A Goodly Heritage

1 Peter 4: 17Let us not be so foolish as to promise ourselves impunity on account of our relation to God as his church in covenant with him. If once we thought so, surely our experience hath undeceived us. And let not what we have suffered harden us, as if the worst were past. We may rather fear it is but a pledge and beginning of sharper judgment. Why do we not consider our unhumbled and unpurified condition, and tremble before the Lord? Would we save him a labour, he would take it well. Let us purify our souls, that we may not be put to further purifying by new judgments. Were we busy reading our present condition, we should see very legible foresigns of further judgments; as for instance: 1. The Lord taking away his eminent and worthy servants, who are as the very pillars of the public peace and welfare, and taking away counsel, and courage, and union, from the rest; forsaking us in our meetings, and leaving us in the dark to grope and rush one upon another. 2. The dissensions and ...

Make a good use of your talent. Be wise, diligent, faithful, holy, and humble in the employment of it, and Christ shall come with comfort and will entertain you with a sweet and comforting declaration of approval: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:23). And let us be excited and stirred up to work our hearts to this longing for Christ’s coming, considering first the gratification of our estate in heaven. There is a tree bearing twelve sorts of fruit (Rev. 22:2), youth without old age, health without sickness, fullness without loathing, liberty without bondage, beauty without deformity, feelings without grief, abundance without want, peace without trouble, security without fear, knowledge without ignorance, glory without disgrace, and joy without sorrow (Rev. 21:4). Secondly, considering the security of that estate, no enemy can reach us. It is a city ne...

The world does not know Christ (John 1:10). As the blind man does not know the sun though it shine upon him, no more does the carnal and worldly man know Christ though He shine upon him in the gospel, for “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). Such is man’s ignorance that as the light shining in Goshen did not pierce the darkness where the Egyptians sat (Exodus 10), no more does the light of the gospel penetrate their souls, but they sit in darkness and the shadow of death. At the noonday (Isa. 59:10) of the gospel they are in the midnight of ignorance. Our Savior said to such, “Ye neither know me, nor my Father” (John 8:19). They know not the beauties of Christ. They see no comeliness in Him for which they should desire Him (Isa. 53:2). He is no more to them than another beloved. They do not know the power of Christ in softening their hearts, as the ground knows the power of the dew in supplying it; in quickening their souls, as Lazarus knew ...

Such was the image of God in which man was made, and on which God looked with complacency after his formation, as a mother does on the lineaments of a father in the countenance of a child, and as a father traces a mother's sweetness in its temper and dispositions. Let us think how his image has been defaced, how wise men are now to do evil, while to do good they have no knowledge, how we are all as an unclean thing, how our righteousness es are as filthy rags, and how the creatures groan under the folly and the oppression of man. Man has become the stain of creation which he once adorned, and the curse of nature which was blessed for him. Gloomy as the contemplation is, it is humbling ; and blessed be God it is not hopeless. There is a great Moral Restorer who can put on us the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. May God enable us to place ourselves under his renovating hand, and may Christ be formed in us, even that mind and those dispositions w...

2. A minister must speak holily, with that high esteem and reverence of the Great Majesty whose message he carries, that becomes the divinity of the message itself, those deep mysteries that no created spirits are able to fathom. Oh! this would make us tremble in the dispensing of these oracles, considering our impurities, and weaknesses, and un speakable disproportion to so high a task. He had reason who said, “I am seized with amazement and horror as often as I begin to speak of God.’ And with this humble reverence is to be joined, ardent love to our Lord, to his truth, to his glory, and his people’s souls. These holy affections stand opposite to our blind boldness in rushing on this sublime exercise as a common work, and our dead coldness in speaking of things which our hearts are not warmed with; and so no wonder that what we say seldom reaches further than the ear, or, at furthest, than the understanding and memory of our hearers. There is a correspondence; it is the heart speaks ...

On the cross the work was finished,—the Father’s work which the Son loved to perform. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The death of Jesus perfects for ever all his own. The truth and the power of God are pledged here. An omnipotent sovereignty shields the disciples of Jesus. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” After the manner of a king, the Saviour of sinners speaks. He knows his own power, and we may safely trust it. A half-hesitating faith dishonours the Lord, and mars the happiness of his servant. What pains he took that his work should be complete, and that its completeness might be manifest! There is sovereign power in this shed blood! “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin”—“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is Christ that died”—“I saw in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had been slain.” Righteous Abel,—that blood of the Sacrifice washed his sin away, and...

