The limits of opportunity.
Here is a universal illustration. We need no investigation of the local and the ancient to comprehend its meaning. We all understand the difference between night and day in respect of opportunity for work. Not but what civilization has made considerable encroachments on the realm of night in this particular. It is now true, not only of the astronomer and of the ardent student, but of many besides, that "night is the time for toil." And yet, even with all the increased night-work of the world, it is to be hoped that such work will ever be the exception and not the rule. Night is Nature's way of announcing her daily sabbath. Day is peculiarly the season for useful work, for honest pursuits; to take too much of the day for rest is, in a measure, to waste it. Night is peculiarly the season for rest, and those who are out in it must be on some special, perchance some dishonest, errand. Day is the largest opportunity the honest man can get; night is the largest opportunity for the thief.
I. APPLY THE LIMITS OF OPPORTUNITY IS THE CASE OF JESUS HIMSELF. Of course, it is only true in a particular sense that a night came to Jesus in which he could not work. But in that sense there was great importance in the truth. There were certain things which Jesus could do in flesh and blood, but let him pass into the spiritual body, and those things become impossible. When the records of his life came to be written, those records had to be filled with instances of benevolent industry. Every day found him looking out for every chance of doing a good work. No one can bring against Jesus the charge of being one who talked a great deal and did very little. Every human being comes into this world to do a work of God, though the vast majority never seem to apprehend the mission. All the more reason that Jesus, therefore, should make manifest that he came into the world for action. Others were busy about their own work, and, however long life might be, it would be all too short to complete their aims. And so Jesus felt that life had to be full of useful, strenuous, God-manifesting work.
II. THE LESSON TO US FROM THE BRIEF LIMITS OF WORKING TIME. We waste much of life through not making the best of opportunities. Here were the disciples idly speculating on how a certain thing had come about. There was no way of knowing, and no practical result could come from the inquiry. Not that Jesus would deter us from speculations and conjectures; there can be no harm in imagining the causes of what is; no harm in guessing at the possibilities and probabilities of the future. But in this world of need there is so much to do, that we must never let anything come between us and doing. To know what men have thought is all very well; and we do well to meditate on every possible cause and origin of what is evil; but we may meditate so much as to become mere skeptics, hanging in uncertainty between belief and unbelief. When life has all closed up and its last day faded into the west, the question will be, "What hast thou done?" This life of flesh and blood is given to serve our day and generation.—Y.