A Goodly Heritage

That which was "hidden from the wise and prudent,"the Father has "revealed unto babes ." When the weakest Christians reach the dread outlet from this state of existence , there will be sure to be One waiting for us , the one Friend who has undertaken our salvation , and who , however great our tribulation , will see us through it all ; with hushing mighty love His hands will be held out to us , His presence will still our trepidation , and still the storm of our surprise . Only think of it ! The thought makes us cry with quaint Sir Thomas Browne ," There is one comfort, that , though it is in the power of the weakest to deprive us of life , it is not in the power of the strongest to deprive us of death !"" Death is ours ", and death is but the name of the transition in which the sinner saved passes into the hands of the glorified Saviour , waiting to welcome him home.  "Distrust and darkness of a future state ,   Is that which makes manki

The first counterfeit of sanctification is moral virtue. To be just , to be temperate , to be of a fair deportment , not to have one's escutcheon blotted with ignominious scandal is good , but not good enough , it is not sanctification . A field flower differs from a garden flower . Heathens have attained to morality ; as Cato , Socrates , and Aristides . Civility is but nature refined ; there is nothing of Christ there , and the heart may be foul and impure . Under these fair leaves of civility the worm of unbelief may be hid . A moral person has a secret antipathy against grace ; he hates vice , and he hates grace as much as vice . The snake has a fine colour but a sting . A person adorned and cultivated with moral virtue , has a secret spleen against sancity . The Stoics who were the chief of the moralised heathens , were the bitterest enemies Paul had  . Acts 17:18 Thomas Watson

Suppose a  man is born blind ; he has a natural incapacity of sight . No arguements , biddings , threatenings , or promises can make him see .But let the miracle be wrought ; let the Lord touch his eyes with his Divine hand ; he sees at once . Though he cannot explain how or why , he can say to all objectors "One thing I know , that whereas I was blind , now I see" (John 9:25)And thus it is in the Spirits work of sanctification , begun at regeneration , when a new life is given , a new capacity imparted , a new desire awakened .It is carried forward in His daily renewing (2Cor. 4:16) and is completed at glorification . What we would specially emphasize is that whether the Spirit be convicting us , working repentance in us , breathing upon us the spirit of prayer , or taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto our joyful hearts , He is discharging His covenant offices . May we render unto Him the praise and worship which He is due.

Whence shall my tears begin ? What first - fruits shall I bear Of earnest sorrow for my sin ? Or how my woes declare ? O Thou the Merciful and Gracious One ! Forgive the foul transgressions I have done . With Adam I have vied, Yea , passed him in my fall; And I am naked now by pride And lust made bare of all - Of Thee, O God , and that celestial band , And all the glory of the Promised Land! If Adam's righteous doom , Because he dared transgress Thy one decree, lost Eden's bloom And Eden's loveliness, What recompense , O Lord , must I expect , Who all my life Thy quickening laws neglect ? My guilt for vengeance cries ; But yet Thou pardonest all ! And whom Thou lov'st Thou dost chastise , And mourn'st for them that fall ; Thou, as a father , mark'st our tears and pain , And welcomest the prodigal again .    S. Andrew

In the pulpit do we really and truly rest upon the aid of the Spirit ?  I do not censure any brother for his mode of preaching , but I must confess that it seems very odd to me when a brother prays that the Holy Ghost may help him in preaching , and then I see him put his hand behind him  and draw a manuscript out of his pocket , so fashioned that he can place it in the middle of his Bible , and read from it without being suspected of doing so . These precautions for ensuring secrecy look as though the man was a little ashamed of his paper ; but I think that he should be far more ashamed of his precautions. Does he expect the Spirit of God to bless himwhile he is practising a trick ? And how can He help him when he reads out of a paper from which anyone else can read without the Spirit's help?  What has the Holy Ghost to do with this business ? Truly He may have had something to do with the manuscript in the composing of it  , but in the pulpit his aid is superfluous  .  The truer

What ought to be the purity maintained within that sanctuary of that soul whose privilege it is to be constituted a residence and a temple for the Holy Ghost ? and with what deep fear and trembling ought he to regard the possibility of sin entering into and defiling that abode which is consecrated by the presence  of Him who cannot look on sin but with abhorence ? It is impossible to imagine a more awful motive to vigilance and holy jealousy than that which is supplied to the believer in the reflection that the entrance of an evil thought , or feeling , or purpose , into his soul , is a profanation done to the dwelling place of God , and a despite done to the Holy Spirit ; that the cherishing of such iniquity in the heart may at length provoke the Divine Inhabitant to with draw from the polluted abode - to give it up to the defilement which it has chosen . The very thought of such a result will be enough to awaken every latent energy within the Christian's heart; and the consciousn

"He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting ."Galatians 6 : 8. I may recall the language of the Psalms , which uniformly represent the Spirit filled soul thirsting for God , the living God , to see his power and glory(Psalm 63 .1&2.). All who duly appreciate the Spirit's operations and His thoughts of peace towards them , and continue in meditation , longing , desire , and prayer in the Spirit and for the Spirit, shall be filled with  the Spirit . They receive larger and larger measures from day to day , and these are further amplified in the course of every trial encountered in the cause of Christ , and by every arduous duty performed , as may be seen in the case of John in Patmos , and of Paul in the inner prison of Philippi.

