“So soon as I shall see how it will go with me.” Philippians 2:23 (Preached Jan 1, 1884, Jan 9, 1898, March 27, 1898)

[*Phil. *] [*2:23.*] "So soon as I shall see how it will go with me." Many persons are in the habit of supposing that the apostles, being inspired, knew everything. | [But, if you could] [have questioned them upon a hundred subjects] [of interest that lay beyond the circle of [Christian] saving] [doctrine, the probability is that the very wisest, or ] [the most learned, of their number, [would] [were able] would have been able to give] [you either [no] no answer at all, or answers that were] [quite imperfect if not wholly wrong. | Of much important ] [history they were no doubt ignorant - or of] [large departments of Greek & Roman & Persian philosophy and poetry - or of] [Egyptian science and Chaldean astronomy and Chinese] [literature - or of the thousand varieties of a world-wide] [heathen idolatry.] | But whatever they may have known as to the events of the past, or however well-informed they might have kept themselves as to the happenings of [the present] each passing day - it is certain that [*So Soon as I shall see how it will*] [*go with me"*] [*Written Sunday before 1st Jan 1884*] [*Richmond, gnd ch fam" 9,1898*] [*Wilmington, March 27, 1898*] 2 [the possible occurrences] the issues of the immediate [future] future, the impending to-morow were hidden from their view: [that future, I mean, which is included within] [the limits of time,] [its] [the] [impending to-morrows, its [unstretching] onstretching] [henceforths of good or ill.] | "Now, behold," says Paul, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there." | So, when he appealed to Caesar, and was carried to Rome; he went without, in the least, forseeing the imprisonment and the martyrdom which there awaited him. [or] [in the gathering organization of that] [in the imperial city.] [Church, which, nevertheless, he was permitted to found] [in the imperial city.] [Even as to the period est for the 2nd coming of Xt.,] [that very longest of future objects that interested them, and] [towards which the apostles looked forward with eyes of] [such fond and eager expectation, [was] they were not any better off than] [some thinking that it might seem within a year or two within] [are we, to-day. | For, "of that day and hour knoweth no] [man, - no; not the angels of heaven, neither the Son (regarded in His human nature) but [my] the Father] [only."] 3 Well, it is this [uncertainty as to the future] ignorance of futurity which appears in my text. | Paul [desired to] would, [he says], send Timothy to [inquire] comfort [intp] the Philippian Church [matters at Phillippi], [and would] so soon says he as I shall see how it will go with me." [I cannot forsee] | I cannot tell, even one day ahead, what may be [my] the condition of [things] my affairs: [may be:] [even one day ahead] whether such as shall enable me to spare him, or such as shall compel me to retain him: I must, await events. | And, as it turned out, he did not - so far as we know - send Timothy to Phillippi at all, notwithstanding his strong desire to do so: - for he [had] meanwhile, found other and more pressing work for this man to do. Now, it does seem[s] strange that the apostle could not [calculate] arrange beforehand for such as case as this: and, stranger still, that whilst divine revelation made known to him the [very] greatest truths [to its the gospel's chosen herald] it left him in doubt as to [their] his very next day's [things] circumstances [whether they] [whether these] [these beforehand prove should be favorable] [or adverse to these herald of those battles] [ their mission:] nothing been sure 3 - 4 [ [And even that liable to many a sudden change] [[except the present hour:] | [They] He could weigh probabilities,] [and, like [men] a man of sense, plan according to what would, in all likelihood,] [[be] fall out for the best:- but, plan as [they] he might, on what appeared] [the sacred ground, [they] he had no assurance ] [of being able to execute [their most sagacious] his purposes: [and, indeed,] however sapacious.] [And indeed something unforseen did, again and again, occur] [to frustrate some of his [their] most [wisely-laid] reasonable schemes. | All going] [to [show that God had determined to] confirm [their] his Lord's words: "it is not for you to know the times and the seasons" retained in his] [own wisely attracting hand the personal future even of those] [whom they themselves know was expressly using for a service to which] [they were indispensable, and which was the highest] ever committed to man.] | One step at a time, (in the light they, [then] at the moment had,) they were expected to take - with no visible provision for any following step, which might, indeed, for ought they know, be a step off the stage of action altogether. 5 [From [these] this state of facts, let us infer, for our use [today] [of the thought]] [that, of all uncertainties, the uncertainty of what shall] [be to us, is, so far as this life is concerned, the greatest.