“ If ye then be risen with Christ,” says the apostle Paul, “ seek those things which are above : — For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God^.” When the Lord Jesus was in the world, the world hated him, and used him very unkindly ; and when he died, he parted from it, to return as an inhabitant of it, no more. “ And now,” saith he, “ I am no more in the world The quietest lodging that ever the world allowed him, was a grave ; and having come out thence, he never slept another night in it. And though after his resurrection, he staid forty days in the world, yet still he was dead to it. He sometimes con¬ versed with his own, but no more with the world. If then thou have his satisfaction for sin, imputed to thee ; thou art also, in conformity to him, dead to the w'orld. Being crucified with him, “ the world is crucified unto thee, and thou unto the worlds” Union, and communion with Christ in his righteousness, have laid thee down dead in his grave ; and so have separate...

O astonishing love ! God only could be the fountain, and man only, the object of such love. This amazing love, was not only stronger than death, and mightier than the grave ; but (with adoring reverence be it said) was, in a sense, mightier than — the Most High himself ; and brought Him down to flesh and blood, to the likeness of sinful flesh, to the dust of death, and to the chambers of the grave. It is owing to this redeeming love, that the covenant of Jehovah is as firm, as immutable, as his very being. It is as well ordered, as his unsearchable wisdom can make it, and as sure, as his almighty power can keep it. Remember then, O redeemed soul, that it is thy privilege, to trust for and to seek, not unco¬ venanted favour, as many do, but covenanted, pur¬ chased, promised grace ; grace, which could never be procured by thee, and which can never be taken from thee. O love thy covenant-God, and thy Kinsman-redeemer, with a supreme, an ardent love : so love Him, that thy constant pleasin...

The green pastures The image, so clear and beautiful in itself, is singularly forcible and suggestive in relation to our inner life. Is not the background of the picture true to the facts which we everywhere witness around us, and the needs and aspirations we have felt within us? How much there is in life to remind us of the long tracts of desert sand, the fierce and scorching rays of the sun, the lassitude and ennui of worn-out and wearied hearts. Without attempting to push the details of the imagery to excess, we may assert that the green pastures and still waters find their counterpart in the truths and doctrines of Scripture, in the ordinances of the Gospel, and the means of grace established for our sustenance and growth. For permanent comfort and strength we are dependent upon the revelations of the Divine Word. God Himself is the source of our satisfaction and peace. When our hearts, “ceasing from self,” can stay themselves upon Him, and find in their obedience to His will the g...

How go begin every day with God I. THE GOOD WORK ITSELF THAT WE ARE TO DO. To pray. A duty dictated by the light and law of nature, but which the gospel of Christ gives us better instruction in. See how David expresses his pious resolutions. 1. My voice shalt Thou hear. Understand as promising himself a gracious acceptance with God. “Thou wilt hear.” It is the language of his faith, grounded upon God’s promise, that His ear shall be always open to His people’s cry. Wherever God finds a praying heart, He will be found a prayer hearing God. Understand as David’s promising God a constant attendance on Him, in the way He has appointed. God understands the language of the heart, and that is the language in which we must speak to God. We must see to it that God hears from us daily. He expects and requires it. Thus He will keep up His authority over us: and testify His love and compassion towards us. We have something to say to God every day: as to a friend we love, and have freedom with; as ...

is knowledge of God.—The one thing needful for men, the great cry of our nature, in which all other cries are swallowed up, is for knowledge—the knowledge of God. To know the true God has been the deep desire of living souls through all time. Wearied by the changes of a fleeting world, finding no repose in the best that the finite can give, men of earnest minds long to know the Eternal that they may rest in Him. An old mystic has said: “God is an unutterable sigh of the human soul.” With greater truth we may reverse the saying, and affirm that the human soul is a never-ending sigh after God. In its deepest recesses there lives or slumbers inextinguishable longing after Him, and the more we consider the nature of that longing, the more we discover that what it aims at is not a mere intellectual apprehension of God, but a personal relationship to Him. It is essentially of a practical nature. It is an impulse to draw nigh to God, to place ourselves in personal fellowship with Him from the...

