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DAILY MIEDITATIONS.
B3Y THE
REv. GEORGE lpOWEN,
AMERICAN MISSIONARY, BOMBAY, INDIA.
SECOND XL.,.iIGN ffl2.9 AN INDEX TO T'HE TEITI
igANCTIvr THEM THROUGH THY TRUTH; THY WORI) 13!RUTH.W
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
1334 CHESTNUT STREET.




it
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
hM. L. HILI)EBURN, TREASURER,
in trust for the
PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE,
In the Clerk's Offlce of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.. fWESTCOTT & THOMSON, ',
tereotyperan, Philada.




EDITOR'S PREFACE.
GREATLY though the Church of this day, amid all its
activities, lacks deep heart experience of religion, yet
there are many who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who desire a fuller work of the Spirit in their
souls. Conscious of poverty of soul, they long for
manna from heaven. To such, this volume will prove
a grateful gift. It is not without good reason added to
the number of the books that claim the attention and
the time of the Christian. The reader will here find
deep, precious and suggestive thoughts made vivid by a
glowing imagination and striking inferences. If desiring a higher Christian life, and willing to meditate
and pray, he will be edified by the fruits of a profound
study of God's word and of a rich experience of the
workings of the Spirit. His faith will be strengthened
by contact with the Author's faith, and his zeal be kindled by his passionate jealousy for the glory of God.
3


7://.




4


EDITOR'S PREFACE.


Of the work, an eminent New York pastor* says, " It
is a book of rare merit, marked by deep piety, insight
into the Scriptures, original genius and uncompromising
directness. I know of no book of its class equal to it."
The Author, the Rev. George Bowen, formerly of:New York, has been for eighteen years a missionary in
India. He issued a Volume of Meditations at Bombay, where there is a considerable English community.
This volume was brought to the notice of the Committee by the Rev. William   Wallace Atterbury, and by
him, at the request of the Committee, revised, new papers by Mr. Bowen being inserted in the place of some
that seemed of less merit. The volume has been stereotyped, and is now given to the Christian public. Let
the reader, as he reads, pause to meditate, and ask the
blessing of the Spirit upon the truth.
J. W. D.
* Rev. WUlliam R. Williams, D.D.; and in this judgment the Rev.
Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., than whom no one is micre -ompctent to judge
of a spiritual work, concurs.




0~


0




Misin




)AILY MEDITATIONS.
JANUARY 1.-"And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.-Deuteronomy xxxiii. 25.
This probably means that time, instead of diminishing the
strength and crippling the energies of the people of God, shall
be commissioned to convey unto them increase of spiritual
strength, and to render them day by day, month by month,
year by year, more vigorous and more victorious in the conflict
with sin, more energetic in faith, more sublime in patience
and fortitude, more meek and lowly of heart, more fervent in
admiration of Christ, more self-denying and devoted in his
service, more generous, more pitiful, more useful.
In this view they are delightful words to greet us on the
threshold of a new year; and we accept them as a sweet and
blessed omen.   Bring us strength, ye coming days, strength
to glorify our Master, to resist evil, to accomplish good, to
hasten heavenward; and ye shall be most welcome.
NOTE.-We aim in these remarks rather to indicate the lines of thought,
and to make ready the materials of meditation, than to explore the galle.
ries of wealth that underlie our texts. The:eader will, we trust, bear in
mind his share of responsibility.
7




8


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


JANUARY 2.-" I am the Lord thy God which teac.eth thee tc profit."Isaiah xlviii. 17.
Sometimes the soul gets angry with the instruction and
says, "I will not believe that this is from the Lord my God.
The Lord my God is one that loveth me and taketh pleasure
in granting the desires of my heart. But this providence is
rude and withering; my hopes are blasted, my expectations
mocked, my trust belied. What could mine enemy do to me,
more severe, more crushing, than this that has come upon me?
And shall I be told that it is the Lord my God teaching me
to profit?"
" Yes, it is the Lord thy God. As many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten. Thine enemy would never have done to thee
what I am doing. Thine enemy might indeed afflict; but not
for thy profit. It might be difficult to distinguish between a
wound inflicted by an assassin, and an incision made by a surgeon; but the results would soon show the world-wide difference
between the two acts. It was needful that I should bring upon
thee the very thing most intensely deprecated by thee. There
was no need of sending trials for which thou wert prepared,
and which had no power to disguise me from thee at all.
Thou wouldest have greeted them laughingly, and said, I
know that the Lord my God is coming to me in these.
Therefore I have taken a thicker shroud; but still, if thou
wilt hearken, the well-known voice will come to thee out of
the midst thereof, saying, 'I am the Lord thy God that
teacheth thee to profit.'"
" But do I need to be still taught my dependence, my sinfulness, my misery; the sole righteousness of Christ; the sovereignty of God; the vanity of the world? Have I failed to
profit by past instructions? Is all my past experience in
vain?"
" Not in vain. It is because of the evidence of a good work
in thee, that I am led to discipline thee thus and to seek thy




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


9


perfection. Thy words show that thou hast yet some lessons to
learn. Thou art not yet altogether willing that I should be in
all things sovereign, and thy will be made everywhere to succumb to mine."
"But, gracious Lord, how can one who has tasted of thy
loving-kindness and been enraptured by thy smile, receive
without deep anguish of heart the strokes of thy displeasure?
Thou hast given me the very sensibility by virtue of which I
now suffer. Is it better to be callous? Better to be without
expectations, aspirations?"
"The trial of your faith is more precious than of gold that
perisheth. Thoughts arise in your mind because the furnace
is seven times heated; but will you not consider that I am
seven fold more gloriously manifest to you, and eventually by
you?"
JANUARY 3.-" My strength is made perfect in weakness."-2 Corinthians xii. 9.
The Christian must be weak that he may be strong; weak
in the deprivation of those things which the world connects
with the idea of strength; deficient in the strength that men
seek and extol; emptied of all thoughts of his own independent and personal power; stripped of his own righteousness
and wisdom; sensible of the mighty power of the enemy; a
mere ruin and a wreck, apart from Christ. Then there is indeed a preparation for strength. A foundation is laid upon
which Christ will build. Room is made for the wisdom and
power and sufficiency of Christ. The Christian decreases,
that he may, in another and blessed sense, increase. He is
made perfect in weakness that he may be made perfect in true
strength. Look at Peter with his miserable sword in the garden of Gethsemane; look at him again on the day of Pentecost.




10


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


JANUARY 4.-" Lord, increase our faith."-Luke xvii. 5.
This was one of the wisest apostolic utterances. The world
is unconscious of its unbelief. It thinks that the reason why
it has not more faith, is that there is no more evidence given to
it. But no accumulation of evidence would remove the difficulty. A change within, a couching of the moral vision; this
is that which is necessary.
The Lord answers this prayer, not in general by giving new
evidence, but by inclining us to view and appreciate the evidence before our minds. By leading us to weigh his promises
in the scales of faith against the proffers of the world. By
making us to see that faith is the essential condition of blessedness. By showing us that we get no good by unbelief, but
mere confusion and wretchedness:-that faith is the perception
of truth, and leads us, not to a castle upon the earth, (which
might be burnt up,) not to a castle in the air, (which vanisheth
away,) but to a glorious mansion which hath foundations unremovable, battlements insurmountable, amplitude immeasurable,
light inextinguishable, glory inconceivable, and happiness inviolable.
JANUARY 5.-" If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth."-Mark ix. 23.
"If thou canst do any thing," said the man, "have mercy
upon us and help us." The question is not, says Christ, what
I can do; but what thou canst believe. All things are possible
to me; but this will help thee little. Have faith, and then all
things will be possible to thee. My power is given to faith;
and fills every channel that faith provides.
Christ has all power in heaven and in earth; and he is with
his servants, even unto the end of the world: but something
beside these facts is necessary that Christ's mighty power may
be manifested among men. It is still true that faith determines the exhibitions of his power; he could not do many




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


11


mighty works in Nazareth because of their unbelief; and it is
doubtless because of the Church's unbelief that he doeth so
few mighty works in this our day.
Compare the power that accompanied the Christian Church
in her first evangelistic steps with what we behold now. See
how she clothed herself with thousands in the city of the crucifiers, day by day; how these thousands had all things in
common and were filled with love and joy; how a Saul was
converted; an Ananias and Sapphira hurled lifeless back from
the church they wished to desecrate; how Peter came to Lydda and Saron, and straightway all that dwelt in Lydda and
Saron turned to the Lord; how he came to Joppa, and immediately many believed; how Philip went to Samaria and the
people with one accord gave heed unto his preaching. Ask
the world if it sees any such unequivocal displays of Christ's
power in these days; it will reply to you thus:-We see nothing like it; we see that the Church is moving forwards with
the general impulse of the age; participating in and profiting
by the many facilities of these latter times; the press aids her,
but it aids infidelity and everything else. So too with the providential movements of the day; what they do for her they do
for her in common with numberless other systems; and she has
so far accommodated herself to the spirit of the times we live
in, that men can join her communion without sustaining any
particular worldly loss or inconvenience. If we may relieve
what is written, from the days of Abraham to the days of the
apostles, divine power was exerted in behalf of the Church in
ways that were quite distinctive, and so as to give testimony
concerning the people of God apart from other people: and
this would seem to be the only kind of testimony available for
the object in view.
Well, the Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save.
He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. But our faith
is feeble. We cannot suppose that he is any more loth to an



12


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


swer the prayer of faith, any more loth to be revealed in connection with his people than he was in former times. The
spirit of Egypt was not drowned in the Red Sea, but appeared
afterwards in the camp of the Israelites to the grievous detriment of the chosen people: and the Church is by no means
emancipated from the spirit of the dark ages.
JANUARY 6.-" The Lord God is a sun."-Psalm lxxxiv. 11.
The sun is a glorious emblem of God, in his relation to all
who know him and trust in him. It seems to exist only to
dispense. Its beams know no intermission. They are intercepted but never withheld. We need only that we should be
turned towards them, and that there should be no veil before
our eyes, no clouds in our atmosphere. They enlighten, they
warm, they vivify, they gladden. Their profusion is amazing
One hundred millions of square miles of these beams descend
each moment on the earth and vanish in the same moment to
make way for another similar supply. The sun opens to us
the door of the universe, so to speak, and reveals creation.
Without it we could neither have the knowledge or the benefit
of anything that is.
All this is gloriously suggestive of the God of all grace.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are brought into the path
of his beams. Our understandings are enlightened, our hearts
are warmed, our spirits are gladdened. We begin to get the
good of God's creation. We are in ' marvellous light.' And
as the natural sun visits all things, yet gives itself wholly to
each, makes the whole earth prolific for the benefit of each, the
heavens and earth beautiful for the joy of each, so does God
grant to each of his children an infinite fulness of love, and
gives himself with all his perfections, in wondrous union to
each beloved one.




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


13


JANUTARY 7.-" In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct
thy pat-hs."-Proverbs iii. 6.
Acknowledge him as thy guide, thine only, thy necessary
guide. Refuse to stir a step without him, as the blind man
that stops the moment he misses his guide. Without him thou
art in utter darkness, and thy next step may be into a pit. He
has made thee thus dependent. It is not enough that the sun
slines for thee, the earth upholds thee, and all God's works
wait upon thee; all these finite ministers cannot guarantee thee
one safe step. God has ordained it. He created thee to be
guided by himself, and unless thou canst call into existence
another God like him for thyself, thou hast, without him, no
guarantee in any of thy paths. Therefore acknowledge him as
thy guide.
In all thy ways. In thy worship. In thy study of his
word.   In thy intercourse with his people. In thy traffic
with the world. In thy business and in thy recreation. At thy
meals. In thy correspondence.   In thy reading. In    thy
dress. What! in these petty matters? Yes! in all thy ways.
Thinkest thou that God will have no word for thee on such
topics? Be undeceived. Thou shalt find a revelation of the
will of God for every one of thy paths. There is no need for
thee ever to let go his hand. Not a single hair in thy head
receives its aliment without him. Why then should a single
step be taken without him? Think, and you shall see that
the fate of millions may be involved in the least step that you
may be called to take.
JANUARY 8.-" I give unto them eternal life."-John x. 28.
Consider the speaker, the giver. Who is this shepherd? It
is the Lord of Glory. All things were made not only by him,
but for him. It is for all to yield the tribute of all they possess to him, and ever to ascribe unto him all glory and honor
2




14


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


and wisdom and power. But lo! this Lord of all quits his
throne, takes a shepherd's crook, and comes forth with a gift.
Consider then on whom the gift is bestowed. As you ascended high to learn the dignity of the giver, so must you descend beyond expression deep to know the unworthiness of the
beneficiaries. They are distinguished in creation by this mark,
that they resolved, whatever angels in heaven or saints on earth
might do, they would yield no tribute to the Lord of Hosts,
no, not so much as a shoe latchet, and would arrogate to themselves glory, honor, wisdom and power. Hell yawned for them,
exulting. But the injured Prince came nigh to them, veiling
his glory that he might not irritate, donning the habiliments
of a humble and a friendly shepherd.
Consider the gift-eternal life. Not common life. Even
common life is better than all material things. But a celestial
life. Nay, a divine life. His own life. He breathed into
them his own infinite spirit, and immediately they began to
walk heavenward, in faith, love, joy, humility, peace, hope,
dignity, and unspeakable blessedness. This life permeated all
their being, reached their eyes, their lips, their hands, their
feet, and made them what the seraphim in heaven are, servants of the most high God. Eternal life! Mighty mountains
shall crumble beneath their feet,-they will ascend to higher;
earth shall dissolve beneath them,-they will step into the
heavens; the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,they will mount up to the heaven of heavens; the stupendous
cycles of the universe will revolve,-they will live on, crowned
with garlands of never-fading youth, purity, wisdom, and delight.
JANUARY 9.-" My God shall supply all your need."-Philippians iv. 19.
He knows your need. It seems to you that no one can
know it, it is so vast. He knows it better than you do your



DAILY MEDITATIONS.


15


self. I-e does not confound you with others, saying, I know
what man needs; but he knows you, /ourself, and is acquainted
with all the necessities of your individual being, as though
every thought, every desire, that had ever trembled in your
heart had spent itself in his own infinite mind. It has done
so! The multitude of your own aspirations are not present to
you, are lost to you, but he has caught them all in his own
vessel, and will see to it that all are duly fulfilled. He know
yomr need; your bodily and your social need, your intellectual
need, your spiritual need. Your need to-day, your need yesterday, and your need to-morrow.
And he knows it that he may supply it. Ask and receive.
Your most urgent need he satisfies at once. Your most pressing need is to be free from vain desires, and to know how to
prefer the best gifts. He does not make your need less, but
he refines it from its grossness, and then he satisfies it.
" 1My God," the God of Paul, will do it. Think how he
supplied the need of Paul on earth;-how he has supplied it
since in heaven;-how he will ever supply it; and let all unbelief and anxiety vanish from your minds.
JANUARY 10.-" All that the Father giveth me shall come to me."John vi. 37.
Note-The gift:-the vilest thing in the universe,-a sinner's soul.
The Giver:-God the Father.
To whom given?-to his equal Son.
Why such a gift? First, because all else belonged to
Christ.  Second, its very vileness afforded the largest scope
for divine love to manifest itself. Third, it shall be fashioned
into incomparable excellence.
In coming to Christ, there need be no trembling. We are
not the principals in the matter. We are but a third party.




16


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


The Lord of Hosts is bestowing upon the Prince of Peace a
birth-day present.  Woe unto us, if we start aside and seek to
interfere with that divine bounty. Let Christ have what the
Father has selected for him. The Spirit that leads you to Jesus, cries out to Jesus, "the Father gives you this."  Then is
there joy in heaven.
JANUARY 11.-" In time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion."Psalm xxvii. 5.
There is a time of trouble. It comes once and again.
Murmur not against it. Say not, let mercy appear in the exemption from trouble. Mercy requires that there should be
tribulation. There are some gems in your breastplate that
only give forth their lustre when trouble comes nigh to you.
Your heart is agitated at its approach. It comes perhaps
in such an unexpected guise. It appears so irresistible; you
seem so helpless. You have what has long been thought by
you a trusty blade, but it is now shivered in your hand. If
there be faith as a grain of mustard seed, let it now manifest
itself. Your enemies are now ready to swallow you up. You
are in the centre of a plain; they are between you and the
mountains. Remember God. Make mention of his promise.
Behold! a curtain descends from heaven, and becomes around
you a royal tent. Instead of danger you have safety; and
trouble is succeeded by surpassing peace. You are in the pavilion of God, and your enemies go round and round; they
cannot find you; you are hidden.  Faith, subnission, long-suffering, humility, these gems sparkled in your breastplate;
wherefore now peace, triumph, joy and love light up the pavilion for you.
JANUARY 12.-" Wait on the Lord: be of good courage."-Ps. xxvii. 14.
Tell him your si ry; unfold to him your case; expect deliv



DAILY MEDITATIONS.


17


erance through him alone; be satisfied to receive it as it shall
please him to give it and in the time that seems best to him.
By prayer and faith on your part and promise on his, there is
an alliance signed, sealed, and ratified. Your enemies see you
alone, and dream not that the Almighty is your ally, and that
they are rushing upon the thick bosses of his shield. See
him that is to them invisible, and be of good courage.
Wait on him with an explicit statement.
Wait on him in continuous prayer.
Wait on him in the study of his word.
Wait on him in trust; in penitence; and in obedience.
Wait on him in the society of his people.
And be of good courage. He only has properly anything to
do with courage, who waits on the Lord. To be bold without
the favor of God, to be brave where we have no warrant for
intrepidity, to be fearless where there is nothing but our own
prowess, wisdom or luck to aid us, is simply to play the fool.
A man must either have Omnipotence with him or against
him. What matters it if he is able to cut his way through an
army, if he wait not on God?  A tile from a roof may crush
him. The wrath of God abideth on him. His deeds are done
on the border of a precipice which he sees not. His foot shall
slide in due time.
JANUARY 13.-"He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be
saved."-Matthew xxiv. 13.
These words were evidently intended to produce the impression (1) that there are difficulties in the way of salvation, besides those at the entrance of that way; (2) that these difficulties may be overcome; but only (3) by him who contemplates
them, appreciates them, prepares for them, and confronts them.
The doctrine of "the perseverance of the saints" teaches that
every one who is united to Christ by a living faith, will, by
2 *




18


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


virtue of that faith, endure unto the end-will resist and vanquish the various assaults that shall be made upon him.
When the fierce struggle that sometimes precedes the first
act of true faith in Christ is over, and the new disciple rejoices
in the discovery of God's wondrous grace, it is difficult for him
to apprehend, in its full extent, the necessity of future strife.
When, by divine aid, the soul has climbed to some elevated
region of which it had never before dreamed, and finds itself
amidst flowers and fruits that had no existence in its former
world, it rejoices at the translation, and is disposed to look
upon that as the place in which to pitch its tabernacle and
abide all its days. It is given it there to sojourn for a while;
but soon a voice bids it come up higher. It starts to obey the
summons; but finds, perhaps, the same formidable enemies that
had been encountered below, arrayed to hinder its further ascension. It shrinks and says, There is no need; it is good to
be here; God's grace and a true faith brought me hither, and
here it is certainly safe to abide. But, presently, the rainbow
of peace, joy and hope, the symbol of God's covenant with the
soul, lifts itself from that region and removes to the higher
and fairer place whither the soul is summoned. The soul of
the true believer then rouses itself to battle with its foes, and
takes no rest until it finds it in the higher region. This is
still more heaven-like; but it is not heaven; and soon it is necessary to ascend to a higher plateau. " I am saved," says the
soul, a thousand times; but the voice from heaven says, " He
that endureth to the end shall be saved."
He that endureth shall be saved; and he that findeth salvation shall endure.
Endurance is salvation; salvation is endurance.
While faith endures, the soul endures.
The end here spoken of is that limit beyond which the enemies of the soul are not allowed to pass. Within that limit
they may sometimes hide themselves, but it is only that they




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


19


may surprise the more by their next assault. Even though
we should see the prince of those enemies buried and sealed in
the bottomless pit for a thousand years, it is not good to break
up our camp. Blessed are you when you hear a voice saying
unto you, "It is finished; come to the marriage supper of the
Lamb."
JANTTARY 14.-" Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do."Jlohn xiv. 13.
This promise is introduced by a declaration that there is
nothing but the want of faith to hinder Christ's disciples from
doing works as great as those that Christ himself performed
when on the earth; greater works even.
" Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. Ye
shall do those works nominally, but I really. Understand that
I do not deprive the earth of any of my power by my departure. I go to sit upon my Father's throne, that I may do
greater works on earth than I have done. The leper that did
not find me, when I was on the earth, need not despond; the
blind and the lame that are just beginning to hear of me, need
not despair, when they hear of my crucifixion; the unclean
spirits have no occasion to rejoice, nor the god of this world to
exult. The vine is present where its branches are present. I
formerly stretched out one hand and blessed one locality, one
company; but henceforth, on my Father's throne seated, I will
hear the prayer of faith ascending from a thousand places, and
by the hands of my disciples in all those places, I will do
mighty works. They ask and I do. The mightiest religions
that the world has ever seen, shall thus be overthrown. Pilate, the petty servant of the Emperor of Rome, may give me
to an ignominious death; but my pierced hand shall only be
clothed with the greater might, and shall bring the Pagan
Emperor himself from his throne to my feet. My servants
will ask it and I will do it."




