A Goodly Heritage

    THE LOVE OF GOD AND OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS, THE PRODUCT OF IT. 1.  The love of God has its rise from the consideration of His amiable excellences, that render Him infinitely worthy of the highest affection; and from the blessed benefits of creation, preservation, redemption, and glorification, that we expect from His pure goodness and mercy. 2.  The obedience that springs from love is —(1) Uniform and universal.(2) This is a natural consequence of the former. The Divine law is a rule, not only for our outward conversation, but of our thoughts and affections, of all the interior workings of the soul that are open before God.(3) Chosen and pleasant ( 1 John 5:3 ). The sharpest sufferings for religion are sweetened to a saint from the love of God, that is then most sincerely, strongly, and purely acted ( 2 Corinthians 12:10 ).(4) The love of God produces persevering obedience. Servile compliance is inconstant. IV.  FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, AND WILLING OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS, WE MAY

  Our love to God is genuine when we cheerfully keep his commandments.   "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." (1)  The divinely appointed test of love to God is obedience to his commandments. "If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," etc. ( John 14:15, 21, 23 ); "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love," etc. ( John 15:10 ); "This is love, that we should walk after his commandments" ( 2 John 1:6 ). Genuine love is not a merely sentimental, but a practical thing. (2)  The obedience which springs from love is cheerful. "His commandments are not grievous" to them that love him. Love is not only life, but inspiration, courage, and strength; therefore, as love to God increases, obedience to his commands becomes easier and more delightful. "I confess," says Watson, "to him th

I.  The communion of saints is THE RESTORATION OF FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.  Archdeacon Manning. I.  The communion of saints is THE RESTORATION OF FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. There are in the will and work of God three perfect and eternal unities: the unity of three Persons in one nature; the unity of two natures in one Person; and the unity of the Incarnate Son with His elect-the Head with the members of His Body mystical. This is the foundation of the communion of God and man. "A Lamb stood," etc. II.  The communion of saints is THE RESTORATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF MEN WITH EACH OTHER. Our regeneration unites us to the Divine Person in whom God and man are one; and by union with Him we are reunited to all whom He has likewise united to Himself. As the vine has one nature in root and stem, branch and spray, fibre and fruit, so the mystical and true Vine in earth and heaven has one substance and one life, which is the basis of all fellowship in love and will, in sym

 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.—2 Cor. v. 17. The apostle in those words, ver. 13, 'For whether we be besides ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause,' defends his speaking so much of his integrity; though some men would count him out of his wits for it, yet he regards not their judgment; for if he were in an ecstasy, or 'beside himself,' his purpose was to serve God and his church, and therefore he did not regard the opinion of men, whether he were accounted mad or sober, so he might perform the end of his apostleship. The sense therefore of it, as Calvin renders it, is this: Let men take it as they will, that I speak so much of my integrity, I do it not upon my own account, but have respect to God and the church in speaking of it, for I am as ready to be silent as to speak, when my silence may glorify God and advantage the church as much as my speech;

 Comfort against death. If God be the author of reconciliation by Christ, then death, which was the fruit of that sin which is now removed, can be no dreadful apparition. God was in Christ, and is still, conquering his enemies; and this is one enemy which must fall under his sword, and be made his footstool. As God was in Christ reconciling you, he is in death calling for you to enjoy the full-blown felicities of that peace. It is no more than a departure in peace, when God is a God of peace. Old Simeon thought so, Luke ii. 29 ; he speaks, saith one,* like a merchant that had got all his goods on shipboard, and now desires the master of the ship to hoist sail and be gone homeward. Death was before a servant of divine justice ; since justice is satisfied, it is the messenger of divine mercy. It was a jailor to enclose us in the prison of the grave, it is now a conductor to the glories of heaven. Where this peace is in maturity, where God's face shines clearly without disguises, veil

