There were thousands and ten-thousands, of whom in His good pleasure He had determined, that this year they should pass from death unto life, and as redeemed from sin should kneel in endless thanksgiving at the Cross of their Savior, and they all have been gathered in, as the prodigal son they have returned to their Father and have not been made to be hirelings, but have been adopted as children of God.

And so it went on with the whole government and appointment of God. For one was prepared the cup of the wine of gladness, for the other the wormwood of affliction; for one God had a laugh about his lips, for the other the tear in the eye; for one was laid up sickness and adversity, for the other wealth and rejoicings of soul; and all this has come to the children of men, to you also and your house, not as consequence, nor according as you had chosen it, but according to His eternal counsel.

This year too was a piece of our human history, and of this year, too, God by Himself had intended to what extent He would advance or hold back the development of the events of the nations, and that very part of history that was appointed for this year, in those days and weeks and months has been enacted, and now that this year falls away, the whole world and all the peoples of that world stand, at that point of the way, where according to the secret counsel of God they should stand.

Also in the struggle between the Kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the world, history goes on after a fixed line, and here too it holds good, that all what God had intended by Himself regarding this year, that on one side His Kingdom should make advances, and on the other side by apostacy, unbelief and doubt would be held back, in the events of all those days, weeks and months, has actually been realized.

For the world, for our people, for the church of Christ, for your home, and for your personal life, it holds true of everything that had been determined in God’s Counsel, that thus it is done.

And therein is rest for our heart.

It is no maelstrom, in which we are tossed about. It is no whirlwind, which makes us dance and play as autumn leaves. Our life, our existence is in God’s hand. And that hand of our God gives direction, guidance and order to all things. And under this appointment of God everything has significance, for him that loves God the blessed assurance, that for him all things will work together for good.

Even this is not all.

There was in the year now ending, not only the doing and working of our God, but also the doing and the working of His human child, in his work.

No one can fathom that mystery to the bottom, and even the cleverest among the children of men stand speechless before this wondrous mystery, how it is possible, that in everything God’s will goes through, and yet that man stands responsible before his God.

But understood or not, the fact, the matter, and the certainty of the matter remains. We have that certainty sealed in our prayers, when we called upon God for forgiveness of our sins. God Himself has sealed it to us in the inward address of our conscience. And even among men we do not hesitate one moment to hold young and old, man and woman, master and servant, in brief every one responsible and accountable for his word and work. It may even be said that seldom heavier than on the evening of the old year that serious responsibility weighs upon our heart.

And therefore, when we overhear that voice from on High: It is done, let no one think alone of what God appoints for and over us, but let that voice directly appeal to our conscience, that this solemn declaration: It is done, refers with equal emphasis to our own past and to what in that past we have seen, meditated, thought, said, done, and what we have left undone.

And herein consists what pains, what oppresses. Not that ordinarily we are so dissatisfied with ourselves. On the contrary too great self-satisfaction is rather our common sin. Into this we fall most often, not from lack of honor, but because our standard of a good and holy life is so sinfully low. A broadcloth garment seen at twilight, will seem quite free from dust, but in the light of the noonday sun, will show clouds of dust, that cover it. And so it is with the garment of our soul. We do not see the dust on it, because we walk in twilight. But when at times, in broad daylight, greater seriousness and clearer light of God’s holiness penetrates to our soul, our spiritual eye discovers very really whole spots of defilement, which otherwise we had not observed.

It is done, and irrevocably done, what we dropped into the stream of that year as our word, our deed, our utterance of life; but of itself herewith the question rises: What should have been done, and how should it have been done, and what with it all should have been the inner impulse of our heart? So of itself we go down into that depth where the inner impulses of the life of our soul put themselves in motion, and we feel that He Who tries the heart and the reins, thereby prevents us from flattering and from censuring ourselves.

The old year in its seriousness asks for truth in the inward parts, for truth before God.

And when God’s holy angels cover their faces with their wings, who of us does not cover his face in guilt and self-reproach at the accounting of his soul with that year, that has for ever passed away?

You would like to do that year over again, that, now as you see it from behind, you might give it an altogether different direction, spend it differently, live it differently, and above all be differently disposed in your heart under it all.

But see, that is cut off. It is no longer a blank year, for you to fill in. It is a year that went by and is ended. It is all done. And as it is done, so it remains written up against you. Even the bitterest sin, of which you accuse yourself, can not be taken out of it. As a chain it all lies linked together, and no one link can be taken away. So was your life, so it is done and so it lies at your responsibility now in your conscience, and once in the Last Judgment when the books are opened before the Throne of our God.