20


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


JANUARY 15.-" There is, therefore, now no conderntiation to them
which are in Christ Jesus."-Romans viii. 1.
To them which are in Christ Jesus. Think it not a strange
expression. It is well chosen. Faith in Christ, union to
Christ, and similar expressions, mean much more than can
easily be comprehended. The expression "them which are in
Christ" is added, that we may not too soon think we understand the others. In Christ, as Noah was in the ark. Without, the besom of condemnation swept the universal face of
things; but there was no condemnation to him who had fled
for refuge to that sanctuary. In the ark with Noah was all
that had life, and all that could nourish life. Abundance of
blessing within, desolation without. How terrible a venture
would it have been to go forth of that ark. There is now no
deluge to them that are in the ark; no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus.
Estimate then these words:-Condemnation.-In Christ.No condemnation.
Think not that "no condemnation" is a merely negative
thing. The revoking of a sentence of condemnation, even in
the case of an earthly prisoner, gives him to enjoy the blessings that descend in such profusion in the beams of the sun,
spring up in the abundant crops and the manifold fruits, blow
in the breeze, and murmur in the stream; restores him to the
society of many loved ones, and affords him the opportunity
of rising to wealth and distinction. And the words " no condemnation," in the case of the spiritual captive, removes the
veil that hindered him from meeting the reconciled face of Him
whose name is Love. The words not only liberate him, but
liberate ten thousand ministers of God, celestial and terrestrial,
who spring forth to wait upon him, and will never leave him
till they have brought him, victorious, radiant, pure and
blessed, to the company of Gabriel, and of Michael, and of all
the saints in light.




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


21


JANUARY 16.-' There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of
God." —Hebrews iv. 9.
This portion of Scripture is an exposition of the ninety-fifth
Psalm.  The word rendered " rest" in this verse, is different
from the word so rendered in many other verses of the context. It does not, however, signify anything different: it is
intended to elucidate. There is in it a reference to the Sabbath, and it indicates a Sabbatic rest-a great and glorious
rest of which the Sabbath is an emblem. And Paul exhorts
the Hebrew Christians to labor to enter into that rest. To
labor now, that they may rest hereafter.
The following are elements in that future rest:-Deliverance from our own vain, unhallowed imaginations; from selfconfidence and the spirit of self-aggrandizement; from unworthy conceptions of God; from the vacillations of our love
to Christ; from worldly desires; from liability to fall; from
misunderstandings with our brethren; in a word, from all the
remnants of a carnal mind:-deliverance from indisposition to
the service of God, and incompetency for the same; from the
assaults of Satan; from the companionship of sinners; from a
sin-injured body.
Take not your rest too soon, else you will never enter into
your real rest. It is not here, on this plank, amid the billows;
but yonder on that shore.
JANUAnY 17.-" We have not a high-priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities."-IIebrews iv. 15.
"We have not a high-priest incapable of sympathizing
with our weaknesses," would be more literal, but would not be
more beautiful. The statement is in the negative, and seems
to summon us for a moment to consider what our condition
would be, if we had a high-priest incapable of sympathizing
with us. We may also view it as conveying a reproach to




22


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


those who act towards Christ as though he were sa.ch a highpriest. They do so when the keen sense of their infirmities
hinders their confidence in him, and their joy in his promises.
God hath suffered you to discover your weakness for the
very reason that you might be drawn to Christ, the source of
strength; and to discover your own unloveliness, that you
might know the loveliness of Christ.  God is teaching you
your need of sympathy and aid; and yet in that very hour
you hide yourself from the fountain-head of sympathy and succor. Is it not enough that you should lose the notion of your
own goodness,-but must you strip Christ of his goodness and
glory? For what would Christ be without sympathy, without
compassion for the erring? If he were what you would make
him out to be, would the ten thousand times ten thousand say
with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor,
and glory, and blessing?" Do you wish to extinguish this
chorus?
JANUARY 18.-" They that know thy name will put their trust in thee."
-Psalm ix. 10.
Christ, in the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of
John, says: "I have manifested thy name unto the men that
thou gavest me."  And again: "I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it." The manifestation of God's
name is the manifestation of God. They that know his name
know him, and they put their trust in him. Knowledge and
faith are in inseparable alliance. Unbelief and ignorance go;
together.
Do you grieve over your want of faith? Grieve over your
want of knowledge. Look unto Emmanuel, God manifest in
the flesh. Remember his kindness towards the sons of men,
his sacrifices of glory, felicity, power, rest, reputation, liberty,
health and life; remember what he has been to you individu



DAILY MEDITATIONS.


23


ally; look at him through his promises, invitation and predictions, and trust in hinm.
When any one withholds his confidence from you, you say,
" He does not know me."  The implication of the text is, that
there is everything attractive about the character of God. It
is impossible to know him without being drawn to repose all
confidence in him, and to commit all our interests to him. To
know him is to know in him one who is willing to employ infinite wisdom, knowledge, power, and wealth in the utmost
possible promotion of our interests. To know him is to know
that without him we are nothing-as dead men in respect to
all true excellence.
JANUARY 19.-" If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous."-1 John ii. 1.
"I write unto you," says John, "that ye sin not."  Such
was his aim in writing this epistle, and such was his aim in
writing the words of our text. The statement that we have an
advocate with the Father, is intended to keep us from sinning.
Any man that uses it merely as an opiate to his conscience,
and to procure him peace in sinning, diverts it from its legitimate use.
But when a Christian has been overtaken in a fault, what
shall he do? Let him remember that for him, the unrighteous
one, there is an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. Fear
not the javelin of divine wrath. It must come through Christ
before it can reach you. Nay, it has already reached him.
I   The marks of the wounds appear in his glorified body. Your
sin, mounting up to the throne of God, does not get there before Christ, your advocate. It is a great thing when an
advocate can get up in court and say, The trespass of my client has been already atoned for; the full penalty has been inflicted; and nothing now can be imputed to him. Christ's
advocacy not only oltains for us justification, but also the




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


Spirit of God, who, with the blood of Christ, cleanseth us
from all sin.
We are richer in heaven than we are on earth. We have
Christ the righteous, our advocate,-mine,-yours,-in heaven;
on the earth we have nothing that we can justly call our own.
We are here in a wayfaring place; what we see is but the furniture of an inn; it does not belong to us, save for a momentary use. But we have unsearchable riches in the country to
which we go. When any one says, " What have you?"  May
you be able to answer, " I have an advocate with the Fatherthe richest of friends in the most important of all places."
JANUARY 20.-"Ask, and it shall be given you."-Luke xi. 9.
This is a very defective world. Every body says so. We
have here only the rudiments of things. There is beauty and
there is blessing; but only in fragments. A great deal has
been done to make man's condition agreeable; and a great
deal left undone. There is health; but it does not endure.
Strength; but it is evanescent. Rain in its season; but not
invariable. Fruits; but they sometimes fail. Friends; but
they are called away. Comforts; but we are liable to lose
them. Wealth; but it takes wings. Objects of interest; but
they lose their novelty. Incompleteness is the great characteristic of this world. There is no hope without disappointments;
no acquisition without loss; no joy without interruption; no
day without night. The consequence is, that we hear endless
murmuring and complaining; much of it referring to God,
who has given such scintillations of his goodness, only to make
the general darkness more oppressive; such specimens of his
power to bless, while he has left the world in such an unfinished condition, left such large unblest gaps in life.
" Ask, and it shall be given you," is the reply of God. " I
have given you half; the other half is in my hand. You build




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


25


a house, and one stone is wanting to complete it; you search
everywlere, and are angry because you find it not. It is with
me; I have kept it purposely, that your house may not be
built without me. You build a ship; but the rudder is not
forthcoming. I have kept it, that you may ask and receive,
and discover that the whole is my gift. You find a book, but
there is a chapter wanting, without which all is unintelligible.
One blessing I have kept back, that you might know who gave
the rest, and seek him."  But man prefers to blame God for
the privation, rather than to seek God for its removal. Let
man know, then, that lie is responsible for what is defective in
his condition.
Ask in the right quarter, and it shall be given you. There
is much asking. Men will ask of those, even, whom they despise. They spend their lives in asking; even the proudest,
even an emperor, does so. But they are intensely loth to ask
of God.
Ask in the right way. If you were asking a man to give
you a cup of water, you would ask in the way that would
please him. Let God prescribe how we shall ask him.
Ask for the most essential gifts first. Men on a wreck
should ask for a sail, not for an embroidered garment.
Ask for regulated tastes and desires. This one gift will cut
off at once a thousand occasions of murmuring.
Ask with importunity. Ask in faith.
JANUARY 21.-" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."-Eph. iv. 30.
I will suppose that you have travelled in a strange country
with a congenial companion. You were careful to do and say
nothing that would mar the pleasure of your intercourse.
There were many pleasant objects to look at, but your experi
ence taught you that any unpleasantness between your companion and yourself would quite do away with the attractions
3




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


of the things aroun I you. So you were careful not to grieve
him.
The Spirit of God is your companion.  Most exalted of all
beings, he abides with you on the footing of a friend, to teach,
persuade, purify, and bless. IHe is particular indeed; but it is
For your good. He interferes with you at tines;-not to make
a display of his authority, but for your preservation.  Ile restrains you at the entrance of some dark pit; it is because a
volf has made its lair there.  lie stops you as you are stepping into a boat; it is because a whirlwind is rushing to meet
it. Ile hurries you away from some elevated spot: 't is because the mountain is heaving, and a volcano is about to burst
forth. Dispute not with him; grieve him    not. lie does
nothing to grieve you.
Grieve him not by forgetting his presence; by forgetting the
sufferings of Christ; by neglecting prayer; by slighting the
word; by going into temptation; by reading irreligious or idle
books; by waste of time; by disregarding the miseries of your
fellow-men; by apologies for sin; by leaning to your own understanding.
You know how difficult it is to put things exactly on their
former basis, when you have had some misunderstanding with
your friend.  If you have insulted him, and he has forgiven
you, it is not easy to look him in the face just as you formerly
did. It is sad to have brought to light the possibility of a
falling out. If the thing has occurred repeatedly, the rmemory
of it will sadden and straiten your intercourse. Then grieve
not the Spirit of God. Sooner let the sick passenger insult
the generous oarsman who is struggling to save him from the
breakers.  Sooner let the captive quarrel with the benevolent stranger who is laying down a fortune for his ransom.
Sooner let Hagar revile the angel who points her to a fountain
where she and her son may drink and live. Oh, grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God!




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


27


JANUARY 22.-" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is
stayed on thee."-Isaiah xxvi. 3.
Bring your mind to God; bring it to him daily and hourly,
and daily and hourly he will fill it with its true treasure.
All nature exists in vain where there is no peace in the
mind. Wherefore are the skies blue, and the earth green, and
the mountains sublime, and the rivers joyful, if there be not
peace at heart?  The flowers have no perfume, the birds no
song, the voice of man no charm, where the mind which theJ
were created to please is without susceptibility to their benefits. Bring nme not the fruits of the earth, nor precious stones,
nor thousands of gold and silver, nor the votive offerings of a
nation.  Bring me peace, restore my disorganized mind.  Till
then, I have ears, but they hear no music; eyes, but they see
no beauty; an understanding, but it grasps not truth; feet, but
they move with no alacrity.
Ah! it is only he that made your mind, that can restore it.
IHe has the only bow that can draw music from this violin. He
has made the mind for peace; and he has made peace for the
mind, perfect peace.  Perfect, as contrasted with any peace
that the world can give. Perfect, because it is a holy peace;
sin has nothing to do with it. Perfect, because enduring.
Perfect, as being Christ's own peace. "My peace I give unto
you,"-the peace of God.
The mind of man must be stayed on something greater than
itself. It must be stayed upon the great mind of God. A
house can better do without a foundation; a monument without a pedestal; an infant without the parents' arm.
" Thou wilt keep him."  These words express the covenant
of God; and faith in that covenant.
JANUARY 23.-" I will heal their backsliding."-Hosea xiv. 4.
God does this (1) by letting them taste some of the bitter




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


fruits of their backsliding. Dreadful shadows gather round
their path. Anguish invades their souls. They discover the
frightful desolation of a path where God is not. (2) IHe
brings to their recollection the happy state from whence they
fell; the blessedness of having the Good Shepherd to lead
them, and to keep them.  (3) He directs them to the promises, and so to the open arms of Christ. (4) He fills them
with an intense abhorrence of their backsliding, by the cross
of Christ. (5) He puts it into their heart to cleave unto him;
to be wary and watchful; to renounce all self-dependance, and
evermore to press forward in the divine life, hungering and
thirsting.
To express it briefly, he heals them now as he healed them
first, by the cross of Christ, by the unspeakable love of the
crucified One. Mere conviction does not heal. Mere attention to religion does not. Mere promises of amendment do
not. Neither does forgetfulness of declension. No palliatives
are of avail here.
JANUARY 24.-" Sin shall not have dominion over you."-Rom. vi. 14.
A most important declaration to him who has fled over the
borders, and taken refuge in the kingdom of God. For sin is
now hateful to him, and the idea of being made again to bow
under its sceptre, intolerable. He is now in a novel region.
Before, even all his days, sin had dominion over him, an undivided sway. He found out the cruelty of that dominion, and,
trusting in a divine promise, dared to flee. He is now made
aware that all the powers of darkness are irritated greatly, and
are fierce in pursuit. They cry in his ear, that his flight has
been in vain, and that he will soon be brought again under the
dominion of sin  And at times also, it seems as though he
were being dragged again to the dread dark region; that he
will not be able to continue in God's marvellous light. Then




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


29


lhe hears the delightful declaration that sin shall not have
dominion over him; an assurance that gives him    amazing
strength, and enables him to slay more enemies than Samson
did.  Made partaker of the divine nature by this exceeding
great and precious promise, he bids his foes observe that he is
no longer the weak and helpless captive whom they once knew.
They are amazed to see how their once-deadly darts are now
turned aside by his shield; how their weapons are shivered
against his breast-plate; and how the sword in his hand compels them to flee. "What! this slave a warrior? this captive
a free man? this creature of our will, a defier of our sovereignty?-a scorner of us and our millions?"  Even so. The
prince of this world is east out from a region where Christ and
the followers of Christ have found a footing; a region whose
limits must expand, till the god of this world has fought his
last battle and sunk to his appropriate locality.
JANUARY 25. —"And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto
the end, to him will I give power over the nations."-Revelation ii. 26.
One of the resolutions made by that eminently devoted and
successful combatant for Christ, President Edwards, was to
the following effect: " Resolved, so to live and strive as I
would do if I knew that only one man of this generation were
to be saved, and I were fully determined to be that man."
This seems to be much the same spirit that breathed in the
woi ds of Paul: " Know ye not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize?  So RUN, that ye may
obtain. I therefore so run; so fight I." The principle of emulation is abundantly appealed to in the Bible; but there is no
selfishness in the emulation that is evoked by its magnificent
promises. The Christian is assured that his gain, so far from
being the loss of others, will be their gain also; and the greater
his gain, the more will his path be strown with blessings for
3 *




30


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


others. What he is called to overcome is self; he is to wage
war with this hydra-headed monster, this protean enemy who
is no sooner defeated under one form than he appears under
another; and the promises of God are all that they need to be
in order that the soldier of Christ may have the utmost possible incitements and encouragements in the prosecution of this
stri te.
The prize that animates the conquering Christian to undertake new conquests, is in kind like that which animated our
Lord himself, namely, the power to bless a sin-cursed world.
The highest attainments to be made by any servant of Christ
here below, are to be made under the constraining influence
of an intense desire to glorify Christ in the salvation of men.
It is as we have this spirit, that we have the spirit of Christ.
We are to be stimulated in our hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, not only by the weariness of our own unrighteousness, but by the thought of the unrighteousness of others;
not only by the desire for peace and joy and conscious purity,
but by an ardent and sustained aspiration to do our utmost
(Christ's utmost in us) for the recovery of a fallen world.
There are two errors that follow even the few Christians
that go furthest in the divine life. One is this:-They are
very eager to bring men to Christ, but neglect to obtain for
themselves experience of a higher and more thorough work of
sanctification. That love of Christ which they know, they abundantly proclaim, and are rewarded in so doing; but there are
depths in Christ's love which they are neglecting to explore.
In exploring these it would not follow that some of their usefulness would be sacrificed. The contrary would be the result
The second error is that of those who give themselves too
exclusively to the cultivation of the interior life. They ardently desire personal holiness. Their soul is a watered garden; and they propose, when all the plants shall be fruitful
and beauteous, to open the gates that others may come in and




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


31


participatc in their treasures; but in the meantime they almost
forget the world without. They are in danger of falling under
the power of an insidious form of spiritual selfishness. In
the Lord Jesus, see the most uninterrupted communion with
God, and the most unrestrained communion with men. Ile
was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, at the
same time that he was going about doing good. To be like
him, is the highest of all prizes. We seek to be holy as he is
holy, that we may be useful as he was.
JANUARY 26.-Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."Philippians i. 6.
He is not as one who begins to build without having counted
the cost. Not as a sculptor who begins to execute a work
without having ascertained the impracticable nature of his material. These are the shameful mistakes of men. God is not
a workman that will need to be ashamed. He has called together a goodly company of the nobility of heaven to look on,
while he brings a holy creature out of your unholy nature.
Will he lay down his implements and say, "I miscalculated?"
They that know that a good work has been begun in them, are
entitled to entertain an unwavering confidence that it will proceed until the day of Christ, when the believer shall be presented unblemished, spotless, perfect, before the throne. It
proceeds until that day. It is not begun, relinquished, begun
again, and again relinquished, but is performed until the day
of Christ. So you have not to go to the past to know if a
good work has been begun; it exists within you now. The
work goes on. God is busied with you, and in you, while you
live. From your first perception of Christ crucified, to your
presentation before the Lord of glory, you are wrought upon
by the creative power of God.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


JANUARY 27. —" Let him that thinketh he standcth take heed lest he
fall."-1 Corinthians x. 12.
By standing is here meant standing in the favor of God.
This is the position of the believer. It is right for a man to
think that he stands, if there be sufficient reasons for him so
to think.  It is not in itself a fault to entertain the idea that
we stand. We are not told to renounce that opinion. We
may entertain it even with the greatest confidence, the most
unwavering assurance.  The words of the text suppose indeed
that the party spoken of does stand; for it is only one that
standeth that needs an admonition to beware of falling. He
that is down needs fear no fall. IHe has not recovered from
the great lapse; and he need not fear to lose that which he
has never gained. The admonition he needs is, "to stand."
" Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." There
are very many who regard themselves as standing, without any
evidence whatever, to authorize this opinion. The words of
the apostle do not seem to relate to them. This idea seems
rather to be, " Let him that thinketh he standeth, make manifest that his opinion is well-founded, by taking heed lest he
fall."  The true believer, one that truly standeth, is one that
takes such heed. The mere pretender to faith is one that
thinks it quite unnecessary to take heed; for he says, "I
stand."
The true believer takes heed, by considering, and ever remembering, the number and strength of the powers that are
bent on making him fall. He understands that a hostile force
is out against him; and is bringing incredible craft, industry,
and might to bear upon one point-his overthrow.    Ile is
aware that his enemy can assume all sorts of disguises; and
can approach him as a minstrel, playing seraphic airs upon the
harp, and singing the Psalms of David.  He knows, too, that
these foes have the enormous power that resides in invisibility,
and can launch their fiery darts at him with hands unseen.




