A Goodly Heritage

  A Christian should set no manner of bounds to himself in holiness for he is to "be holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Peter 1:15), and to be "perfect as our heavenly Father" (Matt. 5:48). And then desire is not only after that which is good, but after a good absent. Desire ariseth from a sense of vacuity and emptiness. Emptiness is the cause of appetite and therefore is compared to hunger and thirst: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6)., So it is in desiring holiness, we have not yet attained (Phil. 3:13). There is an indigence and emptiness; we are not already perfect—we want more than we have, and our enjoyments are little in comparison of our expectations, and therefore we should make a swifter progress towards the mark, and with more earnestness of soul should press after that sinless estate we expect. Thomas Manton

  2 Corinthians 7:1 J.R. Thomson It is too customary for religions of human origin and authority to lay stress upon merely external and ceremonial purity. Many such religions pay not the slightest attention to the higher claims of morality. Now, Judaism used all its ceremonial cleansings as means for developing the idea of true morality. And Christianity is emphatically a religion of holiness. This appears from considering the unique and sinless character of Christ, the spirituality of his teaching; and further, from the atonement he has made for sin, and the provision for true purity made in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. I.  THE NEGATIVE VIEW OF HOLINESS. The text assumes that man's state is naturally impure, that his heart is defiled and polluted by sin, that his life is stained and dyed with its moral blackness. Hence the admonition to cleanse: 1.  From all filthiness of the flesh. There was a special reason why this should be made prominent in addressing the Corinthians,

  The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Why, then, to fear the Lord is not to be afraid of the Lord, but to be afraid of sin. The fear of God is the God-begotten fear of sin. Beware of any conception of God which does not create in you a fear and hatred of sin. That is the only fear which God wishes our hearts to keep. Any other fear is powerless to accomplish His will. Men may be afraid of God, and yet may love their sins; and that is not living in the fear of the Lord! Now, how can we obtain this sensitiveness which will recoil with acute fear from all sin? You remember when Peter's eyes were opened to behold the foulness of sin, how he cried, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He had seen the King in His beauty, and he felt the awfulness and the fearfulness of sin. ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. )

  There is in the writings of old Thomas Fuller one curiously quaint paragraph, which I have often wanted to quote: "Lord, my voice by nature is harsh and untunable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to Thy ears which is unpleasant to my own? Yet, though I cannot chant with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow, yea, rather croak with the raven, than be altogether silent. Hadst Thou given me a better voice, I would have praised Thee with a better voice; now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense — singing praises with my understanding. Yea, Lord, create in me a new heart, therein to make melody, and I will be contented with my old voice, until, in Thy due time, being admitted unto the choir of heaven, I have another, more harmonious, bestowed on me." He does the best work, in this moping, croaking age, whose cheerful face gives the benediction of a happy heart where

  For the iniquity of his covetousness was .... Isaiah 57 W. Jay. These words remind us of the language of the apostle to the Romans: "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound." I.  THE ACCUSATORY PART. 1.  The evil complained of — "The iniquity of his covetousness." Then covetousness is iniquity. So the apostle considered it, or he would not have called it "idolatry." All idolatry is not gross or corporeal. Much of it is refined and mental. It is lamentable to think that this evil so commonly prevails. You will find, by the sacred writers, that the Jews were always given to it. Is it not awful to see how this vice prevails in our country? 2.  The reward of transgression.  " For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him." Sin is the same in whomsoever it is found. The evil is not lessened when it is found in the people of God; it is even increased. They stand in nearer relation to God than others. They sin under greater obli

John 8:12 J.R. Thomson Whether this figurative language was suggested by the morning sun, as it rose in the east over the crown of Olivet, or by the great lamps which were, during the Feast of Tabernacles, kindled in the temple court at evening, in either case its appropriateness and beauty are manifest. I.  THIS SIMILITUDE EXHIBITS THE GLORY AND POWER OF CHRIST IN HIS OWN NATURE. Light is a form of universal force, proceeding from the sun, the vast reservoir of power, and acting by the motion of the ethereal medium in wave-like vibrations. Artificial light is only the same force stored up in the earth, and liberated for purposes of illumination. The sun may therefore be regarded as, for us, the centre and source of all light. By its rays we know the glories and beauties of earth and sea; and to them we are indebted, not only for knowledge, but for much enjoyment and for many practical advantages. If, then, anything created and material can serve as an emblem of the Lord Jesus, the Son

