A Goodly Heritage

"You are the  same ." - Psalm 102:27 What a fountain of comfort is to be found in the Immutability of God! Not one ripple can disturb the calm of His unchanging nature. Were it so, He would no longer be a perfect Being- He would undeify Himself- He would cease to be God! "Change is our portion here." "They shall perish," is the brief chronicle regarding everything on this side heaven. The firmament above us, the earth beneath us, the elements around us– "all these things shall be dissolved." Scenes of hallowed endearment- they have fled! Friends who sweetened our pilgrimage with their presence- they are gone! But here is a sure and safe anchorage amid the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude– "You are the same." All is changing but the Unchanging One. The earthly scaffolding may give way, but the living Temple remains. The reed may bend to the blast, but the living Rock spurns and outlives the storm! How blessed, especially, to...

"How miserable it would make me now," says a philosophic writer and thinker once borne along the current of skepticism, "to give up the Bible! How I cling to its assurances of pardon and free acceptance, and undeserved love and favor, as my chief and only hope!" Go, gather all the philosophers of antiquity—Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. Bring together the wise men of Greece, the philosophers of Alexandria, the sages of Rome. Ask if their combined and collected wisdom ever solved the doubts of one awakened soul, as have done these leaves of this hallowed Book! Which of them ever dried the tear of widowhood as these? Which of them ever smoothed the pillow of the fatherless as these? Which of them ever lit the torch of hope and peace at the dying bed as these, and flashed upon the departing soul visions of unearthly joy? O Pagan darkness! where was your song in the night? In the region and shadow of death where did your light arise? But "we have a more sure wo...

There is a beautiful saying in the 94th Psalm, "The Lord will not reject His people; He will never forsake His inheritance; Judgment will again be founded on  righteousness,  and all upright in heart will follow it" (14, 15). A healing word to all poor afflicted ones. Judgment often at times seems separated—deflected  from  righteousness. We can discern no righteousness, no mercy, no good in His dispensations. Like the sun setting at night, all is darkness. But that sun will return. It will rise again tomorrow. Judgment shall return in righteousness. "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." "Hereafter you shall know where God doth lead thee, His darkest dealings trace; And by those fountains where His love will feed thee, Behold Him face to face. "Then bow thine head, and He shall give thee meekness, Bravely to do His will; So shall arise His glory in thy weakness, O struggling soul, be still. "Watch on the tower...

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." —Isaiah 1:18 My soul! your God summons you to His audience chamber! Infinite purity seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as most wondrous of all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear—"God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." What! Scarlet sins, and crimson sins! and these all to be forgiven and forgotten! The just God "justifying" the unjust!—the mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all!  Oh! what is there in you to merit such love as this? You might have known your God only as the "consuming fire," and had nothing before you except "a fearful looking for of v...

"If thou knewest the Gift of God and who it is that saith to thee , give me to drink , thou would have asked of Him , and He would have given thee ."And if would add yet one word , it is that Christ in the glories of his person and offices and work , as revealed here and elsewhere in the Gospels , with his free message of salvation , is the very Saviour we need , and who alone can satisfy the soul's thirst . Christianity is to have no new phases or developements . Its glorious distinctive truths are not to be moulded and metamorphosed to suit the restless spirit of the times , to adapt themselves to new conditions of thought , and to square with modern theories and speculations . Jesus , from being the adorable God - man , "Immanuel , God with us , " is not to be dishohoured by merely having a place assigned Him as one of many deities in worlds Pantheon , - regarded merely as the human founder of one of earth's religions or philophies , and the doctrines of ...

This is the want - the crying demand of our age - a living Christianity - Epistles of Christ that may "be known and read of all men"Presumptuous scoffers are there , who would dare to allege that the Bible is an antiquated book - that its age is past and gone - that it was well enough for the church or the world in its nonage  - but the refinements of the present age demand something higher and better . Vain dreamers ! Christians, if you value your Bibles and prize their priceless worth , know that something better , something nobler , cannot be given ; remember too , there is one volume ( not a substitute , but an all important supplement ) which you can produce to silence the gainsayer - the volume of your life :- a volume read by worldly and scoffing eyes , that scorn to read the Word of God . They can contemn God's blessed Revelation as an effete and antiquated story , but they cannot resist the mighty eloquence of a pure , holy , Christ - like , heavenly walk ! Scor...

Do we know the power of prayer?  Feeling that we are perishing , have we sent up a cry for help to that God who is a refuge for his people in every time of trouble . If so , He will send help out of his Holy hill of Zion  . Why is it that our prayers seem so frequently to go unanswered  - that despite of them all , we feel that we are sinking still ? Is it not because that they are not the cries of those who feel  their awful and affecting need of Christ , and are really desirous that his hand be stretched for their rescue . Let us go with the publicans lowly spirit , and with the sinking disciple's importunate entreaty , "Lord save me , I perish ! Lord I look to thee for safety . There is no safety in myself . I feel that I am a lost undone sinner , and unless plucked from the billows of sin , I shall perish everlastingly . But Lord, from the depths  I cry to thee; help me , O thou helper of the helpless !Show me that "mans extremity is God's opportunity ," and...