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


33


IIe has not merely learnt this from God's word; but also fiom
experience.
lie takes heed, by remnembering his own weakness.    IIe
knows that the most feeble missile in the world, the most contemptible temptation, can malke him totter.
He takes heed, by availing himself of the strength of God
in Christ Jesus.  Daily and hourly he seeks wisdom, strength,
and holiness from  the Captain of his salvation. IIe takes
heed, by following this Captain, whithersoever he leads, even
though it were into the most dangerous-looking places, for the
path traced by his Leader and Commander is the only path of
salvation.
JANUARY 28.-" When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory."-Colossians iii. 4.
"In thy favor is life."  When Adam    sinned, he lost the
favor of God, and thus he elied. This is the worst of all
deaths; for.all other deaths are just the expression of God's
disfavor. Ask one of the lost in hell when he died, and he
will rightly tell you that it was when he lost the divine favor.
When a man comes to Christ, he finds what Adam     lost and
what Adam doubtless regained,-the favor of God, life in the
highest sense; for all the other things called life are but the
expressions of this favor.
Christ is our life. IIe has brought us into the region of
life, the region of God's everlasting smiles. Ite has put life
within us-namely, the hatred of sin, the love of the Holy
One, the knowledge of self.  Ile has given us the Spirit that
dwells in himself, and in the angels. He has reconciled us to
the will of God. This is the beginning. But in himself exists
an infinite remainder yet uncommunicated. He is called our
life, not merely because he became to us the source of life, but




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


because we live only by virtue of our union to him. Apart
from him we have no existence; we are in the abyss.
We read much of the future manifestation of the Son of
God; we also read of the manifestation of the sons of God.
Our text declares that these two are identical.  His and our
manifestation in glory shall be consentaneous. And believers
are taught to look forward to both these events or to this twofold event.  This is the special scope of their aspirations.
And not of theirs only, but the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth, waiting for this, which will be its redemption from
the indignities and burden of sin.
JANUAnY 29. —"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear
him, upon them that hope in his mercy."-Psalm xxxiii. 18.
There is a hope that cannot exist without fear, and a fear
that should not be dissevered from hope. There is a fear
that is obnoxious to perfect love; that is, a fear that has torment in it; it must be cast out, and sent to its own place-the
bosom of the evil one.  But the fear we speak of,.angels would
not be without for worlds; and saints cannot be without it.
You may call it a loving solicitude to have Christ abiding in
the heart by faith; to do our heavenly Father's will, without
deviation or diminution. This fear is its own guarantee, that
the things feared will not come to pass. Like one that possesses some potent spell by which every conceivable danger
may be obviated, he has just so much fear of evil as hinders
him from forgetting the spell; while the conscious possession
of the spell fills him with joy in the sense of all-sufficient
strength, and with a hopeful, confident anticipation of final
everlasting victory.
The eye of the Lord is upon such. They hope in his mercy
because they are already, and are hourly, the recipients of his
mercy. They know that his eye beams with loving-kindness,




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


35


and it is a foretaste of heaven to know that his eye is upon
them. Their works are done for his eye. Their conduct appears strange to men; and men ask, " Who is the spectator for
whom these strange actions are performed?"  They go boldly
forth, lambs among wolves, because the Good Shepherd has his
eye upon them.  He guides them with his eye. When they
discover that they are quitting the path of his approving
glance, they hasten back.
They meet the eye of the Lord in prayer, and in praise.
They meet it in the study of his word.
They meet it in the exercise of faith.
They meet it in their labors for the good of men.
They meet it when men frown and rage.
In the calm and in the storm; at noon day and in the dead
of night; in sickness and bereavements; in health and deliverances. The eye of the Lord was upon the disciples when they
were toiling in rowing; when they were sad, dispirited, bewildered on the lake of Gennesareth.  They should have
known that it was, but did not discover it till afterwards. Leo
us beware lest our little faith hinder us from seeing the eye o/t
the Lord, when things seem contrary and wearisome.
JANUARY 30.-" Ye shall be my sons affd daughters, saith the Lord Al
mighty."-2 Corinthians vi. 18.
This is the portion of those that come out from the world
and are separated.' Adam was called the son of God; for God
breathed his own Spirit into him, and created him in his own
image. The sons of God shouted for joy at the dawn of mundane things, and most of all, when they saw their new brother,
the inhabitant of Eden. In order that we might recover the
knowledge of what is meant by the expression, " Son of God,"
Jesus Christ. came into the world. The Father speaking from




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


heaven, bade us look on him and recogn.ze te t type of what
we were called to be.
The great things in sonslip are identity of nature and identity of interests. Along with the identity of nature there is
subordination; which is for the purpose of giving scope to the
Father's love and capacity to bless. The Father recognizes the
interests of the son as his, and looks upon all his property, his
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, his resources created and
uncreated, with reference to the blessing and glorifying of his
sons and daughters.  To acknowledge a son is to acknowledge
an heir. The Father's house is the house of the son and of'
the daughter: they may go in without knocking; the mansions are prepared for them.
The world does not know you, sons and daughters of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the world knows
of no other birth than this: but ye are born of God. Unknown and invisible to others, your Father is the Lord of the
universe. Daily you ask and receive; you are in constant intercourse with him; you sleep not without his blessing; you
lct not without his counsel; you suffer not without his coniolation.
We know not what we shall be, for we know not yet what
Christ is. We know in part. Christ came to teach one half
of the lesson; he will come again to teach the other half. We
shall see him as he is, and not as he was, when on the earth in
a state of humiliation. Then will our exile be ended; the
righteous shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
JANUARY 31.-" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain
thee."-Psalm Iv. 22.
Who is there that hath not a burden?-who that stands in
no need of relief?
The burden of ignorance weighs heavy on one man. He




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


37


finds himself so lamentably in the dark wi.h regard to many
most important things. The burden of responsibility weighs
heavy on another. The burden of some secret frailty, some
unconquerable weakness oppresses another. The burden of
doubt is crushing to this sin-tormented soul. The burden of
mortality, the fear of death, is more than another can bear.
The burden of levity and thoughtlessness is heavier to some
than is generally supposed. To one and all the command is,
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord."
Many go staggering under the burdens of life, cursing God
as they stagger along. What do they wish? That God
should give Satan authority to remove their burdens? or, make
Satan's yoke easy and his burden light? No; God reserves it
as his own distinctive privilege to lighten the burdens of mortals.  "Come unto me," says Christ, " and ye shall find
rest."
How is a man to cast his burden upon the Lord? By faith
in the Lord's promise. He must stop groaning, and believe.
He must go to his task in prayer, expecting that an unseen
hand will take hold of the wheel simultaneously with his own,
and lift it out of the mire. If he has to speak, he must lay
hold of the promise and look for a mouth and wisdom that
none shall be able to gainsay or resist. We are not to suppose
any burden too small to take to God. If we think it small,
and seek no help, it will grow in bulk till we are crushed beneath it.
He will not remove your burden so that you shall have
nothing to do, no more need of him; but he will sustain youlie will administer support, so that men shall wonder to see you
walking with such alacrity, to hear you singing so blithely with
a great burden upon you. Then will you tell them of the sustaining hand.
Cast, then, thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain
thee.
4




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


FEnBRUAY 1.-" What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."-Psalm
]vi. 3.
David was not a man unsusceptible of fear; nor was he
ashamed to confess that he could fear. Often he makes the
confession. In this he was braver than many. But David
stood firm, when a thousand brave men would have fled. Few
shepherds would have stood by their sheep, on the approach of
a bear; fewer, on the approach of a lion; but David, the stripling, did this: he met the bear and conquered it; he fought
the lion and destroyed it. Afterward he met him before whom
the whole Israelitish army cowered and quailed. There were
doubtless in that army the usual proportion of brave and gallant captains, and dauntless soldiers. David was a timid youth,
in comparison with them. He had no self-confidence, no contempt of danger. Ite knew his own weakness. But he had
one glorious resource. He had a mighty friend in God, and
God was with him; with him when he met the bear and the
lion; with him when he met Goliath.
Faith is true courage. It is the courage of discretion; the
courage of man rather than that of the beast. Some go to
battle like the war-horse, crying, "Aha, aha;" and with no
other courage than that of the war-horse. They glory in their
shame. Their courage is contempt of God. They disclaim
his aid. Their own right arm is their divinity, a divinity
that may be brought into dust by a few grains of powder.
Thousands of the world's heroes have taken hell by storm;
carved their way through mighty obstacles and amid acclamations, to a citadel where they found Satan enthroned, and a passage to the bottomless abyss. Courage, without God, is a defiance of the Omnipotent one, and an invocation of his wrath.
Paul, like David, speaks of himself as often in fear and trembling. He discourses largely of his own weakness. But like
David he strengthened himself in the strength of God. and
came off more than conqueror.




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


39


The resolution expressed in the words of the text is equally
a resolution to walk in the ways of God's appointment. They
that seek forbidden paths will find nothing for their faith to
take hold of
FEBRUARY 2.-" The L:rd's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance."-Deutcronomy xxxii. 9.
Canaan was divided among the ancient people of God. Each
tribe had its portion. The question might have been asked,
What portion has the Lord reserved for himself? The answer
would have been, " The people of God are his portion.  They
are his peculiar possession in the earth. They are his habitation. Not merely the first fruits, not merely the Sabbaths, not
merely the firstling of the flock:-all is his. The people are
his; their allegiance, their service belong to him."
So it was then, so it is now. God has never ceased to have
a people in the world from the beginning to the present time.
They stand in covenant relations to him. In vain will you
give him anything else. Flocks, gold, silver, church-edificeshe takes them to the one side, and waits for thee to give thyself, thy heart, thine understanding, thy body; this give; this
is the only portion he will accept. Give thyself to him, and
he will give himself to thee. Give thy heart to him; he will
purify it from all its defilements, and abide therein. Give thy
understanding, and he will open all its windows and pour the
true light of day into all its chambers. Give thy body, and
he will make it like unto Christ's glorious body.
Satan is the god of this world. But the Lord has a portion
in it. There is the beginning of his kingdom  in it. Fear
not, little flock! you are given to the Lord; and it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. A few feet
of ground have been the beginning of more than one mighty
empire.




40


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


Fl,:nBU nIY 3. —"Pe watchful and strengthen the things which remain
that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before
God."-Revelation iii. 2.
The church of Sardis, as a whole, might be spoken of as
dead. The ordinances of religion were indeed maintained and
attended; the word read; prayer offered; the communion partaken.  In the estimation of many of the members, the church
was anything but dead; but their conception of a living church
was different from Christ's; and he pronounced it dead: dead,
as a church. Yet was not vital godliness altogether extinct;
some believers there were; and their position was one of great
responsibility and danger. The standard of practical piety in
the mind of each one, is modified by the standard that prevails
in the church.  It is immensely difficult to hold fast to our
conception of the piety that becomes a Christian, when very
inferior conceptions are almost universal around us.  So, too,
when a higher standard than ours is prominently exhibited
around us. But let every one that loves the Lord Jesus
Christ consider that the failures of others, as well as the graces
of others, powerfully urge us to redouble our zeal. If the ship
is buffeted by some violent tempest, and many of the hands refuse to exert themselves for the salvation of the vessel, it is
only the more incumbent upon the few faithful found to put
forth their best energies. If few love the Saviour, there is
more need that I should love him to the utmost of my capacity. The Spirit of God would certainly have me draw this
argument from the supineness, the unfaithfulness, the worldliness of other Christians. It is bad enough that a dead Christianity should exert its baneful influence upon the world; why
should the few earnest Christians allow it to plunder them of
half of their earnestness?  Christ must have his tribute.  If
others out and out refuse to pay it, or pay it in part only, let
me the more zealously pay it in the full measure, pressed down
and running over.  Upon the countenance of one we love, we




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


41


trace easily the slightest indication of weakness; and if we
love the church which Christ has purchased with his blood, we
shall not fail to notice every unfavorable symptom that appears. Without commissioning our thoughts to travel all the
way to Sardis, we may enquire how it is with us and with the
church to which we belong? Are there any indications of decay? Does the word of God take effect? Does the work of
God advance?   Are souls quickened?  Is there joy in God?
Is faith in Christ radiant in the countenances and beautiful in
the conduct of our company? Or is there an air of languor,
of indifference, of lifelessness visible? Are the prayer-meetings neglected?  Sacrifices discontinued?  Religious conversation omitted? Excuses welcomed? Burdens deprecated?
FEBRUARY 4.-' He will keep the feet of his saints."-1 Samuel ii. 9.
We have here the perseverance of the saints.
God will keep the foot of those who walk in his paths.
They are saints, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit dwelleth in them,
as they are born of God, walk by faith, renounce the idea of
their natural holiness, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. Their feet he will keep. lie will not keep the feet of
those who simply seek to be kept from eternal perdition; but
of those who wish to be kept from all steps that accord not
with the glory of God. He will keep the feet of those who
commit all their steps unto his keeping.
He will keep them from frequenting the society of the
wicked.  From   approaching the precipice of temptation.
From that prosperity which bringeth a snare. From circumstances that are likely to be adverse to their piety and usefulness. From the burden of care, and from the excessive pressure of responsibility. From erroneous doctrines. From vain
speculations  From supineness and a blind confidence. From
4 *




42


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


the fear of death. From a serious misinterpretation of his
providences.
He will not keep them from trials, privations, bereavements,
worldly losses, perplexing combinations, inward conflicts, the
tongue of slander and the misjudgment of friends. But he
will keep them under these, and bring them off more than
conquerors.
He will keep them  by the promises. By the commandments. By the example of Christ. By that of other saints,
departed or contemporary. By good words, printed or spoken.
By the preaching of the gospel. By the Sabbath and by
prayer-meetings. By giving them the love of private prayer.
By leading them to self-examination.
Sometimes, when a broad sea stretches before them, they are
ready to say, " We are safer where we are." But the enemy
presses upon them, and they have to go forward. Then a path
is opened for them through the depths of the sea, and their
feet are kept. Sometimes a mighty ocean expands before
them, and beyond that the howling wilderness of an unknown
world; behind them fires are kindled; a side path invites them
to ease, opulence and honor: but the promise to keep their
feet is valid only in that path which crosses the billows of the
ocean, and lands them on a savage coast; and they follow it,
singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
FEBRUARY 5.-" If thou seek him he will be found of thee."-1 Chron.
icles xxviii. 9.
Observe, there is an if in the case. The prize exhibited is
obtainable on a condition. There is a glorious certainty; but
it exists only in a particular path.
If thou seek him. The words stop with thee. It does not
glance by thee to another. The question is not, " What shall
this man do?"-"Are there many that be saved?" But, " Wilt




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


43


thou seek him?" Unless thou canst distinctly prove that he
has been found of thee, this word will not let thee go. Its errand from heaven is to thee, and it must take back a report
from thee.
If thou seek him. Not enquire about him, read about him,
hear about him, desire him; but seek him. Seek him in his
word,-with expectation,-with faith,-with prayer,-with
obedience,-with perseverance; in his providences; in his people; in the new operations of your own heart; in the monitions
of the Spirit.
If you seek Him. The chiefest among ten thousands. The
Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valley. God manifest in
the flesh. The fountain of life. Even Him whose commandments you have broken; whose curse you deserve; whom angels adore; who upholdeth all things; who is unsought, a consuming fire; but who is, when sought, a God of love.
He will be found of thee. He will not send his angel to
console thee. He will not refer you to some created mediator;
nor to his works, his benefits. He, the infinite One, in whom
are all conceivable and inconceivable treasures of blessing, he
will be found of thee.
He will be found of thee. He is willing to be found. If he
is not in the fore-ground of your possessions, it is simply that
your desire for him may be expressed in search. He will be
found, certainly. The thing is beyond all doubt; for you seek
him. Let this assurance sustain you under present disappointment and privation.
Of thee. Yes, even of thee. Why not? The greatest
saints that ever lived were as mean in origin, as poor in resources, as obnoxious to wrath, as plagued with an evil heart,
as unbelieving as thou art. All thy opprobrious characteristics
do not equipoise this one new and blessed peculiarity that thou
seekest him.




44


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


FEBRUARY 6.-" Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." —
Job xxii. 21.
Scarcely with anything can man be properly said to be acquainted. He is painfully alive to the fact of his limited comprehension of even the least department of the works of God;
yet has no trouble at heart on the score of his want of acquaintance with the Lord of the universe. " God, I know,"
says one; " leave me alone with regard to any account of him.
See, I am very busy in the study of these caterpillars; your
talk of God hinders me from getting some valuable knowledge."  "Why is this Sabbath coming perpetually in," says
another, "to hinder me from  pursuing my experiments in
Natural Philosophy? With God I am acquainted; but I have
many discoveries to make in electro-magnetism."
We have here a positive command. We think it very kind
of some great man, to encourage us to make his acquaintance.
The greatest of all beings, the fountain of all excellence, encourages us, commands us even, to become acquainted with
him. Shall we go to heaven to become acquainted with him?
No, he comes to us. He stands at the door and knocks. He
has hidden so much of his glory as would have awed and intimidated us. He has taken the form of a man that this acquaintanceship might be easily effected. He was acquainted
with grief, that we might become acquainted with him and
with peace. Acquaintance is not perfected in an instant. It
may be carried, in some happy hour, to a wonderful extent.
But it is essentially a thing of cultivation.
There is a false peace based on misconceptions of God. The
beginning of a true acquaintance breaks up this and perhaps
fills the soul with terrors. But shrink not; go on; acquaint
thyself with him; press into his palace; take no heed of
seraphic guards whose swords turn every way; seek the private
apartments of the king, and hesitate not to sit down in his
banquet-chamber. Converse with thy Maker; confide all




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


45


things to him; make those guards your own; that palace your
house; that majesty your defence; the blessedness of that divine atmosphere your portion; and from the sublime position
to which the Prince of peace has brought you, look down with
serene compassion on a world where the peace of God has been
offered and rejected, daily, for thousands of years; and where
strife, torment and confusion must reign till men are willing to
acquaint themselves with God.
FEBRUARY 7. —"And round about the throne were four and twenty
seats: and upon the seats were four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in
white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."-Revelation iv. 4.
Our translators have shown an unnecessary timidity, in substituting the word "seats" for "thrones."  The original is:
"And round about the throne, thrones twenty and four."  "I
am glorified in them," said Christ. Their glory does not detract from his glory, any more than his from the Father's; but
their glory is his glory. Christ is enthroned over again and
crowned over again, in every redeemed one who is brought up
out of the horrible pit and miry clay of sin, and advanced to
a stupendous height of felicity and glory. " On his head were.
many crowns."  How many?    As many as there are sinners
redeemed through his blood.
Who are these four and twenty presbyters whose thrones
compass the throne of God and of the Lamb? They themselves tell us in their new song given in the next chapter:
"Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation."
They represent the entire host of the redeemed as it shall be
after the day of full evangelization. The redeemed were to
be brought immediately to the throne of God; they were to
sit upon the very thrones that constituted a part of God's




46


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


throne; and further, the representation, while looking forward
to the day of complete triumph, is intended to take in all the
generations of believers ever living on the earth, and to be
good for the days of incompleteness. Twenty-four are selected
for the whole, perhaps, because there were twenty-four courses
of priests; and under the present dispensation, all believers
are priests and kings, (v. 10.) We are risen with Christ.
We sit with him in heavenly places. We are come unto the
city of the living God. In John's vision we are actually permitted to see ourselves in heaven. Looking at the throne of
God and of the Lamb, we find ourselves there; the glory of
the place would, it appears, be incomplete, without the redeemed and the glory which Christ has purchased for them.
We ourselves become to ourselves objects of faith. Believe
in God, believe also in me, said Christ; and we do so; we believe in him unseen, believe in him upon the throne; and we
are to believe in ourselves now in heaven with Christ; as we
believe in his glory, so we should believe in our own. Satan
arrayed before the eyes of our Lord the kingdoms of this
world and the glory of them, and said, All these will I give
thee. But the Spirit of God gives us a vision of the throne
of God, and of thrones prepared for the redeemed in the very
midst of the inhabitants of heaven, and says, "All these the
Lord giveth thee."
It must be that Christians are marvellously without faith,
seeing that the honors and the dignities of this world have so
much attraction in their eyes, so much power to sway their
movements.   What manner of men should we be in all holy
conversation and godliness? He that is last of all and servant
of all, the same shall be chief in the kingdom of heaven. If
we die with him, we shall reign with him. Our life is to be a
protest, the strongest we can make it, against that love of the
world, that delight in the world's pleasures and treasures and
dignities 'hat stand between the souls of men and salvation.


I




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


47


"As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee,.hat they also
may be one in us."  The inconceivably intimate union of the
believer with God, is set forth in two ways. Christ says, we
shall come unto him and make our abode with him; God
dwelleth in us. The other way is by a representation of God
enthroned in heaven, and believers on thrones encompassing
that throne. The question is, What is the heaven of your
heart? Is self on the central throne, or, is God there?
FEBRUARY 8.-" God resisteth the proud."-1 Pet. v. 5.
Pride is robbery. It is the robbery of that which is most
precious and sacred in the universe, namely, the glory of God.
To the Maker of the universe belongs all the glory of the universe. Pride takes its stand over against God and defies him.
It claims for itself the tribute that belongs to God; and would
have all eyes directed to itself, all knees bent before itself.
God must resist pride: resist it when angels sin; when men
build a tower of Babel; when men say of the voice of Herod,
" it is the voice of a God."  He must resist it for the sake of
truth; for the vindication of himself; for the safety of his
Church; for the well-being of the universe; for the satisfaction
of angels; for the chastisement of the wicked.
But do you know who are the proud?    Do not err. You
think of them as a particular class, of whom you occasionally
meet one, and who are generally disliked by men. But these
are simply those whose pride manifests itself offensively to
mankind. Men are all proud, even the universal family of
man; and those only are escaping from the stigma who have
deeply repented of sin, renounced all confidence in their own
goodness, avouched themselves bankrupts in the sight of God
and man, received the whole testimony of the Scripture, be.
lieved in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through him approached
the throne of grace.




