A Goodly Heritage

DIVINE SILENCE AND HUMAN DESPAIR When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, "Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her." "There is one in Endor," they said. 1 Samuel 28:5-7 "And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that has a familiar spirit at Endor." – 1 Samuel 28:6,7 The scene of this sad strange narrative, is the plain of Esdraelon, a place of battle-fields. The Philistines are in the north, at Shunem. Israel at the south, in Gilboa. It is a critical hour for Saul, and for his people. The enemy is in strength; Samuel is dead; Saul's ...

That which alone is worth the seeing; that which fills and gladdens the soul, when seen and known; that, without which we must remain unsatisfied and unblest forever; that, in comparison with which all other sights are as nothing—is "the glory of God." That which righteous men of old desired to see—but saw only in glimpses and at intervals; that, for the seeing of which Moses prayed, saying, "Show me, I beseech you, your glory"; that to which the eye of every creature should turn, in longing earnestness—is "the glory of God." That which everything in heaven and earth is intended to reveal, for the "heavens declare the glory of God," and the earth everywhere shows it forth; that, for the beholding of which our eyes were made, and for the appreciation of which our minds were formed; that, for the unfolding of which sin came in, and is yet to be expelled by holiness, and death came in that it may yet be succeeded by more blessed life; that, fo...

evertheless I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love."— Revelation 2:4. There are some words which smite like a hammer, or cleave like a thunderbolt—words of mere power and terror—words like those which broke forth in fire from Sinai. But the words of our text are words which drop as the rain, and distill as the dew; words which pierce, yet soften; which rouse, yet soothe; which wound, yet bind up; which combine the biting north wind and the healing south wind. Such are these. They are not the earthquake nor the fire nor the whirlwind, but the still small voice; more resistless than all these together; mingling the rebuke and the consolation; the severity and the love; the father's rod and the mother's tears. There are words which lead you away from the speaker, and absorb you in themselves. The words of our text are not such. There are others which carry you wholly past themselves to the speaker. Neither are the words of our text such. T...

"They sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." – Genesis 3:7  They are alone, yet they are ashamed. They are in Paradise, yet they are ashamed. It is conscience that is making them blush. It not only makes cowards of them, but it works shame and confusion of face. They are ashamed of themselves; of their nakedness; of their recent doings. They cannot look one another in the face after their disobedience and recriminations against one another. They cannot look up to God now. Possibly too they shrink from being in view of the serpent who beguiled them. The feeling of happy innocence is gone. They must be covered. This is their feeling, the dictate of conscience. The eye must not see them, either of God or man. The light must not shine on them; the eye of the sun must not look on them; and the fair flowers and trees of Paradise must not see their shame. They love darkness rather than light. Covering is what they seek– covering from every eye. Thus, shame and guil...

The Chosen One “Mine elect [Chosen One], in whom my soul delighteth.”—Isaiah 42:1 “My servant whom I have chosen.”—Isaiah 43:10 “The Christ, the chosen of God.”—Luke 23:35 It is Jesus Who is the Chosen One. He is, by preeminence, the object of the Father’s choice. Above all other beings in heaven and on earth, and in a way infinitely distinct from every one of them, He is the eternally chosen of the Father—the chosen of Him Whose divine wisdom knew well the value of that which it was choosing, and, therefore, could not choose amiss. 121 He alone was chosen for what was good in Him. God may have reasons for choosing objects, apart from what He finds in themselves; but in the case of the only begotten Son, it was the matchless excellence and glory found in Him that made Him the object of the Father’s everlasting choice. It was thus that He was “set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, being…daily his delight” (Pro 8:23, 30). Other objects might be chosen for s...

Man has always treated sin as a misfortune, not a crime; as disease, not guilt; as a case for the physician, not for the judge. Herein lies the essential faultiness of all mere human religions or theologies. They fail to acknowledge the judicial aspect of the question, as that on which the real answer must hinge; and to recognize the guilt or criminality of the evildoer as that which must first be dealt with before any real answer, or approximation to an answer, can be given. elr It seems strange, after all, that man should be…easily misled, and that, among thousands who profess to seek for truth, so few should reach it. But man’s bias is on the side of error, just as it is on the side of sin; for all error is sin. Darkness is loved rather than light, and the bondage of the evil one preferred to the liberty of God. Hence, it is so easy to seduce men from the path of truth. God and truth are so closely linked together that they cannot have the latter without the former. A false religio...

The world is still sleeping its sleep of death. It has been a slumber of many generations; sometimes deeper, sometimes lighter --yet still a slumber like that of the tomb, as if destined to continue till the last trumpet sound, and then there shall be no more sleep! Yet God has not left it to sleep on unwarned. He has spoken in a voice that might reach the dullest ears and quicken the coldest heart. Ten thousand times has He thus spoken and still He speaks. But the world refuses to hear. Its myriads slumber on, as if this sleep of death were the very blessedness of its being. Yet in one sense the world's sleep has never been universal. Never has there been an age when it could be said there is not one awake. The multitude has always slept, but there has always been a little flock awake. Even in the world's deepest midnight there have been always children of the light and of the day. In the midst of a slumbering world some have been in every age awake. God's voice h...

“The cross of Christ;...the preaching of the cross.”—1 Corinthians 1:17,18 The first of these passages strikingly identifies the Master and the servants,—our Lord and His witnesses. They were to suffer as He suffered and where He suffered: one with Him on the cross, in the grave, in resurrection, in ascension, and on the throne. The words, “Where also our Lord was crucified,” come with a strangely solemn power. It is the last reference to the cross of Christ in the Bible, and corresponds well with that frequent expression in the Revelation, “the Lamb slain”; carrying us back to “the seed of the woman” and “the bruised heel.” The second passage is one of the many (nineteen in all) in which Paul refers to the cross and its meaning, the cross and its connection with the good news, the cross and the way of preaching it. In his estimation that cross stood out pre-eminently as the great centre round which his faith revolved. It was the basis of his hope towards God; it was the main articl...