Daniel 2:8

I know of certainty that ye would gain the time.

A Meditation for the New Year

The magicians wished to gain time, hoping that the king might remember his dream, or that something might happen to extricate them from the dreadful dilemma. Notice the two main thoughts and the suggestions suitable to the season.

I. TIME IS ON MAN’S SIDE. We are often made to feel that Men of the world know how precious sometimes is an extension of credit for a month, a week, a day, even an hour. Give the perplexed man time, and he will know how to act. “It is all a question of time.” On the higher plane of things this is specially true. Morally speaking, time is of infinite consequence to us.

1. Time is another word for mercy. So long as we enjoy the shelter of time, we are safe from the judgments which our sins have provoked. All the retributive suffering of this life is light indeed compared with the retributions which await the transgressor farther on; it is but the spilling of the red vials. “Flee from the wrath to come.” The fulness of penalty is reserved.

2. Time is another word for opportunity. It is not bare duration that is granted us, but a period rich in influences, succours, instrumentalities, and inspirations. To say that time is lengthened out is to say that the Word of God is continued to us, the means of grace, the privilege of prayer, the influences of the Spirit, all the fulness of the blessing of the redeeming gospel. Life teems with chances of getting good and doing good.

3. Time is another word for hope. Whilst time is granted, wonderful changes are possible.

II. THE PERIOD APPROACHES WHEN TIME CAN NO LONGER BE ON OUR SIDE. It was thus with these Magi; they had nearly exhausted the king’s patience. An end comes necessarily to all respites. The business man in difficulties gains time, the bill is renewed, it is again and again renewed; but the inexorable day dawns. So a limit is fixed to the opportunities of the religious life. The dispensation of mercy and opportunity is soon past.

1. Most appropriate to the season is the spirit of thankfulness. All have reason to thank God for the past year. “Thy saints shall bless Thee.” They bless Thee for the sweet spring, the opulent summer, the mellow autumn, the stern winter, and for those larger, richer spaces of heavenly blessing which accompany the circling year. They bless Thee for three hundred and sixty-five days and nights burdened with spiritual benediction and hallowing influence. The unconverted also have reason to thank God for sparing mercy. Job asks, “Why do the wicked live, and become old?” There is but one answer: Because God delighteth in mercy.

2. The spirit of humiliation becomes us. How much more good we might have gained! Instead of ending the year with a bosom full of sheaves, too many of us with shamefacedness bring to God only a few blighted ears and withered leaves.

3. The season demands the spirit of consecration. New scenes and opportunities open to us; let us be faithful, and God shall restore unto us the years that the caterpillar has wasted. (W. L. Watkinson.)