"Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1
All we can be sure of is now. Today's opportunities will be gone tomorrow. The soul you should contact today may be gone in another day. Some years ago on our afternoon broadcast, James Draper, our music director, gave a hymn story which illustrates the urgency of now.
D.L. Moody said one of the greatest mistakes he ever made occurred October 8, 1871. On that night he addressed the largest crowd he had ever spoken to in Chicago. His message dealt with the trial of Jesus in Pilate's hall, and was based on the text, "What then shall I do with Jesus?" He concluded his sermon by saying, "I wish you would take this text home with you and seriously consider it, and next Sunday we will speak on the cross and we will decided what we should do with Jesus." Speaking of this incident later, Moody called it a tragic error and "one of the greatest mistakes of my life; for I never saw that congregation again." When the sermon was finished, he asked Mr. Sankey to sing, "Today the Saviour Calls." Almost prophetically the third verse ran:
"Today the Saviour calls; for refuge fly;
The storm of justice falls and death is nigh."
It was the last song sung in that hall, for even as Sankey sang, his voice was drowned out by the clanging of fire engine bells in the street. It was the night of the great Chicago fire, in which Mr. Moody's hall was left in ashes and in which one thousand perished, some of them undoubtedly from that audience. Moody said he learned the lesson, "When preaching Christ, press for an immediate and definite decision." He explained, "I would rather lose my right hand than ever again give an audience a week or a day to decide for Christ."
Don't put off till tomorrow what you should do today."
"Bread For Each Day"
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