A Goodly Heritage

1.  It is the book of redemption. Its central thought is the Cross, which is the wisdom of God and the power of God. 2.  This book is complete; it is "written within and on the back," both sides of the parchment covered. God's plan of redemption is round and full. Its last word is "Finis," and there is room for no other. 3.  The book was "close sealed with seven seals." In the ages before Christ the great problem was how God could be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly. Three sentiments were struggling in all human breasts: the conviction of sin, the intuitive apprehension of death, and the trembling hope that God, in some wise, would deliver. The solution of the difficulty was hid within this volume of the Divine decrees — hid by the Father, to be revealed in fulness of time unto us. II.  A LAMB AS IT HAD BEEN SLAIN. And this Lamb took the book out of the right hand of God and opened it. The opening of this book of the Divine decrees concerni...

Our human nature is like a ruined temple in which the echo of old hymns and prayers still lingers and where a spectral Levite walks and murmurs of a lost glory. Hence our longing to return. All souls in their lowest depths are troubled to know the way of everlasting life. This universal consensus of aspiration led to speak of the "wings of our pre-existent state." The world is full of men and women who as Jesus passes by are half moved to throw themselves before Him as the young ruler did, crying, "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" It is our vocation, as ministers of the Gospel, to point out the way to Zion. A grave responsibility rests upon us. Not long ago a signalman swung a white lantern as the railroad train swept by. On it went with impetuous speed until, on a sudden, there came a shock like a thunderbolt, and the train plunged down an embankment. The cars were piled one upon another, and oh, the shrieking and praying then! Who shall depict th...