A Goodly Heritage

  Christians should cultivate  PEACE  and  HARMONY  one with another. "Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephes. 4:3. "Be of one mind, live in peace." 2 Cor. 3:11. "Follow after the things which make for peace." Rom. 14:19. It is quite needless to expatiate on the value and importance of peace. What society can exist without it? I shall therefore proceed to state what things are necessary for the attainment of this end. 1.  Christians should be SUBJECT one to another in humility.  "Likewise, you younger men, submit yourselves unto those who are older. Yes, all of you,  be subject one to another , and be clothed with humility." 1 Pet. 5:5. Now from hence we learn, that some kind of mutual subjection ought to be established in every Christian church. This of course does not mean, that some members are to make an entire surrender of their opinions and feelings to others, so far as never to oppose them, and always to be guided ...

All the affections of the soul have their opposites—as love and hatred; joy and grief; hope and fear. These, though seemingly antagonistic, can be shown to work harmoniously, and sometimes, as in the case before us, to accomplish the same object. There are many passages, as this treatise proves, in which the believer is called upon to hope, to hope perfectly, to have the full assurance of hope—and yet as many in which he is as earnestly called upon to fear. To say nothing of the texts of the Old Testament, which was a system of bondage and fear, there are many to the same effect in the New Testament, under which we have "not received the spirit of bondage again to fear—but the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind." "Work out your salvation," said the apostle, "with fear and trembling." "Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of...

" Husbands , love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:22-32. Observe the sublime and transcendently interesting fact which stands amid the duties of family life, as stated by the apostle, in the language quoted above, like the sun in the cen...

Christ's love to his church, was DURABLE and UNCHANGEABLE. "Having loved his own he loved them to the end," without abatement or alteration. So ought men to love their wives, not only at the beginning; but to the end of their union; when the charms of beauty have fled before the withering influence of disease; when the vigorous and sprightly frame has lost its elasticity, and the step has become slow and faltering—when the wrinkles of old age have followed to the bloom of youth, and the whole person seems rather the monument, than the resemblance of what it once was. Has she not gained in mind what she has lost in exterior fascinations? Have not her mental graces flourished amid the ruins of personal charms? If the 'rose' and the 'lily' have faded on the cheek, have not the 'fruits of righteousness' grown in the soul? If those blossoms have departed, on which the eye of youthful passion gazed with ...

In the first place then, earnestness implies  the selection of some ONE object of special pursuit, and a vivid perception of its value and importance.  It is next to impossible for the mind to be intently employed, or the heart to be very deeply engaged, on a multiplicity of objects at once. We have not energy enough to be so divided and distributed. Our feelings to run with force must flow pretty much in one channel—our attention must be concentrated, our purpose settled, our energy exerted—upon one thing, or we can do nothing effectually. The earnest man is a man of one idea, and that one idea occupies, possesses, and fills his soul. To every other claimant upon his time, and interest, and labor, he says, "Stand aside! I am engaged, I cannot attend to you; something else is waiting for me." To that one thing he is committed.  There may be many subordinate matters among which he divides any surplus water—but the current flows through one channel, and turns one great whe...

"It is a fearful thing," says a distinguished writer, "for an immortal being to have  no  hope for eternity. But it is scarcely less dreadful to have a  false  hope—though it is a confident hope—which must make him who cherishes it ashamed and confounded, world without end." Hence the necessity and tremendous importance of looking well to the foundation on which we rest our expectations of everlasting happiness. Every wise builder will take especial care, when he is about to erect an edifice, that the foundation is good, and his solicitude will be in exact proportion to the magnitude, height, and importance of the intended structure. Our Lord closes his Sermon upon the Mount with an allusion to this, where he speaks of the different results of building upon the sand or upon a rock. What deep concern, then, should be felt by him whose superstructure of hope is to rise as high as heaven, to stand against all the assaults of time, and to last through eternity. Wha...