48


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


God resists the proud, by awakening in their breast a mon.
itor to remind them of their sin, weakness and ignorance; by
letting them pursue the course they proudly chose for themselves, and taste the bitter fruits thereof; by the example of
Christ's sublime humility; by the unhappiness and morbid
sensitiveness that wait on pride; by his providences which
leave them shorn of the things they glory in; sometimes even
by the insults of men.
You are resisted in your prayers and know not the reason.
The difficulty is that there are enormous pits of unworthiness
within you, over which pride has cast its mantle. Seek tc
know these, to hate them, and to have them filled with regenerating grace, and you will no more be thwarted in your
prayers.
You are resisted in your attempts to do good, and wonder
greatly at this. But you have not a single eye. You are
ready to take honor to yourself. Humble yourself and become
a simple steward, a conveyancer of God's mercies.
FEBRUARY 9.-" I am the resurrection and the life."-John xi. 25.
The resurrection because the life. IIe is the life, in that by
him our souls live before God, and draw from the everlasting
fulness of divine grace, and are changed into the image of our
heavenly Father. He is the life that came into the world by
one gate, almost at the very moment when death entered it by
another. When Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, Death entered in state and enthroned himself in the world, with his
royal train of terrors and miseries; but Life also entered in
the meek and quiet guise of the word concerning Christ; and
has ever found some footing for itself from that time to the
present.
Your brother is dead, you say, and buried.  "Look upon
me," says Christ, "and let your tears be dried; for I am the




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


49


life. If your brother had life, that life is in me; my life is
the pledge of his. Because I live, he shall live also. By faith
perceive your brother clothed with the boundless wealth of the
life that is in me. The life of your brother can only be
reached through me."
"True, dear Lord, thou art the life; and he whom we
nlourn, as he believed on thee, must be in the realms of life
and bask in the smiles of the Blessed. But his body anchored
him among us; and we now have him not. All of him that
was palpable and visible, all that the sun shone upon and the
wind breathed upon, our breathing, speaking, hearing brother,
our earthly companion, is a prey to death."
" I am the resurrection as well as the life. I am your companion; it is the privilege of believers to be present with me;
your brother shall rise again. The incorruptible body of your
Saviour is a pledge of the redemption of the believer's body
from corruption. He that believeth on me is baptized unto
the redemption of the body as well as of the soul. Faith
brings to me a lost and corrupt soul; it brings me also a dead
and corrupt body, and receives in exchange an imperishable,
glorious body."
All that we have then to do with death, is to march through
his dominions after the captain of our salvation, and issue,
from the portal beyond, in body, soul, and spirit like him who
is at the right hand of the majesty on high.
FEBRUARY 10.-" Surely I know that it shall be well with them that
fear God."-Ecelesiastes viii. 12.
Observe here the character of those that are spoken of:
"they fear God."
Observe their condition, present and prospective: "it shall
be well with them."
Notice the certainty of this: "surely I know."
5




50                DAILY MEDITATIONS.
God is love. This word embraces all his perfections. But
let none suppose that he is therefore bound down to a single
line of manifestation.  Light is one; yet, says the prism, nmanifold. The sternest acts of Providence unfold, in their own
particular way, the love of God. Again, all that God requires
of us, is love. But this love will manifest itself diversely, according to the divine perfection contemplated. In view of his
holiness, we stand in awe; of his sovereignty, we fear; of his
faithfulness, we believe; and in view of his kindness, we rejoice.
It shall be well with them. A quiet, modest word; but full
of significance. The fear of God took Abraham to Mount
Moriah; but it was well with him there. It was not the fear
of God that took Lot to Sodom; it went not well with him
there. The fear of God took Daniel into the lion's den, and
the three Hebrews into the seven-times heated furnace; they
feared him who had power to cast both soul and body into
hell; and it was well with them. The spirit of glory and of
God resteth as a dove, upon them that fear God; invisible to
the world; telling of the new Jerusalem that cometh down
from God out of heaven! Who shall estimate the measure of
this word "well?"  Ask Lazarus to tell thee from the bosom
of Abraham, what it means;-ask Paul;-ask the primeval
angels;-ask God!
1 know surely, says the Preacher. There is no item of
knowledge based on more absolute certainty than this. If
God be God, then whatever else be certain or uncertain, this
one thing is imperatively true; it must be well with him that
feareth God. This unquestionable axiom laughs all mere philosophy to scorn, and condemns all that disdain the paths of
God. Are you willing to bid eternal farewell to this word
which shuts up in itself as in a mystic casket all the riches, all
the beauty, all the splendor, and all the bliss of God's vast
universe? Oh! what a bankrupt is he that lets go this word I




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51


FEBRUARY 11.-"Fruitful in every good work."-Colossians i. 10.
The Almighty Maker of' all demands no more of anything
he has made than he has made it capable of yielding.,ujugh
when each tree yields its appropriate fruits.  The plants of
righteousness have pre-emninence above all the trees of the
field; for on their boughs, they bear, wonderful to relate, many
varieties of fruits. There is one Spirit; but his fruit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.  How beautiful when the trees planted in
the courts of God, exhibit, each of them, all these varieties of
celestial fruits. Does a man say, I am fruitful in one good
work, I have fulfilled my legitimate function?  I reply: You
know not your calling, neither the grace of God; you are
called to be one of those peculiar trees that are to be transplanted to paradise; be fruitful, therefore, in every good work.
Who is he that speaketh against good works? Such an one
speaketh against God. Good works are the works that God
approves. To disapprove of what God approves, is something
that should be left to Satan and his angels. It is impossible
to take a step in the path-way of life, but by a good work. A
man must do what God would have him   do, or he will make
very little progress in that path to heaven. The first thing, of
course, is to renounce all trust in one's own righteousness, and
look to Christ as one's sole wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We are created anew in Christ Jesus unto
good works.
Fruitful in every good work. Not but that a man may be
specially fitted for a particular service. We are not bidden to
fritter away our powers in vain efforts to do a multitude of
things. But opportunities of diverse character come to every
man. It is of great importance to be on the look out for these.
The devotee of gain is wonderfully keen for the recognition of
opportunities; and grasps with all his energies at each successive hope that darts across his path. The Christian is a




52


DAILY MEDITATIONS.


merchant of a peculiar kind; his whole aim is to enrich others.
Golden opportunities in his estimation are such as enable him
to do good. He cultivates a habit of looking upon every man
as one to whom good is to be done. The day is whitest in his
calendar in which he has been enabled to communicate most.
Let us look around us and see if we cannot be fruitful in some
good works that our hands have not yet known. The glory of
a tree is to be fruitful.
FEBRUARY 12.-" lie that trusteth in his own heart is a fool."-Proverbs xxviii. 26.
Self-confidence, self-reliance, pride of character, sense of
power, consciousness of strength, self-possession, —these make
a man great in the eyes of the world, and a fool in the sight
of God. For strength is in the consciousness of weakness, not
in the consciousness of strength. Wisdom is in the consciousness of ignorance; and true confidence is in the utter mistrust
of self. Man by himself is a fragment.  He is the sport of
circumstances,-the foot-ball of time. Yea, though he have
imperial power and subdue the world, if his trust be in himself, it is in a reed shaken with the wind. Man is complete only
in God, only in Christ. Let the tree laugh at the soil and
glory in its bared roots; the folly were not so great as that of
him who trusteth in his own heart.
Trust not in your own heart. For he that does so, trusts in
the heart of a fool. You have been deceived by it a thousand
times. You know it to be incorrigibly given to falsehood. It
is in the pay of Satan, and would lure you in a flowery path going to destruction. Self-trust is the abandonment of God. To
go forth in the consciousness of your own strength, wisdom, or
virtue, is to go forth as Goliath; but what is your stupendous
sword, what your brazen armor, in comparison with the stone
of the brook in the hand of faith? " You have heard a great




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


53


deal of faith, and cannot understand it."  Know that it is just
the opposite of your self-trust. It is the genuine source of
strength and victory; you have but the counterfeit.
FEBRUARY 13. —" He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." —
Psalm cxxx. 8.
So says the Psalmist. A thousand years after, the angel
who appeared to Mary takes up the refrain, saying, " He shall
save his people from their sins." Peter in due time learns this
admirable song, and thus modulates it in the hearing of the
Jews:-" Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus,
sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from
his iniquities."  Paul suffers not the strain to die, but gives it
the following utterance:-" Christ gave himself for us that he
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good works."
By his death he reconciles the Godhead to us. By his C ospel he reconciles us to God.  Ie redeems us from all iniquities, finally, by his Spirit and sanctifying word. This result is
accomplished by inspiring enmity between our souls and our
iniquities.  We discover these to be so many folds of an anaconda about our soul.  We are made to hate them with a perfect hatred, —also to know our own impotence,-then to know
9ur strength in Him,-then to burst these successive chains,
and walk emancipated in spirit. In general, we may understand that there is no actual deliverance from any sin, until
the odiousness of that sin has been seen. The odiousness of
it is often first seen when we come into actual conflict with it;
but most seen when we contemplate the opposite perfection in
the lovely character of Christ.
FEBRUARY 14.-"If it were not so, I would have told you."-John
xiv. 2.
There is something exceedingly gracious and affecting about
5 X




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


this declaration. It is the language of pure friendship and
open-hearted confidence. "If things had been darker than
they are, if your difficulties greater, if your future less glorious, be sure that I would have told you. Did I ever seek to
disguise the difficulties that would throng your path, if you
became my followers? Did I speak in a whisper of the cross
that you would have to bear? Did I keep you ignorant of an
opposing world, oppressive governors, persecuting monarchs?
Did I not speak emphatically of scourgings, stonings, imprisonings?"
" Again, did I ever keep back anything from you that was
really needful for your encouragement and your guidance? I
have told you all things that were calculated to contribute to
your fortitude and to your joy. I know well that the idea will
creep some time into your mind, (for what idea is so wild that
it finds no access to the mind of man, even of the man whom
God hath taught,) the idea will present itself to you that the
revelation made by me is not all that it should be. Curiosity,
for instance, may desire to know very much about the many
mansions in my Father's house; but be assured, if that more
detailed information had been truly desirable for you, I would
have communicated it. Infinite wisdom and infinite love have
not only prompted the words that I have given you, but my
silence also. I might have expatiated much upon my Father's
house of glory; but it would have hindered you from paying
due attention to the way that leadeth to that house. Enough
for you to know that I am there, with the glory which I had
before the world was; that ten thousand times ten thousand
sons of God walk there in purity and majesty; and that there
are vacancies in their ranks which it is understood that you
are to fill. What is of chief exigency is that you should
know well the spot on which you are putting down your
foot, and be perfectly instructed in the way of righteousness."
Reader, are you satisfied with the revelation that God has




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been pleased to give you? Dare not to doubt this word of
Christ, that if it had been best for you he would have told you
more. Shall man hand God a table of contents, and ask the
Almighty to make a revelation thereto accordant?
FEBRUARY 15.-" I glory in my infirmities."-2 Corinthians xii. 9.
With gladness and with exultation Paul contemplated the
fact that God had made him what he was, a very dependent
creature, in himself altogether incomplete, and in unceasing
need of the presence and blessing of God.
Imagine a flower able to shine by phosphorescent rays, dim
and dying at the best; and saying to the glorious sun in the
heavens, " Depart from me, I have no need of thee; trouble
not thyself to move through my skies; I am my own sun."
What fatuity were this. It is the glory of the flower that it
has so magnificent a bridegroom, rising day by day to run his
course of love through the skies. Let the flower rejoice and
be glad that it has no power of its own over the earth, over
the air, over the least of its own internal vessels; and that
without the sun it can do nothing. Let it be tenacious unto
death of its dependence. And let Paul, enlightened by the
Spirit of God, exult in a condition that keeps him in perpetual
and heavenly alliance with the King of kings. Let him glory
in his poverty that binds him to the treasury of heaven; in
his isolation that procures him a legion of angels to camp
about him; in his ignorance that demands the teachings of
the Omniscient; and in his moral helplessness that requires
Christ to abide in his heart by faith
FEBRUARY 16.-" Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of
man."-Psalm lx. 11.
There was a poor woman that spent all her living upon phy.




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sicians. She went everywhere soliciting the help of man, and
experimenting upon the capacities of earth. Finally she despaired. The shades of night were gathering around her;
she cried unto God, saying, perhaps, "give us help from trouble,
for vain is the help of man;" then speedily came the Prince
of Life, and the mere sweep of his garment imparted what
had been so long and vainly sought from man.
Altogether the bitterest element of trouble is the foolish expectation of man's help, of the world's consolation. Has man
then no power to succor his fellow-man? Does the Bible wish
to make us misanthropists? Is the voice of human friendship
the voice of a syren? And shall we treat with suspicion and
contempt the sympathizing ones who hasten to us at the report
of our trouble? Not so. If God notices the cup of cold water, it cannot be that we should slight it. Christ would have
the sweet odor of the act performed by Mary, in the house of
Simon the leper, diffused through all the world. Far be it
from us to repel the kindnesses of any.
Yet consider;-Christ was pleased with Mary's tribute; but
the sorrows of his soul were not stanched by it. He knew
what was in the heart of Judas; he knew what Peter was
ready to become; he had troubles that human solaces wele
vain to remove. When Peter was in prison, there were thousands that loved him and would have made all sacrifices to
liberate him; but all they could do was to go to God in his
behalf. Where, in all the world, is the man that has not had
experience of troubles that the help of man was powerless to
remove? No one can remove them effectually and permanently, but that Divine being who bore our sins in his own
human body on the tree; no one but he who is able to remove
our unbelief, our selfishness, our wrong desires, our inordinate
affections.
Lord, give thou us help from trouble, for vain is the help
of man.




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FEBRUARY 17.-" Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have
not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for
they are worthy."-Revelation iii. 4.
" Even in Sardis."  How full of reproach this little word
"even." The wonder was that any good should live in such a
sea of iniquity as that. Even in Sardis! It will be well for
us to act as though our residence were in Sardis; as though
there were the greatest possible danger of our soiling our robes.
The robes that are polluted are robes that were given spotless.
You cannot pollute that which is intrinsically vile. The garments which so many Sardians had defiled, were such as they
had in connection with their Christian profession. When a
man receives the truth, and embraces Christ, and identifies
himself with the people of God, he is, in the eyes of rejoicing
angels above and saints below, clothed with a new nature. His
old nature is laid off as a garment; and his faith in Christ is
a pledge to us that he will live under the influences of new
principles, with new aims, habits, feelings.
" A few that have not defiled their robes." They have been
distinguished by great reverence for the Master's words. They
have diligently sought to know and do his whole will. They
have mistrusted their own hearts. Have rightly estimated the
power of the enemy. IHave been unceasing in prayer. Have
sought diligently to grow in grace. Sometimes, they have forgotten to watch, and have committed some trespass. Then
Satan sought to take away their confidence, and rear the image
of the sin formidably between them and God. Doubts and
fears beset them; they began to question if they ever could
be proof against temptation. Their garments were almost defiled. But no, the grace of God came to their rescue. Others
were betrayed into wrong-doing, and then were assured by
Christian friends that that was not wrong-doing; there was
great danger that they would take up this lower view of what
Christ demanded; great danger that their robes should be de



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filed; but the gracious Spirit enabled them to cling to their
best convictions, their truer standard, and they were safe.
There came once a period of coldness; cares of the world,
pursuit of wealth, alliances with irreligious persons; these
choked the word; this thing went on too long; their garments
threatened to become defiled; but they happily awoke to a sense
of their perilous state, and with great earnestness, they turned
again to the animating beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
They who thus maintain their garments unspotted from the
world, shall walk with Christ in white. Their white garments
shall become in whiteness and lustre such as no fuller on earth
could produce. They will walk in the very lustre of Christ;
his glory shall be upon them; they shall be made like unto
him.
"For they are worthy."  They have identified themselves
with the only true worth, even Christ. So long as we wrap
ourselves in our own native worth, though it should be something resplendent in the eyes of all our fellows, we are not
worthy to walk with Christ in white. Young and noble aspi.
rant after an admirable and worth-revealing life, know that if
your utmost dreams should come true, and earth's most distinguished chaplet of worth should become yours, yet would not
that constitute you worthy of companionship with Christ on
high   Observe, the glorified ones all unite in the song of testimony, "Thou alone art worthy to receive glory, and honor,
and power and blessing." They renounce the worth of which
they once dreamed, and lose themselves in the contemplation
of the infinite and all-absorbing worth of the Redeemer-God.
And all his worth becomes theirs. All things become theirs;
for his heart is theirs.




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FFBRUARY 18.-" Bless the Lord, 0 my soul."-Psalm ciii. 22.
That is to say, " let thy vocation be that of the seraphim, 0
my soul, and enter on the life of heaven!"
Why should I praise him?   Can my praise be of any advantage to him? No; nor that of all the heavenly hosts. It
is infinite condescension in him to hearken unto the praises of
his most exalted creatures.
Let me bless the Lord, because no function will be more
rich in blessings to my soul than this. The admiring contemplation of his excellence is in reality the appropriation
thereof. The heart cannot delight in God, without becoming
like God.
Let me do it, because it is the peculiar privilege of man on
this earth to bless the Lord. When he would find any to join
him in this, he has to ascend the skies.
Let me do it, because the earth is fully furnished with the
materials of praise. The sands, the seas, the flowers, the insects; animals, birds, fields, mountains, rivers, trees, clouds,
sun, moon, stars,-all wait for me to translate their attributes
and distinctions into praise. But, above all, the new creation.
Let me do it, because of him, through him, and to him, are
all the things that pertain to my existence, health, comfort,
knowledge, dignity, safety,. progress, power and usefulness. A
thousand of his ministers in earth, sea, and sky, are concerned
in the production and preparation of every mouthful that I
eat. The breath that I am commanded and enabled to modulate in praise, neither comes nor goes without a most surprising
exhibition of the condescension, kindness, wisdom, power, and
presence of him whom I am to praise. Is it not dastardly to
be receiving benefits, without even mentioning the name: or
describing the goodness of the giver?
Let candidates for heaven bless the Lord. There is no
place there for such as have not learned this art.
How shall I praise him?  Not with fine words. No poetic




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talent is here necessary. Any language that expresses heart.
felt admiration will be accepted.
Praise him so far as you know him; and he will make
known to you more of his glory.
FEBRUARY 19. — Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."-Job
xiii. 15.
If we want a sublime utterance, here is one. Let us give
glory to that Blessed Spirit of grace, who thus sometimes
teaches the lips of man wondrous things.
Though he slay me,-not simply, though he take away my
life. Job would have had no reluctance to part with his life.
It would have been an inexpressible relief to him to escape
from the load of misery laid upon him. The expression,
" Though he slay me," is the strongest possible, and startles us
with an exhibition of peculiar horrors. Though God should
come against me, and destroy me with marks of signal wrath;
though death should visit me as the king of terrors, and though
my departure from this world should be in harmony with and
as a mighty climax to my present agony; yet will I trust in
him. I believe his word, rather than the aspect of his providences. The fire that fell from heaven and destroyed my
flocks, is not able to destroy the promise on which I rest. A
great wind from the wilderness smote the house where all my
loved ones dwelt, and at one swoop removed all in which I
delighted on earth; yet the word of God endureth forever. I
have a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken by elemental wrath. Though the floods should lift themselves
against me, and every billow proclaim that God is my enemy;
though streams of liquid fire should advance, declaring that
God's ancient love is extinguished; though the earth beneath
should shake, and the heaven above be black; though all
things should seem commissioned to preach unto me the un



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61


quenchable wrath of God; yet will I trust in his unalterable
word.
The perfection of faith is to cling to the word of God, when
all his works, and all his ways, seem to proclaim the very opposite of that word.  Isaac no doubt had confidence in his
father; and when he saw him with the knife in his uplifted
hand, ready to slay him, still he trusted in him; nor would he
have fled to any other earthly refuge. " He that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."  It was a terrible
trial of the faith of Lazarus and his sisters, when they hearkened, hearkened, hearkened for footsteps of Jesus, and after all,
those of death came first; but we may hope that the dying one
passed away with something like the words of Job upon his
lips.
FEBRUAnY 20.-" Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord."-James v. 7.
Because, first, there is no doubt about that coming. His
first coming was the most wonderful, the most staggering to
faith. That the Son of God should have been found in fashion
as a man, without form or comeliness, with but rare coruscations
of his glory, enduring the contradiction of sinners, and dying
on the cross; this is a marvel that swallows up all marvels, and
frees from all embarrassment the question of his second advent.
Because he will come in glory such as no heart of man ever
conceived, shedding an infinite lustre upon the least jot and
tittle of his slighted Gospel, and embracing in his own matchless radiance and felicity, those who now accept the legacy of
his promises, and walk in the path of his humiliation.
Because we shall be for ever with the Lord. The day of his
coronation and of ours is a day on which the sun shall never
go down.
Because he cometh; he cometh! The bell of his providence
6




