God of my Fathers

I. THE GRACE OF GOD COMPARED TO A RIVER.

1. However large in its volume as it gets nearer the sea, every river is small in its beginnings. Thus, also, it is with the grace of God in the soul of man. The most experienced believer will testify that if he would trace back the work of grace, which has grown so steadily, to its first beginnings, the contrast is most marvellous. If he can at all identify its first commencement, he will tell you that it was some apparently trifling incident in his life — a word in season — an earnest sermon — an unaccountable thought — a sleepless night — a witty, but godly rebuke — a mother's parting charge — a loved one's consistent Christian influence and conduct — or a sudden check in a career of cruelty and sin.

2. It is possible for a river to be much contaminated by what is thrown into it, as it passes through populous towns; but it is impossible to change the nature of the water which is thus contaminated. Give the careful chemist a sufficient quantity of the most polluted river-water, and he can obtain from it, by filtration, distillation, and re-distillation, the pure and wholesome fluid which God has provided for us, and which He has guarded from defilement by decreeing that it shall everywhere and always have one fixed and unaltered composition, and that its constituent gases shall be so closely united that they can only be separated by a difficult and expensive process. Take the water of any river, fresh from its source, and you will readily perceive that it is pure in its nature. Need I say that it is so with the grace of God?

3. The grace of God, like a river, is perpetual in its movements. The lake may be stagnant, unless some river runs through it; the canal must be kept as free from any current as possible; but the river is always on the move. So it is with the grace of God in the soul of man. However hidden it may be, it is ever living and ever moving. Geographers tell us that the river Guadiana, in Spain, conceals itself in the earth for some fifteen miles of its course. But it is still there. In like manner, however concealed, the grace of God is at work in the heart of every believer.

4. It is peaceable in its course. "Still waters run deep." There may not be the stillness of the stagnant lake; but there is the quiet, or even the silence of the flowing river. But we must not take this characteristic of God's grace as a recommendation to us to shut up our cares or joys into our own souls, and never share them with others. God's people should not be silent when there is opportunity to declare what He hath done for their souls.

5. The grace of God, like a river, is powerful in its current. It is said that the Rio de la Plata, a South American river, which is two hundred miles broad where it enters the Atlantic Ocean, is so powerful in its current, that fresh water may be taken up by vessels sailing near it for many a league from land. But what is this physical force, compared with the irresistible power of the grace of God?" Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power."

6. It is plentiful in its supply. The river runs through meadow, and garden, and country, and city, serving some useful purpose wherever it goes. Here it nourishes the cornland upon which the precious crops are springing up; and there it affords a ready means of watering the carefully-tended garden. In one place it turns a mill, to afford maintenance to an honest family and grind corn for hundreds of other families; in another place it supplies water for a canal, to convey these products of industry to the populous town or the factor's store. Ever increasing, as it nears its destination, boats and even ships are borne upon its plentiful waters, until at last it joins the great and wide sea. Is it not so with the grace of God? Does not the figure fall far short of the fact?

II. THE CHURCH OF GOD COMPARED TO A CITY. A city affords security for life and property. It furnishes facilities for the transaction of business. It ensures liberty to every honest and faithful citizen: and it provides society for all who reside in it. This is precisely what the Church of God affords to its individual members — the most complete security for the believing soul, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; the only thorough liberty which the soul can experience, for "if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed"; and the highest form of human society upon earth; for the apostle says (Ephesians 2:19, 20). The Church of God may be called a city, because it is a community in which law and order find their highest developments. "The love of Christ constraineth us" (2 Corinthians 5:14), is its unfailing spring of Christian obedience and activity. The Republic of France used to stamp upon its coins "Liberty, Egalite, Fraternite"; but never did any government in this world succeed in realizing such an ideal of human happiness. True liberty, true equality, true friendship and brotherhood, are to be found only in the Church of God. It is a city set on an hill that cannot be hid. It may be called "the city of God," because it abounds with houses of God — it is "the holy place of, the tabernacles of the Most High." Its walls are Salvation, and its gates Praise.

III. THE MEANS OF GRACE COMPARED TO STREAMS. Just as the faithful Israelites drank of the spiritual Rock which followed them, and "that rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4), so with us to-day. There is the Word of God, ever ready to furnish us with some refreshing stream of Divine comfort and strength. There is the throne of grace, ever open to our supplications in time of need. There is the public worship of God, where we may taste afresh the calm which comes from the assurance of sins forgiven. There is the preaching of the Gospel, which should be to us "as cold waters to a thirsty soul," and as "good news from a far country." There are the occasional services of the Church, by which we are studiously and solemnly reminded of the immense privileges which belong to those who are truly servants of God. And there are, particularly, two copious and important streams, which deserve to be far more reverently and extensively used and appreciated — the Sacraments of the grace of God, Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion.

(J. Mitchell.)