A Goodly Heritage

The love of Christ is just as incomprehensible as the mysteries and glory of the Godhead itself . You see Him dwelling there in the bosom of the Father in bliss and glory unutterable , receiving the homage of a holy universe ; and then flinging all this aside , He comes down through all the ranks of the higher intelligences . lower and still lower , till He reaches the depths of suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross , and there pours out His blood that He may wash us from our sins . "From our sins, "- from their deep guilt , and so procuring our eternal forgiveness and God's favour ; and from their power and pollution , and so procuring ourr restoration to the holy image of God . It may well be believed that those for whom all this was done , those whom the Son of God so loved and washed in His own blood , however low and vile and guilty before , would be thus advanced to whatever of dignity and privilege it was in the power of omnipotence to bestow upon such creatures...

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...

Although one kingdom differs from another in character and aim , all kingdoms are like each other in the method of their operation . The kingdom of darkness , like the kingdom of light , grows gradually from very small to very great . The kingdom of Satan hangs on and follows Christ's kingdom like a dark shadow , and the shadow depends upon the light . The first sin against God was a small seed , but the tree which sprang from if was the fall of man . "Thou shalt not eat ," is a small point - its smallness has sometimes supplied unbelievers with wit , if not with argument  -  but on that point a door was hung , which , turned this way , opened heaven and shut hell ; turned that way , opened hell and shut heaven . In its beginning the kingdom of evil was small ; but from that small seed a mighty tree has grown .        As there is no sin so great that the blood of Christ cannot blot it out , so there is no sin so small that it cannot destroy a soul . A litt...

The creation of the world is a shadow of the regeneration of a Christian . First , there was an earth without form , void , and a darkness upon the face of the deep . Predestination is this great deep , which cannot be discovered or discerned . There the  light was separated from the darkness ; here knowledge is separated from ignorance of the soul ; there is calling . Then was the sun created ; so here the bright beams of grace are diffused into our hearts which fill us with spiritual joy ; there is sanctification .  Lastly , Adam was created in the image of God , and placed in Paradise ; so the new man is conformed to the image of Christ , and shall be reposed in the paradise of everlasting glory .

Two seeds lie before us ,- one warmed in the sun , the other falls from the sowers hands into the cold dark earth , and there it lies buried beneath the soil . The seed which suns itself in the noontide beam may rejoice in the light in which it basks , but it is liable to be devoured by the bird ; and certainly nothing can come of it , however long it may linger above ground ; but the other seed , hidden beneath the clods in a damp, dark sepulchre , soon swells , germinates , bursts its sheath ,upheaves the mould , springs up a green blade , buds , blossoms , becomes a flower , exhales perfume , and loads the wings of every wind . Better far for the seed to pass into the earth and die , than to lie in the sunshine and produce no fruit ; and even thus for thee the future in its sorrow shall be a sowing in a fertile land ; tears shall moisten thee , grace shall increase within thee , and thou shalt grow up in the likeness of thy Lord unto perfection of holiness , to be such a flower of G...

As the future coming of the Lord Jesus is the Church's hope , the present outpouring of the Spirit is the Church's heritage . The child of God can never cease to long for for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit , so long asd he feels any deadness in his own heart , or sees so many dead souls around . The love of Christ will constrain him to sigh after a closer walk with God himself , and will give him no rest till he see others walking in the light along with him . And let none of you think , that you are too young or too inexperienced , or too little advanced in the Christian life , to be entitled or called upon to be intercessors with God for the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh . The most acceptable offerings you can present to God , upon your own conversion , are the yearnings of your heart over dead souls , and your earnest pleadings for the promise of the Father . If your faith be weak , if your views be dark , if your hearts be straitened , rest assured nothing will te...

The body shall be awaked out of its dead sleep , and quickened into a glorious immortal life . The soul and body are the essential parts of man ; and though the inequality be great in their operations that respect holiness , yet their concourse is necessary . Good actions are designed by the counsel and resolution of the spirit , but performed by the ministry of the flesh . Every grace expresses itself in visible actions by the body . In the sorrows of repentance , it supplies tears , in fastings , its appetites are restrained , in thanksgiving the tongue breaks forth into the joyful praises of God . All the victories over sensible pleasure and pain are obtained by the soul in conjunction with the body . Now it is most becoming the divine goodness not to deal so differently , that the soul should be everlastingly happy , and the body lost in forgetfulness ; the one glorified in heaven , the other remain in the dust . From their first setting out in the world to the grave they ran the s...