  MAN'S HUNGER. There is in every finite existence one great appetite. No creature is independent; it must draw life from another. In man, who is a complex being, there are various kinds of hunger. 1.  Natural.(1) Bodily hunger. Even as an upright creature man was made dependent on the fruits of the ground; and now his first question is, "How am I to get bread." How much thought and labour are expended on it! It has impelled to every crime. Hunger pressed Israel into Egypt, and that involved mighty issues for both. Hunger brought Ruth into view and linked her with the royal ancestry of Christ. The greatest spiritual conflict in the world was connected with a state of hunger. The central petition of the Lord's prayer is "Give us this day," etc.(2) Mental hunger. Man's bodily appetite is typical of mental conditions.(a) The heart hungers for happiness. Man, when left to himself, is an unhappy being.(b) The intellect hungers for truth. Man has been made to

 He is Lovely in His Person First, He is altogether lovely in his person: he is Deity dwelling in flesh, John 1:14. The wonderful, perfect union of the divine and human nature in Christ renders him an object of admiration and adoration to both angels and men, 1 Tim. 3:16. God never presented to the world such a vision of glory before. Consider how the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ is overflowing with all the graces of the Spirit, in such a way as never any of the saints was filled. O what a lovely picture does this paint of him! John 3:34, "God gives the Spirit [to him] without limit." This makes him "the most excellent of men and [his] lips have been anointed with grace," Psalm 45:2. If a small measure of grace in the saints makes them sweet and desirable companions, what must the riches of the Spirit of grace filling Jesus Christ without measure make him in the eyes of believers? O what a glory must it fix upon him! John Flavel

 Christ’s Persevering Love Finally, if Christ’s love to us be the object which the Holy Ghost makes use of, at the very first, to draw us to the service of Christ, it is by means of the same object that He draws us to persevere even unto the end. So that if you are visited with seasons of coldness and indifference; if you begin to be weary, or lag behind in the service of God, behold! here is the remedy: Look again to the bleeding Saviour. That Sun of Righteousness is the grand attractive centre, round which all His saints move swiftly, and in smooth harmonious concert, “not without song.” As long as the believing eye is fixed upon His love, the path of the believer is easy and unimpeded; for that love always constrains. But lift off the believing eye, and the path becomes impracticable, the life of holiness a weariness. Whoever, then, would live a life of persevering holiness, let him keep his eye fixed on the Saviour. As long as Peter looked only to the Saviour, he walked upon the se

  God’s true children must climb their mount of sacrifice. When our own hour shall have come, may we arise forthwith, cleave the wood for the burnt-offering, and go unflinching up the path by which our Heavenly Father shall lead us. So shall the mount of trial become the mount of blessing. We shall have a wider horizon; we shall breathe a purer atmosphere; we shall set our affection more entirely upon things above; we shall walk more closely with God. And so when He asks something very dear to us, let us think not only of Moriah, but of Calvary, where He Himself gave infinitely more than He can ever ask of us. The dearest offering He can crave His portion in thy soul to prove, What is it to the gift He gave, The only Son of His dear love?

H. R. Reynolds, B. A. Let us consider some of the religious principles which have given and preserved this holy day to us. I.  "The first day of the week" is a DAY OF MIGHTY MEMORIES — memories that we cannot let die. 1.  The celebration of the Lord's Day has never lost sight of that precious fact in all revelation and religion — the creation of the world and of man, and consequently all the claim of God's law upon our conscience, and of God's goodness on our gratitude. The main idea of the Sabbatic rest is that man should occasionally lift his eyes from the clouds of earth and gaze into the face of his Creator. 2.  "The first day of the week" is full of the memories of redemption. 3.  "The first day of the week" is the great memorial of the giving of the Holy Spirit of God to man. It is the memorial of the beginning of that great work in human nature by which it becomes like Christ, and is made one with God — the incarnation of the Holy Ghost.

