A Ribband Of Blue Blessed Prosperity Blessed Adversity Coming To The King A Full Reward Under The Shepherd's Care Self-Denial All-Sufficiency...

We would draw the attention of beloved friends to the instructive passage with which the fifteenth chapter of Numbers closes; and may G OD , through our meditation on His precious Word, make it yet more precious and practical to each one of us, for C HRIST our R EDEEMER'S sake! The whole chapter is full of important teaching. It commences with instruction concerning the burnt-offering, the sacrifice in performing a vow, and the free-will offering. It was not to be supposed that any one might pre

There is a prosperity which is not blessed: it comes not from above but from beneath, and it leads away from, not towards heaven. This prosperity of the wicked is often a sore perplexity to the servants of G OD ; they need to be reminded of the exhortation, "Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." Many besides the Psalmist have been envious at the foolish when seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and have been tempted to

In our meditations on the first Psalm we have dwelt on "Blessed Prosperity." But all G OD'S dealings are full of blessing: He is good, and doeth good, good only, and continually. The believer who has taken the L ORD as his S HEPERD , can assuredly say in the words of the twenty-third Psalm, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the L ORD for ever;" or, taking the marginal reading of the Revised Version, "Only goodness and mercy shall

The beautiful history recorded in the chapter from which the above words are quoted is deeply instructive to those who have learned to recognise C HRIST in the Scriptures. The reference to this narrative by our L ORD Himself was surely designed to draw our attention to it, and gives it an added interest. The blessings, too, received by the Queen of Sheba were of no ordinary kind. She was not only pleased with her reception, and with what she saw, but all her difficulties were removed, all her pe

In this interesting narrative we have another instance of the way in which the H OLY G HOST teaches by typical lives. We have dwelt on some precious lessons taught us of our K ING by the account of the coming of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. There we were specially taught how our hard questions are to be solved, and our hearts to be fully satisfied. Here a still higher lesson is give us: How to serve so as to obtain "a full reward," while as to the nature of that full reward no little ligh

"Ye were as sheep going astray." This is evidently addressed to believers. We were like sheep, blindly, willfully following an unwise leader. Not only were we following ourselves, but we in our turn have led others astray. This is true of all of us: "All we like sheep have gone astray;" all equally foolish, "we have turned every one to his own way." Our first though has been, "I like this," or "I don't like that"; never thinking what the L ORD would prefer, we have just followed our own inclinat

We might naturally have thought that if there was one thing in the life of the L ORD J ESUS C HRIST which belonged to Him alone, it was His cross-bearing. To guard against so natural a mistake, the H OLY G HOST has taken care in gospel and in epistle to draw our special attention to the oneness of the believer with C HRIST in cross-bearing; and also to prevent misunderstanding as to the character of Christian cross-bearing, and the constancy of its obligation. The L ORD J ESUS , in the words we

How pleasant to the heart of a true child to hear his father well spoken of, and to rejoice that he is the child of such a father. We feel that we can never thank G OD sufficiently for our privileged lot, who have been blessed with true and loving Christian parents. But if this be the case with regard to the dim and at best imperfect earthly reflections, what of the glorious Reality--the great F ATHER --the source of all fatherhood, of all protection--of all that is blessed here, and true, and n