A Goodly Heritage

The boundary between spiritual life and spiritual death is admiration . Between seeing the beauty without desiring it and seeing the beauty with desire there seems but a thin line , but it is a line of infinitude ; it is the difference between the almost and the altogether . Admiration of Christ's beauty is the lowest step of the ladder , but it is a step . It may exist where the deeds of life are not in harmony with its ideal , but it is the prophesy of the future perfection , the pledge of good things to come . My soul, bethink thee , that which thou admirest must be allied to thyself . Thou could not possibly admire it if it had nothing in common with you . Like can only be known by like ; love cannot be recognised by selfishness, nor can the face of purity be be beheld by moral debasement . Therefore it is that the words are written , "Without holiness no man can see the Lord." It is not a threat ; it is a statement of a divine which is also a human law . You cannot s...

"The body without the spirit is dead."James 2 ;26.                                                                                 What is death? Can a man define it ?Does inspiration tell us what it is ?  Yes; in the words now before us we have the simplest , the shortest , the most explicit explanation in the world ; death is the body without the spirit . It is a wonderful explanation , marked off distinctly from all other explanations . It is not said that to die is to have the life of the body extinguished , ; no, the life is not extinguished , it is away ; there is something absent , ...

"Therefore doth my Father love me ...."John 10: 17&18.      What is this secret of the father's love ? Why is it that the heart of the Father rejoices in the Son ? Is it because of the pain of the Sons sacrifice ? Is it because His Father beheld in Him a victim on the altar of death ? Nay , it is because on the altar of death He beholds in Him an offering that is no victim . The Father's heart rejoices not that the Son is compelled to die , but that the Son can die without compulsion , that He has power to lay down His life . All other sacrifices had been types of impotence , but this was a type of power . Never had the strength of will been manifested so gloriously . There had been conquerors and mighty warriors , who had paved their own way through the hearts of others ;here was a life that could pave a way for others through its own heart . O strength perfected in weakness , O self -surrendering power of love , we , like the Father , yield our hearts to t...

When Moses was gone into the tabernacle, then he heard the voice . It is not said that the voice then began to speak ; rather the contrary is implied . The voice would seem to have been speaking all along , but it was only now that Moses heard it . Why did he hear it now ? It was because nowe for the first time he had put himself in the attitute of hearing . It was when he entered into the tabernacle , it was when he himself began to speak with God , that there woke within him the conviction that God had all the time been speaking with him . My soul , it must be the same with thee . Often you are crying in the silence of the night that no Divine voice has visited you . Nay, but have you only listened for it with the ear of sense ? If so , it is no marvel that you have missed the music . The voice of God cannot be heard by the ear of sense ; its tones make no impression on the surrounding air , they stir not the waves of the earthly atmosphere . . Its accents are too still and small to ...