A Goodly Heritage

"And He led them forth by  the right way , that they might go to a city of habitation."  Psalm 107:7 When the Lord leads, we can follow.  The path may be rough , but if the Lord upholds us, we can walk in it without stumbling. Whatever the Lord bids, we can do—if we have but His presence. Whatever He calls upon us to suffer, we can bear—if we have but His approving smile. Oh, the wonders of sovereign grace! The cross is no cross—if the Lord gives strength to bear it. Affliction is no affliction—if the Lord supports under it. Trial is no trial—if sweetened by His smile. Sorrow no grief—if lightened by His love. It is our fretfulness, unbelief, carnal reasoning, rebellion, and self-pity which make the rough way, a wrong way. But grace in its all-conquering power, not only subdues every difficulty without, but what is its greater triumph, subdues every difficulty within. God's right way is to lead us forth—out of the world—out of sin—out of self—out of pride—out of se

Psalm 87 A Psalm  or  Song for the sons of Korah. This psalm is an encomium upon mount Zion, as typical of the gospel church. (1.) For the sake of the temple, mount Zion is preferred to every other place in Canaan; as more honoured by God and more delighted in by him, ver. 1-3. (2.) In respect of better inhabitants, greater stability, and more important joys and blessings, the church is preferred to all other nations, ver. 4-7. While I sing, let me observe the dignity of relation to Jehovah as my God. Let me praise him for founding his church on Jesus the unmoveable Rock of ages, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. Let me rejoice in the glorious promises made concerning her, and supplicate the speedy, the remarkable fulfilment thereof. And while I with joy draw water out of her ordinances, her wells of salvation, let me live as an holy, a cheerful member of her society. 1 Upon the hills of holiness he his foundation sets. 2 God, more than Jacob&#

"By grace you are saved."  Ephesians 2:5 Oh! the volumes of blessed truth that are couched in these few words; thrown in out of the Apostle's full heart as if to give a moment's vent to his love of salvation by grace! Mercy, love, and grace are all in the bosom of God toward his saints; and yet they differ from each other. But how? Mercy  regards the criminal;  love  regards the object;  grace , perhaps, is a blending of the two--the union of mercy and love. God loves the holy unfallen angels;  there  is an object of love in which there is no mixture of mercy; for having never sinned, mercy they do not need. Again, God showed no mercy to the fallen angels; there we have justice and wrath, without mercy; but in the case of the saints of God, the election of grace, we have not only mercy and love, but we have the joint attribute, that uniting mercy and love in one stream flows onward to the Church, as the river of the water of life; the pure crystal river of grace.

("The Death of Eminent Ministers, a Public Loss"  A funeral sermon by J. A. James, Nov. 6, 1825) 'Chance' has nothing to do with death! Not the outcast  infant of a day old, exposed by its unnatural mother to  perish by the tiger or the vulture; nor even the sparrow  that dies of hunger in its nest—passes out of life without  the knowledge of God.  "Don't be afraid!" said Christ, "I am the first and the last,  the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever! I  have the keys of the unseen world and of death!" What  consolation is there in this sublime declaration! The key  of death is never for a moment entrusted out of His hands —and never can be wrested from them!  Every time a human being dies , it is by an act of His power, in turning  the key which unlocks the gates of death! Our life is under  the constant and strict observation of His omniscient eye!  He determines the moment when to take the key from His  belt, and throw the por

If it is his aim to approach as nearly as possible to the manners of the world without actually being numbered with its votaries, his children will be  restrained with difficulty, on the godly side of the  line of demarcation, and be perpetually longing  and trying to push onward towards worldliness.  The miserable efforts, made by some professing  Christians, to be thought people of taste and  fashion, show how badly they bear the Christian  yoke, and how nearly they are resolved to cast  it away as an encumbrance. We would despise  these things wherever we see them, if they did  not demand claims upon our pity, still stronger  than those upon our scorn.  When a worldly temper has crept into the circle of a Christian family, piety retires before it, and  the spirit of error soon enters to take possession  of the desolate home.