[ [-an old lesson with ever new and various readings] [ [For] If an apostle, charged with a stupendous [work] mission] [which, besides being the most important that can be] [conceived, was also the most dependent upon the missionary's [workman's]] [own cleanness of foresight,] | Well, if an apostle, [inspired] endowed with a wisdom that was truly divine, [had his vision prescience so limited that he] could not see one day ahead, how must it be with us, who, in comparison with them, are but darkened common folk? | [ Shall it be supposed that we have been,] [or can be, possessed with a faculty which they were not permitted to] [ [ pass empoy] employ: the faculty of taking the time before] [us into our secure calculations, [as if it were as sure] certain ] [in what it will bring, as the time now pressing] [is in what it has already brought?] 6 But what if we cannot count upon tomorrow, some are ready to object! | Does this make any difference, practically? | [Tomorrow] To-day is, at any rate, ours, and we [do not see] reckon that things [will] [shall not] are to go on after to-day just as they have always gone. | This old world which has lasted so long will no doubt last much longer, - with its sunsets and its sunrises, its seasons and its sceneries, its chances and its charms:- new every [morning] hour to run its tireless race among the stars. | Christmas goes, but leaving the promise it [has] never hither [broken], to come again. [ The] [fresh year is just like the one like it is at hand, just as it was that dawned 12 months ago, and] [just as it another of the same sort will be 12 mo's hence.] | Business, too, maintains its rounds, under the same laws, and calling for the same labors, and promising the same rewards. | "All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 7 [What, then if we are denied the privilege of forecasting] [each one his own future? | It is not probable, that, by] [reason of this, we shall be any the [worse] worse in the days to] [come than we were in the days that had flown.] | Let us, just continue to cast ourselves and our fortunes upon the current of time as we have [always] hitherto done - and [things] all will [as heretofore] heretofore continue to turn out reasonably well:- or, if not, - well, [who cares?] [who needs to care?] we cannot help it! But, does this easy mode of treating the subject always answer the purpose? | So anxiety gotten [rid] rid of in this offhand manner: the anxiety which, with all [our] such pooh-pooing of useless trouble, still clints to every throbbing heart, [when the future is supposed to threaten its peace] [For, we] Are we not evermore in the audition of those who, traversing a [doubtful] sleeping ocean, are compelled to fear and to tremble lest yonder [onerous] darkening cloud should portend a storm - no telling how destructive [it may prove] until it come - 8 - a storm [cloud] which invisible hands that we would give a great deal to see are preparing, & unmentioned forces that we would give a great deal to hold, are about to hurl upon the treacherous unfathomed waters, Or, we are in the case of those travellers, who, off [for] when a journey through a strange country, are despite their courage in the face of what is known, alarmed at difficulties and grow pale at dangers, for which, because unforseen, they [could] may have made no provision? | Ah, that thick [?] high wall, & [be] beyond which no eye can pierce, and yet behind whose impenetrable mass of crumbling masonry an inscrutable providence is busily at work, ready to burst through we know not where nor when, in calamity or in blessing, we know not which - is not the presence of this [dark wall] mysterious obstacle, a constant source of apprehension even though it be also a possible source of hopefulness? | [Who does not feel] [that, as to his daily affairs, he is within the grasp] [of a power which shapes his life as it [wish] pleases, -and] [which he can no more shake off than he could] 9 Is there not a power controlling us which we can't arrest any more than we can detain a whirlwind or delay a sunbeam [ (for it may ] [ be as either, or a mixture of both ) a power everyone is bound ] [ to fear, lest, at any instant, it may wholly cast him ] [ down, an intelligent power of course, but not always intelligible even though, through many a previous instant] [it may have been engaged in giving him a higher and] [higher set up?] | [ [Yes] Thus all things, [here] all events are uncertain,] [wherever they touch upon [what] the wide circle of what may be - and] [who [does not know] is not made to feel it? ] | The bracing health of yesterday melts away under the burning fever of to-day. | The boom of last year's trade, succumbs to the [beatings] blows of next year's depressing hand. | The fond unbroken family of one month is all scattered before the moon of that which immediately follows has begun to [shine] wax and wane. | The honors that were worn when reputation was at the top of the wave, are likely to sink beneath it after awhile. | The pendulum of every clock of human life is liable to swing away - or to stop 10 altogether - when least looked for - so that what was all right when 12 o'clock rang its bell has gone all wrong