A Goodly Heritage

"We know that all things work together for good,  to those who love God, to those who are called  according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 All the afflictions, and all the temptations, and all the desertions, and all the oppressions, and all the oppositions, and all the persecutions — which befall a godly man, shall work for his good. Every cross, and every loss, and every disease— which befall the holy man, shall work for his good. Every device, every snare, every deceit, every depth, every stratagem, and every enterprise of  Satan against the holy man, shall work for his good. They shall all help to make him . . .  more humble,  more holy,  more heavenly,  more spiritual,  more faithful,  more fruitful,  more watchful. Every prosperity and every adversity; every storm and every calm; every bitter and every sweet; every cross and every comfort — shall work for the holy man's good. When God  gives  a mercy —  that shall work for his good. When God  takes away  a mer

In treating of the Will of God some theologians have differentiated between His decretive will and His permissive will, insisting that there are certain things which God has positively fore-ordained, but other things which He merely suffers to exist or happen. But such a distinction is really no distinction at all, inasmuch as God only permits that which is according to His will. No such distinction would have been invented had these theologians discerned that God could have decreed the existence and activities of sin without Himself being the Author of sin. Personally, we much prefer to adopt the distinction made by the older Calvinists between God’s secret and revealed will, or, to state it in another way, His disposing and His preceptive will. God’s revealed will is made known in His Word, but His secret will is His own hidden counsels. God’s revealed will is the definer of our duty and the standard of our responsibility. The primary and basic reason why I should follow a certai

“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). In view of these solemn words it is tremendously important that each of us should seek and obtain from God the repentance which He requires, not resting content with anything short of this. Hence, there needs to be the most diligent and prayerful examination as to the character of our repentance. Multitudes are deceived thereon. Many are perplexed by the conflicting teaching of men on this subject; but instead of that discouraging, it should stir up to a more earnest searching of the Scriptures. Before turning to the positive side of this branch of our theme, let us first point out some of the features of a nonsaving repentance. Trembling beneath the preaching of God's Word is not repentance. True, there are thousands of people who have listened unmoved to the most awe-inspiring sermons, and even descriptions of the torments of the damned have struck no terror to their hearts. Yet, on the other hand, many who were deepl

"And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot." Leviticus 8:22-23 By "the ram of consecration," is meant the ram by which Aaron and his sons were consecrated, or set apart for the service of God. The victim was selected by Moses, who was thus representing God. It was not Aaron and his sons who chose the sacrifice; it was God who made the choice for them, and presented the ram to them, that they might put their hands on it, and in so doing, acknowledge it as God's appointed sacrifice, and accept it as their substitute. Thus, the transaction of sacrifice is here, as elsewhere, shown to be  twofold . Moses, as acting for God, exhibits one part, and Aaron, as acting for the people, exhibits the other. Mose

We have been carnal and unspiritual.  The tone of our life has been low and earthly. Associating too much and too intimately with the world, we have in a great measure become accustomed to its ways. Hence our spiritual tastes have been vitiated, our consciences blunted, and that sensitive tenderness of feeling has worn off and given place to an amount of callousness of which we once, in fresher days, believed ourselves incapable. We have been selfish.  We have shrunk from toil, difficulty and endurance. We have counted only our lives, and our temporal ease and comfort dear unto us. We have sought to please ourselves. We have been worldly and covetous. We have not presented ourselves unto God as "living sacrifices," laying ourselves, our lives, our substance, our time, our strength, our faculties, our all, upon His altar. We seem altogether to have lost sight of this self sacrificing principle on which even as Christians, but much more as ministers, we are called upon to a

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” —Revelation 11:7. The promise here is to the Ephesian conqueror. It is the first of the seven promises, and, like the rest, very glorious, carrying us on to the return of the second Adam, and to paradise regained. It comes from Him who holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, and walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Here, as in several other places, Christ is at once the promiser, the promise, and the thing promised. Of the promise He is the center and its circumference, its body and its soul, its first and its last, the yea and the amen, the eternal yea and the eternal amen. It is out of His varied fullness that the promise is composed, and in each we are presented with some portion of His exceeding riches, His boundless excellency. Christ Himself, in closest intimacy, in most endearing fellowship, in fullest love, and in brightest glory, is presented to

For the past few years, we have endeavored to help some of God's unestablished children by devoting one article annually (under this title) to the particular end of resolving their uncertainty. In order that they may  recognize their spiritual portrait , we seek to describe one or other of those features of the regenerate which the Holy Spirit has drawn in the Scriptures. So far from despising those who are deeply exercised as to their actual state, refusing to "give themselves the benefit of the doubt," we admire their caution. God has exhorted His people to "make their calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10), and one of the ways we may set about doing so is to prayerfully and humbly compare our  hearts  and  lives —  with those marks of grace, or fruits of the Spirit, which are delineated in the Bible. God's Word is likened unto a "mirror" in which we may behold ourselves (James 1:23-24) and perceive what we  are  by nature — and what we ha