A Jewel Ill Set Proverbs 11: 22.

Women who have beauty above average should be extremely watchful on that side , lest they sin and suffer there. You have a jewel of gold ; don't put it in a swine's snout. The misapplication will prostitute the gift. The incongruity will be repulsive to all whose tastes are true. It will attract the vain , and repel the solid . There are diversities of operation under the ministry of the same Spirit . For discipline to human souls in time , deformity is given to one , and beauty to another. The chief consideration for each is how she may best bear the trial, so as to get it enlisted among the workers for good, and instruments of saving. If both are saved,it will be a pleasant burden to compare notes, of their several paths , and several burdens, when they meet in equal loveliness, without spot or wrinkle , in the presence of the Lord.  If it were our part to judge , most of us would think it probable that beauty is the greater trial, and that under it a greater proportion stumble and fall.  But we are not permitted to judge  , for we are not able to judge aright. We do not see far. The Lord is judge himself; and the day will declare whether beauty, in filling the soul with vanity , or deformity , in fretting it with envy , has been actually the more successful instrument of evil  in Satan's hands . Meanwhile  , those on either extremity have a weight to bear, should watch unto prayer , and cast their burden on the Lord ; while we , the mass of humankind in the middle , who in that respect have neither poverty nor riches , should be humbly thankful to God for casting our lot in a safer place , and marking  out to us an easier path.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Church discipline

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri
Read more