THE FUNCTION OF THE TRUE MINISTER IS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. Paul was not a politician, to turn the church into a party club, and the pulpit into a hustings — not a mere orator, to give his hearers an hour's entertainment; not a devotee of science; not a philologist, to spread out before immortal souls scholastic criticisms; not a mere moralist, to discourse of flowers that never grew around the Cross. No! his was a nobler and more difficult work, viz., to preach the gospel! To do this is — 1. To proclaim all the precious doctrines, promises, precepts, and duties recorded in the Scriptures. Some confine themselves to a few favourite topics. They are afraid to preach the whole gospel, lest its truths contradict each other. Away with such idle fears! One truth can no more clash with another truth than one sunbeam can quench another sunbeam. 2. To preach Christ crucified. Some excuse their non-preaching of Christ on the ground that He is not in the text. I should not like to live in a ...

Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? v. 15. If the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his mystical body. The body is in union with Christ as well as the soul. How honourable is this to the Christian! His very flesh is a part of the mystical body of Christ. Note, It is good to know in what honourable relations we stand, that we may endeavour to become them. But now, says the apostle, shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. Or, take away the members of Christ? Would not this be a gross abuse, and the most notorious injury? Would it not be dishonouring Christ, and dishonouring ourselves to the very last degree? What, make a Christ’s members the members of a harlot, prostitute them to so vile a purpose! The thought is to be abhorred. God forbid. Know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with hers? For two, says he, shall be one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is ...

The creation I. THEN ATHEISM IS A FOLLY. Atheism is proved absurd — 1. By the history of the creation of the world. It would be impossible for a narrative to be clearer, more simple, or more divinely authenticated than this of the creation. The very existence of things around us is indisputable evidence of its reality. 2. By the existence of the beautiful world around us. The world standing up around us in all its grandeur — adaptation — evidence of design — harmony — is a most emphatic assertion of the Being of God. Every flower is a denial of atheism. Every star is vocal with Deity. 3. By the moral convictions of humanity. There is probably not an intelligent man in the wide universe, who does not believe in, and pay homage to, some deity or other. II. THEN PANTHEISM IS AN ABSURDITY. We are informed by these verses that the world was a creation, and not a spontaneous, or natural emanation from a mysterious something only known in the vocabulary of a sceptical philosophy. Thus the ...

History is strewn with the errors of those who have sought from God something else than Himself. All the degradation, even of the highest religions, has sprung from this, that their votaries forgot that religion was a communion with God Himself, a life in the power of His character and will, and employed it as the mere communication either of material benefits or of intellectual ideas. It has been the mistake of millions to see in revelation nothing but the telling of fortunes, the recovery of lost things, decision in quarrels, direction in war, or the bestowal of some personal favour. Such are like the person, of whom St. Luke tells us, who saw nothing in Christ but the recoverer of a bad debt: "Master, speak unto my brother that he divide the inheritance with me"; and their superstition is as far from true faith as the prodigal’s old heart, when he said, "Give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me," was from the other heart, when, in his poverty and woe, he...

It is an indissoluble union. — It is infinitely strong and durable. The saint shall be separated from his nearest relations, from his most intimate friends, from his dearest earthly enjoyments, and his soul ere long shall be separated from his body; but it shall never for a moment be parted from the Lord Jesus. Supposing the believer's body were burned, and every particle of its ashes removed as far from each other as the east is from the west, they would still be united, indissolubly united, to Jesus Christ, Rom. viii. 35—39. As death did not dissolve the hypo statical union in the person of Christ, so neither will it ever dissolve the mystical union between him and his saints. Their bodies when dissolved in the grave are as intimately united to the Lord Jesus as their'souls dwelling in the mansions of glory. They sleep in Jesus: he keeper all their bones. This union can never be dissolved: no creature can dissolve it, and the Lord Jesus himself will not. The creature cannot d...

