A Goodly Heritage

I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you: Fear ye not.—Hag. 2:4, 5. When the Lord calls his people to great work, or grievous sufferings, he animates them with strong consolations; for as their day is, their strength shall be. This passage shines bright, as it manifests the most comforting views and clearest discoveries of covenant-grace and love to saints of old, engaged in a very arduous work of Jehovah. "Whatever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we might have hope."—Rom. 15:4. Our hope is established and strengthened through patience and comfort of the scriptures; and as they encourage our hope, they also forbid our fears; as if salvation was precarious and uncertain, as though the foundation of hope rested upon conditions we fulfil to secure it. Blessed be God faith hath a surer anchor-hold, even the word, the covenant, the oath of...

 nd Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? Will ye save him?—Judg. 6:31. When the Lord Jesus appears and manifests himself to the soul, it is so struck with his glory and grace, that it cries out in holy ecstasy, "What have I to do any more with idols?"— Hos.14:8—and an altar for spiritual worship is presently set up in the heart, and consecrated to Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord of peace. In this chapter is a sweet view of the zeal of Gideon for the true worship of Jehovah. He instantly obeyed the word of Jesus, the angel of the presence, the man, the PEACE who appeared to him, and at his command he threw down the altar of Baal. He expected opposition from his Father's household and from the men of the city, therefore he did it by night. A blessed instance of the obedience of faith joined to sanctified reason. As to the consequence after the work done, he "conferred not with flesh and blood;" he was "in nothing terrified by his adve...

Jesus said unto him, Wherefore didst thou doubt?—Matt. 14:31. The best of men are but men at the best. The most eminent saints of God have experienced doubting, fearful frames, as well as believing, joyful ones. We have many instances of this in the bold and courageous Peter. Now, at the command of his master, we behold him walking safely on the surface of the great deep. Here he honored his master's word, was very safe and comfortable while he believed his power. To see Peter walking upon the liquid ocean, is not more beyond the power of reason to comprehend and account for, than to see a poor sinner comfortably living and walking by faith on the Son of God, in spite of all the raging waves of unbelief, lust, and corruptions. But as it was with Peter, so is it often with the believer. The workings of Peter's natural senses, the suggestions of his carnal reason, opposed the actings of his faith; he heard the roaring winds, he saw the boisterous waves, he considered the bulk an...

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formedinyou.—Gal. 4:19. Many sincere disciples, who are convinced of sin, hope in themselves cut off, and have fled to Jesus for refuge, are often distressed because they have not been under such dreadful terrors of legal wrath which others talk of, and are mistaken for the pangs and travail of the new birth. But there is no authority from scripture to conclude we must have such great terrors of hell and damnation ere we come to and believe on Christ. Nay, the law may work great wrath in the conscience, and yet the soul never be converted to Jesus and the holiness of the gospel. The Spirit is a sovereign agent. Enlightened, convinced souls are differently wrought on; some feel more, others less terror; but each see the sinfulness of sin, their lost state by nature, the spirituality of the law and the preciousness of Jesus before they will come to him. On such the dear Saviour "sees the travail of his soul, and i...

The outward teaching of the word is to be prized. Diligent attendance on gospel-preaching is by no means to be neglected. Faithful ministers of Jesus are to be esteemed highly in love for their works' sake. Christian conversation is to be valued: none of these are here spoken against by our Lord. No; his appointing teachers, the Spirit's owning and blessing the word by them to the instruction and conversion of souls, plainly prove the contrary. But Jesus, the substance, being come, teaching by types and shadows should be no more. Men shall not teach one another by pretended revelations: but the ministration of the Spirit should take place of the ministration of the letter. Such should be the effusion of the Spirit after the ascension of Jesus; that he should enlighten with his power and teach with his energy all the children of God. Every believer in Jesus has this unction of the Holy Spirit, which teacheth him all things,—1 John 2:20. Hence the babe in Christ, as well as the ...

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit.—Gal. 5:17. Christian experience fully proves this apostolic truth. Hence the children of God cannot do the things that they would: nor have we any authority from God's word to conclude this lusting ever ceased in any of the saints till they got to glory; none are delivered from it while in the flesh. For, as the renewed soul or spirit loves to enjoy spiritual and heavenly objects, so the flesh, or unrenewed part, lusts after those objects it is naturally conversant with, and from which it derives its happiness. Here is thy conflict, O Christian. Hence the necessity of thy Lord's command, "Watch always." This is the use of the doctrine. What woeful effects have fulfilling the lusts or desires of the flesh produced in eminent saints! Thou standest by faith, be not high-minded, but fear. The conceptions of lust are the productions of sin.—James 1:15. The commission of sin contracts fresh sense of guilt. This is the malady and sickne...