Daniel 8:19

At the time appointed the end shall be.

A Safe Prospective

Human nature anxiously desires to know something of the future. If we were told to-night that we could repair to a certain spot, where we might lift the veil of our own history, and foresee the course of our own lives during the next few years, I am afraid very few of us could be trusted to absent ourselves from such a place, or miss such an opportunity. Be persuaded, however, that with the exception of some grand feature, some magnificent outline which God has revealed, the future is absolutely shut from human eye; and as to the details which concern your life or mine, it is utterly impossible that we should over become acquainted with them by any manner of horoscope, or soothsaying, or bibliomancy. Why is it that the future is thus shut out from our view? Is it not because the present is enough to occupy our talents? Rightly to serve our God in this present hour will take all the strength we have, and all the strength we can obtain from God. Sufficient unto the day is not only the evil thereof, but the service thereof. Men who live too much in the past, and go beyond that which is rightly conservative, become of little service in the world; and men who are tempted to regulate their movements by forecasts of the future, will always become abstracted, speculative, empirical, full of sentiment, and void of assiduity, but certainly of no service whatever in the stern battle of to-day. God has concealed the future from us, probably, with a view to relieve our career through the world of dull monotony, and infuse into it new phases of stirring interest. Life would not wear such a lively aspect if it were all spread out in a map before us on the day of the commencement of our pilgrimage. Much of the pleasantness of a journey lies in unexpected views and scenes which burst upon the traveller as he climbs a hill or descends into a dale. If he could see all at once, one long, unvariegated avenue, it would become weary walking for him; but the very freshness and novelty of the events, adventures, and contingencies constantly occurrent, help to make life exciting, if not happy. Has not God also hid the future from us that we may not labour under the sense of being like “dumb driven cattle,” who have no will and no freedom, but both do and suffer what they are compelled by an agency irresistible? Moreover, is it not to be counted for a thousand mercies in one that all the future is concealed from us, since that future is of a very chequered character, casting, as one hath said, beams of hope and shadows of fear over the stage both of active and contemplative life? Some of it is bright with pleasure; much of it is dim with sorrow. What then if we knew the pleasure would come, should we not begin to reckon upon it? Surely the current of time would flow on heavily until the pleasant day arrived. Perhaps we should be really drawing bills at a very heavy discount upon the future if we knew it sufficiently to forestall the season of prosperity. And as for the troubles, the perils, and the afflictions that await us, if we knew of them beforehand, we should be pretty sure, with our natural tendency to graceless unbelief and morbid anxiety, to begin to carry the burden before the day came for us to carry it in. No, my Lord, it would be a fatal gift if thou wouldst bestow upon any one of us the power to know his own future.

I. First, then, it is well for us to remember that EVERYTHING IN THE FUTURE IS APPOINTED. Nothing shall happen to us which God has not foreseen. No unexpected event shall destroy His plans; no emergency shall transpire for which He has not provided; no peril shall occur against which He has not guarded. There shall come no remarkable event which shall take Him by surprise. He seeth the end from the beginning, and the things that are not, as though they were. To God’s eye there is no past and no future. We may derive no small comfort from this fact; for, suppose one goes to sea under the most skilful captain; that captain cannot possibly know what may occur during the voyage, and with the greatest foresight he can never promise an absolutely safe passage. There may be dangers which he has never yet encountered. But when you come into the ship of Providence, He who is at the helm is the Master of every wind that shall blow, and of every wave that shall break its force upon that ship; and He foresees as well the events that shall happen at the harbour for which we make, as those that happen at the port from which we start. How safe are we, then, when embarked in the good ship of Providence, with such a Captain who has fore-arranged and fore-ordained all things from the beginning even unto the end. And, furthermore, how much it becomes us to put implicit confidence in His guidance! It should always be remembered in connection with this subject that we are no believers in fate--seeing that fate is a different doctrine altogether from predestination. Fate says the thing is and must be; so it is decreed. But the true doctrine is--God has appointed this and that, not because it must be, but because it is best that it should be. Fate is blind, but the destiny of Scripture is full of eyes. Fate is stern and adamantine, and has no tears for human sorrow; but the arrangements of Providence are kind and good. The greatest good for the greatest number, and the glory of God above all, are the ends that are therein subserved. All the appointments of His providence, especially towards His people, are ruled in mercy, in tenderness, in love, and in wisdom, and all are conducive to their highest interest and their greatest happiness. Oh! but this is a blessed truth; oh! it is sweet, to be able to say, “From this day forth, whatever happeneth to me, be it little or be it great, I am content. Though I am altogether unaware what it shall be, I am not sorry that I am unaware of it; for this one thing I know, there shall happen nothing but what God permits; I shall be left to no demon’s power; I shall not be cast away like an orphan; I shall not be beyond my Father’s eye, and my Father’s hand.” If one could think that there was somewhere one grain of dust floating in the atmosphere that was not under Divine superintendence, one might wish to escape from it as from a plague. If one could believe that there was an hour of the night, or say a single second throughout the livelong year, in which the hand of God was withdrawn from nature, or a single event in which God was not concerned, and His will was not consulted, one might tremble till that black hour had passed, or till that dread event, like a vial full of evil, had been effectually poured out and put away. But now each hour is safe, for God has made it so. I would, with special earnestness, beg you to believe that God is in little things. It is the little troubles of life that annoy us the most. The little stones in the sandal make the traveller limp; while great stones do him little hurt, for he soon leaps over them. Believe that God arranges the littles. Take the little troubles as they come; remember them to your God, because they come frown God. Believe that nothing is little to God which concerns His people.