How urgently does the alternative of impending ruin , as well as the hope of national preservation , call upon us to labour efficiently , and to pray earnestly , while it is yet day . The time may come , when the voice of the intercession will be hushed by the stern command , "Pray not for this people for their good ;" when the exertions of Christian zeal will be arrested by the solemn message , "Come , my people , enter thou into thy chambers , and shut the doors about thee ; hide thyself , as it were , for a little moment , until the indignation be overpast ;"when there will be presented to the church the dreary spectacle of the nation shut up in hopeless impenitence to its inevitable doom . How melancholy will be the contemplation , if the guilt of this impenitence is wholly chargeable upon the nation !  But how agonizing the reflection , if it be chargeable equally upon the nation and the church!!!!          Rev. James Lumsden  1844.

Eternal  election revealed to the soul , personal redemption applied to the heart , imputed righteousness sealed upon the conscience , and never failing faithfulness manifested within , so far from leading to licentiousness are the only truths which can produce real fruit . And on the contrary , all self denial , outward sanctification , mortification of the flesh , long prayers , and all good works of the Arminian catalogue , are nothing but counterfeits and imitations of the fruit of the Spirit , and will therefore leave their deluded owners  to the just vengeance of Him who is a consuming fire . J.C Philpott

There is a Gospel present in many quarters and in favour in many places . It is commonly called the negative theology , a theology , as its name indicates , with a great many noes in it . It teaches that human nature , the patient , is not so radically diseased as the popular creed represents it to be ; the cure does not demand so much power and wisdom as we have been taught to suppose ; the sacrifice of Christ was not required as a satisfaction to Divine justice , and his death on the cross had not so deep a meaning as is commonly assigned to it ; the scriptures are not all , or at least not all equally , the inspired Word of God , and the harsher portions of it must not be explained too strictly ; God is not a stern Judge , but a Father , and fatherliness means fondness , softness. Thus by introducing a string of negatives into the Gospel , they contrive to rub its sharpest corners off , and leave a figure more like a dim , beautiful outline of the changeful clouds , on whose edges y

Faith is not the Saviour . It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us , that bore our sins in its own body on the tree , that died and rose again for our sins . Faith is one thing and the Saviour another . Faith is one thing and the cross is another . Let us not confound them , nor ascribe to a poor imperfect act of man that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the living God .  H. Bonar. Holiness is the walk to heaven ,Christ is the way to God , and when you seek for pardon you must go wholly out of your walk and look only to Him who is the way.    J . Berridge

Sin does not originate with God . What Jesus Christ , the Son of God , was grieved by and waged war with , cannot have come into the world by his father's will ,or with His consent . In the teaching of Christ we find no account of the origin of sin ; it is there dealt with simply as a fact . But that beautiful saying , "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth ," which formed a part of His apology for loving the sinful , excludes the idea of sin having God for its ultimate cause . Joy over repentance implies sorrow over sin . But why should God sorrow over that which He Himself brought into being . ? Sin , however originating , is eternally contrary to the divine will.

The Church is the body of Christ . Truly the body , not a member - the body composed of many parts and members knit in one , as said the Apostle - "For the body is not one member , but many . " Therefore the Church is the full body , compacted and now diffused throughout the whole world .---Pacian The Church is the temple of God . Truly an ample temple , "a great house ," having "vessels of gold and silver , but also of wood and earth , some unto honour ,"and many indeed of glorious fashion , destined for the manifold uses of various holy works . ---Pacian

Sorrow has been fitly called the mother of all joy. She alone creates the darkness , in which we can distinguish the real meaning of God's dealings , and understand the true nature of our wild wanderings . Her neutral tints subdue the soul's pride , and turn it away from the glare of human ambition . beneath her teaching we learn to view aright the evanescence of all things human , and to see that the eternal is alone real amid a world of illusions "Sweet sorrow , who the earth has ever trod , Dreaded and shunned , till, by thy burning kiss,  The heart was fired and flamed serene to God ;      O kind stern friend , we leave thee on Time's shore     The only friend of earth whom we shall see no more ," Perhaps your sorrow will be allowed to press on you more and more sorely till you have been led to self-examination , and confession of sin , and the acknowledgement of the rightness of God's dealings with you . There is an alloy of pride in your nature tha

While the law in its relation of a covenant of works has been fulfilled by our Surety , so that they who are under grace are no more under the law in that capacity  (Romans 6:14) nevertheless the law as a rule of action and standard of character is immutable , unrelaxable , and inalienable , in its personal relations . Christ fulfilled the law for us vicariously as the condition of salvation , and on that basis we are justified . But no one can be vicariously conformed to the law for us as a rule of conduct or of moral character . Therefore , while Christ fulfilled the law for us ,the Holy Spirit fulfils the law in us, by sanctifying us into complete conformity to  it . And in obedience to this law the believer brings forth those good works which are the fruits though not the ground of our salvation.