A Goodly Heritage

Man’s entire apostasy and death in sin, so that he cannot save himself; and God’s entire supremacy, so that He saves whom He will, are doctrines exceedingly distasteful to human pride. But they are Scriptural. Why was one thief saved and the other lost? “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:26). God was not bound to save the one, and He had power enough to have saved the other; and neither could save himself. What made the difference? The sovereign grace of God. Why was Paul saved and Judas lost? Was it because the former deserved to be saved and the latter to be lost? No, neither deserved to be saved. Was it because the one was a fitting object for the grace of God and the other not? No, the one was no more a fitting object than the other. Why was it that Judea was made a land of light and Egypt remained a region of darkness? Who made the difference? Man or God? Was God unjust in leaving Egypt in the shadow of death when He made light to arise on Israel? What

“For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:12). We walk here amid change, evil, and death. Each year begins and ends with some of these; and the broken ties of earth, far more than the fallen leaf, remind us that this is not our rest. With how many of us are the memories of the past year more linked with the sickbed and the churchyard—with earthly losses and broken hopes—with partings and disappointments and heaviness of spirit—than with gaiety, or brightness, or mirth. But in all this do we not discern most vividly wisdom’s devisings and love’s doings? How much in earnest must God be with us, thus to multiply the dealings of His wondrous discipline, that discipline by which He is drawing men to Himself out of a present evil world (Joh 12:32) and leading upward from height to height, those whom He has already delivered and made heirs of His kingdom! Our changing years affect not Him with Whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as o

 “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”—Jeremiah 6:14 Have you peace with God? I do not ask, do you hope to have peace, or do you think you shall one day get peace, but have you, at this moment, peace with God? Perhaps you have not. Well then, is all right? Do you feel no uneasiness within you? Is there not a secret voice which says, there is something awanting still, and, until that something is supplied, I cannot be happy. The world may smile or frown, still I cannot be happy. Riches may come or go, still I cannot be happy. It may be storm or sunshine, still I cannot be happy. There is a blank within, a feeling of dissatisfaction, a consciousness that all is not right with this soul of mine. It is to this feeling that the prophet Jeremiah refers, when he speaks of “the hurt of the daughter of his people” (Jer 8:21). Israel was “hurt.” She was smitten and wounded. Her sins had wounded her. God’s chastisements h

The New Life 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” (Act 3:15). 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” (Jer 31:22) which God “creates,” to which He calls us, and which He brings about by such stupendous means and a

I shall not attempt a definition of faith. This only let me say in a few words, that the faith which goes no farther than the intellect can neither save nor sanctify. It is no faith at all. It is unbelief. No faith is saving but that which links us to the Person of a living Saviour. Whatever falls short of this is not faith in Christ. Hence, while salvation is described sometimes in Scripture as a “coming to the knowledge of the truth;” it is more commonly represented as a “coming to Christ Himself.” “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life”; “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Joh 5:40; 6:37). But whatever view of faith we take, one thing is obvious, that it is from first to last “the gift of God” (Rom 6:23). Make it as simple as you please, still it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s direct, immediate, all-quickening power. (Never attempt, I beseech you, my dear friend, to make faith simple, with the view of getting rid of the Spirit to produce it.) This, I be

Religion is not a far-off, but a pressing and everyday affair. The very humblest of mankind may be the greatest saint of God. It is only small and ignorant natures which shrink from lowly tasks. Nothing can be ignoble which a noble purpose glorifies. In this Psalm you have the things necessary for the man who may claim the high blessing of God. What are they. Strange to say, they are precisely those things that we should demand of the ordinary English gentleman, of the ordinary English tradesman, of the ordinary English working man. Mere morality, you may say, and for the most part, negative morality. David does not say he was to be brave, magnanimous, self-sacrificing. He only says that he must not be a liar or a slanderer, or one who wrongs others, or takes rewards against the innocent. You may be tempted to say, surely David puts the scale too low! Had, then, David a less overwhelming sense than we have of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity? If you think in that way to g

The Psalmist will be "preserved"; he will not only be created. There is a cold deism which says, "Having been created, that is enough; the rest belongs to myself; I must attend to the details of life; creation may have been a Divine act, but all education, culture, "progress, preservation must fall under my own personal care." The Psalmist begins in another tone. He opens his Psalm with the great word "preserve" — equal to, Attend to all my cares and wants; pity my feebleness; take hold of my right hand, and of my left hand, and be round about me, and never leave me for one moment to myself. That is true worship. Only a sense of the Divine nearness of that kind can adequately sustain a noble and growing religion. We need a daily prayer; we die for want of daily food; every morning must be a revelation in light, every night must be a revelation in rest. This is not a selfish preservation, a preservation from evil, or danger, or suffering only, but the

