A Goodly Heritage

How sweet it is to trace the Lord's hand in providence  . . . to look back on the chequered path that He has led us by; to see how His hand has been with us for good; what difficulties He has brought us through; in what straits He has appeared;  how in things most trying He has wrought deliverance;  and how He has sustained us to the present hour.  How sweet are providential favours  when they come  stamped with this inscription, "This is from the Lord!"  How precious every temporal mercy becomes —our  very food, lodging, and clothing!  How sweet is the least thing  when it comes down  to us as from God's hands! A man cannot know the  sweetness of his daily bread until he sees that God  gives it to him—nor the blessedness of any providential  dealing until he can say, "God has done this for me—and  given that to me."  When a man sees the providence of God stamped on every action of life, it casts   a glory, a beauty, and a sweetness   over every day of his

Search the New  Testament Scripture, and examine closely your own walk, and ascertain in what particular your obedience to Christ is deficient. Be upright, honest, and sincere in your inquiry. Let your fervent prayer be, "Lord, what will You have me to do? Is there any precept of Your word slighted, any command disobeyed, any cross not taken up? Is there any desire to withhold my neck from Your yoke, or to withdraw my shoulder from Your burden, or to mark out a smoother path than that which You have chosen and bid me walk in? Is there any secret framing of excuse for my disobedience, any temporizing, any carnal feeling, any worldly motive, any fear of man, any shrinking from consequences? Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You. You are precious to my soul, for You have borne my sins, endured my curse, carried my cross; and in return do only ask, as an evidence of how much I owe, and how much I love, that I should keep Your commandments, and follow Your example. Now,

  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32      Each successive application which the Apostle makes of the great doctrine he had been so ably discussing, serves but more fully to unfold the glory and sweetness of the truth. We can scarcely light upon a passage in this brilliant and consolatory chapter, so rich and comprehensive as the present. Our admiration is divided between the vastness of the truth it contains, and the exquisite grace and appropriateness with which it is introduced. It was just the truth needed to give repose and enlargement to the mind, after threading its way through the mazes lucid, though profound- of God's predestinating purpose and plan. As if anticipating the cold, impassive view of God, which some might be disposed to cherish, Paul introduces a fact which would at once dispel the false conception, vindicate the Divine character, and exhibit it in all the

1   The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength,  wherewith  he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. 2   Thy throne  is  established of old: thou  art  from everlasting. 3   The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 4   The LORD on high  is  mightier than the noise of many waters,  yea, than  the mighty waves of the sea. 5   Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.

Divine Light 1. This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or statesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul, than all the knowledge of those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity without grace. This knowledge has the most noble object that is or can be,  viz. , the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The knowledge of these objects is that wherein consists the most excellent knowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself. 2. This knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful. Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most

Did Christ merely suffer in His death? Was His own agency not concerned in it? Then, was He not a Priest on Calvary, but merely a Lamb? If so, the question at once arises, “Who offered up this Lamb of God, the eternal Son of God, a sacrifice upon the cross?” Either the Father or the Spirit was the Priest, neither of Whom was ever “taken from among men” or “ordained for men…that he may offer” (Heb 5:1); or there was no Priest. For assuredly no creature could be admitted to the honour of offering up the only begotten of the Father. In any case, in this view, Christ’s death occurred outside His Priesthood. If that is true, His death can be nothing to us. I refuse to believe in the cross of Christ as a mere passive endurance. And I refuse to discuss the doctrine of His death under any such restriction of its marvelous, [singular], and transcendent glory. I deny that His God-glorifying agency was overborne before He died, leaving Him a mere victim to causes and means of death, aside fro

The believer in reality is the only man who has thoroughly fathomed the nature and claims of true and incorruptible friendship. In his friendship with God he has had the glorious opportunity of learning them. And the lessons, which on that high field he learns, he will be prepared and desirous to bring into exercise in those lower spheres of friendship which he may be privileged to occupy among his fellow men. Nor will he lack opportunity for doing so. In this sense he is indeed no more a stranger and a foreigner, but a fellow-citizen with the saints and of the household of God, admitted to a brotherhood of the widest extent and of the most intimate kind. Can it be forgotten that the David who gave utterance to the sentiment we have so often quoted, "I am a stranger on the earth," was the friend of Jonathan, and that it was precisely when realizing most intensely that he was a stranger on the earth, hunted even as a partridge on its mountains, that he enjoyed most intensely

