A Goodly Heritage

“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:17 What perfection does the Holy Ghost speak of here? Certainly not perfection in the flesh; that is but a wild dream of free-will and Arminianism. But perfection here and elsewhere means a being well-established and grounded in the faith, as we find the Apostle speaking (Heb. 5:14), “Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age” (literally, as we read in the margin, “perfect”), “even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Christian perfection does not then consist in perfection in the flesh, but in having arrived at maturity in the divine life, in being what I may call a Christian adult, or what the Apostle terms “a man in Christ.” When Paul therefore says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect,” he means “being no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” but favoured with a measure of Christian wis

E. Erskine. I. CHRIST AS GOD'S ANOINTED, 1. He is a Redeemer and Saviour of God's choosing. 2. Called and sent of God. 3. Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church. 4. Thoroughly fitted and furnished for His work, by an unmeasurable effusion of the Holy Spirit. II. THE LAMP THAT GOD HAS ORDAINED. 1. This lamp was first set up in the purpose of God from eternity, or in the council of peace, when the whole plan of salvation through Christ was laid. 2. This lamp was first lighted in this louver world, immediately after the fall in paradise; when a dark and dismal night of woe and misery was spreading itself over our first parents, then a gleam of light began to break out in the first promise (Genesis 3:15): and afterwards unto Abraham (Genesis 22:18). 3. The lamp of the Gospel shone typically and prophetically during all the Old Testament period, before the coming of Christ in the flesh. It shone, as it were, under a veil, and only among the Jews. 4. After the coming of Ch

Urgently do we need a revival of personal godliness. This is, indeed, the secret of church prosperity. When individuals fall from their steadfastness, the church is tossed to and fro; when personal faith is steadfast, the church abides true to her Lord. We have in and around our own denomination many true-hearted servants of Christ, who are hardly put to it to know what to do. Their loyalty to their Lord and to his truth is greater than their love to sect or party, and they know not whether to abide in their present position, and fight out the great question, or to lift the old banner, and quit their apostatizing associates. Do whichever they may, it is upon the truly godly and spiritual that the future of religion depends in the hand of God. Oh, for more truly holy men, quickened and filled with the Holy Spirit, consecrated to the Lord, and sanctified by his truth! What can be accomplished by worldly professors, theater-going church members, semi-infidel teachers, and philosophical pr

These are the words of Ahab, and, so far as we know, the only wise thing he ever spoke. The saying was probably not his own, but a proverb common in his time. As a warning to Ben-hadad the words proved true, but Ahab's own conduct in going up to Ramoth-Gilead where he perished, showed a strange forgetfulness of his own saying. I. WE HAVE ALL A BATTLE TO FIGHT. We all know what is meant by "the battle of life," but that of the Christian is inward and spiritual — a battle within a battle. Conversion to Christ brings at once peace and warfare. Our peace with God means war with the world, the devil, and the flesh. II. WE HAVE ALL "A HARNESS" TO PUT ON. As the enemies we fight are spiritual so must be our armour. Some prefer an ostentatious profession, pride of intellect, and the weapons of human learning and science "falsely so called," but experience proves their insufficiency. The Divine armour must be "put on," we must take hold and keep hold

THE GLORY OF GOD "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:2 O My Soul! Seek to fill yourself with thoughts of the Almighty. Lose yourself in the impenetrable tracts of His Glory! "Can you by searching find out God?" Can the animalcule fathom the ocean, or the worm scale the skies? Can the finite grasp the Infinite– the mortal Immortality? We can do no more than stand on the brink of the shoreless sea, and cry, "Oh the depth!" "From everlasting!"- shrouded in the great and awful mystery of eternity. Before one star revolved in its sphere- before one angel moved his wing- God was! His own infinite presence filling all space. All time, to Him, is but as the heaving of a breath- the beat of a pulse- the twinkling of an eye. The Eternity of bliss, which is the noblest heritage of the creature, is in its nature progressive. It admits of advance in degrees of

“Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction?”—Psalm 88:10, 11 This is not the language of a soul dead in trespasses and sins, but it is the breathing of a living soul struggling and grappling with death. What a difference there is, where there is life working in and under death, and where death reigns absolutely! between the quickened soul and that in which there is nothing but death, death without one spark of spiritual life, death without one ray of heavenly teaching. There is no groan, no sigh, no lamentation, no piteous inquiry, no pouring out of the heart before God, where the soul is utterly dead, any more than there is life and breath in a corpse in the tomb. But wherever life is implanted in the soul from the Fountain of life, that life groans under death. It sighs from out of the grave; it gasps for breath, under the corpse which overlies it; and seeks to heave