A Goodly Heritage

There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation – the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands – the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to s...

Carlyle in narrating an instance of the preservation of etiquette at the court of Louis XVI, while the mob were demanding entrance into his private apartments, and the empire was going to pieces, compares it to the house cricket still chirping amid the pealing of the trump of doom. When trivial subjects are descanted upon from the pulpit, while souls are perishing for lack of knowledge, the same comparison may be used; as for instance, when a congregation is collected, and the preacher talks about the drying up of the Euphrates, or ventilates his pet theory for reconciling Moses and geology. Why cannot these things be kept for other assemblies? What can the man be at? Nero fiddling over burning Rome is nothing to it! Even the women knitting in front of the guillotine were not more coolly cruel. We tolerate the cricket for his incongruous chirp; but go to, thou silly trifler at the sacred desk, we cannot frame excuse for thee, or have patience with thee.

Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause Me to hear it . Song of Solomon 8:13 The Song is almost ended: the bride and Bridegroom have come to their last stanzas, and they are about to part for a while. They utter their adieux, and the Bridegroom says to his beloved, "Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause hie to hear it." In other words — when I am far away from thee, fill thou this garden with My Name, and let thy heart commune with Me. She promptly replies, and it is her last word till He cometh, "Make haste, my Beloved, and be Thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices." These farewell words of the Well-beloved are very precious to His chosen bride. Last words are always noticed: the last words of those who loved us dearly are much valued; the last words of one who loved us to the death are worthy of a deathless memory. I.  We notice, first of all, AN APPO...

The sorrows of death compassed me. Psalm 116:3, 4 I.  First, here is THE WRETCHED CONDITION into which many a poor awakened soul has been brought. 1.  Many a troubled conscience feels the sorrows of death; that is to say, he is the subject of griefs similar to those which beset sinners on their dying beds. They are all around him — these sorrows of the past, and the present, and the future. 2.  Awakened sinners sometimes feel what they describe as the pains of hell: not that any living man does endure the pains of hell to the extent which they are suffered in hell, but still a dreadful foretaste of those pains may he experienced by an awakened conscience. What are these pains of hell? Remorse; a sense of condemnation; a terrible despair; a crushing sense of misery. 3.  But the case was worse than this, for the poor soul felt no alleviation and knew of no escape. These things were by themselves, unsoftened, left in all their terror, the gall was unmixed, ...

The particular objects which you are now to look back upon are the manifold and manifest answers to prayer, which God has given you. I.  The first thing I would have you recollect is, YOUR OWN PRAYERS. If you look at them with an honest eye, you will be struck with wonder that ever God should have heard them. Look back now, Christian, upon thy prayers, and remember what cold things they have been. Thy desires have been but faint, and they have been expressed in such sorry language, that the desire itself seemed to freeze upon the lips that uttered it. And yet, strange to say, God has heard those cold prayers, and has answered them too, though they have been such that we have come out of our closets and have wept over them. Then, again, believer, how unfrequent and few are your prayers, and yet how numerous and how great have God's blessings been. Ye have prayed in times of difficulty very earnestly, but when God has delivered you, where was your former fervency? Look at your p...

An aged minister once made the confession to another concerning this passage--“I wish it were true of me; but I think I should have to make an alteration of one syllable, and then it would exactly describe me at times: ‘My soul is even as a weaning rather than a weaned child,’ for,” said he, “with the infirmities of old age, I fear I get fretful and peevish and anxious, and, when the day is over, I do not feel that I have been in the calm, trustful frame I could desire.” And we have often to make the same confession. We wish we were “as a weaned child,” but then we are not. To the child weaning is one of its first troubles, and no doubt it is a terrible trouble to the poor little heart. But it gets over it somehow. It is a very happy condition of heart which is here indicated, and I desire to promote it in you. So-- I.  Let us think what the psalmist meant by it. Look at the context and you will see that he meant-- 1.  That pride had been subdued in him. “Lord,” he s...