The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1917-11-30
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are indelibly stamped on the records
of the past. We cannot change the
record of even one moment. The re-
cord Of 1916 has been completed and
sealed. If this record of your life
which has been made upon the great
| film OF time is sealed in the blood of
Jesus Christ, it remains sealed for
all and eternity, and in the great
/ Judgment Day, when the book shall
have been opened, which bears the
records Of our lives, it will not be
the God upon the great white throne
which will condemn us, but the
record of our own life. The third
thing which never comes back is
neglected opportunity. You watch
| him as he energies from the misty
| distance and paused but for a moment
at the threshold of your life. You
! were too busy to enter the open door
1 at the moment Life seemed already
too full lie sped away. In a mo-
ment you saw what you had missed.
He had gone but few steps. You
called him, but there came back the
hollow echo. TOO late, | pass this
! way but once.
This years record has about passed
with all its opportunities. Paul
says, let us forget the things which
/ are behind and pass on. 1t is God
who opens the door for you for the
coming year. How often do we stop
before the doorway of opportunity
and cry "WhO will roll us away the
stone?" But, like the woman when
she reached the tomb, behold, the
stone is rolled away. God will not
only remove the stone from before
the door of opportunity, but will
open the door and invite you to enter.
Opportunities are but the offers Of
God to man, and large opportunities
come only to those who have i'm
proved the small ones. When God
opens the door of opportunity and
bids you enter there can be no limit
to your possibilities. No young man
or woman with noble purpose will
ever have the door of opportunity
shut in their face. But now we ap-
proach the second part of our sub
ject. We tremble at the word, re
sponsibility." How many of us
stand before the door of opportunity
and fail to enter because of the re-
sponsibility. We are. many of us,
content in life to seek the line of
least resistance. An opportunity
opens but it carries great response
bilities. We seek something easier.
You will find much in your life to
try you and show the kind of material
of which you are made 1t will make
a vast difference whether you are a
mere wooden man or have some iron
in your composition. Are not diff
ticulty and suffering necessary to
call forth the highest forms of char
acter, energy and genius? There
are men and women trudging along
, the highway of life, feeding upon its
husks or lower things in life who
might have eaten of the fat of the
land, but they are too weak to as
sumo the responsibility of opportun-
titles which are opened to them.
Matt. 25:15, we read these words,
And unto one he gave five talents,
to another two and to another one,
to every man according to his several
ability" How wise is the Lord who
gives but one talent to the man who
has but one talent-ability.
The door Of opportunity of 1918
will open to us according to our sew
eral abilities and to assume the re-
sponsibility of but one talent when
God has given you two will never sat
isfy Him or to bury the one talent
because it is but the one talent is
nothing less than criminal Many a
tiye-talented man has been willing to
carry his religion on a two-talented
basis. This is not sufficient and will
never satisfy the Lord. If He would
have wanted you to have been a mid
die man, He would have given you
a middle mans talent. God will
never give us great things to do I'M
til we have proved our faithfulness
over some of thte little things. We
should think no opportunity is too
small for us to give it our best atten-
ton. The opportunities of 1913 are
passing already, and Behold, l have
set before thee an open door, and no
man can shut it."
The Peoples Defender.