A Goodly Heritage

 Now notice briefly in the second place the variety of the reward according to the character. The prophet has his, the righteous man has his, the little one has his. That is to say, each level of spiritual or moral stature receives its own prize. There is no difficulty in seeing that this is so in regard to the  rewards  of this life. Every faithful message delivered by a prophet increases that prophet’s own blessedness, and has joys in the receiving of it from God, in the speaking of it to men, in the marking of its effects as it spreads through the world, which belong to him alone. In all these, and in many other ways, the ‘prophet’ has  rewards  that no stranger can intermeddle with. All courses of obedient conduct have their own appropriate consequences and satisfaction. Every character is adapted to receive, and does receive, in the measure of its goodness, certain blessings and joys, here and now. ‘Surely the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth.’ And the same princi

. Since men fell from God by sin, it is no small part of their misery and punishment, that they are covered with thick darkness and  ignorance  of the nature of God. They know him not, they have not seen him at any time. Hence is that promise to the church in Christ,  Isa. lx. 2 , “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” The ancient philosophers made great inquiries into, and obtained many notions of, the Divine Being — its existence and excellencies. And these notions they adorned with great elegance of speech, to allure others unto the admiration of them. Hereon they boasted themselves to be the only wise men in the world,  Rom. i. 22 ,  φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ , — they boasted that they were the wise. But we must abide in the judgment of the apostle concerning them in their inquiries; he assures us that the world in its wisdom — that is, these wise men in it by their

The soul is now parting with all things here below, and that for ever. None of all the things which it has seen, heard, or enjoyed, be it outward senses, can be prevailed with to stay with it one hour, or to take one step with it in the voyage wherein it is engaged. It must alone by itself launch into eternity. It is entering an invisible world, which it knows no more of than it has received by faith. None has come from the dead to inform us of the state of the other world; yea, God seems on purpose so to conceal it from us, that we should have no evidence of it, at least as unto the manner of things in it, but what is given unto faith by divine revelation. Hence those who died and were raised again from the dead unto any continuance among men, as Lazarus, probably knew nothing of the invisible state. Their souls were preserved by the power of God in their being, but bound up as unto present operations. This made a great emperor cry out, on the approach of death, “ O animula, tremula

 He it is in whom  our nature , which was debased as low as hell by apostasy from God,  is exalted  above the whole creation. Our nature, in the original constitution of it, in the persons of our first parents, was crowned with honour and dignity. The image of God, wherein it was made, and the dominion over the lower world wherewith it was intrusted, made it the seat of excellence, of beauty, and of glory. But of them all it was at once divested and made naked by sin, and laid grovelling in the dust from whence it was taken. “Dust thou are, and to dust thou shalt return,” was its righteous doom. And all its internal faculties were invaded by deformed lusts, — everything that might render the whole unlike unto God, whose image it had lost. Hence it became the contempt of angels, the dominion of Satan; who, being the enemy of the whole creation, never had any thing or place to reign in but the debased nature of man. Nothing was now more vile and base; its glory was utterly departed. It

 JESUS is well called, “our Lord.” Let us, at the commencement, adore Him. Let us each one cry to Him, “My Lord, and my God.” It is a long time since our Lord went up to Heaven and He said that He would come again. Evidently, some of those who best understood Him misunderstood Him and thought that He would surely come again even in their lifetime. He said that He would come and faithful ones in all ages have looked for Him—it is not possible that our Lord can have deceived us. Because He is so sweetly our Lord, our Brethren have made sure that He will keep His word and He will. But certain of them have gone beyond our Lord’s promise and have felt sure that they knew when He would come— and they have been bitterly disappointed because the hour which they fixed, passed over, and He did not appear. This does not prove that He will not come. The day is certainly nearer and every hour is hastening His coming. “Behold, He comes with clouds, and every eye shall see Him.” But why are His char

"Strengthened With All Might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Col. 1:11). This is the third petition of the prayer, and we will begin our remarks upon it by pointing out its relation to those preceding it, particularly verse 10. First, it seems to us that whereas verse 10 treats more of the active side of the Christian life, verse 11 has more definitely in view its passive side. Or, to express it in another way, whereas the former intimates the use we should make of communicated grace in a way of doing, this teaches us how to improve that grace in a way of suffering. And is not this usually the order in which divine providence affords the saint occasion to discharge each of those responsibilities? When the Christian is young and vigorous, those graces which are expressed in the performing of good works are afforded their fullest opportunity. But as natural strength and youthful zeal abate, as trials and infirmities incr

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me." -Gal. 2:20. In a treatise designed to illustrate the moral phenomena of Spiritual Life- the  lights  and  shadows  which pencil its chequered history, it is essential that, in the outset, we scripturally and distinctly define its  nature  and indicate its  source . On this vital subject it must not be concealed that opinions are extant which, when measured by the standard of God's Word, by which alone all theological teachings must be tested- will be found diametrically antagonistic to its teaching, and fatally perilous to those who receive them. In the creed to which we have referred, the idea is advanced- imported, doubtless, from the German school of thought, and endorsed with the name of one of its most learned divines- that Christianity is life derived from the sinless nature of Christ, as the 'ideal of humanity' and communicated solely by the authority and agency of th

We turn unto a consideration of  God's loving-kindness , because it is our desire and aim to maintain a due proportion in treating of the divine perfections, for all of us are very apt to entertain  one-sided ideas and views  of the same. There is a balance to be preserved here (as everywhere), as appears in those two summarized statements of the divine attributes, "God is light" (1 John 1:5), "God is love" (1 John 4:8). The sterner and more awe-inspiring aspects of the divine character--are offset by the gentler and more winsome ones. It is to our irreparable loss if our minds dwell almost exclusively on God's sovereignty and majesty, or His holiness and justice; we need to meditate frequently (though not exclusively!) upon His goodness and mercy. Nothing short of a full-orbed view of the divine perfections--as they are revealed in Holy Writ--should content us. Scripture speaks of "the  multitude  of his loving kindnesses" (Isaiah 63:7), and

Free-willism teaches that a man must do something for God before God will something for him. That, my friend, is the opposite of what God’s word teaches. The Bible says,  “man is dead in trespasses and sin”  (Ephesians 2:1), and that  “there is none righteousness, no not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeks after God”  (Romans 3:10-19). Tell me then how a dead man can perform a saving act? How can a soul who has no righteousness, do a righteous act? The Lord Jesus Christ said;  “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”  (John 3:3). If a soul is dead (as the word of God teaches), he cannot see God’s kingdom and the only way he can see, hear or do a spiritual act is he must be given life. He must pass from death unto life. It is obvious he can’t give himself life. Christ must perform a miracle; the new birth is a miracle, a super natural act. Free-willism teaches that man’s repentance and faith is the cause of the new birth.