Acts 24

The Land Of By-And-By

A convenient season. Acts 24:25.

I want to speak today to those who are dwelling in By-and-by land. Most of us go there on a visit at times, and some of us stay there nearly always. It seems a very pleasant land to dwell in just at first. The flowers have a sweet perfume, and the soft winds lull us to sleep. It is the land of “take things easy.” You don't need to bother yourself to do anything disagreeable. But some day you wake up to find the land has changed its name. Its new name is “Lost Opportunity,” and it is the saddest name any land could bear.

With dreamy nooks and gleams of sky,

And wild flowers, sweet for fingering,

The blossomy lane of “By-and-by”

Goes winding, loitering, lingering;

Till, after many a green delay,

It crosses “Dead Endeavour,”

And reaches, in the gloaming grey,

The haunted house of “Never.”

Who are the people who live in By-and-by land? They are the people who put off doing things that are disagreeable or that will give them a little trouble.

They don't mean not to do those things, but they tell you not to ask them to do them now. They will do them tomorrow or some other time at a more convenient season. And when tomorrow comes, oh, well, they will do them the next day, and so the things never get done at all, or get done too late. They have a sort of comfortable feeling, these people, that a thing put off is just as good as done; whereas the truth of the matter is that a thing put off is just as good as not done.

I think it is when we are young that we are most tempted to wander into By-and-by land. We imagine we have plenty of time for everything; life stretches away before us like a long, long road. And that is why it is so difficult for boys and girls to realize how very, very dangerous it is to dwell in By-and-by land. “Plenty of time” means “no time.” Life is much shorter than it looks, and it is packed so full that we really have not a minute to waste.

I want to tell you a Russian legend about a woman who lost her opportunity because she put off to a convenient season. In this country it is Santa Claus who fills the Christmas stockings, but in Russia it is an old woman called Baboushka, and this is her story.

It is said that the Wise Men from the East who were following the star came one evening to the house of Baboushka, who was then young and beautiful. They told her their errand and asked her to accompany them. And Baboushka replied, “I will come with you when I have set my house in order, but not now.”

So the men went on their way. And when Baboushka had finished her task she set out to follow them. But not a sign of men or star could she see. She wandered on over hill and vale seeking the Christ- child, but all in vain. And still she wanders. At Christmas time she carries gifts to the little children, because she hopes in one of them to find the Christ- child whom once she might have found so easily; but she is doomed to disappointment.

The story of Baboushka is very like the story of the man in our text. He had heard Paul preaching and he came very near to following Jesus then and there. But he put off. He said he would send for Paul again at a convenient season, but the convenient season never came, and the man who might have become a great disciple of Christ sank back into his mean and wicked ways.

Boys and girls, Jesus is calling you now to follow Him. Don't put off till a convenient season; don't linger in the land of By-and-by. The danger is that if you put off now you will put off always. And you will miss the greatest thing in your life if you miss Jesus Christ.