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is sounding ever and anon, telling that another prophecy is
fullfilled, another hour of this our day of expectation elapsed,
another footfall of his glorious approach accomplished.
Be patient, therefore. Yet think not that by this we are
bidden to wait supinely, and with our attention given to other
things. But rather as they that watch for the morning, let us
hasten unto the day of the Lord.
FEBRUARY 21.-" The Lord is very pitiful."-James v. 11.
Few believe this. Men know what pitifulness is. They
know how a very pitiful parent will act towards a suffering
child; how he will show himself tenderly solicitous to staunch
its wounds and alleviate its sorrows. They do not view God as
characterized by this sympathizing tenderness and pitifulness.
They regard him as a physician, who, by long familiarity with
suffering, is able to look upon it without emotion, and coldly to
calculate what remedies are best.
If we choose to see God thus, we shall perhaps find him
thus; for according to our faith is he manifested. Nevertheless, he is what the prophets and apostles declare,-very pitiful.
There is in h.ml no indifference to human suffering. He does
not willingly afflict, nor grieve the children of men; nay, " in
all their affliction he was afflicted." The tears shed by Christ
are a part of the manifestation of God to man.
Tell me, pray, who taught the mother her pitifulness? who
introduced that wondrous feeling of kindness into her heart?
Who constituted her in so admirable a way, that, though in all
other relations she might be selfishness itself, yet in this she is
compelled, as by the instinct of her own 'good, to hang in patience, in pity, and in love, over the cradle of her little one?
Who hath made her maternal ear of such sensitiveness, that
the faintest cry of her babe shall smite piercingly upon it?
Behold her! she is wholly dedicated,-her ear, eye, tongue,




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63


her hands, her feet, her body and soul, her wealth, her all,to a conflict with the sorrow of her infant, to the accomplishment of its utmost welfare. Through this glass, then, gaze
upon the perfections of thy God. The pitifulness in the
mother's heart bespeaks a greater pitifulness in the heart of
him who made her thus. He that made her lips so that gentle and heart-affecting accents might fall from them, is one
that knoweth exquisitely how to caress, to solace, and to bless
Where however, is the infant whose sorrows are all overtaken
by the solicitude of the parent? But the believer has no experience of suffering, great or slight, common or peculiar, for
which there is not some special and some gentle word of God,
with a medicinal virtue only limited by his want of faith.
FEBRUARY 22.-" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin."-1 John i. 7.
The sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, our willing substitute, were such a satisfaction for sin, such a reparation to the law of God, that it has become every way consisten
with divine justice, wisdom, and truth, to accord mercy to sinners, and bless them without any other restriction than that
which their own unwillingness and unbelief interpose. There
is a fountain opened up for sin and for uncleanness; and
whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely. "The
well is deep, and thou hast nothing to draw with," said the
Samaritan woman to Christ. One might be embarrassed at a
well or fountain, to know how to avail himself of the waters;
but if he saw another draw water and drink, he could profit by
his example. On the cross, we see Christ dying, the just for
the unjust; and perhaps may wonder how the unjust are to
profit thereby, until we see the thief on the cross put out his
hand and drink of that fountain, and obtain life for evermore.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


Then o'r difficulty is removed; we see that we have just to
believe, and be cleansed from all our iniquities.
We may plead the merits of this blood as an indemnification
for all our sins; so that we may ask and receive from the same
all-willing hand that blesses the angels. And this blood has
not only the power to conciliate God; it has power over hearts.
Not only in the way of inspiring us with faith in God's forgiving grace, but also with hatred of the sins that caused the
death of Christ. And we never truly receive pardon for sin
without receiving power over sin. He that has a true hope in
Christ, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure. Faith in him
is vital union to him; and as the branch cannot but partake
of the qualities of the vine, so we must partake of his qualities, or confess ourselves unbelievers. The increase of faith is
the increase of all the fruits of righteousness.
FEBRUARY 23.-" So shall we ever be with the Lord."-1 Thessalonians
iv. 17.
One of the last desires to which Christ gave utterance before leaving this world, was expressed in these words: " Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where
I am."  And these words "I am," have a meaning that is
very vast, referring perhaps to his place in the affections of
the Father, to his moral purity, and specially to the manifestation of his divine glory. "I will come again and receive you
unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." When
Peter saw his Lord transfigured, he wished the blissful hour to
endure forever. But the time had not yet come for him to be
forever with his glorified Redeemer. It was needful that he
himself should fight the good fight of faith, and come off conqueror-be made like unto Christ spiritually, and at last in
eternal glory.
" Lo, I am with you always," says Christ, " even to the end




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65


of the world." Till then, he is with us the object of faith;
afterwards the blessed object of sight. "Ye believe in God
the Father, whom ye see not; believe also in me, spiritually
present with you." They that are most affected by the glorious anticipation of perpetual residence with Christ in glory,
are most assiduous in the endeavor to discern his presence
here, and walk with him on the earth. He has promised to
manifest himself to us in this our pilgrimage; and in vain we
look for that future beatification with him, if we have not
these promised manifestations. To be ever with the Lord, is
to be never with our sins, never with the tempter, never with
sorrow; ever with love, ever with wisdom, ever with power,
ever with glory, and ever with rapture; ever with the Lord;
ever with all that love the Lord.
FEBRUARY 24.-" The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much."-James v. 16.
We are not to take the word righteous here in an impossible
sense. "In many things we offend all," says James; and in
the very verse we quote from, he says, " Confess your faults
one to another."  Otherwise understood, the promise would
check prayer, instead of exciting it. The righteous man is
the true Christian; one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and in whose life appears the fruit of the Spirit.
But the expression is doubtless intended to discourage the
mall who, while he gives himself to prayer, regards iniquity in
his heart.
The Greek consists of five words. One of these we translate " of a righteous man."  Another, " the effectual fervent."
The word so rendered, means literally " inwrought," and seems
to refer to the energetic operation of the Spirit upon the heart.
Our word " fervent" is a very expressive word, and does not
6*




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


much lag behind the original. "Fervent prayer of the right.
eous can much."
"1We ask, and receive not." It is not surprising. The
promise is not to prayer, but to true prayer, fervent prayer,
prayer with the whole heart in it; with concentration of desire, singleness of aim, warmth of affection, strength of purpose, absolute grasp of the promise, and invincible perseve
rance. Consider Abraham, Jacob, Elijah. Your prayers are
not fervent. You pray, and the response from a throne of
grace is, " The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much."
The records of that throne will furnish a satisfactory account
of the fortunes of every prayer.
" Can much." The Bible generally disparages human ability. It pours contempt upon the might of princes  It sometimes laughs to scorn the great armies and proud navies of the
nations. Yet it points out a way by which man may clothe
himself with strength; with "much" strength  How much?
This modest word stretches into infinity, and discloses omnipotence within it. God giveth power to his witnesses, his fervent
petitioners, to shut heaven, to smite the earth, to turn waters to
blood.-(Rev. x. 6.) Through Christ strengthening me, I can
do all things.
FEBRUARY 25.-" Happy is the man whom God correcteth."-Job T.
17.
Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into
paths of pleasantness and peace.
Because there is no unnecessary severity in it.
Because the disciplinary stroke is in the place of ten thousand strokes of divine vengeance for our sins.
Because the chastisement is not so much against us, as
against our most cruel enemies-our sins.
Because wc have abundant words of consolation.




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67


Because the sacrifice of a broken heart, and of a contrite
spirit, God despiseth not.
Because there is at such seasons an influx of most precious
knowledge.
Because whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
Because all the good have had experience of this
Because Christ has said, "The cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it?"
Because our light affliction is but for a moment.
FEBRUARY 26.-" Rejoice evermore." — Thessalonians v. 16.
We have here a command. He that spake from Sinai, say
ing, "Thou shalt not covet," speaketh now from  the cross,
saying, " Rejoice." He that finds Christ, finds this command.
It is not a matter of choice with him whether he will be a rejoicing Christian, or a downcast Christian. He has no more
right to neglect the fulfillment of this duty, than to forget his
duty to his neighbor. In fact,-this command is so inextricably
interwoven with other obligations, that he who does not obey
it, exposes at once his deficiency in the matter of faith towards
Christ, gratitude towards God, love towards his fellow-men, and
hope of future bliss.
But can tears be dried, the wounds of the heart healed, the
face irradiated with smiles, by a simple command?  Were it
not more reasonable to bid the leopard change his spots, the
Ethiopian his complexion? God has not been pleased to discover to us a tree whose leaves will blanch the skin; but he
has been pleased to open up a fountain for the removal of
human woes. To command a person to rejoice, without at the
same time presenting a sufficient consolation for his sorrows, s
but to mock his grief. But he that bids us rejoice, shows us
what to do with our griefs. If we will let him, he will take
up each several grief, and cast it into tl e crucible of his word.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


The command to rejoice, is a command-to contemplate God
and his affections; especially as manifested in Christ; in his
relations to us individually-to feed upon the promises-to
study God's will; and, paradoxical though it may seem, to be
not much occupied with the matter of our personal happiness,
but rather with that of others. " It is more blessed to give,
than to receive." (Read Isaiah lviii.)
Rejoice evermore, because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. The word of God abideth for ever. All
things work together for good to them that love God.
FEBRUARY 27.-" We are the clay, and thou our potter."-Isaiah lxiv. 8.
Happy are they who can use this language;-who have renounced the mad enterprise of fashioning themselves, and,
ceasing to play presumptuously the part of potter, have come
to the original author of their being, that he may create them
anew in righteousness and true holiness. Even Christians are
sometimes long in understanding what part they are to play in
the divine laboratory. The idea of the divine agency in the
transformation of their souls, is shadowy; that of their own
obligation, painfully distinct. Let them learn to use the language of Israel of old. "Thou art the potter, and we are the
clay." There is no more sublime function of the Godhead,
none that more inapproachably exalts him above all created
efficiency, than the metamorphosis of unholy souls. It were a
less preposterous thing for us to undertake to create a globe
like this, and find a planetary path for it, than to dream of
substituting the similitude of angels for that of devils, in our
characters. It is not merely the love of God, but also his
power, that challenges the praises of the universe for the accolmplished work of redemption (Rev. v. 13.)
" But, the clay has no volition of its own." True. But it is a
fact, whether it b3 a doctrine or not, and a fact that we ought




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69


not to be so long in learning as we mostly are, that our own
volitions utterly fail of themselves to effect the purification of
our natures. It is God that worketh to will and to do, of his
good pleasure.
" Thou art our potter."  What words of tender confidence
are these.  What a representation of God. Our potter,-nmine,
yours. He has taken up this as his vocation,-namely, the
redemption and glorification of your nature, and of mine. Between your soul and God there is a wonderful relation established. All nature looks on in admiration, to see the Creator
at work upon the clay of your soul. The sculptor is not more
enchained to the marble he is employed in chiseling, nor the
gardener to the spot which he is converting into a garden.
FEBRUARY 28.-" There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared."-Psalm cxxx. 4.
This is the gospel. Christ is with God; therefore, there is
forgiveness with God. " It is expedient for you that I go
away," that I go to heaven. The only question is, Is Christ
there? Then we shall assuredly find forgiveness there.
A proper understanding of this word "forgiveness" would
fill the soul with a bliss, the like of which was never yet experienced upon this earth. It designates two immensities,that of our sins, and that of the love of God in Christ. To
fathom it we must descend to the lowest depth of endless misery; to know its height we must ascend to the throne which
the seraphim encompass.
This forgiveness, this smile of God, binds the soul to God
with a beautiful fear. Fear to lose one glance of love. Fear
to lose one word of kindness.  Fear to be carried away from
'the heaven of his presence, by an insidious current of worldliness. Fear or dlumber. Fear of error. Fear of not enough
pleasing him.




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Our duty, then, is to drink deep of God's forgiving love.
To be filled with it, is to be filled with purity, fervency, and
faith. Our sins have to hide their diminished heads, and slink
away through crevices, when forgiveness,-when Christ enters
the soul.
FEBRUARY 29.-" Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none."-Luke xiii. 7.
And yet you profess to be a fruit-bearer. The position you
occupy implies that you have separated yourself from the fruitless trees of the world. You are in the vineyard of the Lord.
You are called by his name. In assuming the designation of
Christian, you have invited the Lord to come and seek fruit on
your branches.
All things have been duly organized, in order that you may
bring forth fruit. What could have been done more to my
vineyard, that I have not done in it? Has there been any lack
of instruction as to the nature of the fruit required? There
has been no lack. It has been shown you by precept, by example, poetically, historically, in parables, and in unadorned
speech. Have inadequate motives been presented?  The Son
of God with arms outstretched upon the cross, pleading with
God for you, and with you for God-what an infinitude of
motives are comprehended in this spectacle! Fruitlessness is
not merely wrong to others; it is self-injury, penury of the
soul; and fruitfulness is the only true wealth we are capable
of knowing. The absence of fruit is the presence of pride,
vanity, selfishness, and all forms of unloveliness. Is there no
adequacy of motive here? The whole earth is fruitful, in order that you may be fruitful.  Far, far away there is a plantation, whose products are matured through many a day of
patient shining of the sun, that they may, after the ministry
of innumerable hands, by numerous channels, reach you, and
furnish you with clothing. Other fields, beneath a more tropi



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cal sky, some in one continent, some in another, yield the ingredients of your morning beverage. In the unfrequented
depths of vast forests, the powers of nature watch day and
night over the plant that is commissioned to furnish an antidote for your fever. The whole world is put under daily con' tribution for you, and hardly is the least of your thousand
wants unattended to, that every opportunity and every inducement may be furnished you for the producing of fruit. Why
is that flower painted so exquisitely, and fashioned to be the
momentary utterance of enduring love, and then thrown in
your path by the Maker of it, but that you may render fruit?
" Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance," and to all the fruits of the Spirit that follow on
repentance?
The Lord of glory himself has come to you, and come
again, and again; by his servants, his Spirit, his providence;
as a still small voice in your heart, and perhaps as a whirlwind
among your possessions. Where found he you? In sloth, in
revelry, in worldliness, in pride, in passion,-far, very far from
fruitfulness. How wonderful that your probation was not then
and there cut short. What reason is there to hope that a prolonged probation will witness any better results?
MARCH 1.-" My times are in thy hand."-Psalm xxxi. 15.
The time of my prosperity. In vain would I say unto my
soul, "Soul, take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years."  In vain I grasp the evidences of my wealth;
look abroad upon my goodly mansions and large estates; reckon
upon my wealth, and exult in the victory obtained over earthly
vicissitudes.  The victory is a mere cheat, a phantasm  of
my brain. The time of my prosperity is in the hand of God.
He opens his hand, and all my possessions vanish into air.
The time of my health. It is God that determines its con
tinuance, even to the very hour.




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The time of my mental capacity. I boast of the powers of
my mind; but they abide with me only while God commands
them so to do.
The time of my adversity. Of sickness  Of manifold sore
trials. Of absence of loved ones. Of humiliation. Of conflict with sin.
The term of my mortal existence. Wherefore, let my eyes
be unto the hand of the Lord, as the eyes of a servant are
unto the hand of his master.
MARCH 2. —"Thou Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee."Psalm ix. 10.
The promise of the Lord never to forsake the soul that trusts
in him, looks familiarly and kindly forth upon us, from many
a page of Scripture, old and new. But we have here an historical statement to the effect that he has never forsaken them
that seek him. This is a bold averment. History is a very
large affair. Ten thousand volumes were but a small part of
its library. It is startled by the challenge contained in our
text; and takes down volume after volume, saying, "I will
easily, with my voluminous records, levy an army of many
thousand facts to confound this statement." Unbelief nods
assent, saying, " The statement needs modification: We have
often been forsaken of the Lord."
The promise is not that we shall always have a sensible manifestation of the Lord.-That we shall always have a soul-gladdening consciousness of his prese.ce.-That we shall always be
able to understand his dealings with us.-That we shall be kept
from disappointments, and from anguish of spirit.
The promise is not that we shall never be cast into a den of
lions;-never into a fiery furnace,-never be a fugitive by the
brooks Cherith, or under the juniper tree-never be brought
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saken you, in the right place. Look for it in the den of lions,
and you will find it in the form of an angel. Look for it in
the burning fiery furnace, and find it in the form of the Son
of God. Look at Elijah under the juniper tree. He seems
to have been surprised into a loss of faith, when he heard that
the queen had sworn to take his life; to have imagined that
the Lord had forsaken him; to have fled in dishonorable
alarm; and to have cast himself, way-worn and anguishstricken, under the juniper tree, with a feeling that it was
about as well to die, seeing that no degree of intimacy with the
Lord would secure a man from being forsaken of him. But it
was not the Lord that had forsaken him; it was he that had
forsaken himself; and this he now discovered. Afterwards
the still small voice came, saying, "The Lord is in me, but
thou canst not hear me nor discern him, if thou hearken to the
voice of an angry queen; it is the privilege of faith to hear
me even amid the thunders of God's most agitated providence."
MARCH 3.-" The meek will he guide."-Psalm xxv. 9
Be content to lose the idea of thine own importance; cease
to be wrapped up in the contemplation of thine own claims and
rights. Be not counting on honors to be rendered thee, hour
by hour, from this man and from that. Give up the vain idea
that every hour owes thee an ample tribute of manifold benefits. Shrink into non-importance, and take the position of a
simple servitor, whose business it is to do, to suffer, and to give
thanks.
When you have become thus inconsiderable in your own regard, and have relinquished the honor which cometh from man,
and are cordially willing that the gifts that adorn this present
life should be withheld from you, and abundantly bestowed at
your right hand and at your left; then will you become conscious that another hand is locked in yours, a friendly hand,
7




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a gracious hand, a tender, considerate, careful hand; a royal,
a heavenly, nay, without disguise, a divine hand. In surrendering all self-importance you have become unspeakably important to the most exalted Being in the universe. You have
entered the very path trodden by the Lord Jesus Christ. In
that path you walk with God.
The secret of habitual meekness is the love of God habitually shed abroad in the heart. All pride, all avidity of worldly
good, all insubmission, imply a grossly inadequate idea of the
value of Christ's love. Thou canst disdain the riches that
take wings, in the consciousness of unseen wealth-untold,
imperishable.
MARCH 4.-" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God."-John iii. 3.
"Thou hast considered, Nicodemus, that except God were
with him, no man could work such miracles as I have wrought.
Thou hast considered, also, that one in whom such celestial
power resides, must have a great deal of knowledge respecting
the heavens, their marvels, their glories, their inhabitants.
Thou wouldst fain hear me speak of these things, and have me
enchant thy mind with a description of the amazing things
that are found in the paradise of God. I am indeed a teacher
come from God, nor is there besides me any one who, having
dwelt in the heavens, has descended to the earth. But art
thou truly in a condition to hear me tell of the characteristics
of heaven? While I speak to thee of the purity of the angels wilt thou not be longing to hear of their stature? When
I tell thee of their love, wilt thou not desire to hear of their
ivory palaces? When I speak of the songs of the redeemed,
will not thy thoughts be of golden rivers and gem-laden trees?
When I tell thee of the absence of sin and of temptation, wilt
thou not prefer to have the strain relieved by the description
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description of the kingdom of God, or, if such be in thy
thought, a description of the Messiah's kingdom, would convey no definite ideas to thy mind, and greatly fail to interest
thee. Except a man be born agail, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot appreciate the nature of it, or be
wrought upon by the descriptions of it. Before the eyes of
the blind, the picture were in vain held up. Believe the
earthly things I tell you; the things already revealed; the
things which relate to your present duty; and then you will b
enabled to see in their true glory and beauty, the heavenly
things. You must be born again; get a new mind, new views,
new affections, new tastes, new perceptions; and then you will
speedily discover the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom cannot be seen from without. Men might lie all day beneath its
crystal walls and pearly gates, without the slightest conception
that there was anything near them of an extraordinary character."
MARCH 5.-" Blessed are they that mourn."-Matthew v. 4.
That mourn over their alienation from God.-Over their
past years of ungodliness.-Over the evil that they have
wrought in the world.-Over their neglected opportunities of
usefulness.-Over their moral unloveliness.-Over their insensibility;-their irresolution;-their bad memory for sacred
things.-Over the unsatisfactory condition of the church.-The
sin and danger of those near and dear to them.-The oppression, unrighteousness and misery that desolate the whole earth.
They mourn over the fugitive loveliness that meets them in
their path. They hear the whole creation groaning in pain.
They mourn to see so many exquisite and magnificent works
of God, defiled and dishonored by sin.
But their mourning has its limits. It is lost in a sea of
blessing. Blessed are they that mourn. Happiness is linked
to their mourning. This beatitude comes from the lips of the




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Lord Jesus to kiss away their tears. They are blessed, because their mourning is an important preliminary of their deliverance from that which they mourn. Because they are in
sympathy with Christ. Because a thousand consolatory expressions of God's word come trooping to the chamber of their
sorrow. Because their heart is fructified thereby to yield the
flowers and fruits of joy.
Sometimes there is not the consciousness of the blessing.
At such times God puts our tears in his bottle. He does not
wipe them away; but keeps them for future explanation, and
future vindication of his tenderness. We may slight our own
past sorrows; but God slights them not. After a long silence
perhaps, he brings forth the vial of our former tears, and
shows what a wonderful memory Love has. lie then clears
up the long mystery, and convinces us of the perfect kindness
of a dispensation that seemed so strange.
MARCH 6.-" Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."-Matthew xviii. 3.
Many things are becoming in a child that are not in a man;
and many things required in a man that are not looked for in
a child. The idea here, or one aspect of it, is that we should
be made over again, from the very beginning.
Simplicity, freedom from guile, candor, retiringness, affectionateness, trust; these things are not uncommon among children, and are important elements of a Christian's character.
Especially is the Christian required to entertain towards God,
the feelings that parents expect from their children; and to
demean himself in the sight of God as children demean themselves in their intercourse with those over them.
Are you a little child in this sense, that you arc willing to.earn all things de novo from God? Are you willing to receive what counsel he gives? To have all your conduct deter