“None but He who made the world can make a minister of the Gospel.” “The solid establishment of the people may be materially hindered by the minister’s contracted statements, crude interpretations, or misdirected Scriptural application.” “It will not fail to be objected that if none were to be admitted into holy orders, except those who are possessed of every necessary qualification, there could not possibly be procured a sufficient number of Pastors for the supply of our Churches. To which i answer, that a small number of chosen Pastors is preferable to a multitude of unqualified teachers. At all hazards we must adhere to the command of God, and leave the event to Providence. But in reality the dearth of pastors is not so generally apprehended. To reject those candidates for holy orders, whose labors in the church would be wholly fruitless, is undoubtedly a work of piety. Others, on the contrary, who are qualified to fulfill the duties of the sacred office, would take encourag

Preparations for the Christian Ministry – Habits of Special Prayer by Charles Bridges LUTHER long since has said-’Prayer, meditation, and temptation, make a Minister.’ No one will hesitate to admit the importance of the first of these qualifications, who has ever realized the weight of Ministerial responsibility, who has been led to know that his ‘sufficiency is of God,’ and that prayer is the appointed channel of heavenly communications. The student’s conscious need of wisdom, humility and faith, to ascertain the pure simplicity of his purpose, his necessary qualifications, and his Divine call to the holy office-will bring him a daily suppliant to the throne of grace. In his General Studies, abstracted from this spirit of prayer, he will find a dryness-a want of power to draw his resources to this one center of the Ministry-or perhaps a diversion from the main object into some track of self-indulgence. And even in this special duty of the Scriptures he will feel himself, (as

Weeping Mary  "For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." John 20:9-13. [Preached upon the Monday after the fast; that is, evidently the fast August 22, 1640.] In these passages of our Lord's Word, beloved in Him, we have first set down the earthly witnesses that came to the grave to seek our Lord after He was risen from the dead. And they be of two sorts. The first sort of them are public men in a public charge, Peter and John, the Lord's disciples; and how they sought Christ, and what

“Abraham left off asking before God left off granting.” Moses taught the power of importunity when he interceded for Israel forty days and forty nights, by fasting and prayer. And he succeeded in his importunity. Jesus, in His teaching and example, illustrated and perfected this principle of Old Testament pleading and waiting. How strange that the only Son of God, who came on a mission direct from His Father, whose only heaven on earth, whose only life and law were to do His Father’s will in that mission—what a mystery that He should be under the law of prayer, that the blessings which came to Him were impregnated and purchased by prayer; stranger still that importunity in prayer was the process by which His wealthiest supplies from God were gained. Had He not prayed with importunity, no transfiguration would have been in His history, no mighty works had rendered Divine His career. His all-night praying was that which filled with compassion and power His all-day work. The import

There may be, perhaps, some here who are exercised (as, I believe, many of God's people are at times exercised) as to their hypocrisy; and sometimes they may think themselves the most consummate hypocrites that ever stood in a profession. They may even think themselves so crafty and subtle that they are deceiving those who have the keenest discernment. But if you are exercised with these painful surmises, these doubts and fears, just see (and the Lord enable you to bring it to the light of his countenance) these two features of a spiritual character. Do not talk about your hope; it may be "a spider's web." Do not boast of your gifts; they may be altogether in the flesh. Do not bring forward the good opinion of men; they may be deceived by you. But just see if, with the Lord's blessing, you can feel these two tests in your soul, as written there by his own hand. If so, you are not an hypocrite; God himself, by his servant Job, has acquitted you of the charge.

 The Fullness of Christ It is fitting that we should contemplate the excellencies of Christ the Mediator, for "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is to be seen "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). The fullest revelation that God  is  and  what  He is, is made in the person of Christ. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared" (1 John 1:18). But this knowledge of God is not a mere matter of intellectual apprehension, which one man can communicate to another. But it is a spiritual discernment, imparted by the Holy Spirit. God must shine in our hearts to give us that knowledge. When the materialistic Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father," the Lord Jesus replied, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Yes, He was "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person" (Heb. 1:3). In the eternal, incarnate

The Holy Spirit  As it was with Christ Himself, so it is with His members. He was conceived by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit. He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, and by the Spirit He was raised from the dead; even so the members of Christ answer unto Christ Himself. All is by the Spirit; we are conceived by the Spirit, the same Spirit that sanctifies us; but first we receive the Spirit by way of Union, and then unction follows after; when we are knit to Christ by the Spirit, then it works the same in us as it did in Him. . The Spirit of God may be known to be in weak Christians, as the soul is known to be in the body by the pulses; even so the Spirit discovers itself in them by pulses, by groaning, sighing, complaining that it is so with them and that they are no better, so that they are out of love with themselves. This is a happy sign that the Spirit in some good measure dwells in such souls.  In trouble we are prone to forget all that we