Words in Season . BIBLE THOUGHTS . BY THE EDITOR . 1 SAM . XVI . 14-23 . Or Saul we may say , ' Thou didst run well , who hath hindered you ? He began well , but ended ill . His first days and works were better than his last . So with Demas ; so with the church of Ephe- sus ; so with the Jews , whose following Jehovah at first was belied by their last apostasy . So is it still with souls , churches , nations , ages . I. Saul's sin . For the root of all was sin . This sin was simply disobedience to a command of God . He was bidden slay Agag and his people . A cruel command , some would say , to which the disobedi- ence was better than the obedience . But it was a divine command , whether the wisdom , or the justice , or the mercy were visible . God had his reasons for it , and that was enough . Saul's sin was not misrule , nor oppression , nor wickedness , but simply disobedience to a command which some might call arbitrary , if not harsh and stern . Such stress does God lay...

Words in Season . BIBLE THOUGHTS . BY THE EDITOR . ' Er , the first - born of Judah , was evil in the sight of the Lord , and He slew him .'- 1 CHRON . II . 3 . HERE we have , in one brief sentence , a statement of the way in which God deals with sin and the sinner . It is the repetition of a verse in Genesis , in a very unlikely place in the midst of names and genealogies ; God thus giving us to know the stress He lays on it . It is not for nothing that He thus repeats it . Such clauses as this , flung in apparently by chance , or what is called the tran- scriber's taste , are full of meaning . This certainly contains a very distinct and awful utterance . Looking at it generally , we may say that it brings out , in a very outstanding and unambiguous form , such things as these : I. God's estimate of sin . It differs widely from man's . It is the Judge's estimate ; not the Physi- cian's merely , or the Father's . It is one of con- demnation . It is not s...

Words in Season . BIBLE THOUGHTS . BY THE EDITOR . PSALM LXVIII . 18 . THIS Psalm is of and for Messiah . It is He whose name is Jah , the Lord God of Israel ; He is addressed throughout this Psalm as God . It is this Psalm which the apostle quotes in Ephesians ( iv . 8 ) , and interprets of Christ and his ascension . It is Christ that David here addresses : ' Thou hast ascended on high . ' I. The ascension . - This is the last point of Mes- siah's earthly history , and sums up the whole . But according to the interpretation of Paul , it includes all that went before : What is it but that He also descended ? The ascent reminds us of a descent . He descended to Bethlehem , and then He descended to Joseph's tomb . After that all was ascension ; and the expression of our text includes , or rather expresses , resurrection . He went down into the lower parts of the earth ; He came up again ; and then He went on high . This ascending was the completion of his work , the carry...

"Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain--and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." Zechariah 4:7 If the literal temple had been built up without any trouble whatever; if all had gone on smooth and easy, there would not have been any shouting of "Grace, grace," when it was finished. But when it was seen how the Lord had brought a few feeble exiles from Babylon; how he had supported them amid and carried them through all their troubles; and how he that laid the foundation had brought forth the head-stone, all that stood by could say, "Grace, grace unto it." It was these very perplexities and trials that made them join so cheerily in the shout, and made the heart and soul to leap with the lips, when they burst forth with "Grace, grace unto it." And who will shout the loudest hereafter? He that has known and felt the most of the aboundings of sin to sink his soul d...

Is the comfort, with which the saints are favoured, spiritual and holy comfort? Let no man then conclude,- that he is a true Christian, merely because he has felt on some occasions, natural and sensible consolation. Natural, outward, and sensible consolation is one thing; spiritual, inward, and holy comfort is another, and a very different thing. The former, is natural, and is common both to saints and sinners; the latter, is spiritual, and is peculiar only to the saints: that, is outward and sensitive, proceeding, under common providential Prov. xiv. 10. influence, from a man's natural constitution of body; this, is inward and holy, and is effected by the Holy Spirit the Comforter, dwelling in the soul. Spiritual consolation is sometimes sensible, as well as that which is natural; or rather, the former might (as it sometimes is) be styled, sensible consolation, and the latter, sensitive delight. Spiritual comfort, delights chiefly the rational and inward faculties of the soul; nat...

