32 chapters
43 minute read
Selected Chapters
32 chapters
THE FAITHFUL PROMISER.
THE FAITHFUL PROMISER.
BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE WORDS OF JESUS,” “THE MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES,” ETC. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.”—2 Pet . i. 4. NEW YORK: STANFORD & DELISSER, No. 508, BROADWAY. 1858. The Faithful Promiser. It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child of God, to take, night by night, an individual promise and plead it at the mercy-seat. Often are our prayers pointless , from not following, in this respect, the example of the sweet Psalmist of Is
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Pardoning Grace.
Pardoning Grace.
My soul! thy God summons thee to His audience chamber! Infinite purity seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as wondrous of all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear: “God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses.” What! Scarlet sins, and crimson sins! and these all to be forgiven and forgott
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Needful Grace.
Needful Grace.
God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes. But when it does come, the amount of grace, and the nature of the special grace required is vouchsafed. My soul, do not dwell with painful apprehension on the future. Do not anticipate coming sorrows; perplexing thyself with the grace needed for future emergencies; to-morrow will bring its promised grace along with to-morrow’s trials. God, wishing to keep His people humble, and dependent on himself, gives not a stock of grace; He metes it out
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All-Sufficient Grace.
All-Sufficient Grace.
“All-sufficiency in all things!” Believer! surely thou art “thoroughly furnished!” Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never empty. A fountain, “full, flowing, ever flowing, over flowing.” Mark these three ALL’s in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a golden chain, let down from a throne of grace by a God of grace. “ All-grace! ”—“ all-sufficiency! ” in “ all things! ” and these to “abound.” Oh
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Comforting Grace.
Comforting Grace.
Blessed Jesus! How thy presence sanctifies trial, takes loneliness from the chamber of sickness, and the sting from the chamber of death! Bright and Morning Star! precious at all times, thou art never so precious as in “the dark and cloudy day!” The bitterness of sorrow is well worth enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou who didst shed so many thyself! What are my tears—my sorrows—my crosses—
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Restraining Grace.
Restraining Grace.
What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting—Jesus praying! Satan sifting—Jesus pleading! “The strong man assailing”—“the stronger than the strong” beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther?” God often permits His people to be on the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; but never fa
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Restoring Grace.
Restoring Grace.
Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd’s eye and the Shepherd’s fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of his own ways, and his truant heart to go hopelessly onward in its career of guilty estrangement? “My thoughts,” says God, “are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Man would say, “Go, perish! ungrateful apostate!” God says, “Return, ye backsliding children!” The Shepherd will
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Sanctifying Grace.
Sanctifying Grace.
Reader! is the good work begun in thee? Art thou holy? Is sin crucifying? Are thy heart’s idols, one by one abolished? Is the world less to thee, and eternity more to thee? Is more of thy Saviour’s image impressed on thy character, and thy Saviour’s love more enthroned in thy heart? Is “Salvation” to thee more “the one thing needful?” Oh! take heed! there can be no middle ground, no standing still; or if it be so, thy position must be a false one. The Saviour’s blood is not more necessary to giv
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Reviving Grace.
Reviving Grace.
“Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?” My soul! art thou conscious of thy declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,—diminished communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has been?—the pulsations of spiritual life more languid, and fitful, and spasmodic?—the bread of life less relished?—the seen, and the temporal, and the tangible, displacing the unseen and eternal? Art thou sinking down into this stat
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Persevering Grace.
Persevering Grace.
Reader! how comforting to thee amid the ebbings and flowings of thy changing history, to know that the change is all with thee, and not with thy God! Thy spiritual bark may be tossed on waves of temptation, in many a dark midnight. Thou mayest think thy pilot hath left thee, and be ready continually to say, “Where is my God?” But fear not! The bark which bears thy spiritual destinies is in better hands than thine; a golden chain of covenant love links it to the eternal throne! That chain can nev
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Dying Grace.
Dying Grace.
And from whom could dying grace come so welcome, as from Thee, O blessed Jesus? Not only is Thy name, “The Abolisher of Death;” but Thou didst thyself die ! Thou hast sanctified the grave by Thine own presence, and divested it of all its terrors. My soul! art thou at times afraid of this, thy last enemy? If the rest of thy pilgrimage-way be peaceful and unclouded, rests there a dark and portentous shadow over the terminating portals? Fear not! When that dismal entrance is reached, He who has “th
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After Grace, Glory.
After Grace, Glory.
Oh! happy day, when this toilsome warfare will all be ended, Jordan crossed, Canaan entered, the legion-enemies of the wilderness no longer dreaded; sorrow, sighing, death, and, worst of all, sin , no more either to be felt or feared! Here is the terminating link in the golden chain of the everlasting covenant. It began with predestination ; it ends with glorification . It began with sovereign grace in a by-past eternity, and no link will be awanting till the ransomed spirit be presented faultle
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Another Comforter.
Another Comforter.
Blessed Spirit of all grace! how oft have I grieved Thee! resisted Thy dealings, quenched Thy strivings; and yet art thou still pleading with me! Oh! let me realize more than I do the need of Thy gracious influences. Ordinances, sermons, communions, providential dispensations, are nothing without Thy life-giving power. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” “No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Church of the living God! is not this one cause of thy deadness? My soul! is not this the
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Providential Overruling.
Providential Overruling.
My soul! be still! thou art in the hands of thy Covenant God. Were these strange vicissitudes in thy history the result of accident, or chance, thou mightest well be overwhelmed; but “ all things ,” and this thing (be what it may) which may be now disquieting thee, is one of these “ all things ” that are so working mysteriously for thy good. Trust thy God! He will not deceive thee,—thy interests are with Him in safe custody. When sight says, “All these things are against me,” let faith rebuke th
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Safe Walking.
