A Goodly Heritage

"Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." that is so as to burn and destroy you . You may have had many fiery darts from Satan ; but  have they not all passed away , and you are still unharmed ? You may have had many workings of wickedness in your wretched nature , many deep and foul corruptions oozing forth , but God did not permit them to break out so as to destroy body and soul . You may have many rivers still to ford , many furnaces still to endure ; but the Lord having redeemed you , called you , and taken possession of you by his Spirit and grace , will be with you to the end , to bring you safe through every flood and fire , and set you before his face in glory .

With regard to this fleeting life , it is a delusion to say "tomorrow shall be as this day , and much more abundant ," but with the regard of the soul that lives in God , that is true , and true forever . The past is a specimen of the future. The future of the man that lives in Christ is but the prolongation , and the heightening into superlative excellence and beauty of all that is good in the past and in the present . As the radiance of some rising sun may cast its bright beams into the opposite sky , even so the glowing past behind us flings its purples and its golds and its scarlets on the else dim curtain of the future . Remember that you may hope . A paradox , but a paradox that is a truth in the case of Christians whose memory is of a God that has loved and blessed them ; whose hope is in a God that changes never ; whose memory is charged with every good and perfect gift that came down from the Father of Lights , whose hope is in that  same Father , "with whom th...

The conscience begins to love God's law when God's law ceases to condemn me ; and God's law ceases to condemn me when I am in Christ Jesus ; ."There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ."The effect of the Agreement is obedience to the law , - that is , the whole word of God . "Do we make void the law through faith .? God forbid . Yea ,we establish the law . "See the whole of the 119th Psalm ; observe the tone of it throughout ."O how love I thy law ......."There is a cherished companionship . This is needed in order to actual newness of life ; and this is secured by getting the enmity done away . As long as there is condemnation , and the word of God is the accuser , there is no cordiality to it . There may be a show of submission , for fear of yet greater evil ; but there is no love to the law , and without love there is no real obedience . But the law that beams forth in all the perfections of God and yet has no charge to ...

"The body without the spirit is dead."James 2 ;26.                                                                                 What is death? Can a man define it ?Does inspiration tell us what it is ?  Yes; in the words now before us we have the simplest , the shortest , the most explicit explanation in the world ; death is the body without the spirit . It is a wonderful explanation , marked off distinctly from all other explanations . It is not said that to die is to have the life of the body extinguished , ; no, the life is not extinguished , it is away ; there is something absent , ...

"Therefore doth my Father love me ...."John 10: 17&18.      What is this secret of the father's love ? Why is it that the heart of the Father rejoices in the Son ? Is it because of the pain of the Sons sacrifice ? Is it because His Father beheld in Him a victim on the altar of death ? Nay , it is because on the altar of death He beholds in Him an offering that is no victim . The Father's heart rejoices not that the Son is compelled to die , but that the Son can die without compulsion , that He has power to lay down His life . All other sacrifices had been types of impotence , but this was a type of power . Never had the strength of will been manifested so gloriously . There had been conquerors and mighty warriors , who had paved their own way through the hearts of others ;here was a life that could pave a way for others through its own heart . O strength perfected in weakness , O self -surrendering power of love , we , like the Father , yield our hearts to t...

When Moses was gone into the tabernacle, then he heard the voice . It is not said that the voice then began to speak ; rather the contrary is implied . The voice would seem to have been speaking all along , but it was only now that Moses heard it . Why did he hear it now ? It was because nowe for the first time he had put himself in the attitute of hearing . It was when he entered into the tabernacle , it was when he himself began to speak with God , that there woke within him the conviction that God had all the time been speaking with him . My soul , it must be the same with thee . Often you are crying in the silence of the night that no Divine voice has visited you . Nay, but have you only listened for it with the ear of sense ? If so , it is no marvel that you have missed the music . The voice of God cannot be heard by the ear of sense ; its tones make no impression on the surrounding air , they stir not the waves of the earthly atmosphere . . Its accents are too still and small to ...

Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. But Abraham's was a living faith , therefore a bearing and doing faith . What is your faith doing ? It is not our doing that will be our justifying righteousness in the great day ; but it is a doing faith , and not a dead one that unites a believer to Christ and so saves him . It is not the activity of a believer that recommends him to the Judge as righteous ; but it is an active believing that makes Christ's righteousness his .Said Jesus to his fallen and restored disciple , "Simon ,son of Jonas , lovest thou me ?"  "Yea Lord ," replied Peter ,  "thou knowest all things , and thou knowest that I love thee ,"This is a noble confession ; will it suffice ? . No , if it be dead , and it is dead if it remain alone . Here are the fruits which must follow from its life , and prove that it is living ; "Follow thou me ;"  "Feed my sheep ;"  "Feed my lambs."  I...

The Bible teaches very explicitly that the highest wisdom consists in rendering obedience to God 's commands , and the greatest folly in transgressing them . One of the most striking of Solomon's proverbs was to this effect ; " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge ; but fools despise wisdom and instruction ."In other proverbs he gives us the reason. He tells us its philosophy , as it were . Thus inone place , "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil ;" in another ,"In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence ; and his children shall have a place of refuge . The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life , to depart from the snares of death;" and in another " By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honour , and life." Is this not the religion of common sense and reason ? admitting that God exists; and that he is the sole creator and ruler of all things . Is it not the acme , the essence of sound practical wisdom to , to ob...

There are two kinds of fools prominently noticed in Scripture : the fool that denies that there is any God . "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God ."- a text that suggests the remark , that if he is a fool who says this in his heart , a much greater fool is he who utters that foolish thought .  This is one . There is another : the fool that does not obey God , though he does not deny his existence. And yet , after all, these are but one . If we probe the matter closely , we shall find that there is scarcely more than an impalpaple film of real difference between the foolishness of the man who says in his heart there is no God , and that of the man who does not render him obedience. One may as well believe there is no God , as not obey him . Indeed the man who does not render him true and heartfelt obedience , has no such real , no such practical belief in his existence , as is of any use or value , or as will avail him aught at the last day. There are few , perhap...

Ye soldiers of the cross, members of the Church militant on earth , kneel dailt before you gird your weapons on ; so shall you be much more than conquerors !You who  are faithful to your native land and to the Church, pray , even as Moses , the more earnestly the more you see decline around ; were but the spirit of true prayer more asked for and more bestowed , then there would be less reason , and less inclination also to complain . You whom the world misunderstands and wrongs , learn ,like the prayerful Moses ,- nay , like Jesus in His sufferings , to bless them that curse you , and to pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you ..You fellow travellers to the same celestial Canaan ! the path is steep , the time remaining may be short , your best strength may be spent ; then let us promise to each other , and the Lord, that we shall pray more earnestly for each other , and that we shall thus complete what is , alas , still wanting in our mutual love . You children of...