We have assumed, too, that eternity lies somewhere in the uncertain reaches of the infinitely distant future. In this also we have been mistaken. Eternity has been going on all the while. We have simply taken a little section of eternity and arbitrarily named it time. It is still a part of eternity, just the same. Every day that goes by is just that much of eternity. Therefore, everything that a day holds bears an eternal significance. Its every event is built into the walls of destiny. All the issues with which we ever have to do are eternal. Such is the process of judgment. Another name for it is the law of cause and effect. Causes and effects swiftly succeed each other in life. The effect is as inevitable as the cause is definite. Moreover, it is not long delayed. I once knew a teacher who had inscribed in large letters over the door of his classroom these words: “What you are to be you are now becoming.” He understood this principle. The judgment is going on all the while. We can never hope to be in the future anything else than what we are allowing ourselves to become in the present. The mills of God do not grind so slowly as one might think. From the larger point of view it may be seen that they do some of their work with surprising swiftness. We cannot afford to dream away our days in the ease of thinking that life’s responsibilities and tests lie far in the future. We are very apt to find ourselves mistaken. Often they lie just ahead. The events of the life of Jesus came and went with a tragic and growing swiftness. During the last few days of His life in Jerusalem they seemed borne upon the current of a swiftly rushing stream. To Him things always shortly came to pass. The Christ of revelation was the same who had walked in Galilee. He had the same habits of thought. This is the reason why He was able to crowd ages into years. Before He had fairly passed the threshold of maturity, He had already succeeded in living the biggest life of all the centuries. He simply understood the nearness of destiny. He realized that time will not wait. An old Hebrew prophet called upon men to prepare to meet God. We have assumed that this meeting is to be at an indefinite future date, called the Judgment Day. We greatly need to understand that our meeting with Him is not only a future but also a present event. Each of us is repeatedly face to face with God. All through the years we have been meeting Him every day and hour. He is the Silent Partner in all our upward struggles. He is the Inevitable Factor with which we must reckon in all our considerations. He is the Absolute Quantity to which we must relate ourselves, and to whose standards we must conform. These obligations do not belong to some far future time. They belong to the present. We are not dealing with a static order, but with a progressive one. We are the children of One who takes into consideration but one tense. His word is _NOW_.