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mined by him?    Your plans altered or dismissed by him?
Your affections disposed of by him? Your property taken by
him? Your sorrow cared for by him?
Are you willing to live with an open heart to him, and confidingly pour out all your experiences into his bosom? To
have no secrets from him? To confess everything and to confess it at once?
MARCH 7.-" How sweet are thy words unto my taste!"-Psalm cxix.
103.
Even the words of a fellow-creature of earth, how inexpressibly sweet sometimes, how beyond all calculation precious!
All gold and silver would be despised in comparison with them.
They come freighted with something as dear as life, with love,
and the heart is enriched with them as though the breath of
God had come into it. But does not this rainbow of earthly
joy die gradually out? Do not the enrapturing words sooner
or later become exsiccated in the memory, and may they not
meet with contemptuous treatment as remembrancers of a
worthless illusion? Indeed they do; indeed they may.
Nevertheless the heart may find its happiness, its true and
undying happiness, in words. At this moment there is nothing
in the whole world so much to be desired as certain words.
Words of love. Words expressive of infinite love. Treasures,
pleasures, honors of earth, what are they?  My unsatisfied
soul cries out, Give me words. Words whereby I may know
the love that God has towards me. Words declaring the unchangeable attachment of the Saviour. Words purifying my
heart. Emboldening me in prayer. Exhibiting to me the
blissful future. Words that shall give life to my dead powers,
and change me from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
Nor does my soul cry out in vain. My palate hath a thou.
7 *




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sand appetencies; nay, if they were counted, has far more
than a thousand capacities for distinct perceptions of flavor.
He who thus wondrously endowed the human palate, has made
to grow on ten thousand different trees, fruits with flavors exactly responsive to all these distinctions of taste. He who has
so marvellously and lovingly shown his acquaintance with my
physical tastes, will he overlook the deeper wants of my soul,
and withhold those words of consolation and of blessing, without which the world, with all its profusion of fruit, were a
mere wilderness? He will not. He has given words whose
sweetness satisfies the soul.
What is necessary in order that we may find God's words
sweet unto our taste?
A belief that they are in an absolute sense, God's words.
A belief that they are God's words to us, as individuals,-to
you, to me; that we have forfeited all title to his favor, deserve his everlasting wrath; that in his favor is life; and to
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
MARCH 8. —" Be ye kind one to another."-Ephesians iv. 32.
Not courteous merely; for courtesy is but one expression
of kindness. Not kind to this or that choice one, with whom
you have a facility of sympathy; but generally. Be ye kind;
there are few words in our language more endowed with meaning than this. It has both a soul and a body. It signifies
both a state of the heart, and the manifestations of that state,
in acts, words, tones, looks. Some words look more to outward
acts; others more to inward qualities.  We cannot say to
which this most looks. It has two hands so to speak, and
grasps both ideas refusing to let either go. This word claims
also the whole heart. Kindness is not a quality of one's nature: but it is the aspect of one's nature. It is not something




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to be introduced into our character; but our character is to
be baptized in it, penetrated with it.
How this command expresses the kindness of God! He is
not satisfied with extending over you all the day long an azure
canopy of love, with making his sun run for your pleasure his
daily course through the skies; with causing the breath of his
winds to visit you, his flowers to bloom for you, his fruits to
ripen, and ten thousand other ministries of his to wait upon
you; he is not satisfied with the proof of his kindness given
in the knowledge of Christ communicated to you; but he
gives a solemn charge concerning you to every human being
that comes near the throne of grace,-a charge to be kind to
you. And when they ask, how much is intended by this command, God refers them to the signal proof of his own kindness, as the example that may guide them in their kindness to
you.
If you say, how can I be kind to those whose characters are
unamiable, and the look of whose soul is not inviting? By
looking at God over their shoulder. Remember that you are
pleasing him in showing kindness to them. Your goodness
extendeth not to the sovereign of the skies; you cannot be
kind to him; but your love to him whom you have not seen
may fitly express itself, it must do so, in kindness to your
brother whom you have seen.
MARCH 9.-"o Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall bse God."Matthew v. 8.
Man is without God. He walks in the mansion of the
King of kings, wondering who contrived it, and what has become of its royal owner; sometimes even doubting if it ever
had a contriver, a proprietor. To his mind, God, if he is at
all, is an absentee. He examines the treasures around him,
studies them, weighs them, grasps them, and speculates of the




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Creator as of mne who may be or may not be. Generally, indeed, he speculates not at all. In his conception, God is so
remote that it is idle to waste time in searching for him.
Yet God is nigh and wonderfully manifest. To see him
we need not climb the empyrean, nor wing our way to a central sun. Even upon this earth it is possible to behold, by virtue of an uttered spell, one after one the successive walls of
the mystery of God melt away and disappear, until the Almighty, unveiled and glorious, is seen where the seraphim saw
him when they sang, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
the whole earth is full of thy glory." To them the whole
earth was full of the glory of God, and they would have veiled
their faces in love and adoration, even in the heart of Arabia
Deserta; while, in the midst of the most beautiful and teeming
landscapes of the earth, man, unsanctified man, condescends to
occupy his mind with the baffling question, "Is there a
God?"
Some who have been taught from above to desire greatly
the manifestations of God, and who wrestle earnestly, perhaps
passionately, in prayer, that their Lord would be pleased to
draw nigh unto them, and give them visions of his excellence,
would find it to their inexpressible advantage to cease from
the pursuit of extraordinary manifestations, and by faith and
purity of heart school themselves into the ability to discern a present God, and to abide in blissful intercourse with
him in whom they live and move and have their being. Let
them understand that what they need is not the accomplishment of some change out of themselves-the bringing near of
something that is afar-but a purging of their mental vision,
the removal of a film that yet too much beclouds the eye of
their soul. There is a word with us, and it is as follows:"Lo! I am with you always."    To the unbeliever, a mere
word, and no more; but to the initiated, a means of finding
forever, and in every place, the brightness of the divine glory.




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If any one be offering the petition uf Moses, "I beseech
thee, shew me thy glory," let him hear the 'Saviour reply,
" Seek purity of heart, and thou wilt find me. Be like me,
and thou shalt look upon me. Cease to regard thyself; be
meek and lowly of heart; let no guile be found in thy mouth;
delight thyself in the Lord; thus shall thy power of discerning
and enjoying me be day by day augmented."      This word
' purity" invites us to linger. But when could one satisfy
himself with discourse upon it?
MARCH 10. —"Blessed are the peace-makers." —Matthew v. 9.
Christ is the Prince of peace. Peace on earth is the object
of the Messiah's mission, said the angels in their song. His
followers are accordingly sons of peace. They have peace with
God, and they are pacificators; they follow peace with all men.
Their great object is to induce men to lay aside their hostilities, and renounce their resentments. This is their vocation
in the world. They seek to extend the empire of their Master; but as that empire (and that alone) is peace, they seek Lo
other victory than that which consists in bringing them one
to another in holy concord.
Yet Christ said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword.
His word, launched into a family, comes often like a thunderbolt, riving and shattering the harmonies that had before existed. It is like fire, and like a hammer.
The word of Christ is stern in its opposition to all that is
incompatible with true peace. Peace with sin, is what it ever
must make war upon. If we are peace-makers, it is by means
of the gospel of peace. We seek to make men acquainted
with the cruel facts of their present captivity to sin, and alienation from God; to tell them of the peace of God which passeth all understanding; to bring them into sweet accord with
the great author of their being; to have them moulded by the




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Holy Spirit into a peace-loving disposition; to enfranchise
them from pride, selfishness, covetousness, unbelief, malice, uncharitableness, moral weakness, and the other natural enemies
of peace. Some that are near and dear to them may turn
against them, and the manifestation of bitterness on the part
of these may seem to belie the claim of the gospel to be a
pacificator; but that manifestation only affords scope for an
exhibition of long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, and tender
interest-in a word, for the exhibition of a heaven-born peace.
A sea of opposition has ever raged around the good-sometimes more, sometimes less fiercely. But, like the coral islands
-whose serene unruffled lakes, stately palms, and quiet tenements present a wonderful contrast with the reef-broken angry
ocean around-the elect of God, the friends of the gospel,
have peace with God, follow peace with all men, and exhibit
the fruits of righteousness, even when persecuted by the
world.
Commune with yourself touching this thing, and ask, " Am I
a peace-maker? Do I love well the things that make for
peace? Does it grieve me to behold men unacquainted with
the Prince of Peace? Do I make manifest in my own life
that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in
the Holy Ghost? Do I understand and observe the precept
to speak evil of no man? When I hear of strife between
those who should be friends, does it grieve me as though I
heard of the breaking out of the cholera in their families?
And, as the physician feels that he has a mission among the
sick, do I arise at the report of strife, and hasten on an embassy of peace to the conflicting parties? In a word, am I a
merchant with much balm of Gilead, seeking to dispose of it
among all, and to assuage the desolating enmities of the world?
And is my constant prayer this, that God would teach me how
~ may most thoroughly subserve the cause of peace in the
world?"




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MARCH 11.-" Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."2 Timothy ii. 3.
If you are a disciple of Christ, you are a soldier of Christ.
If 3 ou are an expectant of salvation, you are a follower of the
captain of salvation. When it was proposed to you to become
his follower, it was distinctly intimated that you were to follow
him to a field of conflict.
Endure hardness-that is, endure things hard to be endured.
The army of Christ resembles not a Northern army rushing
down from its inhospitable home into the fertile plains and
genial climate of Italy, encountering a dispirited and enervated race, and grasping with a facile hand the wealth and
honors of that region; but resembles rather the little company
that gathered around David in the days of Saul's indignation,
and followed him from glen to glen, from rock to rock, sleeping
under the open skies or in caverns, snatching their scanty food
where they found it, every moment on the alert for their numerous and powerful enemies, with the whole nation ready to
fall upon and crush them, and with nothing to look to but the
promise of God, the promise of a kingdom. We know that
it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom; not
that we should dream that we have it now. We say therefore
with Elisha, "Is it a time to receive money, and to receive
garments, and olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen,
and man-servants, and maid-servants?"  Rather is it a time
to endure hardness. For the servant is not greater than his
Lord; the soldier not greater than his general.
Therefore let us consecrate what we have to God; cease
from seeking great things of earth for ourselves; receive in
sweet submission the daily trials that will force their way into
the presence of the Christian, in whatever retired apartment
he may dwell; and give ourselves heartily to the conflict with
our adversary, in whatsoever form he may approach us. What
things to some are hard, to others are not; our Commander




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places u3 in such a corps as is most likely to furnish us with
the probation that we need. You have to endure hardness,
not to seek it; be sure, however, that the dread of it does not
keep you out of any path in which God would have you walk.
MARCH 12. —" Light is sown for the righteous."-Psalm lxvii. 11.
Almost all our sorrow is connected with darkness, with misconceptions, with defective knowledge of the reasons that influence God in his dealings with us; and light is fitly used as
a metaphor expressive of gladness and of a soul-satisfying manifestation of God.
The scattered seed disappears in the ground that receives it.
He that is to eat its fruit does not see it fall, knows nothing
of it in its prolonged incarceration. Perhaps he is far away,
and millions stand between him and it. He is occupied with
his cares, great or minute; yet all the while the unslumbering,
unhastening providence of God watches over that ripening
plant, and conducts it to a state of faultless fruitfulness; then
gathers it, conveys it, and presents it to him for whom it was
intended.
In like manner, does God hide long the blessing intended
for his servant that trusts in him; and thus proves his servant
-whether indeed he trusts in him.
This servant perhaps passed through a season of strange and
inexplicable experiences. A spirit of intense supplication was
poured upon him, without a single response to his fervent petitions. His soul was consumed with desires, and those not
unhallowed; yet the heaven of brass and the earth of iron
seemed only to mock his longing. A strong and an enduring
faith enabled him to grasp the mightiest promises of God, and
vigorously to knock with them at heaven's gate; yet echo
seemed only to say, " What is faith? what is a promise?" He
was ready to conclude that all creation, even all earth, and all




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heaven, had received an inviolable command from the Deity to
yield him no light-no, not a glimmer; and that he was given
over a prisoner to everlasting night. He drank the cup his
God had given him; got almost used to its daily bitterness;
became familiar with the midnight of God's unanswering providence; wondered how God could reconcile it with his perfections to let prayer and sanctified desire go so long unanswered;
but wondered without murmuring, and was willing that God
should have his own way, and vindicate as it pleased him, his
own reputation. Yet all the while that wondrous God, apparently cruel, yet in reality beyond expression faithful, was
busied pouring out in superabundant fullness in some remote
undreamt-of spot, the supplicated blessing. Yes, God took in
his hand a seed the very day that servant cried to him; and as
he continued in supplication, he continued enriching the selected object, freighting the chartered vessel; a thousand of
his providential angels were commanded to wait upon it, and
bring it every excellent ornament, load it with most beautiful
fruit. Light was sown, light was reared, light was perfected.
Then, with no little joy on the part of the heavenly ones, who
had been in the secret, the unexpecting suppliant was brought
into the presence of the light, and with equal confusion, admiration, and delight, saw that the Almighty had not despised
his affliction, nor disregarded his impassioned supplication.
Captives in Egypt, the Israelites cried unto God. They
cried vehemently, and long; yet, God came not. They had
boasted of their God to the Egyptians as the hearer of prayer;
and the Egyptians waited with them to see whether he would
come; but at last taunted them with the fruitlessness of their
prayers, and recommended them to call upon the idols of
Egypt. But all the while God was listening eagerly to their
cries,.and daily heaping up a depository of blessing in answer
to them. His selected seed was in the land of Midian. There
dwelt and wandered Moses, the shepherd. Ten thousand prayers
8




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for deliverance, offered up by the far-off captives, were answered in ten thousand incidents and influences, all tending to
make this Moses one of the meekest of men, God-fearing,
nobly intellectual, sympathetic, believing. At length, we may
suppose, the Israelites had almost begun to think that God had
given no heed to their misery, and to their prayers. But Moses
appears; the light that had been sown dawned upon them;
and sounding the loud timbrel, they went forth celebrating the
faithfulness of God.
Even the Sun of Righteousness was first a seed in the silence and solitude of Bethlehem, and remained long unmanifested in the obscurity of Nazareth. So Paul in Tarsus. It
was not till many a year after God had sown this light for the
church, that Barnabas went to Tarsus and brought him thence
to Antioch, where he was commended to the grace of God and
sent forth to be the means of dispelling much darkness in Asia
Minor, Greece, and Italy.
And is there light now sown somewhere, growing unto
Isaiah Ix?
MAncH 13.-" Serve the Lord with gladness."-Psalm c. 2.
It is our privilege to serve the Lord in all things. It is ours
to please the Lord in loosing the latchet of a shoe; and to en
joy the expression of this favor therein. The servant of God
is not serving at the same time another master; he has not
been hired for occasional service; he abides in the service of
his God, and cannot be about anything but his Master's business; he eats, he drinks, he sleeps, he walks, he discourses, he
indeth recreation, all by way of serving God. For the will of
the Lord imposes at one time a task; commands at another
time a recreation; bids him listen in this hour to music, and
in that to speak the words of life; places in his hand a newspaper now, and after a while a pen; guides his feet to the bedside of the sick, and to the hovels of the degraded; leads him




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to the banqueting chamber of the rich, and gives him words
for that place, and seats him at the humble board of the laboring man, and teaches him words for that occasion; bids him
bow the knee in prayer, and bids him also come forth from
prayer; compels him to exhibit gravity, and again bids him be
all cheerfulness. The will of God concerning us is manifold.
Let us pray to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
wisdom.
Serve the Lord with gla(dness. Can you bear to be waited
upon by a servant who goes moping and dejected to his every
task?  You would rather have no servant at all, than one who
evidently finds your service cheerless and irksome.
Serve him with gladness, for he is the best of beings.
For his commandments are not grievous.
For he is your Saviour, as well as Creator; your friend, as
well as Lord.
The angels, so much greater than yourself, know no reason
why they should not serve him with gladness.
In serving him, you serve yourself.
You make rcligion attractive.
You get a fitness for heaven.
MARCH 14.-" He will regard the prayer of the destitute."-Psalm cii. 17.
A man that is destitute knows how to pray. He needs not
any instructor. His miseries indoctrinate him wonderfully in
the art of offering prayer. Let us know ourselves destitute,
that we may know how to pray; destitute of strength, of wisdom, of due influence, of true happiness, of proper faith, of
thorough consecration, of the knowledge of the Scriptures, of
righteousness.
These words introduce and stand in immediate connection
with a prophecy of glorious things to be witnessed in the latter times. We profess to be eager for the accomplishment of




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those marvellous things; but are we offering the prayer of the
destitute?  On the contrary, is not the Church at large too
much like the church of Laodicea? Will not a just interpretation of many of its acts and ways, bring forth the words, "I
am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing?"
And do not its prayers meet with this reproachful answer" Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked, and knowest it not. Thy temporal affluence implies
not spiritual affluence. Thy spiritual condition is inversely as
the worldly prosperity that has turned thy head. I counsel
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Give all thy trashy
gold-trashy while it is with thee-give it to my poor; and I
will give thee true gold-namely, a sense of thy misery and
meanness; a longing for grace, purity, usefulness; a love of
thy fellow-men; and my love shed abroad in thy heart."
MARCH 15.-" Bless the Lord, 0 my soul."-Psalm ciii. 1.
Daily, habitually. Consider that thou hast every day an
engagement with God to praise him. He has certainly a
claim upon thee to consider and, in some measure, estimate
his benefits bestowed on thee. A generous soul cannot bear
to think that perhaps some one has bestowed on him some favor of which he is not aware. The thought of an unacknowledged kindness would keep him awake at night.
The command to bless the Lord is a command to take up,
and not tread under foot, a shower of joys that have descended upon the place where you stand. Some fruit comes
to you wrapped in many envelopes. You tear them off, throw
them away, eat the fruit, and think of something else. But
those envelopes were bank-notes of great value. God gives
you something; you say this is to be eaten, and you eat it;
but it was not merely given to be eaten; it was given to reveal unto you something of the wisdom, power, love, and con



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descension of God; to spread out before you an illuminated
page of a book of heaven. I say again, the command to bless
God is a command to take up many joys that you have let
fall.
MARCH 16. —"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."Psalm cxi. 10.
It would be strange indeed if it were otherwise. If we believe in God the Creator of all, the Giver of every good gift,
and if we believe it to be his wish that men should acknowledge his authority, and yield to his guidance, we cannot but
believe that he will bestow his best gifts, especially such a gift
as wisdom, on those only who defer to his authority, and aim
to please him. The supposition that this gift is as fairly bestowed upon the ungodly as upon any implies that God disregards all moral distinctions, and has no tokens of his satisfaction to bestow on those whose great concern is to honor him.
He undoubtedly bestows many gifts upon the wicked, for a
season, that he may lead them to repentance by the experience of his goodness. But his best gifts are given after, not
before, their repentance.
Can it then be said that the non-religious world is without
wisdom?   Has it no Aristotle, no Socrates, no Tacitus, no
Goethe, no Gibbon? Let us understand what wisdom is. It
is not any mere amount of knowledge that constitutes wisdom.
Appropriate knowledge is essential to wisdom. A man who
has not the knowledge appropriate to his position, who does
not know himself in his relation to God and to his fellow-men,
who is misinformed as to his duties, his dangers, his necessities, though he may have written innumerable works of a
most exalted character, yet is he to be set down as a man
without wisdom. What is it to you that your servant is acquainted with mathematics, if he is ignorant of your will, and
of the way to do it? The genius of a Voltaire, a Spinoza, a
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Carlyle, only makes their folly the more striking. As though
a man floating rapidly onwards to the Falls of Niagara, should
occupy himself in drawing a very admirable picture of the
scenery. Men who are exceedingly great in the world's esti.
mation have made the most signal blunders with regard to the
most important things; and it is only because these thing are
not considered important by the world, that the reputation of
these men remains.
If you have learned to estimate things in some measure as
God estimates them, to desire what he offers, to relinquish
what he forbids, and to recognize the duties that he has appointed you, you are in the path of wisdom, and the great
men we have been speaking about are far behind you-far
from the narrow gate which you have entered. He only is
wise, who can call Christ the wisdom of God.
The fear of God is that deference to God which leads you
to subordinate your will to his:-makes you intent on pleasing
him; penitent in view of past wilfulness; happy in his smile;
transported by his love; hopeful of his glory.
MARCH 17.-" Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."Isaiah iii. 10.
Fear not, thou righteous man, thou lover of righteousness,
who hast taken Christ as thy righteousness, and whose sincere
desire is to walk even as he also walked, who hath made the
Lord thy refuge, and hath put thy trust in the shadow of his
wings, fear not; we bring thee a message from God; it shall
be well with thee.
Thy sins alarm thee. They say;  We have possessed thee
all thy days, and thy heart is our home. Thou hast always
served us, and every day of habit has bound thee by a new
chain to us. Of late thou hast been making fearful struggles;
hast busied thyself day and night with God's word; thrown
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pired to heaven; and hast even exercised faith in Christ.
Yet here we are where we always were; swaying thee as of
old; mocking thy new and frantic endeavors. We are a part
of thy life; is it not evident? And the attempt to escape
from us is as though thy arms should attempt to tear themselves from thy body. None can deliver thee from the body
of this death."
Thy sins shall not have dominion over thee; it shall be well
with thee. Thy present experience is good for thee. It is
good for thee to know the extent of thy captivity, that thou
mayest know how great a deliverance is required; and to know
the true character of thy captors, that thou mayest love him
who setteth thee free. It is because Christ is at the door that
there is this agitation and conflict within. It shall be well
with thee.
Unbelief says, " It might be well with thee, if thou hadst a
stronger faith. But what can Christ do for one that has scarce
any faith, and dares not grasp the promises? No, it can never
be well with thee." We reply, It shall be well with thee. The
mightiest faith has an insignificant beginning. Thy faith shall
grow; it grows while we speak. Take this word God sends
thee, and be strong in faith.
Timidity says, "Who knows what fierce antagonists may
start up along this narrow path? Though thou triumph over
the present evil, yet the future things may prove too much for
thee."  Who maketh thee to triumph over the present evil?
And is he not a match for the future evil? The future difficulties shall only afford new occasions for the display of his
faithfulness and all-sufficiency.
The world says, " It shall not be well with thee. We have
traced the course of thousands who gave themselves up to the
pursuit of righteousness. They fared not well, but ill. They
were cut off by their ideas of duty from all our joys; and
during all the journey of life they were haunted by a sense