  But we have not exhausted this portion of the lesson when we have pointed out that those whom the elder brother represents fret proudly and peevishly against the admission of their neighbours into the kingdom: by that very fact they unconsciously but surely demonstrate that themselves have not entered yet. The spirit that in regard to self is satisfied, before God unhumbled, and towards men unloving, has no part with Christ: this is the proud whom God knoweth afar off, not the meek whom he delights to honour. Ah, woe to the man who serves God as that son served his father, with a mercenary mind and an unbroken heart,—who thinks his obedience praiseworthy, and would be surprised if it should go without reward. The elder son was lost as well as the younger; but as far as the parable reveals his history, he was not like him found again: he, like his brother, went astray; but unlike him, refused to come back. The father was grieved as much by the sullen, dry, hard, cold, dead formal

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her."  Hosea 2:14 It is in the margin "to her heart;" and God speaks to the heart; that is the special characteristic of his voice. Men may speak to the ear, and they can do no more; but God speaks to the heart, for it is there that his voice alone is heard. All true religion first and last lies in a man's heart. He may have his head well furnished with notions, yet a heart destitute of grace. But not so with the vessels of mercy, for they "believe with the heart unto righteousness;" and it is by the voice of God heard in the heart that a saving faith is raised up in the soul. There God must speak if there is to be any heart religion, any sound or saving experience, any knowledge of the truth so as to be blessed and saved thereby. But in the wilderness we learn the deep necessity there is that God should speak to our heart. We need the Lord himself

By a strict observation of the sabbath, the name of God is honoured, and that in such a way as is very acceptable to him. Isa. 58:13. "If thou call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and shalt honour him." God is honoured by it, as it is a visible manifestation of respect to God's holy law, and a reverencing of that which has a peculiar relation to God himself, and that more in some respects than the observance of many other commands. And man may be just, and generous, and yet not so plainly show respect to the revealed mind and will of God, for many of the heathen have been so. But if a person, with evident strictness and care, observe the sabbath, it is a visible manifestation of a conscientious regard to God's declaration of his mind, and so is a visible honour done to his authority. By a strict observance of the sabbath, the face of religion is kept up in the world. If it were not for the sabbath, there would be but little public and visible appeara

How are we to obtain the Holy Spirit so freely promised to those who seek Him believingly? Wait, press, and persevere with all the calmness and with all the ardour of a faith which knows no fear, which allows no doubt, a faith which staggers not at the promise through unbelief, a faith which in its darkest and most depressed hours against hope believes in hope, which is brightened by hope and strengthened by hope, and which is saved by hope. Wait and pray—here is the key which unlocks every castle of despair, and which opens’ every treasure-store of God. It is the simplicity of the child’s asking of the Father, who gives with a largeness, liberality, and cheerfulness, infinitely above everything ever known to earthly parents. Ask for the Holy Spirit—seek for the Holy Spirit—knock for the Holy Spirit. He is the Father’s greatest gift for the child’s greatest need. In these three words, “ask,” “seek” and “knock,” given us by Christ, we have the repetition of the advancing steps

During the great Welsh Revival a minister was said to be very successful in winning souls by one sermon that he preached—hundreds were converted. Far away in a valley news reached a brother minister of the marvelous success of this sermon. He desired to find out the secret of the man’s great success.—He walked the long way, and came to the minister’s poor cottage, and the first thing he said was: “Brother, where did you get that sermon?” He was taken into a poorly furnished room and pointed to a spot where the carpet was worn threadbare, near a window that looked out upon the everlasting hills and solemn mountains and said, “Brother, there is where I got that sermon. My heart was heavy for men. One night I knelt there—and cried for power as I never preached before. The hours passed until midnight struck, and the stars looked down on a sleeping world, but the answer came not. I prayed on until I saw a faint streak of grey shoot up, then it war silver—silver became purple and gold. The

The sum of the commandments. 8,8 With all thy soul love God above; And as thyself thy neighbor love. Isaac Watts

It is grace, free, sovereign grace, which has made you to differ! Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of God, imagine that there is some reason "in them" why they should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in the dark, concerning the first principles of grace, and have not yet learned the gospel. If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other hand, confess that they were less than the least- the offscouring of all things- unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell- deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has chosen them out from the rest of the world. Great Christian, you would have been a great sinner if God had not made you to differ! O! you who are valiant for truth, you would have been as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of you! A seat in heaven shall one day be yours; but a chain in hell would have been yours if grace h