion, our weak faith, our cold love, our flagging and
inconstant zeal. Truly we may say, he has not
dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Such has been the marvelous love
of God toward us. that though we have questioned
and wounded it again and again, it has borne with us, and continued
unchilled and unchanged. It has tracked our wandering,
devious way. It has hovered around us, and
shielded us from danger. His love has guided us in perplexity. It has comforted us in sorrow. It has sustained us amid hourly
trials. temptations and afflictions. Ah, what love has been manifested
by our blessed Saviour! Love to the sinful and guilty
and undeserving! Not only did He shed for us His
precious blood, and pour out His soul unto death upon the
cross, but having risen as the conqueror of sin and death and
hell, He entered for us within the veil. appeared as our mediator
and advocate with God the Father, and ever lives to plead our cause
and to pour out upon us the riches of His grace. Freely has He offered
to the very chief of sinners His precious guilt-atoning blood,
His soul-satisfying righteousness, and His sin-subduing grace. He has done all suffered all,
paid all, and left us nothing to do but believe and be saved. And oh, what gracious reviving
promises has he given to his people! Promises of peace and
comfort and hope, promises of guidance through life, support
in death, and bliss throughout eternity. He has assured us of
the Spirit's help in carrying on the work of faith and holiness
within us, in renewing our natures, purifying our affections, and
forming within us His own mind and likeness. He has pledged
His word that He will never leave nor forsake us, that our union
with Him shall never be dissolved. that he will abide with us and
in us, that we shall be kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, that grace begun shall assuredly terminate in
glory, and that neither death nor life, things present nor
things to come, shall be able to separate us from his love. O brethren, Let us seek to realize
more than we have ever done how much we are indebted to our Savior
God. Let us strive, by the help of
the Holy Spirit, to know more of that love which passes knowledge. And, as we look forward to the
future, to that year on which we are now entering, let us humbly
and earnestly resolve that, by divine grace, we shall live,
not unto ourselves, but to him who died for us, and rose again,
that our life shall be a life of faith, a life hidden with
Christ in God. We do not know what the future
may bring of joy or sorrow, of weal or woe, but, if we have
made Christ our portion, our all in all, then we need fear
no evil. He will make His grace sufficient
for us and perfect His strength in our weakness. He will support
us under every trial, guide us through every perilous path,
and carry us over every difficulty and danger until He brings us
in safety home to our eternal rest. Only let us cling confidently
to Him as we travel onwards, Let our communion be close and
uninterrupted. Let the eye of faith follow his
guiding hand, and the ear of faith listen to his loving voice,
and the hand of faith grasp him with a clinging confidence, and
all will be well. Trials may come. He will comfort
us. Dangers may arise. He will protect
us. Enemies may oppose us. He will
overcome them. No weapon formed against us shall
ever prosper. The coming year will be one of
spiritual progress. Faith will win its victories,
and love secure its triumphs, and hope increase its soarings. We will be able to rejoice in
the Lord, and rejoice in the God of our salvation. We commit
our interests, for time and eternity, to Him who will make all things
work together for our good. We cast all our cares upon Him,
knowing that He cares for us, and in so doing, whatever our
troubles and trials may be, we will have within us the peace
which passes understanding. and a measure of that joy which
is unspeakable and full of glory. Assured that all the ways of
our God are mercy and truth to those who love Him, we will trust
His heart, even when we cannot trace His hand. We will receive
meekly, humbly, and gratefully whatever He is pleased to send
us. waiting patiently for the time
when he will solve his own deep and mysterious providences, and
we will be able to trace, with grateful hearts in the light
of eternity, how much of infinite love and wisdom and faithfulness
and goodness were enfolded in all the events of our earthly
history. Beloved friends, be it yours
to enter on the coming year with the resolution that, whatever
others do, as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord. See to it that you erect the
family altar, and with your children seek daily pardon for daily sins,
and daily grace for daily necessities. Let the Word of God be to you
a precious treasure, a storehouse from which you daily draw food
and nourishment to your soul. Do not forsake the assembling
of yourselves together for the worship of your God and Savior.
Go to the sanctuary with humble and teachable spirits. Sit at
the feet of Jesus and learn of Him that you may the better meet
the trials and temptations of life, and to better discharge
those duties which devolve upon you from day to day. Be earnest
and persevering in prayer. Remember that the throne of grace
is ever near at hand, and that the ear of the Eternal God is
ever open to your cry. For you the gate of mercy is
ever open. the Savior is ever pleading,
the Spirit is ever ready to help your infirmities. Go to that
throne, assured that, in Christ Jesus, there is treasured up
an infinite, inexhaustible, mediatorial fullness of grace, and that,
out of that fullness, you are invited to partake. Go to it
in emptiness and you will return filled. Go to it in sorrow and
you will return comforted. Go to it with guilt and you will
return pardoned. Go to it with sin, backsliding,
and infirmity and you will return healed, restored, and supported. Do not be ashamed to confess
Christ in your daily life. Oh, how many are so, afraid to
be deemed pious, afraid to be thought of as enthusiasts, afraid
lest men should take knowledge of them that they have been with
Jesus! They will strive and struggle
and toil to acquire earthly riches, give their whole hearts' devotion
to the world, and waste the energies of mind and body in the effort
to outstrip others in the race for wealth, they are not ashamed
to be known as whirlings, but they are ashamed to be deemed
pious. They can be cold, unimpressed,
and indifferent when a pious subject is brought before them,
but warm, interested, and engrossed when the conversation is of this
world, its business, schemes, and projects. Brethren, let it
not be thus with you. Carry your piety along with you,
not indeed for ostentatious display, or as the subject for mere idle
empty talk, but as that which rules and regulates your words
and actions, as that which renders you gentle, kind, generous, and
forgiving in your daily fellowship with those around you, as that
which opens your heart to the call of the needy, and excites
your sympathy to the afflicted and sorrowful, as that which
renders applicable to your name and character the words of Scripture,
All who heard of me praised me, all who saw me spoke well of
me, for I helped the poor in their need. and the orphans who
had no one to help them. I helped those who had lost hope,
and they blessed me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for
joy. All I did was just and honest."
Job 29, verses 11-14. Thus, with Christ in your heart,
and Christ's Spirit in your life, be it yours to meet the coming
year And whether your influence is great or small, your sphere
of action extensive or limited, do what you can to glorify your
God and Savior, and to let your light so shine before men that
they, seeing your good works, may also glorify your Father
who is in heaven. In the family and in the world,
at home and abroad, in your disposition, in your business, in your worldly
interactions, be it your desire, your aim and prayer to live unto
the Lord and to serve Him faithfully with your time, your talents,
your influence and your wealth. Let your prayer be, Lord, what
will you have me to do? And seek earnestly, humbly and
faithfully to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. So occupy as a steward until
Christ comes, and He will then say, Well done, good and faithful
servant. You have been faithful over a
few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into
the joy of your Lord. Blessed is that servant who is
found so doing the will of God. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I pray that the choicest blessing
of Almighty God may rest upon you, upon your families, your
friends, your homes, your occupations, your duties. May you receive
grace according to your need, grace for doing and for suffering,
grace for health and for sickness, grace for prosperity and for
adversity, grace for life and for death, grace for time and
glory in eternity. May you enjoy in every step of
life's pilgrimage the cheering, sustaining, and animating presence
of your God and Savior. And may that presence be to you
so precious, so needful, so gladdening, that it will prove the pledge
of heaven, the foretaste of celestial bliss, and the firstfruits of
the golden harvest of eternity. With sincere affection, I remain
your loving pastor and brother in Christ. John Macduff 1868