Unbelievers are actuated by a slavish or servile spirit, suitably to their state of bondage, under the covenant of works **. A slavish fear of hell, and a servile hope of heaven, are the weights, that are hung upon them by that covenant, causing them to go the external round of duties. Sins are avoided, duties are performed, not from love to God and his holy law ; but from love to themselves and their own safety. Believers on the contrary, are actu¬ ated by a free and ingenuous Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, suitably to their state of adoption, under the covenant of grace ®. God in Christ is their gracious Father, and they serve Him, not as slaves but as sons The Holy Spirit dwelleth in them, and hath made them partakers of a new, and a Divine nature The consequence is, that sin is hated and avoided as contrary, duty is loved and performed as agreeable, to their new nature. Christ is their elder brother, who loved them and gave himself for them,” and his lore constrains them ^ Their b...

As I was writing these words there broke upon my ears the song of a canary bird hanging in the room overhead. Its thrilling notes were not a whir less joyous than those which I have often heard rained down from the infinite expanse of heaven by the little skylark of my native land. In spite of its cage that tiny warbler sings, and when its young mistress goes to speak to it, there is a flutter of joy in its wings as with ruffled neck and chattering gladness it leaps to bid her welcome. So let us accept our bonds, whether of poverty, or weakness, or duty, as the bird accepts its cage. You may cage the bird, but you cannot cage its song. No more can you confine or restrain the joy of the heart which, accepting its condition, sees God in it and greets Him from it. (W. M. Taylor.)

The uninvited stranger and the welcome guest The picture is a very striking one. In the evening Weeping, like a darkly veiled stranger, enters our dwelling, making all sorrowful by his unwelcome presence, but he comes only to sojourn for a night. In the morning another guest appears--Joy--like a rescuing angel, before whom Weeping disappears. I. Is the case of the godly, the tearful night of affliction will be followed by the joyful morning of deliverance and God’s returning favour. We have here a figurative allusion to the way in which God had dealt with the psalmist and often deals with His people. His favour had been withdrawn, His displeasure manifested, but it was only for a moment, which moment is contrasted with the whole life gladdened with His smile. How often in the history of the Church have we seen the dark night of affliction succeeded by the bright morning of a glorious and triumphant deliverance! The darkest hour immediately preceding the dawn! For a while God seems to f...

1. It is a great mystery of faith, and a great trial of faith, that the way to eternal life should lie through the midst of this dark valley of death. Our Lord Jesus Christ bought eternal life for us, by the price of his blood; he went through death to take possession of his kingdom and glory: and yet his people must go through death to take possession of the gift of eternal life. If there were any allowed room or place for prayer in this affair, how many, and how earnest prayers would we make to be delivered from going in this way to glory? But after a life of trials, temptations, and manifold tribulations, this last is still before us; and we must.pass through, and set our feet in the cold waters of this Jordan, ere we enter the heavenly Canaan. After all the lively hopes of heaven, and sweet foretastes of it, we have had; after our faith hath risen us to a full assurance; yet through death must all the heirs of glory pass. 2. There is no wisdom like that of preparing for this awful ...

THE MIDNIGHT GLOOM OF THE CHRISTIAN OFTEN ARISES FROM THE IDEA OF CHANGE IN GOD. Christian joy comes from a clear consciousness of the Divine nearness - "the face of God shining upon his servant." Christian woe comes when God seems to be afar off, hidden; it is as though the sun had passed in behind a cloud; the face that made heaven for us shows frowns. It may well he called midnight darkness when the soul has conceived the idea of changed relations in God. One or two comforting considerations may be dwelt on. 1. Change in God only comes as a consequence of change in the Christian. He is the unchangeable One; but in his role he adjusts relations to those whom he would bless. To the sinner, he is a God of holy indignations. To the penitent, he is a God of saving mercies. To the earth-child, trying to live a godly life, he is a watching, guiding Father. To the Christian in trouble or pain, he is a tender, comforting Mother. He is not varying and uncertain; that would make him...

