when the days of their feasting were gone about,
that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning,
and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for
Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their
hearts. Thus did Job continually."
What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family
festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere
he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is
easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed
character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that
our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment,
but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way
of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of
Eden: holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as
grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of
mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in
what have you sinned to-day? Have you been forgetful of your high
calling? Have you been even as others in idle words and loose
speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The
sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes
the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance
and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day--to wash
anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice
continually; if it be so good to-night, it is good every night. To
live at the altar is the privilege of the royal priesthood; to them
sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair, since they
draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience
is purged from dead works.
Gladly I close this festive day,
Grasping the altar's hallow'd horn;
My slips and faults are washed away,
The Lamb has all my trespass borne.
