A Goodly Heritage

Christ is preached in our land , in our day . Pardon through his blood is published free to all . His name has become a common sound on earth , even as it is in heaven . But privilege neglected does not save . It is mercy accepted that lifts a sinner up to heaven; mercy offered becomes a make weight in the doom of the lost .It is not Christ in the Bible , Christ in the creed , Christ in the sermon ; but" Christ in you the hope of glory ." It is not Blessed are they who have bread , like manna from heaven , lying round their dwellings or trampled under their feet ; but Blessed are they that hunger . The rich provision of the covenant is set forth in vain to guests who are already satiated with a genial and more congenial aliment.

The Lord is righteous ,for I have rebelled against his commandment. Lamentation 1:18 In these plaintive elegaics, Jerusalem , by the mouth of the prophet , laments her fate . But the story of her desolation is mingled with confessions of her sin . She asks boldly if any sorrow could be compared to her sorrow ,and then confesses that not one pang or stroke has been in excess of her sin . This is what sorrow does for us all . 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 subdues 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 its burning k

Nothing but the truth of the Gospel can be instrumental to the conversion of souls . Any willful suppression - or any compromising statement of truth , dishonours the Holy Spirit in his own special office , and therefore restrains his quickening influence . Many earnest , affectionate , and diligent ministers , are mourning over the palpable unfruitfulness of their work ; without at all suspecting , that the root of the evil lies within themselves . Sincerity , earnestness, conscientiousness , and self denial , when connected with a wrong or defective standard or practice , are means utterly disproportioned to produce this moral miracle of a radical change . Bishop Horsley  remarked 'it too often happens that ministers lose sight of that which is their proper office , to publish the word of reconciliation .'And ,indeed without this ministry of reconciliation , it is of no avail to appear before our people . We might beseech them with tears - ' be ye reconciled unto God 

"Do we make void the law through faith?God forbid  Yea we establish the law " Romans 3 31 The faith or doctrine of the Gospel establishes the law in its covenant form , exhibiting a Divine Suretyship of obedience to the law , as the price for sanctification ; and in its directive form ,- inculcating practical obligations upon a stronger foundation , and fulfilling them by the power of an heavenly life , and the impulse of evangelical motives . Thus the offices of Christ delightfully combine . As our Surety , He delivers us from the curse of the law . As our King , He brings us under its rule . This Scriptural faith saves us from its condemnation , and enables us for its requirements . Take away this principle , and we are under the full penalty of the broken law ; nor is there is any root , on which to engraft a corrupt tree , that it might bring forth good fruit .               Thus also , the grace of the Gospel "establishes the law" in its twofold character . W

Law & Gospel :-Though distinct they are not opposite . As coming from the same source , they must ultimately meet in the same plan, and subserve the same end . Like the seemingly opposite perfections of their glorious Author , they harmonize in mutual subserviency in the Christian system . The provisions of the Gospel are fully commensurate with the demands of the law . Its righteousness fulfills the law as a covenant ; its grace obeys it as a rule . Both have a commanding and a condemning power. Both combine to" bring the to Christ"- "the law indirectly - as a schoolmaster ," showing his need of him : the Gospel directly , exhibiting him in all points suitable to his need . In this centre of everlasting love , the "mercy" of the Gospel  "and the truth " of the law " meet together ." The "righteousness" of the law and the "peace "of the Gospel here "embrace each each other."Both unite to endear the way

Men whose calling and work is to study the Scripture, or the things revealed therein , and to preach them to others , cannot but have many thoughts about spiritual things , and yet may be ,and oftentimes are , most remote from being spiritually minded . They may be forced by their work and calling to think of them early and late , evening and morning , yet their minds be no way rendered or proved spiritual thereby .....And the reasons of it are manifest . It requires as much if not more watchfulness, more care , more humility , for a minister to be spiritually minded in the discharge of his calling , than for any other sort of men in theirs .....because the commonness of the exercise of such thoughts , with their design upon others in their expression , will take off their power and efficacy. And he will have little benefit by his own ministry who endeavours not in the first place an experience in his own heart of the power of the truths which he teaches to others . John Owen