“At evening withhold not your hand.” Ecclesiastes 11:6
In the evening, opportunities are plentiful: men return from their labor, and the zealous soul-winner finds time to tell abroad the love of Jesus. Have I no evening work for Jesus? If I have not, let me no longer withhold my hand from a service which requires abundant labor. Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge—he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls. Jesus gave both his hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from his blessed work? Night and day he toiled and prayed for me, how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease?
Up, idle heart. Stretch out your hand to work or uplift it to pray. Heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so, and this day sow good seed for the Lord my God. The evening of life has also its calls.
Life is so short that a morning of manhood’s vigor and an evening of decay make the whole of it. To some it seems long, but a four-pence is a great sum of money to a poor man. Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day.
It has been well said that if a great king should bring us a great heap of gold and bid us take as much as we could count in a day, we would make a long day of it: we would begin early in the morning, and in the evening we should not withhold our hand.
But to win souls is far nobler work—how is it that we so soon withdraw from it? Some are spared to a long evening of green old age, and if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord.
By his grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding. If the evening has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