II. But now there is A SPECIAL APPOINTMENT WITH REGARD TO CERTAIN ENDS. I am not going to pursue the connection, but the text itself will suffice me, for it saith “at the time appointed the end shall be.” Now, there are certain “ends” to which you and I are looking forward with great expectancy. There is the end of the present trouble--let us think of that. Whatever submission we may have to the Divine will, it is not natural for us to love affliction; we desire to reach the end and come forth from the trial. “At the time appointed the end shall be.” You have been slandered in your character--a very frequent trial to God’s servants--and you are irritated and vexed, and in a great haste to answer it, to rebut the calumny and to vindicate your reputation. Be very quiet, and patient. Bear it all. Stand still and see the salvation of God, for light is sown for the righteous, and He will bring forth your righteousness like the light, and your judgment as the noonday. “At the time appointed the end shall be.” When the dogs are tired they will leave off barking, and when the Lord bids them be still, they shall not dare to move a tongue against you. You are in poverty. It is some time since you had a situation in which you could earn your dally tread. Are you a child of God? Have you learned to cast your burden upon the Lord? Then, “At the time appointed the end shall be.” There shall yet be deliverance for you. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” It may be that the end you are desiring is greater usefulness, and you have been panting after this for years. You keep to your work still, for “At the time appointed the end shall be.” God will not suffer the faithful worker to work in vain; your labour of love shall not be in vain in the Lord. You are looking forward, some of you, to the end of your life’s battle. Life is to the genuine Christian an incessant fight. The moment we are converted the battle begins. But, glory be to God, “in the time appointed the end of this warfare shall be.” So, too, with the service of our lives. I think no servant of God is tired of serving his Master; we may be tired in the service, though not tired of it. It shall be all finished. The topstone of your life-work shall be brought out with shouting of “Grace, grace,” unto it You shall lay your crown at His feet from whom you received it, and yon shall hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” “In the time appointed the end shall be.” With many a child of God life is not merely a warfare spiritually, and a work for God outwardly, but it is attended with much of suffering. Ah! I know many servants of God whose every breath seems to be a pang; their poor bodies are in such a condition that life is like protracted death. Well, weary sufferer, “in the time appoint the end shall be.”

III. All things are appointed, and especially these sacred and blessed ends; but remember that besides the ends ALL THE MEANS TO THE ENDS are also appointed--all that intervenes is appointed too. Balance this thought with the other. My trouble appointed! Yes, but there is an appointed portion of grace that shall sustain me under it--grace exactly according to the measure of my necessity while under the tribulation. Temptation appointed! Yes, but there is appointed extraordinary help to deliver the soul from going down into the pit, and to pluck the foot out of the net, lost by any means one sheep of Christ should be devoured by the lion of hell. Thou fearest sickness, because that may be appointed, but it is also appointed, “I will make all his bed in his sickness,” and that appointment carries you over the other. And now, there is nothing in this truth that can give any comfort to those who are not reconciled to God. It is a great and terrible truth to those who are not God’s friends. At the time appointed the end shall be. What a winding up awaits those who will encounter the doom of the impenitent, no tongue can describe. Why rebel against the King of Heaven? Why set up thy will against the Divine will? (C. H. Spureon.)