A Goodly Heritage

Every hope that finds a Saviour in the externals of rites and services , and  means of grace , must be ground to powder and given to the winds. The channels of grace are not grace . The way is not the end . The instruments , by which we feed , are not food . The scaffold is not the building . The door is not the mansion. Here again is work , which requires a martyrs spirit ,and more than human discernment. Satan is quick to deck our holy things , and our holy places with a show of saving efficacy  .He whispers , that to put these things in their proper place , is to put religion out of all place . We must not hesitate . Christ must be embraced , unaided and alone , or not at all.     I need scarcely add , that every sweet sin , which has long been caressed in the recesses of the heart , must be dragged to the light and slain. This is often as the plucking out of the right eye.  But there must be no sparing. Christ is light . Sin is darkness . How can ...

Is not the way of transgressors pleasant in its progress, though it ends in death?  No . Sin barters away future safety, but does not secure present peace in return .Things are not always as they seem to be . The pleasures of sin are not only limited in their duration , they are lies even while they last.  They are "for a season " as to endurance , and for a show as to their character . There is a bitterness in the transgressor's heart , which only that heart can know . The man in gospel history , who wore no clothes , and lived among the tombs, did not lead a happy life .  The rocky, thorny graveyard was a hard bed , and the dewy night air a cold covering for a naked man; but such was his will , or the will of the spirit that possessed him. It was man's pleasure to take that way  , but the way was hard . It is so still , and ever will be , for all whom the same spirit leads . It has neither the promise of the life that now is , nor of that which is to come . The rac...

Anselm in his Meditations ,said, that all his life was damnable for sin committed, or unprofitable for good omitted, and at last concludes, "Oh, what then remains but in our whole life, to lament the sins of our whole life." So much the more God has been displeased with the blackness of sin, the more will he be pleased with the blushing of the sinner. (Bernard) They that do not now burn in zeal against sin, must before long burn in Hell for sin.