Now, for the condition of the Church, know sin to be the great obstruct or of its peace, making Him to withdraw His hand, and hide His face, and to turn away His ear from our prayers, and loath our fasts: as Isa. i. 15, and Her. xiv. 12. The quarrel stands; sin not repented of and removed. The wall is still standing; oaths, and Sabbath-breaking, and pride, and oppression, and heart-burnings still remaining. Oh, what a noise of religion and reformation! All sides are for the name of it, and how little of the thing! The Gospel itself is despised, grown stale, as trivial doctrine. Oh, my beloved, if I could speak many hours without intermission, all my cry would be, Repent and pray. Let us search and try our ways, and turn unto the Lord our God. Oh, what walls of every one's sin are set to it! Dig diligently to bring down thine own; and for those huge walls of public national guiltinesses, if thou canst do nothing to them more, compass them about as Jericho, and look up to Heaven for ...

In a short time there will (we have reason to fear) remain but two kinds of persons among us, either those who think not at all, or those whose imaginations are active indeed, but continually evil. Of these latter it may be said, "Their foolish heart was darkened." Of the principles, I do not say of the detail, of political science, a sound theology is the only sure and steady basis. Now we trace the operations by which a destruction so extended in its consequences has been effected. The master-spring of every principle which can permanently secure the stability of a people is the fear and knowledge of Almighty God. The first operation of a principle of atheism, and perhaps one of the most formidable in its consequences, is that which leads political men to conceive of Christianity as a mere auxiliary to the State. Religion was not instituted (in the Divine council I mean) for the purpose of society and government, but society and government for the purposes of religion. As a...

people: It is not unfit that you should hear of ministers work, and duty, and difficulties. You see that all is of your concealment. All things are for your sakes, as the apostle saith in another case. Then only I entreat you, 1. Pity us. We are not angels, but men of like passions with yourselves. Be fuller of charity than of censure. We have all that you have to do about •the saving of our own souls; and a great work besides about 'the saving of yours. We have all your difficulties as Christians; and some that you are not acquainted with, that are "Only ministers' temptations and trials. • . 2. Help us in our work. If you can do any thing, help us in the wok of winning souls. What can we do, say you? O! a great deal. Be won to Christ, and we are made. Make haste to heaven, that you and we may meet joyfully before the throne of God and the Lamb. Robert Traill

You that are ministers, suffer a word of exhortation. Men, brethren,, and.fathers, you are called.to.an h;gh and holy calling. Your work is full of danger, full of duty, and full of mercy. You are called to the winning of souls; an employment near a-kin unto our Lord's work, the saving of souls; and the nearer your spirits be in conformity to his holy temper and frame, the fitter you are for, and the more fruitful you shall be in your work. None of you are ignorant of the begun departure of our glory, and the daily advance of its departure, and the sad appearances of the Lord's being about to leave us utterly. Should not these signs of the times rouse up ministers unto greater seriousness? What can be the reason of this sad observation, That when formerly a few lights raised up in the nation, did shine so as to scatter and dispel the darkness of popery in a little time; yet now when there are more, and more learned men amongst us, the darkness comes on apace? Is It not because...

A doctor of divinity, of singular learning and piety, sent his maid to the market, to..get provision for the following week: But all the money he and his wife could make, was but five shillings ; his wife fell a weeping, and told her husband, that there was likelihood they could live.together, and that therefore she would take one or two of her children with her, and live among her friends, if he Could provide for himself and the rest of his children? Nay, dear wife, said he, we have lived thus long together, let not us now part, let us rely on God's providence: She in her grief and haste answered, Well, send providence to market, and see what it will bring home. It was so that day, a nobleman, who knew this doctor very well, dining with divers gentlemen at an inn, looking out of the window, saw the doctor's maid, whom being an ancient servant, he knew, and sent for her up, asking her how her master did; she answered, very well, and fell a weeping; he enquiring the cause, she t...

THE LOW AND AFFLICTED STATE OF THE CHURCH. 1. She is deeply distressed; and the language of Divine compassion towards her is, "Oh thou afflicted!" Piety exempts from future wrath, but not from present trouble. Saints have their afflictions in common with others. 2. The Church of God is also described as being "tossed with tempests," like a ship driven from her anchors, carried to and fro by the boisterous waves, and ready every moment to be swallowed up. A storm at sea also well represents the terrors of an awakened conscience, and the agonies of a mind in deep distress; when awful providences are joined with inward darkness, so that one trouble excites and sharpens another. 3. The Church is afflicted, "and not comforted." Sometimes light arises out of darkness, and God comforts His people in all their tribulations: but here every species of relief is withheld. II. THE COMPASSION OF GOD TOWARDS HIS AFFLICTED PEOPLE, AND THE PROMISE MADE FOR THEIR RELIEF...