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of unfulfilled obligation, were vexed by an inward conflict, and
racked by fears of the future; and all men were against them;
gloom, gloom, gloom, was the sum of their experience." But
here the righteous man answers for himself, and says, "This
representation is false; it is because a life of piety hath no
attractions for thee that thou dost so describe it. Thy boasted
joys are but blobming poisons, banquets spread by an enemy.
It is not well with thee, but with him that leaveth thee."
Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him!
MARCH 18.-" I will trust."-Isaiah xii. 2
Not in uncertain riches, not in my own sagacity, not in my
probity, not in my social position, not in the felicity of circumstances; not in the friendship of the world, not even in the
favor of Christians; not in the sacraments, not in my prayers,
nor in my repentance, nor in my obedience.
I will trust in Him that became man in order that he might
beuar my sins in his own body on the tree.
I will trust in him, for he is the most trustworthy being in
the universe. Shall a child trust in its parent, a bride in the
bridegroom, a soldier in his general, a captive in his deliverer,
a patient in his physician,-shall men in all conditions abound
in trust towards their fellow-men, and shall I not trust in the
Almighty who hath shown himself all-gracious?    Is there
more than one being existent, of whom it can be said that
heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than his least word?
There is but one, and in him I will trust.
"Take," says Satan; " trust," says God.
"Almost nobody trusts," says my unbelieving neighbor.
For that very reason I will trust. Is it not an infamy that
the Lord of heaven and earth, the source of all blessedness,
should be untrusted? You lie down to sleep trusting in your
breath that it will continue to come and go all night, although




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


a single interruption would be fatal; trusting in the beams
over your head that they will not break; in the wind that it
will not blow any inflammable thing into the vicinity of your
lamp; in the atmosphere that it will not allow any pestilential
influences to come nigh your couch; in ten thousand things
without life or sense; and shall not I trust in him in whom I
live, and move, and have my being?
I will trust, said Peter; and the sea became as rock beneath
his feet.  I will trust, said the Syro-Phoenician woman;
though the disciples said, send her away; and her daughter
was healed. I will take, said Balaam; and became rich for a
day, accursed forever. Let me live, said Jonah, and was cast
into the sea. I will trust, said he afterward, and all Nineveh
bowed at his word. I will trust, said Daniel, and was delivered. I will save my life, said Peter, and denied his Lord. I
will trust, said he afterward, and laid him down to sleep; then
came the angel of the Lord, and brought him forth from
prison. What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? said
Paul; I will trust.
MARCH 19.-" A bruised reed shall he not break."-Matthew xii. 20.
In carrying out a great enterprise, individual suffering is
very little regarded. Revolutions are not generally effected
without the immolation of many lives. Thousands, how many
thousands, of human reeds were first bruised, then broken, and
thrown to the winds of the Crimea, that Sebastopol might be
taken. And can it be that Christ, in going forth to the conquest of the whole world, will not suffer a bruised and bent
reed, ready of itself to snap asunder, will not suffer one such
to be broken? In a revolution that is to affect the destinies
of so many millions to all eternity, is it possible that he will
be tenderly solicitous for the meanest and weakest individual
of his host? It is possible, it is true. He has but to let it
alone, and it will break; but he will not let it alone. How




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then?  Will he stay the march of the whole army out f
consideration for a poor, frail, tempted creature? Will he forget the interests of the whole body in his strange concern for
such a one? It is not necessary that he should do so. Were
his wisdom and power a little less than infinite, this might
be necessary. But the word infinite implies that he can at
once make all things work together for the good of each, and
for the good of all.
" He is all that you say," remarks some one; "but he is the
Captain of our salvation, and must be obeyed. He is our
Master, and he giveth to each of us a work. No one can ask
that it should be otherwise. But I have a nature so detestable, so undone, so repugnant to everything good, that with
ever so good a will to his service, the least commandment
crushes me, the slightest task convulses me."
The least command crushes you? What is the greatest
command? It is that you should love him with all your
strength-not more than your strength-not more than your
powers. His burden is adapted to your force. He asks from
a sapling the strength of a sapling; from a bruised reed the
strength of a bruised reed. "Say that I have no strength at
all." That is best. Ask of him, and he will give thee.
He will give thee first sympathy. He will show his pierced
hands and feet, tell of his sweat in the garden, and relate how
he was once himself bruised for your iniquities. He will give
you encouragement by showing you plants of righteousness
flourishing in the courts of his God, who once were bruised
reeds.-Peter, for instance, of whom Satan made sure one on
a time. He will give you a shield of faith-will succor you
in the time of temptation-will be your strength.
MARCH 20.-" Come unto me."-Matthew xi. 28.
Here is an invitation. Some one invites you. Some one




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has thrown open his doors to you. The words convey a privilege-you have it now-the privilege of going to him. No
difficulties exist with him. If you have a will to go, you may
go. Ponder this fact,-whatever you do, wherever you go,
you are nevertheless among the invited.
He that invites you has cast many angels out of his presence
because they were not worthy. The seraphim, of such ex
ceeding might and majesty, are overwhelmed at his glory.
His face shineth as the sun in its strength. John, that holy
evangelist, fell at his feet as one dead. Yet he invites youhas a place for you-spreads a feast for you.
He died upon the cross that you might have this invitation.
And if you would know what that exceeding great cry was
with which he gave up the ghost, know that it was this, " Come
unto me! It is finished! thou mayest come!"
How many of his providences were simply echoes of this
cry. He bereft thee of dear friends; deprived thee of health;
stripped thee of wealth; baffled thee in thy schemes; destroyed the world's illusions; that thou mightest hear this invitation, and come unto him.
Come then at once. Come in earnest. Come in faith.
MAncH 21.-" Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven."-Matthew x. 32.
What an extraordinary world is this that such a sentence
should ever have been uttered in it! Consider what is implied
in these words. They manifestly imply that it is an opprobrious thing in the estimation of mankind to give honor to him
who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and to acknowledge any connection with him. They imply that it is necessary to present the most powerful motives to the mind in order
to subdue the feeling of shame that would naturally arise in
the confession of Christ. Is not this a fallen world? Is not




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the race of mankind an utterly depraved race? Were it necessary to hold up powerful motives in order to induce a peison
to confess his alliance with some arch-villain, one could think
better of man. But the most magnificent rewards are proposed, as an inducement to those who are acquainted with
Christ, to acknowledge their acquaintance; to those who rely
on him for salvation, to confess him as their Saviour.
The world that pursued Christ unrelentingly, until it had
driven him forth, has ever since been doing its best to make
his followers silent concerning him. " Thou shalt not confess
the Lord Jesus Christ," is the first and great commandment
of the world, and if it can only get this obeyed it will give a
dispensation from all other duties. It has tried fire and the
sword abundantly; but in these latter days its tactics are more
subtle. It is all courtesy, and addressing the Christian, says:
-" There is a great deal that is admirable about Christianity,
and I blame myself very much that I have so neglected it.
Allow me to be your scholar. I will sit at your feet, and learn
of you. In return I will be happy to teach you what I know.
We must go hand in hand along the journey of life."  The
Christian is charmed by this amicable proposal, and falls into
the snare. The world learns something, just to lull the Church
asleep; and the Church learns, alas! much of the world.
MARCH 22. —" Sin has reigned unto death."-Romans v. 21.
About the reign of sin there is no doubt. The tyrant, with
an astonishing refinement of tyranny, forbade you to believe
in his tyranny, and compelled you to go hither and thither
chanting his praises as though he were one of the most loving
of masters. How grossly you were deluded. A king is for
the protection of his subjects; but this monarch reigned unto
death. He was a deformed and revolting monster; you were
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boast of liberty, while he loaded you more and more with
chains. You staggered beneath great burdens which you bore
to his treasury, while you were taught to believe that you were
enriching yourself. He showed you pictures of superb banquets, and swore that you should sit down at such; and all the
while he gave you but mouldy crusts to eat. He introduced
his courtiers to you as a troop of friends; but gave them each
a whip to lash you. He gave you a poisoner to be your cupbearer; a gaoler to be your guardian; a headsman to be your
guide.  An earthquake rocked your house; your bed was
poised on the verge of an abyss; and a drawn sword was suspended over your table. You supposed that there was a sun
there, but it was sackcloth; and a moon, but it was blood. In
the garden was the upas tree, and in the field the hemlock.
The streets of that city of death were streets of tombs. Ye
shall not surely die, said all men, one to another; but they
were all dead men while they spake. Sin reigned unto death,
and cheated all his subjects into the idea that they owed life
to him.
Happy for you that this is a thing of the past. Sin hath
reigned, but has now no more dominion over you. You have
been translated into another kingdom.
MARCH 23. —"Led by the Spirit of God."-Romans viii. 14.
Led by the Spirit of God. By the glorious being who led
Christ.  Without him  was nothing made that was made.
Without him the sceptre of the Godhead was never once extended. The highest archangel would not stir a step without
him.
The children of God, all who inherit eternal life, have this
infallible characteristic, they are led by the Spirit of God.
They are led by him to a sense of their sinfulness and shortsightedness; to an open recognition of the same; to the throne
9




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of grace; to the use of the most prevailing arguments in
prayer; to the society of Christians, the assemblies of the
saints; away from  temptation; through temptation; to the
dwellings of the poor and needy; to the resorts of the ignorant and erring.
Let some of them be asked, why are you scattered abroad
over the face of the earth, speaking diverse languages, addressing heathens and errorists? They may in their reply speak
of ships and carriages, wind and steam, money and skill. But
they must also say, "The Spirit of God led us hither."
There can be no safe guidance that is not perpetual. The
advantage of a year may be lost in an hour. If we act independently of the Spirit in little things, we will look for him
in vain in great things.
His leading is not violent. He acts by our own convictions
and our own will. There is nothing degrading in this guidance, but the highest possible exaltation. God who has given
us senses, understanding, free-will, memory, has given us something infinitely above them all, because they all by it enter into
their highest perfection-namely, the guidance of the Spirit.
Let the mariner say, " I need no wind, for I have a noble ship,
with ample suits of sails, an excellent crew, with charts and
compass." Let the commander of a steamer say, " I need no
steam, no fuel, for the engine is everything that could be de.
sired, and I have the most skillful engineers." But let the
child of God say, " I am led by the Spirit of God."
MARCH 24.-" Joint heirs with Christ Jesus."-Romans viii. 17.
We read of Christ that he has been made much better than
the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. God hath highly exalted him, and given him.a name that is above every name. God hath treated Christ as
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amazed, as he ascendeth up above all principality and power,
and might, and dominion, above every name that is named;
and then learns with greatly more amazement that he is a representative heir; that there is a vast number in union with him,
and that each of these is joint-heir with him, not for the diminution bat for the enhancement of his glory.
An heir is one who passes from a state of privation to a
state of affluence. Christ was the poorest of men on this
earth, without where to lay his head, without reputation, with
out a friend to speak for him when he was in the hands of
sinners, without so much respect as would hinder servants
from smiting him, and soldiers from blindfolding him in mockery. Soon see him however in the place of highest exaltation.
And of his disciples he says, " the glory that thou hast given
me I have given them." All power in heaven and in earth is
given unto him; and even in this believers have a community
with him; for "he that overcometh" (he says) " and keepeth
my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations,-even as I received of my Father."
We are co-heirs with him of the Father's love; and of the
various expressions of the Father's love. For instance, th
peace of God, the Spirit of God, joy, strength, patience, usefulness, on the earth; a building of God, a house not made
with hands, eternal, in the heavens; pleasures for evermore;
crowns of righteousness; a body like unto his glorious body,
spiritual and incorruptible; and the love of all the holy ones.
By virtue of the warrant given in this expression, wherever
in the universe you find anything of Christ's, you can say,
"this is mine."
MARCH 25.-" The glory which shall be revealed in us." —Rom. viii. 18.
In us; in me, in you. Sin, not satisfied with the manifestation given of itself in the angels that left their first estate, not
satisfied with the degradation into which it has caused the




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devils to sink, came to you and me, that it might obtain a
fuller exhibition. You and I dwelt in a world the soil of
which had been moistened with Christ's sweat of agony, with
the drops of Calvary, in a world where the Gospel of God's
amazing grace is preached to every creature. Sin said, " It is
one thing to make a creature ruin itself by sin; it is another
thing to make a creature, so ruined, daily and hourly treat with
contempt the proffered love, the Calvary-bought grace of the
Lord of the universe." The very fabric of our minds tells
frightful tales of what sin has wrought within us. Had our
aim been to make ourselves so vile that the Spirit of God
should be utterly and eternally repelled, we could not have
gone further than we have done. Sin reveled in its victory
over us; but this very victory only becomes the occasion of a
greater triumph on the part of grace; and the glory of God is
to be revealed in us more illustriously than it ever has been
revealed in any order of beings. And we shall then be kept
from self-glorification by the thought that it was our excessive
sin which became the occasion of this excessive glory. "The
glory which thou hast given me, I have given them," said
Jesus. See Christ as Isaiah saw him, surrounded by the
Seraphim; and as Peter and John, Moses and Elias saw him
on the mount of transfiguration; and as the angels saw him
when he ascended up on high, leading captivity captive; see
him as John saw him when he fell at his feet as one dead;
see him as all shall see him when he cometh in the clouds of
heaven with great power and glory; and consider that we shall
be like him. He is glorified in us.
No wonder that an angelic host encamps around the sleeping-place of the believer. The believer is an emigrant from
the region of the shadow of death, bound to a country where
he is to be clothed with glory like that of the King of kings.
Christ is to be admired in us, honored in us, blessed in us, glorified
in us. It is in gifts to us, in dignity, honor, and splendor, enjoyed




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by us, that God is to make manifest to the universe how beyond
all estimation he appreciates the merit of the death of Christ.
Help me, 0 God, in the presence of my brother or sister, of
thy son or daughter, to look with intense interest upon one
who is to walk hereafter in the lustre, beauty, and excellency
of Christ to receive dominion over kings, to be clad in glory
that shall make the brightness of the firmament to pale. Let
me make haste to love those whom thou so lovest, to honor
those whom thou deignest so to honor.
MARCF 26.-"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."-1 John i. 9.
Confession implies compunction. The mere statement of
one's fault is not confession. The fault may be aggravated by
a heartless mention of it. Some men are very tenacious of
their imaginary rectitude; but others think it a pretty accomplishment to be able to speak of themselves as graceless characters. Into the idea of true confession humiliation enters.
Confession should be particular.  Individual sins must be seen
in their hatefulness before the word of forgiveness can come
in between them and our conscience. And be not surprised
If I add that forgiveness is particular. It is both general and
particular.  "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" does not relieve
the conscience from the necessity of afterwards looking at particular sins forgiven, appreciating their special features of ugliness, and finding relief in the details of divine forgiveness.
This shows us how much occasion there is for commerce
with God. Confession, prayer, gratitude, these three duties
give the soul an amount of business at the throne of grace
which it can never overtake. God in his overflowing graciousness does not make us wait for a pretext to come to him; he
does not suffer us to find any pretext for ever absenting ourselves from him.
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There can be no true confession of sin without the contemplation of Christ crucified.  For, an appreciation of sin is
necessary to adequate confession, and this is not obtained save
at the cross. If a man has taken from you a thousand pounds,
and says, "Forgive me for having purloined a handful of silver from you;" or if he struck your child so that he died,
and says, " Forgive me for the injury I did your child;" such
confession will not suffice. He must first see his own deed
aright. And it is utterly impossible that any sin should be
seen in its proper flagrancy, until the Lamb of God is seen to
have been slain for it.
Confession, forgiveness, purity, these three things stand in
indubitable connection in the history of a saved soul.
It is a pity to quit this text, having only skimmed it. What
does the apostle mean, dear reader, by the words " faithful and
just?" Understand this, and you will be an Elijah, a Daniel,
a Moses.
MARCH 27.-" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another."-1 John iv. 11.
Two sublime arguments here present themselves. The first
is this: God hath so loved me; therefore, beloved, I must
love you. The second is: God hath so loved you; therefore,
beloved, I must love you.
By virtue of the first argument, every expression of the
love of God toward me that I have ever received, lays aside
its smile, and assuming a beautiful air of authority, commands
me to love you. All the promises that ever flocked in laughing
troops or came singly and gently to my soul, though they
seemed to have but one aim, namely to convey to me ottar of
heaven's roses, vials of divine love, all now a(knowledge that
they have another commission even to bind me and not let me
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to make any difficulty. Did I so, this would be the same as
sending contemptuously back to God those radiant messengers.
To refuse to love is to reproach God with loving. It is to
make all the promises of God shrink back as I open his word,
and say to me, " Who is this?" It is to make Christ frown
me from his cross. It is to make all the glorified ones say,
" He will never walk with us beside the river of the water of
life." But I must walk there; I must love you, beloved of
Christ! and I must be diligent in accomplishing my apprenticeship in this matter.
Through the virtue of the second argument, I find myself
sovereignly attracted to you by all the precious tokens of his
love that God hath ever bestowed upon you. There is a voice
of thunder, so authoritative, but of course not intimidating,
a voice of gentle thunder in a single hair of your head, for it
has a long story to tell to my attentive ear, (with proof-texts
from the gospel) about the interest of God in you.
Leaving unwritten a long, long chapter, come we to the manifestations of God's amazing love to you in connection with
the regeneration of your nature. His preparatory goodness
in all the arrangements by which you were kept from being
carried away in the whirlwind of sin, and were brought under
various benign influences; his convincing you of sin; his
revelation of himself to you in Christ; his minute attention
to your education in holiness; his consolations in your time of
trouble; his chidings in your day of error. Let me consider
these and love you. He made you to shed tears and then carried them to heaven for his prize; nor is there an account
wanting on high of your smiles; while your prayers are presented odoriferous from golden vials before his throne.
All these matchless indications of love speak to me and say,
"Where is your love for the beloved of God?"
If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.




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MARCH 28.-" God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in
God, and God in him."-1 John iv. 16.
Let us define. But who can define? For the interpretation of this word, love, is the interpretation of God. It is easy
to say that love is a delight in the happiness of the loved.
But the mind will not rest satisfied with this definition; it
again and again replies, that the meaning includes more. Love
cannot be defined, for it is itself a definition, the definition of
God; but it may be described in its operations and effects.
The love that God has towards you, passes knowledge. The
whole universe is intended to express it. When he reared the
sublime mountains and clothed the plains in beauty, he said,
this is for my beloved. The course of his providence is commissioned to express it. Your own form is a revelation of his
love to you. Your endowments are other utterances of the same.
His word and all the marvels of redemption are a token of
love given to you over the head of angels. In its augmenting
utterances, the divine love stops not with the cross of Christ.
It comes to the believer and says, "Be thy heart emptied that
I may dwell therein, and render thine eyes, thy tongue, thy
hands. thy possessions, thy time, thy all, expressive of the love
that God bears to thy fellow-believer." Every believer is thus
made to become another multiple of that love that is enthroned
on the throne of the universe.
There never was a door opened in heaven so wide as this
word. We learn from it the mystery of heaven. We see
what is the nature of its felicity.
Sin has armed all its host against love, and hath given a
commandment that if any man know where it be, he may
show it, that it may be taken. Fiery darts fall thick and fast
about him that gives it a home. The ugliness of man's nature becomes gigantic, and, seizing a tremendous spear, says,
"L)ve, if thou darest."  But here, as elsewhere, there is a
victory for faith.