before the stroke of one. [But you [?] will know how [many]] [many illustrations there are to the same effect] What, then, it may be asked, what [as after, in dismay, the question is asked,] is life worth, taken at this gloomy rate:-Nothing certain in it except its uncertainty- nothing sure except [its] that it is all unsure - no [secure] fixed foothold - no safe anchorage anywhere [amid its slipping quicksand]. Well, to tell the truth, this life is a poor possession - [miserably poor - and every day] [becoming poorer][becames.] when valued for itself alone. [and not for that which in greater train itself] A [stick] pile of wood, [when one is starving with cold], or a bin of coal is of very small account, when considered in itself, may be in the way, even - but, in cold weather, build and feed a good warming fire from it,- then its [importance] beneficent value is both seen and felt. | A room piled full of gold [is] could be of little worth except as just so many lbs. of [S.] glittering metal, unless it [be] is used for 11 the purchase of food and clothing, and [other needed] for purposes [comforts] of beneficence" i.e. for things beyond, and better than, the gold itself. Otherwise, it might as well be that much [sandstone] granite rock. | So, a fitting hour is hardly anything [in] when weighed by itself, - yet, great battles have been won and lost by the night or wrong employment of its sixty minutes. Everything depends upon [the] knowing how to use what we have: how to make the best of it. It is only, a wasted life that is of no substantial consequence - and his life is wasted who prizes it alone for [its] that meager income of [its] uncertain good which, trifling as this is, he can no more rely upon than [he can build] upon a house [upon] with a foundation of mountain vapors. || It is not, then, because we are unable to forecast our to-morrows - not [that] because we are [not] incompetent to lay [hold] a hand upon [the future which yet awaits us] time's awaiting future on [His side of death], and to weave [all our shutted] 12 [time] the threads of our experience into [one] a firm and consistent [entity] [whole wherein to] [and united substance that will not tear [stand and not secure] - it is not [on this account] because we [cannot] have not [reduce] [the] power to remove from life its uncertainties and reduce its elements to fixed assurances - that we are to regard it as unsatisfactory. | Did the apostle complain of life on this account: | Was he at all troubled [by season] when [of the feet that,] now and again, he was brought to a stand-still by reason of the fact that he could not tell how it would go with him the following day or the [coming] approaching week. | There is no proof that his mind was in the least disturbed. | And why? | Because he had learned that he [was] in himself was more than his current life and looking past it had learned to trust where it was not possible to see. | Accordingly, that which he has now to do, [to bring to his soul his Master's smile] he confidently & cheerfully does, [thus enjoying his Master's smile] securely leaving the afterwards of them to whom it belongs [on on when whose [?] be learned.] | To-morrow is as nothing to him until to-morrow is [becomes] present, and has become [s] to-day: acting upon his Lord's injunction: "take no thought for the morrow [12] 13 - no anxious thought: "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." | Indeed, who that has a well-balanced brain would, if he could, know beforehand, what shall happen to him? | Is this not, mercifully, concealed from the view? For thus is he spared many a needless heartache from anticipated bereavings; or, on the other than, is made the more joyous by many a glad surprise in unexpected blessings. | [The] A right use of life, then, is, at each successive moment - of which alone we [are sure] can be said to assure - to fulfil the duties that belong to that moment [it], [and all the more because it is so soon to fly out of reach] But, even thus, you truly say, perplexities will [arise] press and disappointments will pursue | [for,] For not [?] the wisest diligence can always word [them] these off, nor the wariest discretion, always present their approach - nor even prayer avert them. The apostle himself could not do so, as the record of his eventful cancer [abundantly] shows. | Yet, whilst he could not, at [each turn] this or the other 14 turn of his [life] winding way, distinguish the end from the beginning, and was therefore [for a time] occasionally cast down," - why was it again I ask that he [made] is heard to utter no complaint, but [went] still goes steadily on, [taking] accepting with an equal mind, his share of the ever-shifting burden of life? | [Why] How was it that amid the changeful uncertainties that fell to his lot the same as to other men, could he, over all the [slipping] sinking sands of his often doubtful course, "So run as not uncertainly," or "so fight not as one that beateth the air" ? || [Is] Sh, listen! it was because there was at least one future he was [sure] certain of: the most important, the most influent of all - the vast