CHOICE READINGS EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR. SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF Key. T. DE WITT TA.LMAGE, D.D. BROOKLYN, NKW YORK.- »>€««?^- LONDON : R. D. DICKINSON, FARRINGDON STREET. 1875. 1 To REV. G. R. HAIR, (Professor of Theology in Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) WHOSE INSTRUCTIONS HAVE GREATLY AIDED Mil IN MY PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. J. V. D. S preface. HAVING for a long time desired to see Mr. Tal- mage's best thoughts collected and put in a work of this kind, and believing that such a work would better the condition of mankind, I undertook the pleasant task of compiling it. " Daily Thoughts," has been prepared for daily readings. It consists of choice selections from the writings of Mr. Talmage. The work is published with his approval. I send it forth with the earnest hope that many, by its daily 'perusal, may be encouraged, strength ened and blessed. J. V. D. S. JANUARY FIRST. JANUARY FIRST. EATFY NEW YEAR. "Rejoice evermore." — i Thess. v. 16. TO-DAY we bow out a visitor from our door who had taken up his abode with us for a year, and to-morrow we wel come a stranger who stood on our threshold awaiting admit tance. There is something marvellous in the readiness with which we turn our backs on the old year and extend our hands to the new year — as if the past were nothing and the future were everything. And yet, in truth, the past is all we have as a possession. In it alone do we find our memories, to it alone have we imparted a portion of our being. The future — we not only grasp it as an illusion and take an untried stran ger to our hearts, but we really are not certain of the future at all. We take a glance retrospectively, and find much to regret, and we resolve that, the future shall mend all that. And yet what are we ? What is each individual character ? What it seeks to be ? No. What it purposes to be ? Not at all. We are what we are : we are what the past has made us : we are not simply the sum of our virtues, the aggregate of our good purposes, but we are the combined sum of our virtues and our vices, our good traits and our evil ones, with their attendant train of follies, foibles, and weaknesses. " Had I but my life to live over again ! " regretfully exclaims this New Year's Day, one whose locks are whitened, and who looks back regretfully upon a misspent life which looms up, limned upon the background of wasted years. How vain, how foolish the wish ! A life to be lived over again, — how 8 JANUARY FIRST. v would it deepen our guilt by giving us other unimproved op portunities ! But why unimproved ! Because no man, had he a second chance, even with his past experienca, would live a different life than he lives to-day. Think of this, and apply it to the daily life you are now living. Any man who regrets his past, and who would fain have a second trial, may find his op portunity in the future, long or short though it be, which lies before him. This, if we would but believe it, gives us all the chance we could desire. Let us improve it. Remembering that past opportunities are indeed gone, but not responsibility for the way in which that past has been used, let a high pur pose and a noble endeavor characterize the new year on which we are just entering : and so it shall be a " Happy New Year " indeed : not a new year of boisterous, uninterrupted hilarity, nor a year which shall always keep the word of promise to the hope, or bring the expected blessing in the precise manner in which we look for it. We cannot look for unalloyed happiness, and indeed there is no such thing in reality. Our greatest joys are our serious ones, and so our new year, rightly improved, let us hope, may be one not without much to regret, much which we would glad ly recall, yet one upon which, when its record is completed, we can look back as a sailor looks back upon his log and marks the progress the good ship has made. So let us press forward, stumbling, halting, weary, trembling, fainting, yet — press forward : and when a few more years have completed their cycles we shall see a-down the vista of the years the pearly gates through which we shall pass out to those Amaran thine fields where the fountain ever floweth, and we shall drink in the light of a sun which no shadows pursue ! JANUARY SECOND. JANUARY SECOND. o 00 AND TELL JESUS. " And they went and told Jesus."— Matt, xiil, u. I COMMEND the behavior of the disciples to all those who are abused and slandered and persecuted. When Herod put John to death, the disciples knew that their own heads were not safe. And do you know that every John has a Herod ? There are persons in life who do not wish you very well. Your misfortunes are honeycombs to them. Through their teeth they hiss at you, misinterpret your motives, and would be glad to see you upset. No man gets through life without having a pommelling. Some slander comes after you, horned and tusk ed and hoofed, to gore and trample you ; and what are you to do ? I tell you plainly that all who serve Christ must suffer per secution. It is the worst sign in the world for you to be able to say ; " I haven't an enemy in the world." A woe is pro nounced in the Bible against the one of whom everybody speaks well. If you are at peace with all the world, and everybody likes you and approves your work, it is because you are an idler in the Lord's vineyard, and are not doing your duty. All those who have served Christ, however eminent, have been mal treated at some stage of their experience. You know it was so in the time of George Whitefield, when he stood and invited men into the kingdom of God. What did the learned Doctor Johnson say of him ? He pronounced him a miser able mountebank. How was' it when Robert Hall stood and spoke as no uninspired man ever did speak of the glories of heaven ? and as he stood Sabbath after Sabbath preaching of 10 JANUARY SECOND. these themes his face kindled with the glory. John Foster, a Christian man, said of this man : " Robert Hall is only act ing, and the smile on his face is a reflection of his own vanity." Tohn Wesley turned all England upside down with Christian reform, and yet the punsters were after him, and the meanest jokes in England were perpetrated about John Wesley. What is true of the pulpit is true of the pew ; it is true of the street, it is true of the shop and the store. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. And I set it down as the very worst sign in all your Christian experience, if you are, any of you, at peace with all the world. The relig ion of Christ is war ! It is a challenge to " the world, the flesh, and the devil," and if you will buckle on the whole armor of God, you will find a great host disputing your path between this and heaven. But what are you to do when you are as saulted and slandered and abused, as I suppose nearly all of you have been in your life ? Go out and hunt up the slanderer ? Oh, no, silly man. While you are explaining away afalsehood in one place, fifty people will just have heard of it in other places. I counsel you to another course. While you are not to omit any opportunity of setting yourselves right, I want to tell you this morning of One who had the hardest things said about Him, whose sobriety was disputed, whose mission was scouted, whose companionship was denounced, who was pursued as a babe, and spit upon as a man, who was howled at after He was dead. I will have you go unto Him with your bruised soul, and He will sympathize, and He will help. Go and tell Jesus ! JANUARY THIRD. II r i r , , ' 'i .. JANUARY THIRD. ' •* DEATH THIS YEAH. ' "This year thou shalt die."— Jer. xxviii. iS.. , THIS is the first Sabbath of the year. It is a time for re view and for anticipation. A man must be a genius at stupidity who does not think now. The old year died in giv ing birth to the new, as the life of Jane Seymour, the English Queen, departed when that of her son, Edward VI., dawned. The old year was a queen. The new shall be a king. The grave of the one and the cradle of the other are side by side. We can hardly guess what the child will be. It is only seven days old. But I prophesy for it an eventful future. Year of mirth and madness ! Year of pageant and conflagration ! It will laugh. It will sing. It will groan. It will die. Is it not a time for earnest thought ? The congratulations have been given. The Christmas-trees have been taken down, or have well-nigh cast their fruit. The vacation ended, the children are at school.