"The Rest of our Time"

Let this expression, "the rest of our time," come home to every one of us in its full force. How long it may be, none can say. It may be years, or months, or weeks or days. It may be brought to a sudden close any day by the coming of the Lord, which is our blessed hope; but, whether long or short, this is all the time we shall have in which to live either in the lusts of men, or in the will of God. Peter puts these two spheres in sharp contrast in one sentence (1 Pet. 4:2). Let me set them out clearly before our eyes that we may seriously consider them.

One sphere means death, the other life, and every soul that has been born again by the word of God will gladly agree with that word through Peter, that "the time past of our life may suffice us" to have lived in the sphere of death (v. 3), that "the rest of our time" may be lived to the will of God. But let us see what was necessary before this can be possible. Great moral questions had first to be faced and settled. Questions of justice, of holiness and truth, of our broken responsibilities and the judgment of God.

It was evident that when God created man He had a great purpose in view. The very way in which He made him, and the life and powers with which He endowed him, and that remarkable word in the divine counsels, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness" prove this. It was not God's intention that this creature of His hand and counsel should become a prey to evil and perish from His sight. In man's creation, God's nature and character were involved; the glory of His throne and the joy of His heart were linked up with man.

But man fell