future of eternity: [This earth] This earth might be all a scene of chasing shadows - but, what matter! he stood not on it except as a vantage ground from wh. to see beyond & above. | "The word of the Lord abideth forever" - and, standing on this word, he with composure saw the earth itself pass away, - [and] for it should pass away only to make the great word of God's promised salvation appear the brighter and the surer as [?] unfolded in [the] a world that 15 was built to endure: built of [materials] that [eternal] everlasting Rock [of Ages] which no storm [shaken] strikes, no change [unpresses] [strikes] shakes, no convulsion subverts: "the same yesterday, to-day, forever." | So that being enabled to say, "we know that if our earthly house of this to be made were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens" - here, if this were the only certainty, was certainly enough for him nobly to live by, [such] enough for him rapturously to die by - and enough the while to [make] [give] impart to his head, [through] amid all the fluctuations and through all the fragilities of this uncertain world, a pressure as firm [as] and as undaunted as was that of Christ [over] when he walked the silenced waves of threatening Galilee. | He could not tell [who] how it might go with him on the morrow, but knowing how it [would] shall go with him when all time's little to-morrows are merged in the great to-morrow of eternity - he is far more than content - he feels his right [is even] to be even exultant. [And here, too, only here, is our security! strength.] [Live for the next [?] & the present will is peaceful,] 16 [with all its changes. With god to believe in - with Christ to serve - with religion] [to bear the spirits up - all else is comparatively insignificant,] I do not know whether, [men see more seriously thoughtful at during the] during the closing hours of a dying year, men are more seriously thoughtful about themselves than at other times. | Perhaps, however, they ought to be. | Why, it is almost like it is at the bedside of a [great man] king who is breathing his last, [all too soon for the welfare of his people ] the emotion that stirs at the heart, when a year,- more royal than any earthly majesty, and upon whom an entire world has waited for favors which only he could bestow, - lays down his sceptre and his crown never again to resume them. | And if we have abused his gifts - those days which were more precious than pearls, and which he brought in his hand as both a legacy from the past and a bequest for the future - if we have [killed] [striven to kill the time] [any of his hour] failed to employ these aright - if we have thrown or frittered them away- 16-17 [it can hardly be possible for use to meet the reproaches] [of [his] this monarch's expiring looks, without sensations [of regret [and] at our loss, [and] or without [resolving] weeping out the resolve to] [repair [it] this loss if we can, under the reign of his successor.] Each [?] going and coming [year] day is thus as a [hand] finger to point us [to] onwards to the period when [years] time itself shall See no more; or as a [?ste] tongue that is always preaching from the text: "Prepare to meet thy God;" or as a foot which, [whilst it] forbidden to stay where every step [strikes] falls upon shattered hopes which itself [has] may have overturned, hastens to plant it upon that which is everlasting; or as an eye, which seeing more than [it] can be told to earth, [adds its] [accumulates] is appointed [virtues to add] to give in its swift witness at the bar of a final judgment, where, by and by, all the [years] days shall meet to [write] continue their mighty testimonies [in] in one overwhelming recital. Oh, now behold this finger [before this of the yet living year] and whither it directs - list to this tongue that yet is strong, and to what it teaches- 15 [was to endure. [He had,] As he walked or wearied, ran or rested he had underneath his feet, [as he ]] [[walked or wearied, ran or rested] the Rock of Ages,] [which no storm the fiercest ever has shaken, [and] which no change] [the most violent has ever severed, and which no overturnings [have even] not even those] [[of the last] that shall [witness to the] attempt the dissolution of the now] [visible universe, can subvert.] 18 [-attend this foot whilst yet it moves, [and] leads towards] [the prospects of a new earth, - be awed under this eye which yet looks] [upon your hearts, and brighten it with the witness of your] [faith in the Lord's all-gracious Christ.] Then- His adorable will Let us gladly fulfil, And our talents improve, Ay the patience of hope and the labor of love. Our life is a dream; Our time, as a stream Glides swiftly away; And the fugitive moment refuses to stay. [The arrow is flown;] [The moment is gone;] [The millennial year] [Rushes to our view, and eternity's here.] 19 O that each in the day Of His coming may say, "I have found my way through, I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do." O that each from his Lord May receive the glad word: "Well and faithfully done, Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne."