The Fifth of September.
I SAY UNTO ALL, WATCH! --- Mark 13:37.
"What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." --- Mark 13:37.
On a day set apart for the celebration of some great event, how anxious are people to get in time to the place appointed! what earnestness is seen in their looks! As earnest should we be in watching for the hour in which our Lord shall come, that we may not be ashamed before him.
A heart deceived by sin may suggest many arguments against this holy earnestness, but they are the reasonings of folly. It is a general warning, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.". Almost every day affords an instance of some one hurried into eternity on a sudden.
Were not hourly watchfulness necessary, a merciful God would not permit sudden deaths. But he has sounded the alarm, "Ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Give me grace, O Lord, to live always as if I heard that solemn voice sounding continually in my ears, "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment."
Awake, my drowsy soul, awake,
Now to the work of God awake;
The awful register goes on;
Tremendous thought! how deep it strikes! Devotion for September 5
And view the threatening scene;
Legions of foes encamp around,
And treach'ry lurks within.
Behold thy Master near;
The various arduous tasks pursue
With vigour and with fear.
The account will surely come;
And opening day or closing night,
May bear me to my doom.
Yet like a dream it flies,
Till God's own voice the slumbers chase,
From these deluded eyes!