A Goodly Heritage

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 ...

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 ...

"I have sometimes had seasons of remarkable visitation from the presence of the Lord. I well remember one night when in bed being so filled, so overpowered with the glory of God, that had there been a thousand suns shining at noonday, the brightness of that divine glory would have eclipsed the whole. I was constrained to shout aloud for joy. It was the overwhelming power of saving grace. Now it was that I again received the impress of the seal and the earnest of the Spirit in my heart. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord I was changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Language fails in giving but a faint description of what I there experienced. I can never forget it in time nor to all eternity. Many years before I was sealed by the Spirit in a somewhat similar manner. While walking out one day, I was drawn to turn aside on the public road, and under the canopy of the skies, I was moved to kneel down to pray. I had not long been praying wi...

There is no keeping up FAITH except by prayer and watchfulness. As prayer declines in the bosom, so does the strength of faith. You may go on neglecting prayer and supplication until every grain of faith seems lost from your bosom, and may come at last to do you think never knew anything of a work of God upon your heart, and have been deceived in believing there was any grace there. By watchfulness also is the LOVE of God maintained. Unless you watch against your besetting sins, against the snares spread for your feet, against the temptations that daily and hourly beset your path, against being overcome by the strength or subtlety of your unwearied foe, you are sure to fall; and if you fall you will bring guilt and bondage, darkness and distress into your mind, and cut off for a time all friendly communion with God. Therefore you must pray and watch; for without watchfulness, prayer is of little efficacy. And if we neglect the Scriptures, or read them carelessly or unbelievingly, they ...

m JOHN CAMERON, sometime Bishop of Glasgow, was a most wicked wretch; he not only committed many acts of avarice and cruelty upon the poor people of his diocese, but also encouraged those in place and power to do the like: so that he became the author of almost all the mischief in that part of the country. But in this he did not long escape the just judgement of God ; for, in the night before (what they call) Christmas-day 1446, as he lay in his own house in Lockwood, about seven miles from Glasgow, he seemed to hear an audible voice summoning him to appear before Christ's tribunal, to give an account of his doings. He got up frighted, and called for his .servant, to bring a light, and sit by him : he himself took a book, and began to read; but the voice was heard a second time, louder, which struck all his servants with horror. His servant being gone, the voice called a third time, more terrible than before; at which the Bishop was heard give a groan, and so was found dead in his ...

It is true, the body is beloved of the soul, and God requires that it moderately care for the necessities and conveniences of it; but to be fond, indulgent, and constantly solicitous about it, is both the sin and snare of the soul. One of the fathers being invited to dine with a lady, and waiting some hours till she was dressed, and fit to come down; when he saw her, he fell a weeping; and being demanded why he wept, Oh! said he, I am troubled that you should spend so many hours this morning in pinning and trimming your body when I have not spent half the time in praying, repenting and caring for my own soul. Two things a master commits to his servant’s care, (says one) the child, and the child’s clothes: It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say, at his master’s return, Sir, here are all the child’s clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost. Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies, at the great day, Lord, here is my body, I was ve...

Let me add this to them who are preachers of the word, or intend, through the good hand of God, that employment: It is their duty to plead with men about their sins, to lay load on particular sins, but always remember that it be done with that which is the proper end of law and gospel; — that is, that they make use of the sin they speak against to the discovery of the state and condition wherein the sinner is; otherwise, haply, they may work men to formality and hypocrisy, but little of the true end of preaching the gospel will be brought about. It will not avail to beat a man off from his drunkenness into a sober formality. A skilful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives still at the heart. To inveigh against particular sins of ignorant, unregenerate persons, such as the land is full of, is a good work; but yet, though it may be done with great efficacy, vigour, and success, if this be all the effect of it, that they are set upon the most sedulous endeavours of mor...