A Goodly Heritage

"Hold up my goings in your paths, that my footsteps slip not." Psalm 17:5 Without scrupulously or superstitiously observing "days, and months, and times, and years," few of us altogether pass by so marked an epoch as the dawning of another year upon our path without some acknowledgment of it both to God and man. When we open our eyes on the first morning of the year, we almost instinctively say, "This is New-year's day." Nor is this, at least this should not be, all the notice we take, all the acknowledgment we make of that opening year of which we may not see the close. When we bend our knees before the throne of grace, we mingle with thankful acknowledgment for the mercies of the past year, both in providence and in grace, earnest petitions for similar mercies to be experienced and enjoyed through the present. Last evening witnessed our confessions of the many, many grievous sins, wandering...

"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way." The wilderness had no roads in it of any kind, or in any direction. No beaten paths were there made, to guide the wanderers, and except from the stars they did not know north from south, nor east from west; wherever they wandered it was a wilderness still of wide, waste, barren sand, out of which it seemed scarcely possible for them ever to emerge. Taking the figure spiritually, does not this feature describe how many of the Lord's people are wandering in a wilderness world, not knowing where to direct their steps, and doubting whether they ever shall emerge out of it, often fearing that they shall die in it, and that without hope? But two other marks are added– 1. that they found the wilderness "a solitary way;" 2. "that they found no city to dwell in." We will consider both these features, and the last first. 1. By finding "NO CITY to dwell in," is meant that the wilderness wandere...

"Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all your people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house."  2 Chronicles 6:29 Solomon comes to experience; he puts his hand upon the right spot. It is  knowing  his  "own sore" and his  "own grief."  You may know another man's; that will not profit you. You may read of experience in books, love to hear experimental ministers, and will hear no others; and yet not know your  "own  sore," your  "own  grief." Like a physician who may know the symptoms of every malady, and yet not have one malady of his own; so you may hear described every symptom of every disease, and yet be untouched by one. But the man for whom Solomon's prayer is, he that knows and feels, painfully feels, his  "own  sore" and his  "own  grief," whose heart is indeed a grief to him, whose s...

"But now they desire a better couuntry , that is , an heavenly." Now this is what sought in desiring a heavenly country . They wanted something heavenly , something that tasted of God , savoured of God , smelt of God , and was given of God , a heavenly religion , a spiritual faith , a gracious hope , and a love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost ; something which came from heaven and led to heaven ; which gave heavenly feelings , heavenly sensations , heavenly delights , and heavenly joys , whereby the heart was purified from the love of sin , carnality and worldliness , by having something sweeter to taste , better to love , and more holy to enjoy . It is these heavenly visitations , droppings in of the favour , goodness , and mercy of God , which keep the soul alive in its many deaths , sweeten it amidst its many bitters , hold it up amidst its many sinkings , and keep it from being drowned while conflicting with many waters . A carnal mind has no taste for heavenl...

The glorious Church is Christs inheritance , and the apostle prays that we may more of the riches of his glory in this inheritance , that we may look beyond a few poor dying men and women , look beyond the wrappings of the creature , and see what a saint of God really is as dressed in immortal robes and made meet to sit down at the supper of the Lamb . We now see men and women wrapped in the miserable rags of our fallen humanity; but we do not see in them what they will be when resplendent with all the glories of heaven . But Christ sees them as we do not , comely in his comeliness and complete in him . If ,then , we were able to look a little beyond these mere trapping of humanity and these creature rags , which wrap up a mortal body and contain in the rags of mortality an immortal soul , and could realise that one day these rags of mortality will be changed into a glorious body, according to the pattern of the glorified body of Christ , we should enter a little into Christ's love...