Dear Sir, On the topics mentioned in my last, which respect the making and administration of the covenant of grace, how delightfully ought the preacher to display the exceeding riches of the grace of God and how the whole of our redemption tends to the praise of the glory of that grace; how fit the blessed Jesus is to rescue us from the broken law, from sin, death, and hell; how altogether lovely, precious, rich, liberal, and gracious He is; and what exceeding great and precious promises are given to us as the New Testament in His blood. More particularly, 1. He ought plainly to set forth God’s redoubled gift of His own Son—as a ransom, to obey and suffer for us ungodly sinners, and as a husband, effectual Savior, and portion to espouse, deliver, and satisfy us sinful and miserable sons of men—as the foundation of every call and invitation to accept of Him. Without this, His calls and invitations to receive Christ and His salvation are little else but an instructing of men how to rob G...

John 20:24-29 D. Young I. THOMAS AND HIS FELLOW-APOSTLES. When they told Thomas they had seen Jesus, and he refused to believe, they must have been rather staggered at first. They would insist on how they had seen Jesus with their own eyes, and heard him with their own ears; not one of them, but all. They would point out how the sepulcher was empty, and how Jesus had said that it behooved him to be raised from the dead. They might ask whether Thomas imagined that they were all in a conspiracy to play an unseemly practical joke upon him. Yet there was really nothing to complain about in the incredulity of Thomas. Who of them had believed Jesus as he deserved to be believed? Their thoughts had never been really directed towards resurrection. They had been dreaming of individual glory and sell: advancement, and all that tended in a different direction had been unnoticed. We must do them the justice to say that no tone of complaint against Thomas appears. They would be too conscious that ...

The greatest marvel of all creation is that the Son of God should come to redeem; and next to that is this, that having come, He should be neglected and rejected by those who had so long looked for Him. Here is the greatest wonder in all history: a nation neglecting the realisation of its own dream. Search your histories and see if you can find a parallel case. The old Jewish theocracy aspired to pretensions that Rome, Greece, Persia, and Egypt never dared to dream, to bestow to the world one universal king. And what is that land of Palestine, and what are these Jews who aspire to such pretensions as this?...It has no deep thought like India; no genius of stability like China; no sense of beauty like Greece, no high culture like Egypt, no powerful arms like Rome, and yet there is the fact; they speak concerning the kingdom their king should establish. "The Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising." Yet, marvellous to relate, when she had giv...

Queen Mary. ‘Yea, but ye are not the Kirk that I will nourish. I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Kirk of God.’ John Knox. ‘Your will, Madam, is no reason; neither doth your thought make that Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not, Madam, that I call Rome an harlot; for that Church is altogether polluted with all kind of spiritual fornication, as well in doctrine as in manners. Yea, Madam, I offer myself to prove, that the Church of the Jews which crucified Christ Jesus, was not so far degenerate from the ordinances which God gave by Moses and Aaron unto His people, when they manifestly denied the Son of God, as the Church of Rome is declined, and more than five hundred years hath declined, from the purity of that religion which the Apostles taught and planted.’ Queen Mary. ‘My conscience is not so.’ John Knox. ‘Conscience, Madam, requireth knowledge; and I fear that right knowledge ye have none.’ Queen Mary. ‘But I have ...

I. THE KING'S HIGHWAY LEADS DOWN THROUGH THE VALLEY OF BOCHIM, THE PLACE OF TEARS. Repentance is prerequisite to an entrance into life. To repent is to make a frank acknowledgment of sin and to forsake it. Is there aught unreasonable in this? If I have wronged a fellow-man do I not count it a point of honour to make amends to him? Shall we not observe as high a rule of honour and manliness in our attitude to God as we do in our human relationships? II. THE KING'S HIGHWAY RUNS OVER THE HILL OF ATONEMENT. It is the royal way of the Cross. The law speaks on Calvary. It says to the sinner, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Nor is it possible to exaggerate the dreadfulness of that death. The Lord spoke of it under the figure of fire and the undying worm To Christ also the law speaks, Thou mayest expiate the sinner's guilt. The sword awakes against the Shepherd. The only-begotten Son of God, assuming our place before the law, is wounded for our transgressions and b...

