Hebrews 12:17

AFTERWARD

‘He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.’

Hebrews 12:17

Every act has its afterward, and that is the New Testament criticism upon the Old Testament story of Esau. The facts of that story are familiar to you all.

I. There is an afterward that comes when every act must have its due, its appointed consequence, sure as echo follows sound. There are words we never can recall, acts that we have done that we ought not to have done, and that never, never can be undone.

II. There is an afterward dealing with the limits of earth.—We are reminded by God of what we find to be a business fact—that there are some things said and done which we never can, as we look back upon them, repent of in the sense that they can be unsaid or that they can be undone. Is not that your experience of life that every act has an afterward?

III. Think of the ‘afterward’ each time you are called upon to make a decision, each time you are called upon to resist a temptation. Have you got to make a decision to-day? Make it in the light of ‘afterward.’ When you look back you will find your decision irrevocable. Never risk the future for the sake of the present; never do as a lad what you may be sorry for as a man; never do as a girl what you will be sorry for as a woman. Learn that, in that sense, every act has its consequence which must follow, and there will come the New Testament criticism upon conduct which will be summed up in that word ‘afterward.’

IV. Thank God, there is a great afterward.—We ought to believe that life will not be all the same a hundred years hence, however we leave it now. We believe that there is an afterward, an after- and a to-ward, as the word means. We believe that for every act there is an after time, where there is a place of repentance, where it is possible to win back a blessing from One Who, unlike Isaac, has more blessings than one to bestow. Never does He shut the door in the face of a true penitent; but the act does, so much so that in all our actions, all our decisions, everything must be looked at with a view to this wonderful, solemn word which I will leave with you to-day—the word ‘afterward.’

Rev. Canon E. E. Holmes.

Illustration

‘There was a man in South Africa, a Cape merchant, who said that he had got all his money, he had made every farthing that he possessed, dishonestly, either by gambling or by cheating others; and he said: “What can I do? Where is my place of repentance? I cannot find the people I have injured, I cannot undo the harm that I have done however sorry I am for having done it.” He, in one sense, could find no place of repentance. Every act of his life was finding its “afterward.” ’