A Goodly Heritage

God can love nothing but Himself and what He finds of Himself in the creature. All services without something of God's image and Spirit in then are nothing. As the product of a million of cyphers; though you still add to them , signifies nothing ; but add one figure , an unit , grace, it will make the product to be many millions of high account with God . All the significancy depends depends upon the figure without which , if absent , the rest would be nothing . All moral perfections, without a new nature , are but cyphers in God's account ; "Without faith it is impossible to please Him ."

He has left us this dark glass, wherein we may see His face till He return with a full glory; and   is it an affection to Him never to look upon His picture , the medal of Himself , wherein He has engraven the tracks of His dying love; all that He did, all that He purchased , all His fulness, all His treasures.........? Well but we may remember Christ in other ways without without this ceremony? We may, but do we? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sacrament is a sacrament of nourishment , unrenewed men therefore are not fit for it. They are dead(Ephesians 2:1)and what has a dead man to do with a feast?. Men must be alive before they are nourished. Stephen Charnock ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````` 

They are set upon excess of ceremonies, because they are defective in the vital parts, and would have no religion if they had not this . All sober Christians are friends to outward decency and order; but the self deceiver that is most for the unwarrantable inventions of man , and uses the worship of God as a mask or puppet play, where there is great doings , with little life , and to little purpose...... The gaudiness of men's religion is not the best sign that it is sincere . Simplicity is the ordinary attendant of sincerity.

To mock at sin now , is the way to a place of eternal weeping . Those who weep for sin now , will rejoice in a Saviour yet . Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted. Those who make a mock at sin are obliged also to mock at holiness. This is the law of their condition ; "evil men and seducers wax worse and worse" To laugh at sin and to laugh at holiness are two sides of the one thing ; they cannot be separated. Those who make mirth of goodness persuade themselves that they are only getting amusement from the weakness of a brother ; let them beware ; if a Christian which affords you sport be a feature of his Redeemers likeness, He whose likeness it is , is looking on , and will require it . Let the merrymakers see to it , when they are raising a laugh at the softness of a Christian , lest they be really scorning the gentleness of Christ , reflected in the mirror of a disciples life-course. God is not mocked . When Jesus looked down from the brow of Olivet upo

A little religion is a painful thing , It destroys one pleasure and supplies no other in its stead . In this land of light and privilege , many go as far forward in a religious profession as to embitter the joy of the world ; few seem to advance far enough in the "new and living way"to reach a refuge in the joy of the Lord . Safety lies in drawing near to God ; and the distinguishing mark of an unbelieving heart is that it departs from Him . If the fortress were some pile of self-righteousness, or even a huge , unshapely heap of penances and fastings , men with their corruption all about them would be content to take their shelter there ; but since the offered resting place is under the eye , and even in the bosom , of the Holiest , they will not and cannot go in , unless they are made willing to put off the old nature and leave it behind . "His children shall have a place of refuge;"and the refuge is such that only the children count it a boon . The Great Teacher

Ye who love the Lord and the brethren, wing the seed and give it to the wind . It is God's gift, and in His keeping. When it goes out of your sight , plead with Him who employs the wind as His angels to guide it to some bare and broken ground. While you pray for the fruitfulness of what has already been scattered, work to scatter more . This or that may prosper; perhaps this and that too. The very mountain tops shall wave yet like Lebanon with a harvest from the seed of "wholesome words."The earth shall yet be full of the knowledge of the Lord. The sowers may well wipe their tears away as they go forth, for they shall one day return rejoicing "bringing their sheaves with them." The Lord gave the word - The Lord is the Word; great should be the company of them that publish iy (Psalm 68)The shortest and surest method of killing and casting out the mischievous weeds that infest a field is to get the field covered from side to side with a closely growing crop of pr

"Moab hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel." Jeremiah 48:11.  This beautiful and appropriate imagery, borrowed from the vineyard, speaks for itself . It would be readily appreciated by the peasant populations that toiled amid the terraced hills of Moab. To prevent scum and sediment , the newly made wine was emptied from one vessel to another until it reached the condition of perfect fluidity . In Moab's case there had been nothing comparable to this , and therefore the rank , coarse taste remained in him , and he had settled on his lees. What an insight this affords of God's method with the souls of men ! Why these constant removals from town to town; from church to church; from situation to situation!Why this perpetual change and revolution in our plans ?Why this incessant going into captivity to irksome and trying circumstances ?All this is part of God's manufacture of the wine of life . We must be emptied from vessel to vessel, else we should settle on

"And thou when thou prayest , enter into thy closet." How do we enter there ? We come to the Holy God , as to one who is a Spirit... His presence is called the holiest of all. How do we come to Him? By the blood of the covenant ; and with all boldness . I fear that we often think that we can come to Him without this blood ; or rather without any deep sense of our need of it . But what is the reason of that?  Simply that some of us do not know God at all; and that we never yet have discovered either our enmity to God , or God's contrariety to us .The very first effect which the knowledge of God has upon a man , is to make him feel that he is full of enmity to God , and that therefore he cannot , or dare not come to God. He trembles at the very mention of His name ; he can never hear it with joy until he has been sprinkled by the blood . The blood on the lintel kept the destroying angel out . This is just a picture of the covenant of grace . Sprinkled with this blood , we

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love"Jeremiah 31:3    We who by faith are the children of Abraham may muse upon these sweet and tender words..God's love to us is not of today or yesterday. It did not originate in any movement of our heart towards Himself , or even on that day of days when Jesus died . We must go back beyond our birth , beyond Calvary and Bethlehem , beyond the fall of man and the Garden of Eden , and as you stand looking out into the immensity of eternity, dare to believe that you were loved and chosen in Christ , the object of God's most tender solicitude and pity.  Does the thought overpower you ? Notice the Divine asseveration . Yea, there can be no doubt about it . Beyond this Divine asseveration it is impossible for us to go. By word and oath God , who cannot lie , has given us strong assurance that it is even so . But now see what comes out of this long , long love . God must have known the worst about us before He set His love on us . T

The pure mere love of God is that alone from which sinners are justly to expect that no sin will escape unpunished , but that his love will visit them with every calamity and distress that can help to break and purify the bestial heart of man and awaken in him true repentance and conversion to God . It is love alone in the Holy Deity that will allow no peace to the wicked , nor ever cease its judgements till every sinner is forced to confess that it is good for him that he has been in trouble, and thankfully own that not the wrath but the love of God has plucked out the right eye , cut off that right hand, which he ought to have done but would not do for himself and his own salvation .