A Goodly Heritage

The text would be better rendered, "Shall I lift up mine eyes unto the hills? Whence should my help come? It cometh from Jehovah, who is high up above the hills; even from the Maker of heaven and earth." Palestine is a mountain-land; and such a country exercises a strange fascination over its inhabitants. What a holy power the great mountains have over us all! They seem to be so near to God, so full of God, that they bring us near to Him, and they fill us full of Him. They make us "look up." And that is precisely what we all need to have done for us. I.  WORLD-DRAWN, WE LOOK DOWN, AND SO ARE WEAK. We are in the world; in a thousand subtle ways we are kin with the world, we are subject to its influences, caught by its whirl of excitement, absorbed by its pressing claims, and easily we may become of the world as well as in it. But everything the world presents to us is below us, beneath us; and it so keeps us looking down, that at last the habit of down-looking gro

John Hambleton, M. A. I.  The application of this to the case of the Jews is very obvious, considering their multiplied provocations, and God's multiplied mercies toward them; but we may well consider it in its application to ourselves, for AS SINNERS WE HAVE ALL DESERVED TO BE CONSUMED. "The wages of sin is death." "Sin is the transgression of the law." Sin therefore is man practically separating himself from God, refusing to love Him, to serve Him, preferring to go with the great enemy of God and godliness, and to be led by him according to his evil will, and to do the vile work which he commands. Thus sin is no trifle. We have all sinned in our different ways. In how many ways, how many times we have abused the faculties which God hath given us, whether of body, soul, or spirit! We have perverted the energies which should have been employed in serving Him, into so many weapons of rebellion wherewith we dared to fight against God. And what have we deserved?

I.  Although our prayers were never, in a single instance, directly answered in this world, YET IS PRAYER NOT IN VAIN, FOR TO PRAY IS A COMMANDED DUTY; and to the dependent creature it can never be unprofitable to obey a Divine command. Prayer, in its very nature, tends to mortify sin, to compose our minds into a frame of devout dependence on Almighty power, and to maintain in us sentiments of habitual trust, and rejoicing confidence in God. II.  Though prayer be not immediately answered, IT MAY NEVERTHELESS BE ANSWERED AT SOME AFTER PERIOD, even in the present world. The glory of God, the arrangements of Providence, and our own good, may render delay expedient; but delay is not denial III.  The thing we ask MAY BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE RECTITUDE OF THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY, and on that account must necessarily be denied. IV.  IT IS NOT ALWAYS IN WRATH, HOWEVER, THAT OUR PRAYERS FOR OTHERS ARE NOT HEARD, BUT OFTEN IN MERCY TO THEM. In our fond attachment to children or to friends,

CONSIDER THE GENERALITY OF AFFLICTION IN THE NATURE THEREOF. We met all generally in the first treason against ourselves in Adam's rebellion; and we met all, too, in the second treason — the treason against Jesus Christ. All our sins were upon His shoulders. All the evils and mischiefs of life come for the most part from this — that we think to enjoy those things which God has given us only to use. II.  CONSIDER AFFLICTION AS BEARING ON MAN. "I am the man that hath seen affliction." Man carries the spawn and seed and eggs of affliction in his own flesh, and his own thoughts make haste to hatch them and bring them up. We make all our worms snakes, all our snakes vipers, all our vipers dragons, by our murmuring. III.  CONSIDER AFFLICTION IN ITS SPECIAL APPLICATION TO ONLY MAN. That man the prophet Jeremiah, one of the best of men. As he was submitted to these extraordinary afflictions, we see that no man is so necessary to God as that God cannot come to His ends witho

We have reason to expect, that before good days come, there shall terrible days come. Why God hath given such a commission as Isaiah got; “Go make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and convert, and be healed,” (Isa. (6:10). We cannot limit the Lord, nor speak of his time: but surely the sins of our day are greater than the sins of those in Isaiah’s time; for we have sinned against greater light, clearer gospel-light, than ever they had. And the greater our privileges are, the greater our guilt in neglecting them: the greater our guilt, the more awful will our judgments be. Perhaps he is to shake the nations before the Desire of all nations shall come. Believe, watch, and pray, for your enemies, are living and lively: corruption is not destroyed. Watch, and make not your watching a burden: but take up with it in a gospel-way, which is the easy way, and t

Look at the giddy multitude. Do they think upon God? Is he in all their thoughts? Are their minds ever fixed upon the solemn things of eternity? Is Jesus ever felt to be precious to their souls? Do they pant after him as the deer after the waterbrooks? No! their language is, "There is no God." It is not their spoken language, but it is their inward language. But through mercy you can say, that you think upon God; and thus there is some evidence, though you cannot rise up to the assurance of it, that he thinks upon you. And if he thinks upon you, his thoughts are thoughts of good, thoughts of peace, and not of evil. Does he not read your heart? Does he not know your trials? Does not his holy eye look into the very secret recesses of your soul? And if he thinks upon you, will he leave you, give you up, abandon you in the hour when you need him most? No! he who thought upon you in eternity, will think on you in time, in every hour of trial, every scene of temptation, every s

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”—Proverbs 16:18-19 What more vivid exposition of these proverbs is needed, than our own ruined condition? Our father’s  pride , desiring to “be as God,” hurried his whole race to  destruction . “O Adam” was the exclamation of a man of God, “what hast thou done!”“I think,” said another holy man, “so far as any man is proud, he is kin to the devil, and a stranger to God and to himself.” The most awful strength of divine eloquence seems to be concentrated to delineate the character and ruin of pride. Examples abound throughout the Scripture; each sounding this solemn admonition—“Be not high-minded, but fear” (Rom 11:20; also 1Co 10:12, 1Ti 3:6). Fearful indeed is our danger, if the caution be not welcomed—if the need for it be not deeply felt! The  haughty spirit  carries the head high. The man looks upward instead of t

Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”—Proverbs 18:12 Surely this repetition, like our Lord’s often-repeated parallel (Mar 10:31), was intended to deepen our sense of their importance. It is hard to persuade a man that he is proud. Every one protests against this sin. Yet who does not cherish the viper in his own bosom? Man so little understands that dependence upon his God constitutes the creature’s happiness, and that the principle of independence is madness, and its end is destruction (Gen 3:5-6). The  haughty  walk on the brink of a fearful precipice; only a miracle preserves them from instant ruin. The security of the child of God is when he lies prostrate in the dust. If he soar high, the danger is imminent, though he be on the verge of heaven (2Co 12:1-7). The danger to a young Christian lies in an over-forward profession. The glow of the first love, the awakened sensibility to the condition of his perishing fellow-sinners, ignora

At evening time it shall be light Zechariah 14:7 Aged people's service George H. Hubbard. Nature's sunset is beautiful, so beautiful that every painter strives in vain to catch it and give it permanence on his canvas. But the sunset of life transcends it; as the reality always transcends the type, as the spiritual always transcends the material, as the heavenly always transcends the earthly. What is there more beautiful in itself, what more interesting to contemplate than snowy age sustained by a living faith, and moving on toward the end of life's journey, calm, serene, cheerful, full of trust in God and the hope of heaven? But why picture a day of storms instead of a day of brightness and sunshine? Why a life of trials and sorrows and difficulties? Herein lies the chief beauty of the picture, the preciousness of the promise. Light is ever most glorious in contrast with darkness; peace most blessed by contrast with strife. A peaceful, trustful, calm old age in ple

9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It  is  my people: and they shall say, The LORD  is  my God.

Be not silent to me, lest if Thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. The Silences of God H. Allen, D. D. The instinct of religion is to cry to God. The personal providence of God is the reason of prayer. The psalmist is in trouble, and as he prays his imagination suggests what it would be if God were silent to him. I.  Is GOD SILENT TO OUR PRAYERS? We pray expecting His answer. Prayer is not the mere utterance of surcharged hearts, like Lear's raving to the winds. There is moral benefit in simple desire, and that desire grows by utterance. The Rock may not speak to us, but we can lean against it and find shelter under it. But the idea of God speaking to us is as essential for prayer as our speaking to Him. We ask for response, not merely that He would listen. In what sense may God be silent to a praying man? It is a possibility, and as such it is deprecated. Perhaps David was impatient because the answer did not at once come. Sometimes the answer

The seeming silence of God means human incapacity and dulness. This is the obstacle to hearing. There is an eternal reality corresponding with the ancient phrase, "Communion with God." But this implies more than the existence of the Heavenly voice. It implies organs made sensitive to it. The material world is full of sounds which are constantly failing upon ears that are too dull or too deaf to hear them. We speak of the silence of the sea, of the silence of the night, of the silence of the mighty mountain. But to men with ears, to men not wanting in "the vision and the faculty divine," these things are unceasingly eloquent with speech. To some God does not seem to speak because there has been no preparation for hearing. Where the soul is filled with the noise of mundane voices, the Divine voices which are resounding through its chambers cannot be distinguished. The man who cries despairingly to God, "Be not silent to me," needs to remember that it is him

The mission of the pulpit is I. A mission of the truth. In this aspect it is scarcely possible to exaggerate its importance. At home sensuality, worldliness, and scepticism, and abroad the corruption of apostate Churches, the fanaticism and immorality of heathenism, suffice to show that this mission is urgently needed. Truth in general is the agreement of a symbol with the thing symbolised. Science is truth when it is a correct interpretation of the phenomena of nature, history when it is a faithful record of facts, worship when it is a reflection of a consecrated soul, and doctrine when it is according to godliness. It is in the last conception that the apostle is treating of it in the text. The Word of God is the fountain and standard of truth. The truth is embodied in Christ, who is “the Truth.” To manifest this truth is the mission of the pulpit. The truth must be presented-- 1. Clearly. This is indicated both by the force of the word “manifestation,” and by the contrast between P

The safety of God’s people does not depend on their number, wit, prowess, or inherent strength, but on him, who has made them his hidden ones. He that touches them touches the apple of his eye, Zechariah 2:8. In the time of trouble he shall hide them in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide them, Psalm 27:5. They are in no sense hidden from the notice or care of God, Isaiah 40:27; Psalm 38:9; Hosea 5:3; 2 Timothy 2:19. Nor is their course clandestine or cunning. Their very candour makes them suspected. Though they are not ostentatious, they are not deceitful. Nor do they make a secret of their love to Christ. Nor do they try to hide their sins from the eyes of God, but freely confess and bewail them. They have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty and do not walk in craftiness. Nor do they pass through life without a mark upon them. The world fixes its stigma; and God puts his name in their foreheads. They are the light of the world. And yet they are God’s hi

In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19 Comfort amid disquieting thoughts W. Young, B. A. The word here translated "thoughts" means thoughts of a pensive, anxious nature — thoughts which have in them nothing bright and pleasant; thoughts which yoke themselves with cares; which perplex and disturb and depress us; and which we are not very ready to speak about, but are rather inclined to keep to ourselves. Our text speaks of the "multitude" of such "thoughts." They are not rare and exceptional. They are to be found in all. Nor do they come to us merely at great crises and emergencies of our life, when something startling wakes up within us slumbering faculties, or when something crushing evokes hidden feelings of our heart. No; such thoughts come to us all at times, now darting into our mind like a lightning flash; now floating dreamily within our consciousness on some current of ordinary reflection. And t