"Life's Day"

Jack Jackson -  Capetown, South Africa - 1951- "life's day"

Yesterday I asked you boys and girls a question or two. I notice today there are far more boys and girls in the meeting. Yesterday afternoon and this evening, when sitting on the platform, I have been looking at you. I asked myself if when I was your age and we went to the synagogue - you know what the synagogue is - a little boy who heard his parents speak of it, passed on one day and said, "There is one of the sinner's gogs you spoke of." If I had to sit for two hours or more, would I have sat as still as you have? I am sure I would not have done it as well as you have done it today.

I want to tell you boys and girls about the things of God in a way that you can understand it, and if I can do that the big people should be able to understand it too. Now you boys and girls, come to the empty seats near the front so that you can answer me when I question you. (At first the children were shy, but when a few moved, several came up and sat in front next and between the workers.)

Now I will tell you what we children will do. You will look at me and think, "Are you a child?" We'll have a meeting of our own, and see if the big people will behave as well as you have done. Now tell me, "How many hours are there in a day?" (Answer: "Twenty four.") "Have you heard of a day that has more than twenty four hours? Did your teacher ever tell you of such a day?" (Answer: "No.") Well, I will tell you of one; it is Life's Day, the day that begins at the cradle and ends at the grave. It has more than twenty four hours - sometimes forty, fifty, sixty years, etc.

After Life's Day, there is another day, the Day of Death. After the Day of Death, there is the Day of Waiting, then the Resurrection Day when we will live again; all that are in the grave shall come forth. The Day of Waiting is between the Day of Death and the Day of Resurrection. Have you heard of Moses, Noah, Abraham, etc.? Are they dead? (Answer: "Yes.") Are they living again? ("No.") They are all waiting for the Day of Resurrection and then comes Judgment Day and then Eternal Day - a day which will never end. Six days, then there is another day, the Day of Reigning. All won't have part in that Day. All will have part in the other six; only the people who die in Christ will have part in the seventh Day.

Don't you sometimes write something on a piece of paper and put it on a shelf and come back to it later on? Now, we'll put six days on the shelf and take them up again later, and speak about the first day - Life's Day. You have heard about people talk about humanity. That is all the people - you, me, and everyone. Have you heard of them being divided up into different classes - rich, middle class, poor? We people divide the people of the world into nations and classes; that is how we look at the world. God looks on it differently; God sees only two classes. This we see from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Now who built the ark? Moses? (Answer: "No, Noah.") Did a whole crowd get in? ("No.") How many got in then? ("Eight.") Only eight! There were only eight, the little boy over there says. There were only two classes - those in the ark and those outside. The children of Israel started on a journey. A crowd stayed behind. "Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction." How many gates? (Answer: "Two.") How many ways? (Answer: "Two.") How many groups of people? (Answer: "Two.") How many endings? (“Two.”) Life or destruction.

Now what did we leave on the shelf - the other six days. God does not look on humanity as a whole lot of classes - He divides us into two - Life's day - from cradle to grave. There is something God intends we should do in each of these days, what we should do in Life's day. What day are we in?  We are in Life's day. You may not be old enough to do it, but think of it and one day, when you are old enough, you do it. God intends we should do one thing, and that is to prepare and make ready in Life's day for all the other days. If I don't prepare in Life's day, it will go bad with me in the Day of Death - so also in the Day of Waiting, etc.

Can anyone avoid the day of death? There is nothing so sure as that; the Day of Death will come. We are sure to meet all those days. What is necessary for us to do in order to prepare? You girls, if people were coming to visit your parents' home and your mother told you to prepare and you didn't know how to do it, what do you do? You would ask her how to do it. If God did not tell us how to prepare, we would not know - but He has told us, "Enter in at the strait gate." "Are there few that be saved?" Jesus did not answer straight away "Yes," He said, "Strive to enter in." Strive, does that mean easy? It is something difficult. Once, in a certain city where there were many trams, and just the time people were coming from their work, all were waiting to get onto a tram as soon as the tram came. Everyone was pushing. These days, people stand in queues; those days, they used to fight to get on. Everyone wants to get to a place called "Home." Those words then came to me:  "Strive to enter in," so that we can get to our Eternal Home. In order to be in the narrow way, we must get in by the strait gate.

I was having a meeting with some children in a place where there were a lot of mountains. There were no roads yet. People who lived up there on the mountains went up and down on narrow paths, with mules carrying their packs. We were in a small room and there was a door, not very big, about half the size of the one over there. I asked the children if they thought that mule we saw with a big pack could come in through that door. All said, "No." But one little boy about eleven years old said, "We could let him in." How? "Take off the load and he'll get in easy," he said. That made me think of this verse, "Enter in at the strait gate." If we are loaded like that mule, we won't get in. Now what would you think would be the load we must leave? "Sin," that little boy said, "all the bad things we say and do." That's what keeps a number of people out on the broad way where the old mule could go in with the whole pack…pride, vanity, pictures, dancing, and a whole lot of things. Would it be wise to go in with the whole pack and end in destruction? It would be a foolish man to do so. Unpack the mule, and enter in at the strait gate, and then walk in the narrow Way. Be born again. When we were born, all of us had one thing. Money? No - Life, and we eat and drink to keep alive. When we are born again, we receive another life. Born in the world, we receive human life, but born in God's family, we receive divine life, and then keep on doing the will of God,  eating and drinking of the things of God.

All along, it is two classes:  in the ark or out of the ark, saved or unsaved, those counted in or not. Read Hymn 169 (Now 337), "Counted in with the faithful, with Christ and the few." etc. I don't know anyone who would not like to be counted in. I know no way, and I am sure there is no way, to be counted in then, but to be counted in now. If there are any here who are outside still, don't wait too long. Leave the load outside, enter in, and start to walk in the narrow way. ~ ~ ~