Connecticut western news., 1918-12-26
ANEWY YEAR
 SERMON
By REV. JAMES M. GRAY. D.D.
EE A ND now, Lord, what wait | I RnrV-psnln, 20 II

EE A ND now, Lord, what wait A I forT'-Psalm 39:7.
 9 Another twelvemonth has
 almost gone, and we are yet in the land Of the living. If we give this serious consideration, we must regard it as remarkable. Some think death the strangest wonder of human history, but is not life stran- ger7 When we reflect upon our frame. and the shocks of life 1t must endure. must we not exclaim with Young,
 Strange that O harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long?'
 Is it to be wondered at if, like David, we too should put the question, "What wait I for?' The mystery of being here is not profounder than the mystery of staying here. Let us ask God the question. The psalmist felt he could not trust his own conclusions, and so he said, 'Lord, what wait I for?"
 1t may be you are waiting to be saved. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and live. -.
 70 Ephraim, how can give thee up, how shall leave thee, Judahw Be hold him weeping over the Holy City, 70 Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gatheretb her brood under her wings, and ye would notp He is so pleading with some of you today. To go back no farther than the past year, has there been no sermon, no invitation or warning, no supplication or exhorta- tion, that has appealed to your intelli- gence, or moved your emotions, plead ing with you to accept Christ? Have you lost no friend or neighbor by death during that period? Have you had no escape from bodily peril or no illness to remind you of the uncertainty of life? Can you conscientiously say that in all these respects God has left you alone? r.
 It may be you are waiting to bear fruit. You are, by the grace of God, already saved, let us suppose. But for what purpose were you saved? Since eth knowledge" and since "to depart and be with Christ were far better" than to remain here-why did he not call you to himself at your conversion? Why are you here instead of enjoying your Redeemer's presence? There must be some reason. "Ye have not chosen me-" said Christ, but have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and hot 1Io1 1t be to give you another opportunity to glorify his father by bearing fruit, that you are still here? -.s" It may be you are waiting to be perfected. I ought to explain this, be- cause there is a sense in which every true Christian is perfected the moment he accepts Christ as his Savior. He is perfected in that he is both justified and sanctified; his sin is put away, and by the Holy Spirit he himself is set apart for God forever. The New lTes- lament is very clear on this; notice Paul's words in his epistle to the Co., lossians, for example.
 What, then, do we mean by saying we may be waiting to be perfected? Do we mean the attainment of state | of sinlessness this side of heaven? No !; for If a Christian lived to be as old as Methuselah,, would he not still require to pray, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us?" We only mean that perfectness, in the sense of a ripeness for the sickle, which comes in the lives of some as if a crown of glory had been vouchsafed to them even before they passed into the unseen. =.-.l
 And so may it be with some of you. Though now your pruning, your dig ging, and perhaps your growing days are over, yet the quiet but potent rays of divine grace are accomplishing q maturity in your experience, so that your Christian life never will have been so attractive as in the hour that you depart hence. "We all do fade as a leaf, but the fall of you, ye glory crowned ones, is to be illumined by the grandeur of an autumnal sunset.
 God bless you, aged brethren! God bless you, young and old, rich and poor, saint and sinner! May you have Happy New Year" in the highest and truest sense. Happy is the peo- J pie whose God is the Lord'\ Accept him, serve him, wait for him. It is only as we stand in such relationship to him that, after employing the psalm ist's question, And now, Lord, what wait I for?" we can confidently apply the consolation in his words that fol. low, "My hope is in thee"