A Goodly Heritage

  BY HORATIUS BONAR " This world in its present form is passing away!"  1 Corinthians 7:31 " The world is passing away , and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever!" 1 John 2:17 The things that are seen are temporal. Ours is a dying world, and here we have no continuing city. But a few years — it may be less — and all things here are changed. But a few years — it may be less — and the Lord shall have come, and the last trumpet shall have sounded, and the great sentence shall have been pronounced upon each of the sons of men. There is a world that which does not pass away. It is fair and glorious. It is called "the inheritance in light." It is bright with the love of God, and with the joy of Heaven. "The Lamb is the light thereof." Its gates are of pearl — they are always open. And as we tell men of this wondrous city, we invite them to enter in. The Book of Revelation tells us the story of earth's vanity: "The

  "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts." Psalm 51:1-6 The holiest man on earth has cause to confess that he has sinned. Confession is the duty of the best Christians. While the ship leaks—the pump must not stand still. Confession is a soul-humbling duty, and the best have need of that, for they are in most danger of being lifted up in pride. To preserve us from self-exaltations, the Lord sometimes sends the messenger of Satan to buffet us by temptations, and commands us to buffet ourselves by confessions. Confession

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)    T is here that God begins His actual application of salvation unto His elect. God saves  us from the pleasure or love of sin before He delivers us from the penalty or punishIment of sin. Necessarily so, for it would be neither an act of holiness nor of righteousness were He to grant full pardon to one who was still a rebel against Him, loving  that which He hates. God is a God of order throughout, and nothing ever more evidences  the perfections of His works than the orderliness of them. And how does God save His  people from the pleasure of sin? The answer is, “By imparting to them a nature which  hates evil and loves holiness.” This takes place when they are born again, so that actual  salvation begins with regeneration. Of course it does: where else could it commence?  Fallen man can never perceive his desperate need of salvation nor come to Christ for it,  till he has been renewed by the Holy Spirit.  “He hath made everything beautiful in his time” (Ec

I.  MAN WORSHIP. Look at — 1.  The great miracle.(1) The cripple. His condition was, humanly speaking, hopeless. So the sinner ( Romans 7:18 ;  Psalm 51:5 ).(2) The cure. Look at the steps.(a) "The same heard Paul speaking." The gospel came with healing to the soul before healing was given to his body.(b) Perceiving how undoubting was the man's faith in Christ as a Saviour, Paul saw that he would have just as much faith in Him as a healer.(c) "Stand upright on thy feet." To that clarion call all the energies of the lame man's being responded. The sense of impotence gave place to a sense of power. There was a second miracle in the leaping and walking; for with man walking and leaping are the result of many trials and failures. 2.  The great mistake. The miracle set the people reasoning. By no mere human power could such a wonder be performed; therefore these men must be gods. Even the priest of Jupiter himself came to do priestly homage. II.  TRUE WORSHIP. So

  Christian worker says: "We were asked one day to call and see a poor woman who was very ill. We found her worn and faint, in a state of extreme discomfort and poverty. In the room were screaming children, whose mother was loudly bidding them 'Be still, or she'd beat them,' so that at first it seemed doubtful whether the invalid would be able to listen to anything. 'It's all there,' said the poor woman, laying her hand on her chest, 'and don't leave me night nor day. I can't get rid of the burden!' Our efforts to arrange the pillow and straighten the rags meant for bed clothes did not afford any relief.' No, my dear, it's not that, it's not that. Its all my sins as I've done ever since I was a child: they come up before me, and lie there so heavy. They tell me I must die; but I can't.' 'Now, listen, and I will tell you of a man who felt just as you did, only perhaps worse. He was so bad that he could not keep fro

I.  The ETERNITY of the Word. 1.  By the phrase "in the beginning" is to be understood eternity. Had St. John said "before" the beginning, he would have presented eternity under the laws of time, a mistake as grave as to describe the Infinite under the conditions of the finite. But mounting up higher than time and space, he leads us to the calm where God dwelleth. 2.  Four times he repeats the word "was"; which —(1) Joined with "beginning," makes the idea of eternity dawn upon the mind in all its awful grandeur.(2) Joined to "with God," involves a contrast with verse 3. The sun, moon, and stars in the beginning "were made"; the Word in the beginning "was." His existence and theirs consequently differ radically.(3) Joined to "God" contrasts with verse 14. "In the beginning was the Word"; in the fulness of time "the Word was made flesh." 3.  Christ always existed as the Word. It was not in

Jealousy is sensitive aliveness to any abatement or transference of affection. There is a sense in which God Himself is said to be jealous over His people. For God will endure no rival. And the faithful ambassador may be allowed to indulge his Master's feeling. It was such a sentiment that filled the heart of Paul here. Note — I.  THE WORK OF A FAITHFUL MINISTER. There is a delicacy in the figure employed, viz., that souls who are brought into covenant with God in Christ are betrothed to Him. And the ministers of Christ are represented as the friend of the Bridegroom, who transacts between the Bridegroom and His future bride, and bespeaks her and betroths her to the Bridegroom against the nuptial day. We have a beautiful illustration in the mission of the faithful servant of Abraham. This is the minister's highest and holiest function. II.  HIS HOPE AND PURPOSE — "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." At the coming of Christ to have a goodly company of

