Are we to fritter away our brief
hour on life's stage by J.R. Macduff, from Influence, preached
before a young men's Christian association? For when David had
served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. He
was buried with his fathers, and his body decayed. Acts chapter
13 verse 36. Introducing from these words
moral and spiritual lessons, I would observe generally that
each individual in this life has some great purpose to fulfill.
David served God's purpose in his own generation. He has left
his indelible footprints on the sands of time. Everything in
the wide universe has its special mission. The flower fulfills
its design by unfolding its colours or scattering its sweet fragrances
wherever it blooms. As we see it dropping its decayed
and withered leaves one by one, we feel its little destiny in
its own little world has been attained. The lark, as it mounts
in the air and chants its carol, singing up to heaven's gate,
fulfils its mission in these tuneful melodies. If we take
a loftier survey, and ascend amid the glories of the firmament,
we see the sun fulfilling his great appointment to give light
to the system, coming forth like a bridegroom from his chamber,
and rejoicing as a strong man to run his race. Or the moon,
that faithful sentinel, lavishing her nightly care on the earth,
a majestic beacon-light to land and ocean. Turn to whatever page
we may, in the vast volume of creation, we shall find in each
the record of some peculiar office and vocation. Mountains and seas,
fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind, all fulfill the
word and decree and design of God. And is it different with
man? Has he alone no momentous work
to perform in the economy in which he is placed? Is our whole
earthly destiny to eat and drink and sleep and die? Are we to
fritter away our brief hour on life's stage, to be ushered in
with a few rejoicings at our birth, followed by a few tears
at our departure? And when our sun has gone down,
when the grass of the grave covers our resting-places, shall we
be as if we never were? How many there are who, to all
appearance, think so! They have never yet awakened
to a sense of their high destiny, as having a part to play and
a sphere to occupy. Their inward feeling seems to
be that this great world, with its teeming millions, that it
signifies nothing how they live. They soon shall be as though
they never existed. When they sink into the tomb,
it will be like the vessel going down in mid-ocean. There will
be a few plungings and heavings as it momentarily wrestles with
the storm. But the tempest sweeps, the sea
opens its yawning mouth, the waves close over it, and then
resume their usual play. Not a trace or vestige remains. The place that once knew it knows
it no more. My brethren, that solemn, that
momentous reality they call life is no plaything. It was given
as the mightiest of possessions and loaded with immeasurable
responsibilities. The weighty saying which many
a tongue was taught earliest to lisp was this, man's chief
end is to glorify God. Oh, truly it is a solemn thought
that each one of you is exercising some influence, either for good
or for evil. If you are not serving your day
and generation for the better, then you must be serving it for
the worse. There can be no such thing as mere neutral influence. You must either, like the aromatic
plant, be diffusing a grateful fragrance, or, like the fabled
lethal Upus tree, be casting a deadly shadow all around. And if so, it well befits us
individually to address to ourselves the personal question, am I fulfilling
the great end and design of my being? Yonder fig tree on the
way to Bethany is a parable designed to warn and instruct in every
age. See it, stinted, shriveled, withered,
it had borne no fruit, it had not fulfilled the design of its
creation, and a tender, gracious Saviour pronounces upon it the
cumberer's sentence and the cumberer's awful doom. Happy are those who
have been led to regard life as a golden talent, who have
realized its momentous requirements and stern responsibilities. Even
the lowliest and humblest can help directly or indirectly to
untie the bandages from a sin-stricken, woe-worn world. and send it forth
from its fevered couch, walking and leaping and praising God. If, from peculiarity of disposition
or situation, some may feel as if they were unequal to the outward
activities of Christian work and service, theirs may be the
silent but equally potent example of a holy, meek, loving, peaceful
life. We are all able to influence
others by the quiet, unostentatious influence of a pure, consistent,
godly life. Be it yours, not only to serve
your God, but so to live that the world may be better because
of you. and that when you die and your
hand lies withering in the grave, the seed dropped by that hand
years on years before may spring up bearing fruit to the glory
of God. you