For the children of the world this works, according to their character, self-misleading and self-hardening.

Misleading with the superficial and happy hearted, who, at this complaint of the past, always imagine that from now on things will be different and better. About the guilt of the past few people are troubled. God is good and He will forgive. The only question is, in the year that they face, to break with their past, to take the way of the pious. and to persevere in that way. And though such a “grown child” may be a man of seventy years of age, and though he has made himself believe this same thing fifty times before, fifty times to find himself deceived thereby, yet now again he quiets the unrest of his heart with the same selfmisleading. Thus far his life was play, now seriousness will come, and every one will see, that he has become different.

Of course, less superficial characters are incapable of such continuous self-misleading. On this evening of the old year they remember their earlier old year evenings, and stand perplexed in the face of the disappointing result. There was every time the complaint about the year that went, and every time the purpose of tenderer seriousness, to face a better future. And yet, they went on to be the old slaves, and at every new old year’s evening, they faced again the same self-reproach. Why then should they still flatter themselves with the hope of an holier life! The outcome shows, that their nature, their character is such and not otherwise. And so they abandon the struggle, which leads to nothing, and make unholy peace with their unholy existence. It becomes self-hardening.

Only he who on the evening of the old year can confess his Lord and Savior, sees a way of escape. “It is done,” O, truly, “done”, what with the closing year must cover his face with shame, but in the face of that painful past he stands not alone. Jesus is with him. Jesus is near to him, and it is that Savior, Who with the light of Divine compassion in His face, covers this long and bitter past with the blood-sprinkled garment of His accomplished righteousness. When you are God’s child, and with broken heart and contrite spirit kneel at the Cross of Golgotha, Jesus cuts that past off from you, takes it forever as His own, and in quiet faith you perceive a blessed sensation, as though there had never been sin in your past, so pure and so holy you feel yourself in Christ before your God. For this alone is the faith that justifies, so to stand before God, as though you had never sinned, yea, as though you had done all that Christ in your place has done for you.

So there comes oil of joy for sadness and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and thanks, eternal thanks flow out to the God of all compassion, Who with such an all penetrating grace has filled your heart and refreshed it. An old year’s evening without Christ is so feverish and selfmisleading, but with Jesus, with faith in your Savior so rich in holy peace. For it speaks for itself, that by faith transferring to Jesus all that is done, is no act of externally joining oneself to the Mediator, it is not a momentary action of going out to Jesus, and then of withdrawing oneself again from Him. Faith that here glistens, either does not operate, or it works in that mystical fellowship of soul and life with Him, Who from hence forth is become the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of your soul. Being one with Him in the faith, which justifies you before God, includes of itself, that you face the future in fellowship with that same Savior, and that the anxiety of how to find better paths, how to come to betterment and sanctification and deepening of life, is lifted from your troubled heart and laid upon your Savior. So both, with the eye to the past, and with the eye to the future, every question and all anxious care solves itself in the one, mighty question of life, whether you belong to Jesus, and thus are partaker both in life and death of the only true comfort. This does not say that there will be no more trouble and anxiety about your circumstances in this earthly life. Some people’s lot in this earthly life is very hard and painful. But under it all the heart does not faint. And when under the impression of Jesus’ mighty word we have looked again at the lilies of the field, which grow and flourish, and at the birds of heaven, which neither sow nor reap, unobservedly on the evening of the old year the soul glides into that sacred track, first and alone to seek the Kingdom of our God, knowing that all things we truly need, as of itself shall be cast into our lap. Then we stand no more under, but above the world, as we know that now we are one with Him, Who in the youngest day shall proclaim for the last time: It is done, and Who, after all things of the world shall have been done, shall forever open to us His blessed Kingdom.

It is not in broad circles, that on the evening of the old year these Christian comfortings refresh the heart. The faithful have become few, and even in many Christian families the real salt of the Gospel has lost its savor. Therefore let all those, who by God’s wondrous grace have been permitted still to keep their stand by that Fountain of eternal comforting, enjoy with clearer perception, with deeper warmth of feeling, with the more tender thanks, this love of God in the fellowship with Immanuel. Oh, may He, in Whose hand our life is, grant to them and to their loved ones on this old year’s evening the foretaste of that rest, which remaineth for the people of God!

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