  ." A flower is the diadem of a plant. You don't tie a flower on its stem. It grows out of it. And if the Spirit of Jesus Christ dwell in your heart, the beauty of His grace will blossom forth in your character and life. It will be not a mere outward decoration, to be put on and off on certain days, like a lady's feathers or a queen's crown; it will be always there. No wonder the Psalmist prayed, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!" This is a beauty brighter and better than the diadem of kings. ( A. A. Ramsey. )

There is scarcely a more striking evidence to be found of the corrupt and perverted state of the human heart than that which is furnished in the views which commonly prevail of the distinctive features of the Christian religion. The pageantry and pomp of a false religion it will admire and approbate; but the spirit of the true it has ever contemned and repelled as a spirit of weakness, fanaticism, or bigotry. The spirit which it so characterises and so contemns is what God in our text styles "a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty" to His people. The crown and the diadem are, in the eyes of the world, objects of great beauty and value. They are usually set with diamonds, and with the most brilliant and costly gems, and are worn not only as ornaments, but as the insignia of royal authority and power, Hence they are properly employed as emblems to represent that which God regards as the most precious and beauteous ornament of His people. He says He will be to them for a crown

  Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" Not "what." Not in things, but in persons, the personal soul must find its portion. Not in many, but in One, to whom the soul can look, and to whom, as here, it can lift up its cry. I.  GOD ALONE CAN MEET OUR SINFULNESS. This is our first need, for we are sinners, and this fact affects everything else. There may be any amount of slumbering grandeur in us, but it cannot get out for sin. None of us would be willing or able to reveal to another all that he is conscious of in himself. Hence men are reserved with one another. A man is accosting his neighbour in neighbourly kindness, and thinking the while, "He does not know me, and I durst not tell him what I think and what I feel and what I am. If I were sure he would understand everything just as it is, I might be able to tell him; but being sure that he would not understand, I cannot." Now we are not speaking of any great sins or vices which particular men may have committed, an

  Hear the rod and the One who ordained it" (Micah 6:9). "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7). How can it be otherwise, living as he is in a world which is under the curse that Adam's sin entailed, and, what is worse, under God's judgment because of its casting out of His beloved Son. Yet the subject of "trouble" needs to be "rightly divided" if we are to properly heed that exhortation, "Be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17), an important part of which consists in understanding the meaning and message of our Father to us in all the "trouble" which we encounter and experience. As we turn to the Holy Scriptures for light upon this subject of Trouble, Suffering, Affliction, Tribulation, Persecution, etc., we discover two distinct and different lines of Truth thereon, running all through the Word. On the one hand we read that, "We must through much tribulation ent

 What serious heart doth not melt into compassion over the deluded multitude, who are mocked with dreams, and perpetually busied about trifles? Who are, (after so many frustrated attempts both of their own, and all past ages) eagerly pursuing the fleeting shadows, who torture and rack their brains to find out the natures and qualities of birds, beasts, and plants; indeed any thing rather than their own souls, which are certainly the most excellent creatures that inhabit this world. They know the true value and worth of other things? but are not able to estimate the dignity of that high born spirit that is within them. A spirit which (without the addition of any more natural faculties or powers, if those it has be but sanctified and devoted to God) is capable of the highest perfections and fruitions, even complete conformity to God, and the satisfying visions of God throughout eternity. They herd themselves with beasts, who are capable of an equality with angels. O what compassionate te

  Humility is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. It must be an attribute, a characteristic of prayer. Humility must be in the praying character as light is in the sun. Prayer has no beginning, no ending, no being, without humility. As a ship is made for the sea, so prayer is made for humility, and so humility is made for prayer. Humility is not abstraction from self, nor does it ignore thought about self. It is a many-phased principle. Humility is born by looking at God, and his holiness, and then looking at self and man’s unholiness. Humility loves obscurity and silence, dreads applause, esteems the virtues of others, excuses their faults with mildness, easily pardons injuries, fears contempt less and less, and sees baseness and falsehood in pride. A true nobleness and greatness are in humility. It knows and reveres the inestimable riches of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ. It fears the lustre of those virtues admired by men, and loves those that are more secre

    OUR TRUEST NOTIONS OF HEAVEN ARE DERIVED FROM CONSIDERATIONS RATHER OF WHAT IT IS NOT THAN OF WHAT IT IS. How glorious a liberty it will be to attain "the redemption of our body." Think of the toil it has to undergo, the distempers and pains to which it is subject. But then, we shall be out of the reach of these. There will be no sickness, no withering old age; no poor shall cry for bread, none shall thirst or hunger any more. And there will be no more death. No, not of the irrational creation; the sheep and cattle will be slaughtered no more. And there will be no more sin. Then the nations learn war no more. Sin is the root of all our miseries. But days of innocence that we cannot know here will be realised there. Such are some of its negative blessings. II.  LET US CONSIDER SOME OF ITS POSITIVE BLESSINGS. The happiness of heaven is occasionally described under the most captivating forms of rural pleasure. We read of its green pastures, its clear fountains, its rivers of