" The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, God, Thou wilt not despise. Ps. li. 17. No psalm expresses more fully the experience of a penitent believing soul : — First, His humbling confession of sin, vers. 3, 4, 5. Second, His intense desire for pardon through the blood of Christ, ver. 7. Third, His longing after a clean heart, ver. 10. Fourth, His desire to render something to God for all his benefits. (1.) He says, I will teach transgressors thy ways. (2.) My lips shall show forth thy praise. (3.) He will give a broken heart, vers. 16, 17. Just as, long ago, they used to offer slain lambs in token of thanksgiving, so he says he will offer up to God a slain and broken heart. Every one of you, who has found the same forgiveness, should come to the same resolution offer up to God this day a broken heart. I. The natural heart is sound and unbroken. The law, the gospel, mercies, afflictions, death, do not break the natural heart

Let me tell you a word of another gentle lamb, whom Jesus gathered, and whom I saw on her way from grace to glory. She was early brought to Christ, and early taken to be with Him where He is. She told her companions that she generally fell asleep on these words, " His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me ;" and sometimes on these, " Underneath are the everlasting arms." She said she did not know how it was, but somehow she felt that Christ was always near her. Another time she said, " I think it's the best way to make myself as loathsome as I can before Him, and then to look to Jesus." When seized with her last illness, and told that the doctors thought she would not live long, she looked quite composed, and said, " I am very happy at that." She said she could not love Jesus enough here ; that she would like to be with Him, and then she would love Him as she ought. To her tender, watchful relative she

(1.) Formality, We are such weak creatures that any regularly returning duty is apt to degenerate into a lifeless form. The ten- dency of reading the word by a fixed rule may, in same minds, be to create this skeleton religion. This is to be the peculiar sin of the last days : " Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Guard against this. (2.) Self -righteousness. , Some, when they have devoted their set time to reading the word, and accomphshed their prescribed por- tion, may be tempted to look at themselves with self-complacency. Many, I am persuaded, are having without any divine work on their soul unpardoned and unsanctified, and ready to perish,who spend their appointed times in secret and family devotion. This is going to hell with a lie in the right hand. (3.) Careless reading. Few tremble at the word of God. Few, in reading it, hear the voice of Jehovah, which is full of majesty. Some, by having so large a portion, may be tempte

“For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto his brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.”—HEB. 2:16–18. Doctrine—Christ a merciful High Priest. I. The sovereign mercy of Christ in becoming man.—“For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” We read of two great rebellions in the history of the universe—the rebellion of the angels, and the rebellion of man. For infinitely wise and gracious purposes God planned and permitted both of these, that out of evil He might bring forth good. The first took place in heaven itself. Pride was the sin by which the angels fell, and therefore it is called “the condemnation of the devil.”

Another gospel - with no conviction There is another Gospel, too popular in the present day, which seems to exclude conviction of sin and repentance from the scheme of Salvation; which demands from the sinner a mere intellectual assent to the fact of his guilt and sinfulness, and a like intellectual assent to the fact and sufficiency of Christ's atonement; and such assent yielded, tells him to go in peace, and to he happy in the assurance that the Lord Jesus has made all right between his soul and God; thus crying peace, peace, when there is no peace. "Flimsy and false conversions of this sort may be one reason why so many who assume the Christian profession dishonor God and bring reproach on the church by their inconsistent lives, and by their ultimate relapse into worldliness and sin. The whole counsel of God must be declared. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin.' Sin must be felt before it can be mourned. Sinners must sorrow before they can be comforted. True conve

