1. The character and frequency of those impulses have varied greatly in different individuals.
2. These impulses have been usual in you at certain times, and these find a parallel in the case of Israel. TheseIsraelites, perhaps, in their hearts sought for David to be king when they saw the joy upon the face of David’s men. His troopers often had spoil to share, and they always spake well of their captain, and whenever a David’s man was seen anywhere about Judah or Israel, the people said, “Those warriors have a goodly heritage in being under such a noble leader,” and they wished they had such a king themselves. I do not doubt but sometimes when you hear Christ preached in all His sweetness, your mouths begin to water after him. “Is he so good, is he so pleasant? Oh, that we knew Him!” And when you see Christians so happy, and especially when you see them in times of trouble so cheerful and joyous under all their trials, I know you have had an inward wish that you knew their secret and could share their peace.
3. These seekings after David were sometimes with the Israelites vivid and strong; and so, too, impulses with undecided people are occasionally very powerful.
4. Nothing has come of all the seekings of your youth and your after days.
II. Recommend decided action. “Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you, now then do it.”
1. Note the business on hand--it is that Jesus should be king over you.
2. Next notice that if Christ is to be your king, it must be by your own act and deed. So saith the text concerning king David “Now then do it.”
3. And here is the point, if Jesus is to reign the old king must go down. It is of no use trying to have Ishbosheth and David on the throne at the same time. It is impossible to serve sin and to serve Christ. Dream not of believing to-morrow or next year, nor even in half-an-hour’s time; but cast your guilty soul on Christ at once. Now then do it.
II. Reason with strong arguments. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“To-day”
John Ruskin took for his great life-motto the simple word “To-day.” He had it engraved on his watch, and before him in his library, so that he could always see it as he sat at his desk, the text, “Work, while it is yet called to-day.” To-day let us repent, believe, love, pray, toil, so that to-day we may bring the kingdom to pass, by doing His will asit is done in heaven. (H. O. Mackey.)
Now
Perhaps there is now a “shy, solitary serious thought,” in your heart about becoming a Christian. If you let it alone, it may fly away like a bird through a cage-door left open, and may never come back. Or else a crowd of business cares and plans, or perhaps a host of social invitations will flock in, and the good thought be smothered to death. You have smothered just such blessed thoughts before. The thought in your heart is to become a Christian now, and the great bells ring out, “Now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation.” No soul was ever yet saved, and no good deed was ever done to-morrow. Be careful lest tomorrow shall find you beyond the world of probation! (Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.)
The duty lying nearest
Soon after the death of Carlyle two friends met. “And so Carlyle is dead,” said one. “Yes,” said the other, “he is gone; but he did me a very good turn once.” “How was that?” asked the first speaker. “Did you ever see him or hear him?” “No,” came the answer, “I never saw him nor heard him. But when I was beginning life, almost through my apprenticeship, I lost all interest in everything and everyone. I felt as if I had no duty of importance to discharge; that it did not matter whether I lived or not; that the world would do as well without me as with me. This condition continued more than a year. I should have been glad to die. One gloomy night, feeling that I could stand my darkness no longer, I went into a library, and lifting a book I found lying upon a table, I opened it. It was ‘Sartor Resartus,’ by Thomas Carlyle. My eye fell upon one sentence, marked in italics, ‘Do the duty which lies nearest to thee, which thou knowest to be a duty! The second duty will already have become clearer.’ That sentence,” continued the speaker, “was a flash of lightning striking into my dark soul. It gave me a new glimpse of human existence. It made a changed man of me. Carlyle, under God, saved me. He put content and purpose and power-into my life.”