We are miserable mistakers of the great grace of God in Christ, and of the nature and value of his gift to us, when we suppose that it could ever become a debt to us by any thing we can do to deserve it, or contributing in the least towards it.—As you would be believers, rejoicing in the hope and comfort of the Gospel, never give way to this proud presumptuous thought. The Scripture requires no such thing at your hands, for you could as soon make a world; but tells you, as plainly as words can do, that it is Christ, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”—Consider what your condition was, and what was to be done for your recovery from it, and you will be convinced at once, that it must be as the prophet says, “his own arm brought salvation to him,” not for himself; he did not need it; but to him for us. And it is a marvellous opening of his gracious heart towards us, that he would speak of what he did for our sakes, as if it had been wrought ...

Joseph Robbins was a bridge watchman on a railway. He was murdered by a neighbour who wanted to get his money. The murderer was caught directly after. During the trial he made this confession in open court: — "I knew that Robbins had just received his month's wages, and I resolved to have his money. I got a shot-gun and went to the bridge. As I came near to the watch-house, on looking through the window, I saw Robbins sitting inside. His head and shoulders only could be seen. I raised the gun, took aim and fired. I waited a few minutes to see if the report of the gun had alarmed any one, but all was still. Then I went up to the watch-house door, and found Robbins on his knees praying. Very plainly I heard him say: 'Oh, God, have mercy on the man who did this, and spare him for Jesus' sake.' I was horrified; I did not dare to enter the house. I couldn't touch that man's money. Instead of this, I turned and ran away, I knew not whither. His words have haunted...

Woes to come: — To my own apprehension, while reading this in private, it seemed just such an utterance as the angel of God might address to the soul of the ungodly when he leaves the body. "Death is over," saith the angel. "One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." Thou hast passed through the woes of death, but behold there comes a judgment, and then comes a second death: "One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." 1. The woe which is supposed to be passed is the woe of death. Death to the righteous has lost its sting, but to the wicked death has all its terrors. Its horrors are not diminished by anything that Christ hath done; yea, rather, death gathers more cause of dismay; for the very Cross itself may fill the obdurate heart with consternation. When the sinner dies impenitent, having rejected the mercy of Christ, death is woe indeed. One of my predecessors, Mr. Benjamin Keach, has left on record an ac...

As for me it has been my sin, and is now the matter of my sorrow, that while myriads of souls, (of no higher original than mine) are some of them beholding the highest Majesty in heaven, and others giving all diligence to make sure their salvation on earth, I was carried away so many years in the course of this world, (like a drop with the current of the tide) wholly forgetting my best self, my invaluable soul; while I prodigally wasted the stores of my time and thoughts upon vanities, that long since passed away as the waters which are remembered no more. It shall be no shame to me to confess this folly, since the matter of my confession shall go to the glory of my God. I studied to know many other things, but I knew not myself. It was with me as with a servant to whom the master committed two things, viz. the child, and the child’s clothes; the servant is very careful of the clothes' brushes and washes, starches and irons them, and keeps them safe and clean, but the child is forg...

1. Saving graces are karpos, the "fruit" or fruits "of the Spirit," Gal. v. 22; Eph. v. 9; Phil. i. 11. Now, fruits proceed from an abiding root and stock, of whose nature they do partake. There must be a "good tree" to bring forth "good fruit," Matt. xii. 33. No external watering or applications unto the earth will cause it to bring forth useful fruits, unless there are roots from which they spring and are educed. The Holy Spirit is as the root unto these fruits; the root which bears them, and which they do not bear, as Rom. xi. 18. Therefore, in order of nature, is he given unto men before the production of any of these fruits. Thereby are they ingrafted into the olive, are made such branches in Christ, the true vine, as derive vital juice, nourishment, and fructifying virtue from him, even by the Spirit. So is he "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John iv. 14. He is a spring in believers; and all saving graces are ...