Out of Christ's mouth comes not only a wounding but a killingsword. When He speaks with power—and, oh, how I wish that He would do so just now!—sinners feel that their self-righteousness is killed and that all their carnal hopes are killed. They can say—and I trust that some of you can say, with John—"'When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.' I was alive till I saw Christ, I seemed to be all that I wanted to be till I saw Christ. But when I saw Him on the Cross. When I read the mystery of His passion and understood what it cost Him to redeem a soul from death, then I saw what a sinner I must be—and I also saw what would be the result of my sin if Ihad to bear the penalty of it. And then, 'I fell at His feet as dead.'" Brothers and Sisters, let us pray the Lord Jesus Christ to use that sword which is in His mouth—constantly to use it among us, for what is the use of the seven stars in His right hand—what is the use of anything unless Christ's ow

What must be the apostate professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, “Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from me: I also have banished thee forever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon thee.” What will be this wretch’s shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one, “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another, “he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another, “here comes a psalm-singing Methodist—one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!” No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s

Catharine Smith was a native of Pabay, a small island in Loch Roag, where dwell seven families. From their insular situation and poverty, it has not been in the power of the parents to educate their children ; but little Kitty is an example of the truth that all God's children are taught of him, for when only two years old she was observed to lay aside her playthings, and clasp her little hands with reverence during family worship ; and at the age of three she was in the habit of repeating the 23d Psalm, with such relish and fervour as showed that she looked to the good shepherd in the character of a lamb of his flock. Her parents taught her also tbe I>ord's Prayer, which she repeated duly, not only at her stated times, hut often in the silence of night. She frequently pressed the duty of prayer, not only on the other children, but on her parents, and she told her father that, in their absence, v/hen she would ask a blessing- on the food left for the c

Syria: Nebo, the Mount The Burial of Moses Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895)              “And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” —Deuteronomy  xxxiv. 6 .     B Y  Nebo’s lonely mountain, On this side Jordan’s wave, In a vale in the land of Moab, There lies a lonely grave; But no man built that sepulchre,         5 And no man saw it e’er; For the angels of God upturned the sod, And laid the dead man there.   That was the grandest funeral That ever passed on earth;         10 Yet no man heard the trampling, Or saw the train go forth: Noiselessly as the daylight Comes when the night is done, And the crimson streak on Ocean’s cheek         15 Grows into the great sun;   Noiselessly as the spring-time Her crown of verdure weaves, And all the trees on all the hills Unfold their thousand leaves:         20 So without sound of music, Or voice of them that wept,

It is to a new life that God is calling us; not to some new steps in life, some new habits or ways or motives or prospects, but to a new life . For the production of this new life the eternal Son of God took flesh, died, was buried, and rose again. It was not life producing life, a lower life rising into a higher, but life rooting itself in its opposite, life wrought out of death, by the death of “the Prince of life.” Of the new creation, as of the old, He is the author. For the working out of this the Holy Spirit came down in power, entering men's souls and dwelling there, that out of the old He might bring forth the new. That which God calls new must be so indeed. For the Bible means what it says, as being, of all books, not only the most true in thought, but the most accurate in speech. Great then and authentic must be that “new thing in the earth” which God “creates,” to which He calls us, and which He brings about by such stupendous means and at such a cost. Most ha

How illustrious every holy person is. He is a fair glass in which some of the beams of God's holiness shine forth. We read that Aaron put on his garments for glory and beauty. Exod xxviii 2. when we wear the embroidered garment of holiness, it is for glory and beauty. A good Christian is ruddy, being sprinkled with Christ's blood; and white, being adorned with holiness. As the diamond to a ring, so is holiness to the soul; that, as Chrysostom says, they that oppose it cannot but admire it. (2.) It is the great design God carries on in the world, to make a people like himself in holiness. What are all the showers of ordinances for, but to rain down righteousness upon us, and make us holy? What are the promises for, but to encourage holiness? What is the sending of the Spirit into the world for, but to anoint us with the holy unction? I John ii 20. What are all afflictions for, but to make us partakers of God's holiness? Heb xii 10. What are mercies for, but loadstones to

The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a "god" patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the Divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin. The character attributed to the "gods" of the ancients and of modern heathendom are the very reverse of that immaculate purity which pertains to the true God. An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is in