Safe Walking.
The paths of the Lord? My soul! never follow thine own paths. If thou dost so, thou wilt be in danger often of following sight rather than faith,—choosing the evil, and refusing the good. But “commit thy way unto the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass.” Let this be thy prayer, “Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths.” Oh! for Caleb’s spirit, “ wholly to follow the Lord my God,”—to follow Him when self must be sacrificed, and hardship must be borne, and trials await me. To “walk with God,”
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Love in Chastisement.
Love in Chastisement.
Sorrowing Believer! what couldst thou wish more than this? Thy furnace is severe; but look at this assurance of Him who lighted it. Love is the fuel that feeds its flames! Its every spark is love! Kindled by a Father’s hand, and designed as a special pledge of a Father’s love. How many of his dear children has He so rebuked and chastened; and all, all for one reason, “ I love them! ” The myriads in glory have passed through these furnace-fires,— there they were chosen,— there they were purified,
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A Condition in Chastisement.
A Condition in Chastisement.
Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears shed for nought! Not one stroke of the rod unheeded, or that might have been spared? Thy heavenly Father loves thee too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher correction than thy case requires? Is it loss of health, or loss of wealth, or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a need be . We are no judges of what that “need be” is; often through aching hearts we are forced to exclaim, “Thy judgments are a great deep!” But God here pledges him
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Strength in the Weak.
Strength in the Weak.
Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine?—this erring, treacherous, traitor heart? The past! how many forgotten vows—broken covenants—prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and the burning flax been well-nigh quenched by guilty omissions and guiltier commissions! Oh! my soul! thou art low indeed,—the things that remain seem “ready to die.” But thy Saviour-God will not give thee “over unto death.” The reed is bru
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Encouragement to the Desponding.
Encouragement to the Desponding.
“Cast out!” My soul! how oft might this have been thy history! Thou hast cast off thy God,—might He not oft have “cast out” thee? Yes! cast thee out as fuel for the fire of His wrath,—a sapless, fruitless cumberer. And yet, notwithstanding all thine ungrateful requital for His unmerited forbearance, He is still declaring, “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Thy sins may be legion-like,—the sand of the sea may be their befitting type,—the thought of the
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Peace in Believing.
Peace in Believing.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” “Perfect peace!”—what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it thine? Sure I am it is not , if thou art seeking it in a perishable world, or in the perishable creature, or in thy perishable self. Although thou hast all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless thou hast peace in God, and with God, all else is unworthy of the name;—a spurious thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of death ut
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Bliss in Dying.
Bliss in Dying.
My Soul! is this blessedness thine in prospect? Art thou ready, if called this night to lie down on thy death-pillow, sweetly to fall asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? It is sin. Is death, then, to thee, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents of pardoning love, “Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee?” If thou hast made up thy peace with God, resting on the work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested of al
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A Due Reaping.
A Due Reaping.
Believer! all the glory of thy salvation belongs to Jesus,—none to thyself; every jewel in thine eternal crown is His,—purchased by His blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the ascription of all eternity: “By the grace of God I am what I am!” But though “all be of grace,” thy God calls thee to personal strenuousness in the work of thy high calling;—to “labour,” to “fight,” to “wrestle,” to “ agonize ;” and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the earthly sow
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An End of Weeping.
An End of Weeping.
Christ’s people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin—their own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is dishonoured—need we wonder at their tears?—that they should be called “Mourners,” and their pilgrimage-home a “Valley of Tears?” Bereavement, and sickness, and poverty, and death, following the track of sin, add to their mourning experience; and with many of God’s best beloved, one tear is s
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A Speedy Coming.
A Speedy Coming.
“Even so! come, Lord Jesus!” “Why tarry the wheels of Thy chariot?” Six thousand years this world has rolled on, getting hoary with age, and wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn shadows of twilight announcing, “The Lord is at hand.” Prepare, my soul, to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when thine adorable Redeemer, so long dishonoured and despised, shall be publicly enthroned, in presence of an assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, satisfied i
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Eventide Light.
Eventide Light.
How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of “a world to come!” Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the “better country.” But, alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar—the spirit
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Heavenly Illumination.
Heavenly Illumination.
As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in gloom. It is not always “light” at his evening-time; but this we know, that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth’s shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on heaven’s chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! “in God’s light thou shalt see
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A Glorious Reunion.
A Glorious Reunion.
If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! “I will come again!” Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honour and dignity is this!—His saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. “Where I am, there ye shall be also!” “Father, I will (it was His dying wish,—a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer) that those whom Thou hast given
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Everlasting Espousals.
Everlasting Espousals.
How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath “married thee!” Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and there, thine espousals were contracted: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. “The Bridegr
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A Joyful Resurrection.
A Joyful Resurrection.
Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the tones of the archangel’s trumpet!—the dishonoured dust, rising a glorified body, like its risen Lord’s? At death, the soul’s bliss is perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in the redemption price
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A Nightless Heaven.
A Nightless Heaven.
My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these midnight tossings on life’s tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. “His going forth is prepared as the morning.” That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. “Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light.” Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a nightless world!
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A Crown of Life.
A Crown of Life.
What! is the beggar to be “raised from the dunghill, set among princes, and made to inherit a throne of glory?” is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, a guilty traitor, to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven—gifted with kingly honour—royally fed—royally clothed—royally attended—and, at last, royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall be the d
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The Vision and Fruition of God.
The Vision and Fruition of God.
Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre to which every ray of light converges. God is “all in all.” Heaven without God !—it would send a thrill of dismay through the burning ranks of angels and archangels; it would dim every eye, and hush every harp, and change the whitest robe into sackcloth. And shall I then, indeed, “ see God ?” What! shall I gaze on these inscrutable glories, and live? Yes, God him
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