 When men fell from God, and entered into league with the devil, they laid themselves at the foot of God's righteous wrath, and sunk themselves into the desert of eternal death, and so stood in another relation to God than as subjects ; and God might require a reparation for the past disobedience, and security for obedience for the future ; unless man could perform this, he must lie bound in chains of darkness. What compensation could man make for what was past, or what security could he give for time to come ? Some other, therefore, must interpose, whose suretyship God would accept; who could give a satisfaction to God, as pleasing to him as sin had been displeasing, and offer to God what was not due to him before ; who was able to perform what he undertook, and whose security for what was due for the future, might be esteemed valid ; and therefore it must be some divine person, that was not bound in his own nature to those terms of obedience, which were necessary to this satisfac

T. Adams. The Lord God of hosts is not properly a title of creation, but of providence. All creatures have their existence from God as their Maker; but so have they also their order from Him as their Governor. So that here, God would be respected, not as a creator, but as a general. His anger, therefore, seems so much the more fearful, as it is presented to us under so great a title, "The Lord God of hosts is angry." They talk of Tamerlane, that he could daunt his enemies with the very look of his countenance. Oh! then what terror dwells in the countenance of the offended God! I.  GOD MAY BE ANGRY; and sin the cause of His anger. He hath scourged some in very mercy, till they have smarted under His rod ( Job 6:4 ;  Psalm 88:15, 16 ). If He will do thus much in love, what shall be the terrors of His wrath? If the sun were wanting, it would be night for all the stare; and if God frown upon a man, for all the glittering honours of this world, he sits in the shadow of death. Thus

W. Jay. I.  AN ASSURANCE. "Thou tellest my wanderings." They Were numerous and various. But what do these wanderings take in? 1.  Moral infirmities, or deviations from duty, What is the whole course of a state of nature but a series of wanderings? It is well if God sees that you feel them to be your afflictions and that you repent of them. 2.  These wanderings take in local changes. See Abraham, Israel, David — what wanderings were theirs? Some of the most eminent servants of God were wanderers ( Hebrews 11 .). "They wandered about," etc. And it is so still. For conscience' sake many have had to wander about seeking how to live. But they are not purposeless; God has taken count of them all. "Thou tellest my wanderings." Therefore we are not to think that God disregards all individualities. II.  THE PRAYER. "Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle." There are some persons who despise tears as weak and womanly. Do they remember who He was who wept at

James Hamilton, M. A. I.  THERE SHALL BE NO MORE CURSE. In the New Jerusalem the deliverance of the believer from the curse shall be complete. No streak of gloom shall mar the brightness of joy's perfect day. All sin shall be shut out, and therefore also all penal consequences of sin. What a great word of salvation is this! Would you seek to realise somewhat the depth of meaning in it? Look abroad at the widespread spectacle of the world's wretchedness. In the New Jerusalem all that shall have come to an end. There shall be no more cruel oppressions, no more the desolation of war, no more the ravages of famine and plague, no more "distress of nations," no more blighted homes and scathed hearts. But look into your own hearts. Each child of God has enough in his own experience to teach him the meaning of the curse, and the blessedness of the deliverance given when "there shall be no more curse." Every carking care and gloomy fear, all suffering and all sorrow,

Ralph Wardlaw, D. D. I.  WHAT THEY NEEDED. Two things: deliverance from guilt and condemnation, and deliverance from sin's impurity. These are the very blessings for which our text represents provision has been made. The fountain is opened "for sin and for uncleanness." The former meaning "guilt," the latter "pollution." The whole context prohibits our regarding the language as referring to anything ceremonial. The guilt, contracted, and requiring remission, is the guilt of "piercing," that is, of putting to death the true, divinely promised. Messiah, and the "uncleanness" points to those unholy and hellish principles and dispositions in the soul from which the guilt originated, by which the fearful act was prompted. The guilt was deep. The depth of moral debasement and violence was fearful from which they who had been guilty of it required to be purified. II.  HOW THESE BLESSINGS ARE PROVIDED FOR THEM. 1.  What is the fountain? It