A Goodly Heritage

Newman Hall, LL.B. 1. From vain endeavours to relieve a burdened conscience, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the perfected redemption and pardoning grace of Jesus. 2. From the distress and disquiet of inconsistent conduct, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in unreserved obedience to Christ. Cease that opposition; forsake that evil path: cast from thee the accursed thing; cease to do evil; and thus return unto thy rest. 3. From the fretting anxieties and Iisappointments of pride, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the humility of Christ. 4. Disappointed in thy search for happiness elsewhere, return unto thy rest, O my soul, in the love of Jesus, and the peace the world cannot give. As the dove flew to and fro, finding no rest for the sole of her foot till she returned to the ark, so the believer cannot repose away from Christ, our true and only refuge. 5. From vain speculations and sceptical doubts, return unto thy rest, O my soul, by childlike faith in Christ. 6. From the sorr...

How eagerly are ancient manuscripts prized, and with what care are they examined but no book is so ancient as the book of life, in which are registered the names - * Eh. i. 3, 4. of all those who are written in heaven. This choice was the result of his mere good pleasure. It was not founded on Christ's efforts, nor the fruit of his solicitation, but arose from the sovereignty of God's grace. Still our Lord has the closest connection with election; the book which records it is called the book of the Lamb; his people were chosen in him as their Head, to the enjoyment of that salvation which he was destined to purchase, and to share those honours which were appointed to reward his success. To this choice God was not influenced by any foresight of the good works of the elect. We cannot suppose that he was influenced by the foresight of their intellectual endowments, for he has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the things that are wise; nor of their faith and holine...

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:20) SUCH were “the words of Jesus” when He was just about to ascend to Heaven. The mediatorial throne was in view – the harps of glory were sounding in His ears; but all His thoughts are on the pilgrim Church He is to leave behind. His last words and benedictions are for them. “I go,” He seems to say, “to Heaven, to my purchased crown – to the fellowship of angels – to the presence of my Father; but nevertheless, ‘Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’” How faithfully did the apostles, to whom this promise was first addressed, experience its reality! Hear the testimony of the beloved disciple who had once leaned on his Divine Master’s bosom – who “had heard, and seen, and looked upon Him.” That glorified bosom was now hid from his sight but does he speak of an absent Lord, and of His fellowship only as among the holy memories of the past? No! With rejoicing emphasis he can exclaim – “Truly o...

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.—Psalm 91:1. The beauty of the language of this poem fitly corresponds to the grandeur of the thoughts which it conveys. The Psalmist here sings “to one clear harp in divers tones”; and the central thought which he exhibits in its different aspects is that of God’s response to man. For every advance on man’s part there is an immediate and corresponding advance on God’s part. When man goes out to seek God, God meets him more than half-way. When he calls upon God, God will answer him. Loving faith on man’s part will be met by faithful love on the part of God. This is in the first verse, of which the whole psalm is an expansion. If man dwells “in the secret place of the Most High,” he shall abide “under the shadow of the Almighty.” We have here the condition and promise. In his later years, Calvin’s colleague at Geneva was Theodore de Beza (1519–1605), the writer of the metrical version o...

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri...

How many are the calamities of old age, and that if we should live to be old, our days will be such as we shall have no pleasure in, which is a good reason why we should return to God, and make our peace with him, in the days of our youth, and not put it off till we come to be old; for it will be no thanks to us to leave the pleasures of sin when they have left us, nor to return to God when need forces us. It is the greatest absurdity and ingratitude imaginable to give the cream and flower of our days to the devil, and reserve the bran, and refuse, and dregs of them for God; this is offering the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacrifice; and, besides, old age being thus clogged with infirmities, it is the greatest folly imaginable to put off that needful work till then, which requires the best of our strength, when our faculties are in their prime, and especially to make the work more difficult by a longer continuance in sin, and, laying up treasures of guilt in the conscience, to...

Her Last Words. This martyr, though both young in years and of the weak sex, was so singularly assisted of the Lord in his cause, and had such discoveries of his special love to her soul, that she was nothing terrified by her adversaries. When she was brought from the tollbooth to the council-house, to be carried to her execution,—as she came out of the tollbooth door, several friends attending her,—she was observed to say with a surprising cheerfulness and air of heavenly ravishment, "Behold, I hear my beloved saying unto me, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." And being brought to the council, bishop Paterson being resolved,—seeing he could not destroy her soul,—yet to grieve and vex it, said,—"Marion, you said,you would never hear a curate, now you shall be forced to hear one;" upon which, he ordered one of his suffragans, whom he had prepared for the purpose, to pray.* So soon as he began, she said to her fellow prisoner Isabel Alison; "Come Isabel...