God's Word and works, the two great sources of our knowledge of God. When we want to get clear and vivid conception of any truth we employ analogy and institute comparison, and say it is "as" or "like" some object in nature. Text an illustration of this. It means — I.  THAT THE ROYAL PSALMIST PRAYS TO BE DIVINELY PROTECTED. He did not possess all our modern knowledge of the anatomy of the eye, but he must have known much or he could not have penned this prayer. Of all the organs of the body the eye is the most delicate and precious, and is protected by the most wonderful and elaborate contrivances. The eyes are the sentinels of the body, and keep constant guard over it. They are the windows through which the soul looks out upon all things within its range. They are closely connected with the brain, and by a mysterious telegraphy of nerves convey to the brain knowledge of what is passing in the outer world. The eyes are like citizens within the entrenchments o

The world is no friend to righteousness; its spirit cannot endure the restraints that holiness imposes upon its workings. Hence the world's hostility to all those who live truly godly lives. To understand the full force of keeping one as the apple of the eye it is necessary to consider first, how the whole eye is protected, sheltered by bones and sinews, opening and closing doors, light-softening and dust-excluding curtains, and then, that the pupil of the eye, located farther in, is protected by guardians equally wonderful and peculiarly its own. There is no other part of the human body so wonderfully protected, and no other part that, when endangered, we so instinctively try to shelter from harm. And so God guards His people as tenderly as we guard the pupil of our eye; yea, as tenderly as He guards the pupil of His own eye. ( David Caldwell, A. M. )

There is no necessary contrast between what are called the scientific and the religious aspects of nature. Science keeps its eye upon the facts of nature, carefully verifies and measures them, and seeks to discover their exact relations to each other. Religion, too, is interested in nature, and behind each natural fact sees chiefly Him to whom both effect and cause are traceable. Religion is more necessary to us men than science, and therefore God has taught us religion first of all. The succession of day and night will illustrate what I am saying. We know the physical causes of night, but it has another and a higher meaning, and this is hinted at in our text. The religious aspects of night are many. It strikes us first of all — I.  AS AN INTERRUPTION. It breaks in upon and suspends all human occupation. At the very least eight hours in the twenty-four, a quarter of a century in the life of a man of seventy-five, are withdrawn from the demands of labour, And as each day the shadow o

The Comfort of the Holy Ghost, etc., for Salvation. Not so much to instruct you, as to leave with you (dearly beloved brethren) some testimony of my love, I have thought good to communicate with you, in these few lines, my weak counsel, how I would you should behave yourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, touching the exercise of God's most holy and sacred word, without which neither shall knowledge increase, godliness appear, nor fervency continue amongst you. For as the word of God is the beginning of spiritual life, without which all flesh is dead in God's presence; and [as it is] the lantern to our feet, without the brightness whereof all the posterity of Adam does walk in darkness; and as it is the foundation of faith, without which no man understands the good will of God; so it is also the only organ and instrument which God uses to strengthen the weak, to comfort the afflicted, to reduce to mercy by repentance such as have slidden, and, finally, to preserve

Psalm 55:45 - "That they might observe his statutes and keep his laws." Men, brethren, and fathers, and all ye to whom I am about to preach the kingdom of God, I suppose you need not be informed, that being indispensably obliged to be absent on your late thanksgiving day, I could not show my obedience to the governor's proclamation, as my own inclination led me, or as might justly be expected from, and demanded of me. But as the occasion of that day's thanksgiving is yet, and I trust ever will be, fresh in our memory, I cannot think that a discourse on that subject can even now be altogether unseasonable. I take it for granted, further, that you need not be informed, that among the various motives which are generally urged to enforce obedience to the divine commands, that of love is the most powerful and cogent. The terrors of the law ma affright and awe, but love dissolves and melts the heart. "The love of Christ," says the great apostle of the Gentiles,

There are  three kinds of assurance  spoken of in the Word of God– 1. "The assurance of  understanding ,"  Col. 2:2; which means, a clear, comprehensive, heart-establishing acquaintance with divine truth. 2. "The assurance of  faith ,"  Heb. 10:22; which signifies an entire persuasion of the truth of the gospel. 3. "The assurance of  hope ,"  Heb. 6:11; which imports a confidence of personal saving interest in Christ. It is of the latter I treat in this address. They are all three intimately related to, and grow out of each other. In proportion as we fully know and are spiritually taught the doctrines of the gospel, we shall be fully assured of their truth, and have the assurance of faith. And in exact proportion as we are fully assured of the divine person, mission, and work of Christ, we shall be fully assured of our personal interest in them, faith being based upon knowledge, and hope upon faith. The assurance of knowledge and faith has ref