H A. Boardman, D. D. 1.  God is the proper portion of the soul, because He is the only underived and absolute good. Whatever of virtue and truth, of moral worth and spiritual beauty, there may be in any part of the universe, among our race or other races, all must be referred to Him as its source. 2.  He is a good adapted to the nature and necessities of the soul. Man was made originally in the Divine image; and whatever changes may have occurred in His character and condition, His nature is unchanged. A sick man is still a man; and a soul, dislocated and enervated by sin, is still a soul. As such it can find its supreme happiness only in God. 3.  This will be further evident from considering that God is an infinite God. Here is a God we can adore. Here the intense longings of the soul are satisfied. In this august, ever-present, all-seeing, all-controlling Divinity, our minds repose with the assurance that His nature is not only suited to our nature, but absolutely boundless and unsea

Captain Wilkinson, Mission Smack "Ed. I remember one time, many years ago, I was standing out for Sunday, but the owners could not bear the thought of the smacks laying to for the Sabbath. Well, the owner I sailed for wanted me to work on Sunday. I felt I could not, so I had to leave my berth. I walked about eight weeks after that in search of employment. Several owners asked me whether I wanted a situation. I asked them whether they wished me to fish on the Lord's day. They said, yes. I had to decline. Well, the money was getting short, and I used to go in the dark places on the sands to lift up my heart to God to help me to stand against this fierce temptation. I had no help at home. My wife, not loving my Saviour, could not understand my objection, and I have often seen her crying to think that she and the two little children would have no bread to eat. My faith told me that my Father in heaven would not let them be without bread and water — that would be sure. At length th

Isaiah 64:6 R. Tuck For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. This is the language indeed of an intercessor, of one who speaks as representing the nation, and tries to speak as the nation should speak. But such a man must get at the knowledge of the condition of the nation by a deep and true estimate of his own real self. There is no sign of conscious separation of himself from his people. Right reading of his own life alone enables him to read theirs. And this is true for us also. No man who fails to apprehend the "plague of his own heart" will ever properly realize the evils of his own times. Pharisee-souls can never know the real sins of their age. Sincere and humble souls find themselves - as they know themselves - the measure of the men around them, as they stand in God's sight. I.  THE SINCERE MAN FINDS HIS GOODNESS IS SEARCHED. A

W. Mason, M.A. 1.  As private persons, in your mutual traffic with one another, it will necessarily happen that, whatever your stations in life are, you must incur debts, and stand accountable to one another for certain goods and commodities received, for labour done, or for money borrowed. When St. Paul therefore directs you to owe no man anything, he only means that you are not to incur debts wantonly, nor keep in debt needlessly. But there is one debt which, he says, you can never discharge. This debt is the debt of Christian love. 2.  Examine into the reasons on which it is founded, and why this exertion of Christian love is a debt of that kind, which can never be paid so fully as to absolve us from any further payment of it.(1) The first reason is founded on the relation in which we stand to Almighty God. The innumerable benefits which we daily and hourly receive at His hands demand the constant tribute of love and gratitude; but we have no way of expressing this affection so effe

Isaiah 3:10, 11 W. Clarkson These verses are parenthetical. "They assert the doctrine of 'future rewards and punishment' in a spiritual and not a mechanical sense. Good deeds ripen into happiness, as evil deeds into misery" (Cheyne). The point of impression may be stated thus - I.  TO THE RIGHTEOUS - GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE NOT INDISCRIMINATE. II.  TO THE WICKED - GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE INEVITABLE. "The pious are graciously assured, that in the worst of times, and under the most trying circumstances, God will be their Friend and Rewarder; while the ungodly are equally assured that they shall suffer merited punishment' (Henderson). Compare the Divine pleadings with Cain ( Genesis 4:7 ), and Abraham's pleading over guilty Sodom ( Genesis 18:25 ). See Asaph's perplexity because it was so often ill with the righteous, and well with the wicked ( Psalm 73 .). How can God answer those who, looking cursorily upon life, say that the earthly lot of the righteo

Psalm 16:11 W. Forsyth In this prayer it is implied that there is one "path," which is truly "the path of life" - the path by which we can reach the highest ideal of our being, and be blessed for ever; and further, that God, and God alone, is able to show us this path. It may be said that the prayer has been answered in the fullest sense by Christ Jesus. We may use the words with reference to Christ's teaching as to a future state. Christ has shown us - I.  THE CERTAINTY OF A FUTURE STATE. Reason may speculate, imagination may form pictures, the instincts of the heart may prompt the hope that there is a future state of being; but it is only through Holy Scripture that we attain to full conviction. What was dimly revealed to Old Testament saints has been now "made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ" ( 2 Timothy 1:10 ). II.  THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER AS DETERMINING MAN'S PLACE IN A FUTURE STATE. Our Lord always teaches that holy