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To abide in love is to abide in the thoughts of God's love,
in the memory and consciousness of Christ's love, in the sense
of one's own unworthiness and in the renunciation of self, in
the rejection of selfish pleasure and advantage, and the study
of the true happiness of others, in intercession, in the Holy
Spirit, in the faith that discerns a present God and knows how
to discover the relations of every creature to God. Especially
is it to abide in the great thought that Christ tasted death for
every man, and that your life is to be an embodiment of the
gospel for every creature. And if you set about this heartily,
with entire consecration, it may please God to help you by a
wonderful device of his own. But this is a secret.
MAncH 29. —"When T said, my foot slippeth; thy mercy, 0 Lord, held
me up."-Psalm xciv. 18.
Man walks in slippery places, saying, there is no danger.
Yet every rock has one declivity that descends, gently and imperceptibly at first, perhaps, but still descends to the lake of
fire. And carefully examined, it reveals the names of thousands and thousands who perished there, all saying, there is
no danger. And scarcely is there an hour of the day when,
to one who listens attentively, there comes not the wail of a
forlorn being whose feet have slipped, without any to hold him
up.
One of these rocks is popularity. Another is an ardent
love of literature. Another is a taste for art; be it music,
painting, or some other art. Another is a taste for business.
An enterprising spirit. A love of luxury. A passion for
money. Fondness for society. Venturesome reading, whether
of romances or of sceptical books. Love of excitement, fondness for stimulants. Evil associations. Talkativeness. Impulsiveness. Wit.
These are slipperx rocks. Some of these have been crossed




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in safety. But vast numbers have perished on them. Some
have said, we will take heed to our steps that we slip not;
yet did they slip; and not remembering the watchword, they
perished.
Happy are they who ever remember that the best paths of
this world are slippery enough, and keep near to God that he
may recover them the moment their feet begin to slide. These
persons are found breaking away now and again from their
avocation or recreation, because they perceive their foot to be
sliding, and crying to God are helped by his mercy. A child
walking among slippery rocks cries out to his parent, my foot
slippeth; there is but a moment in which a helping hand can
reach him; yet it reaches his, for his father is just there.
And so, if we walk carefully, our Father's helping hand will
be stretched out in the opportune moment. Jesus was nigh,
when Peter cried out, " Save, Lord, or I perish."
MARCH 30.-" Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy
crown."-Revelation iii. 11.
Hold fast the gift which divine grace hath already bestowed
on thee; the loss of it were the loss of thy crown.
This exhortation is made necessary by such facts as these:There is a tendency in the mind to under-estimate the gifts
already in possession, and to forget how absolute is the connection between present grace and eventual glory; and there is
also a tendency to depreciate the power and subtlety of the
adversaries.
Conceive of a crown that guarantees to him who possesses.
it life beyond the reach of interruption, health that can never
be invaded, purity unsulliable, wealth uni versal, dignity archangelic, power unlimited, a vast dominion the inalienable affections and cordial services of millions of holy beings, joy
unspeakable and endless, and an unrestricted liberty to com



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municate the most precious gifts.  Conceive of such a crown,
conceive of it in thy hand, thyself walking amidst the robbers
of this world, and thou wilt understand the necessity of Argus-eyed watchfulness and unremitting endeavor in order to
reach the gate of the celestial palace without loss of that which
has been committed to thee. Perhaps the true glory of that
crown is yet somewhat latent; its splendor in this atmosphere
of sin is not so great as that of many a tinsel crown that men
wear; and to the unanointed eye of sense there is nothing
about it to tell of the amazing mysteries that are locked up in
it. But has not thine eye been anointed? Dost thou not
discern the sacred signature of God upon it? And has not a
divine refiner and purifier of silver given thee demonstration
that all the regalia of earth's kings and emperors could not
purchase the tiniest jewel that sparkles in that crown which
the Lord hath given thee to wear in the day of his Son's espousals and for ever more?
Hold fast that which thou hast of love, faith, patience,
prayerfulness, humility, knowledge, courage, perseverance. It
may seem a light thing to give way to an erring momentary
impulse; but understand that in that moment a bold, unscrupulous hand was stretched out to snatch away thy crown.
MARCH 31.-" To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of
life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."-Revelation ii. 7.
There is not only the one transcendent prize of everlasting
life held up to the assured hope of every believer; but it
would seem that the Lord Jesus Christ (out of his treasury
bringing forth things new and old,) holds out particular and
altogether wonderful rewards to those who throw themselves
into the thick of the conflict of life, and overcome where there
were peculiar difficulties in the way of their overcoming. The
records of the past bear their not unwilling testimony to this




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They speak of Enoch and Elijah; of Moses and Ezekiel; of
Elisha and Daniel; of Paul and John; of Luther and Whitefield. But we know that this earth is to be the scene of things
more glorious than have yet been witnessed; the kingdoms
of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord and of
his Christ; and all his enemies, the last being death, are to
be made the footstool of the King of glory. Nor does it
please the Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish the sublime reduction of all things to himself, otherwise than by the instrumentality of his servants; for he says expressly, " The glory which
thou hast given me I have given them." It is by the branches
that the vine brings forth fruit and glorifies itself. And the
universal kingdom which the Son of man in the presence of
the Ancient of days is represented as receiving (Daniel vii.
14) is that kingdom which (in verses 18, 22, and 27) in lang'lage most explicit, the saints of the Most High are described
as taking and possessing for ever, even for ever and ever.
The paradise of God vanishes from our view in the first
chapter of the Bible, and returns to our astonished gaze in the
last, where the description of it is subtly and beautifully interwoven with that of the descending Jerusalem. The tree of
life was a tree of whose fruit had Adam eaten, he would have
lived forever; and lest he should eat thereof he was expelled.
What is the life that he was not allowed to appropriate? Not
surely the life of the soul, for nothing but want of faith could
separate him from this. No doubt it was corporeal immortality. Had he refrained from eating the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, he would thereby have retained
the life of God in his soul; and the tree of life seems to have
been appointed to supply an immortalizing aliment to his body,
by which it should be nourished with a life that nothing could
harm, a life corresponding in exaltedness with the life of the
spotless soul. This tree was a type of Christ in one of his aspects. He has brought life and immortality to light. iHe




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that overcometh and entereth upon the full fruition of spiritual
life. shall eat of the tree of life, and live forever. We shall
not all die.
ArnIL 1.-" That he might bring us to God."-1 Peter iii. 18.
Take this text as your interpreter, and join yourself to the
Lord Jesus, as he sets his face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem.
With tears he gazes on the city. He endures the contradiction of many sinners;-Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians.
He partakes of the passover with Judas. Washes the feet of
his disciples. Gives the symbols of his broken body and shed
blood to a little company the hope of the world, the elect of
mankind, that were about to forsake him and flee. Look at
these things under the surprising light of this explanation,
that he might bring you to God.
See him in the garden of Gethsemane. Approach to within
a stone's throw of that awful place, and by the light of the pallid moon, notice the agony, the sweat, as it were great drops of
blood, the face in the dust, the frequent cry of anguish to the
Father. Measure, if you can, the frightful depth of that abyss
into which the Prince of life, the Lord of glory, has been willing to descend; and as you measure, remember why all this
was-namely, that he might bring you to God. See this
Lamb of God led to the slaughter; follow him step by step,
from tribunal to tribunal, to the cross; ask why he opened not
his mouth to transfix all his enemies with a word; the answer
is, that he might bring you to God. Are there not ten thousand glorious things in the word of God, the true glory of
which only comes out when the light of this text is turned
upon them? You see how far you were from God. Omnipotence, not merely omnipotence, but self-immolating omnipotence, had to embark in the enterprise of recovering you to
God; while all the angels of heaven looked on with wonder
and semi-incredulity.
10




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Why are you brought to God? That he may have a super.
lative opportunity of showing that God is love, by raising you
to the sublimest heights of purity and perfection.
APRIL 2.-"iHe giveth power to the faint."-Isaiah xl. 29.
The Bible, first and last, insists that man shall give unto
God, all power, honor and glory, and distinctly recognizes his
own dependence, ingloriousness and insignificance. Some foolishly gather from this that God is against man, and is jealous
lest he should attain to too much dignity. But the very word
of God that makes such bitter warfare on the imagined
strength and goodness of man, shows us the Lord of the universe ready to bestow his treasures of strength, wisdom and
righteousness upon these very defeated and spoiled children of
earth, with a bounty that knows no limit. Man imagines that
unless he grasp with an unrelaxing hand his rags of righteousness and his bruised reed which he calls a sceptre, he will be
utterly and forever a bankrupt. But he is now a bankrupt:
his treasures are counterfeit; his power is that of a disordered
machine, whose wheels revolve for nothing; the fragmentary
thing must just be given back to God. Faint with his losses,
man then exclaims, " What have I?" And the word of God
makes answer, " Thou hast power, wisdom, knowledge, salvation, heaven." He giveth power to the faint. In him are
hid for thee all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. No,
the Bible is not the mere spoiler of humanity. It takes from
us the dream of things, that it may give angelic realities. It
comes to give, believing what it preaches, that it is more
blessed to give than to receive; and when it removes aught
from man, it is simply that it may make room for its gifts.
Thou hast a friend therefore, thou fainting one. There is
Dower for thee. Dost thou like Esther faint in thy approaches
to the king? See, he stretches out the sceptre of his grace




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that thou mayest confidently draw nigh. Dost thou faint at
the thought of appropriating the merits of the Crucified One?
Hearken, he speaks to another atrocious felon, of the same
deep dye with thyself, saying, "This day thou shalt be with
me in paradise!" Dost thou faint under some vast responsibility? Thou hast no responsibility that is not also Christ's;
for he is one with thee, and says, " Without me ye can do
nothing." Dost thou faint under a multitude of petty responsibilities?  He says, again, "Without me ye can do nothing." Dost thou faint under a sense of thy spiritual feebleness, and inaptitude of resolution? Thou dost well to faint,
and to let Christ succor thee. Be faint, and take the power
that belongs to the faint. Let faith wait upon fainting.
APRIL 3.-" He shall feed his flock like a shepherd."-Isaiah xl. 11.
Who is this that spends his time with a company of poor
despised sheep, seeking for them appropriate pastures, leading
them beside still waters, defending them from evil beasts with
his crook, carrying the lame ones in his bosom, studying all the
peculiarities in the condition of each; apparently wrapped up
in them, with no wisdom, no power, no resources save such as
are needed for their welfare?  Why! this is He that measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with
his span, and weighed the mountains in scales; who taketh up
the isles as a very little thing; to whom  the nations are
counted as less than nothing and vanity. This is the Omnipotent one at whose fiat the universe sprang into existence, before whose great white throne the heaven and the earth shall
flee away, and find no place.
And who are the flock that so possess his regard?
These are they that formerly refused to have a divine shepherd, and boasting in their own wisdom and power, surrenderol themselves to sin, that disguised wolf, and followed him




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to his lair. But they were remembered by him whom they
had scorned and insulted, and snatched from a frightful fate
by the good shepherd, who gave his life for them and took it
again that he might lead them into ever-verdant pastures.
Like a shepherd.  A shepherd and his flock constitute a
unity; the one is not found without the other. The interests
of the flock are those of the shepherd. Their wisdom is in
him. They take no thought for the morrow; he taketh it
They are not anxious about nourishment or protection; he
watches for their welfare. He knows them; knows their need.
their ignorance, their wandering: and they know him; know
his faithfulness and his all-sufficiency.
APRIL 4.-" Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."-Psalm
Ixxxix. 15.
Blessed are they to whom the gospel is proclaimed; that is,
a blessing is put within their reach. But especially, essentially
blessed are they who know it as glad tiding of great joy.
One land is blessed with great fruitfulness; another with
great mineralogical treasures; another by its geographical situation, favorable for commerce. One nation has a liberal gov
ernment; another an admirable system of education. One
country has numerous and exquisite remains of ancient
art; another has carried the cultivation of modern art and
science to a high pitch; while another has made the most marvellous strides in manufactures. One region is blessed with
magnificent rivers; another glories in its sublime mountain
ranges. But neither of these nor all in combination suffice to
secure the happiness of a people, or to perpetuate the prosperity of a nation. Another chapter should be added to Volney's "Ruins of Empires," telling truly why those empires
passed away. The gospel has never yet prevailed in any nation.
Never yet has it been cordially received by more than a very small




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113


minority of the people of a country. But in proporti on as it has
been received has a blessing from on high rested on the nations.
They who truly know the joyful sound, will endeavor to
communicate the knowledge of it to other hearts and lands.
Can you imagine a kind of music produced by invisible choristers, inaudible to all save those who have been endowed with a
special sense for the perception and enjoyment of it? These
walk in ecstacy, ever and anon, hearing the wondrous strains,
while the unperceiving multitude pursue the sordid tenor of
their way. Such strains are those of the Gospel, and they
that have faith are they who have received a faculty appropriate to the reception of them. The music of the words of
the Son of God is borne to them from the golden harps of the
invisible ones They open the word of God, and while their
unadept companion sees a dull, ineloquent page, the eye of the
believer pierces the cloud-like door of the letter and detects a vista
reaching to the New Jerusalem, with angels moving to and
fro; exquisite melodies are wafted to his ear, and he rejoices
with joy unspeakable, tasting the powers of the world to come.
APRIL 5.-" They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."
-Isaiah xl. 31.
It is regarded as one of the saddest facts in our condition,
that the objects which interest and attract us, have no power
to perpetuate their own attractiveness; and the mind obtaining what it passionately sought, and by degrees getting accustomed to its particular features of beauty, loses day by day
something of its own delight in them. Fascination can get no
victory that is not stolen from it again by time. And this is
said to be an inevitable, Nemesis-like fact in our finite condition. Transport must give way to an inferior sentiment.
Well for us, it is said, if, by a judicious and well-timed moderation of our desires, we sink into contentment and are satin10 *




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fled with that condition of the soul, while the extravagancy of
our former admiration sails away, like a painted bubble, to the
skies.
We do not believe that this is a divinely-appointed element
in our condition. An enemy hath done this. He wishes us
to be as gods, and to lead a life of independence, and this is the
paradise into which he brought us out of Eden. While we
are swayed by him, while sin mingles so largely with the fabric
of our earthly condition, while we are without God in the
world, and seek the things of the world without reference to
their connection with God, it is undoubtedly so. Beauty vanishes, and excellence by familiarity loses its power to captivate.
We are taken up by hope into some cloud heaven, and have
the choice perhaps of descending abruptly and disastrously, or
of gliding down to earth by an imperceptible declivity.
Is there no remedy? Must the imaginative, esthetic, aspiring portion of our nature hasten to shrivel up, and leave us to
sober hopes, disciplined desires, and dwarfed expectations? Not
so. What we need is an object whose excellence is ever fed,
ever augmented by supplies from an infinite source; whose perfections seen are only introductory to other perfections to be
seen; in the contemplation of whom our admiration can never
overtake the limit of the admirable, for there is no limit. We
need a divine object; and having this, we need not fear to
cry, "excelsior!" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and soul, and mind, is the first and great commandment. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall grant
thee the desires of thy heart. They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles.
APRIL 6.-" Fight the good fight of faith."-1 Timothy vi. 12.
There is a fight that is good; a warfare that is eminently
laudable. It is lamentable to see how easily men err in decide




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115


ing what is worthy, what is not worthy to enlist their loblest
energies. A question of unspeakable importance;-for what
boots it that you undergo hardships, surmount difficulties, make
the most incredible sacrifices, exhibit the most brilliant valor,
or the most consummate skill, if the cause in which you have
embarked be one not worthy of your energies and sufferings?
The same action is sublime when performed in its appropriate
path, and insignificant when thrown away upon an inadequate
cause. The tales of human heroism too often merely bid us
come and see how wonderfully man is endowed, and how unworthily he throws away those endowments.
What is that conflict of which we can say that from whatever point of view it is contemplated, it manifests itself to be
beyond impeachment, good? The annals of mankind reveal
to us but one, the conflict of faith.
A life of faith is a life of victorious warfare. The unbelievers around us are all led captive. They have no weapons
for this fight, and no heart for it; they wear the badges of
servitude, without shame or reluctance. We hear them say,
" Our business hath paramount claims upon us;" "There is
time in the future for religion;" "Heaven cannot be understood on earth;" "We must enjoy ourselves while it is day,
for the night cometh;" "What harm is there in going to
scenes of festivity?" "It is enough that a man be sincere;"
"There are strange things in the Bible;" "It was once perhaps suited to the condition of men."-These and a thousand
corresponding expressions drop from their lips and tell us too
plainly, alas! that these poor persons have been smitten down
by the bludgeon of the adversary, carried off to be his helpless
slaves, and taught the language of his realm.
As we look over the map of the world, innumerable places
claim our notice as the scene of celebrated battles. And as
we look over the pages of Scripture we find these thickly dotted with the indications of great spiritual battles fought there.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


We light upon the word, " One thing is needful;" and to our
mind's eye two hosts present themselves, one inferior in num.
ber to the other; one fighting the good fight of faith and
coming off victorious; the other sustaining a shameful defeat.
"They that fear the Lord shall not want any good thing," is a
citadel into which few have succeeded in entering; the whole
plain around is strewed with the unbelieving dead. "Ask,
and it shall be given you," is surrounded by a trench, which
tens of thousands have attempted to pass, but have not been
able. But we see the flag of faith waving from its topmost
battlement. "Ye shall not enter," said the world, deploying
its legions; "but this (we reply) is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith."
APRIL 7.-" When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of
the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."-Isaiah lix. 19.
The position of the church in the world is like that of the
low countries. Its ground is all recovered ground; dykes
compass it about; and against these the mighty ocean mutters,
dashes, rages, as its mood may be. The law of all waters is
opposed to its existence; Pacifies, Atlantics and Antarctics,
seem ever to be uttering a protest against it. Anon, they, or
their representative waters, arise in strength and precipitate
themselves upon it. A flood is always ready for the Church;
at every moment she is threatened with a deluge that shall
sweep her away. Yet she unaccountably continues to exist.
She has no visible strength; no appreciable resources; and the
enemy is at a loss to understand how she is enabled to keep
her footing thus from generation to generation.
When the enemies of Judea invaded and overran that land
in the early days of its history, it pleased the Lord to raise up
by the mighty operation of his Spirit some bold deliverer,
around whose banner the people rallied, and by whose wisdom,




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courage and faith, the land was freed from the hostile flood.
So also are great periods of jeopardy and deliverance found in
the history of the Christian Church. In these latter times
the enemy has come into the Church like a silent and peaceable flood, intending no harm; and has crept very gently into
the valleys and stolen imperceptibly up the glens, and spread itself by amiable and conciliatory advances over the plains of the
Church's territory; assuming to enrich and to bless, but really
involving all in one dead glassy mantle of brine. The Church
is led to believe that she has no enemies; it is announced that
there are scarcely any assaults made upon the dykes; but the
fact is that the enemy is within, and has undertaken to constitute itself the Church.
How many and how diversified have been, of late, the doctrines inculcated in hostility to the fundamental principles of
Christianity, by persons holding positions in the Church, and
using the most approved language of piety. How complete is
the evidence that avarice, the idolatry of this age, is diffused
through the length and breadth of the Church. How quietly
have we settled down into the idea that the standard of conduct given to the primitive disciples, and in each gospel embalmed in the undying words of Christ, is not a standard with
which we have anything practically to do. How much is it
considered a matter of course that the unlimited promises of
the New Testament should be treated as curiosities of literature, and not at all as the appropriate means designated by
God for perpetuating in the Church, Elijahs, Daniels and
Pauls.
And the greatest evil is that all our conceptions being cast
in the mould of a vitiated standard, we remain without the
power of perceiving how much our standard is vitiated. If
the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? Our
hope is with him who hath promised to lift up a standard in
the critical hour, and who will lift up on some conspicuous and




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inviolable summit, whither the people may flee from tt. rising
deluge of iniquity, and find themselves safe beneath the banner
of God. If foremost men are needed, it is easy for the great
Head of the Church to raise them up. If the hearts of
princes are in his hand to turn them as he will, how much
more the hearts of those who are avowedly his own. He will
revive his work. In the midst of wrath he will remember
mercy.
APRIL 8.-" Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord."-Jeremiah
xvii. 7.
We should greatly err if we understood this word " blessed"
as teaching that the man who trusteth in God will pursue a
path of tranquil enjoyment and exemption from sorrow. He
is blessed because he is enabled to pursue the path, the only
path, that leadeth unto everlasting life. Because the favor of
God is his. Because Christ forsaketh him never. Because
the Spirit of God dwells in him. Because he has grace to
seek the welfare of his fellow-men. And he is blessed because
of the peculiar nature of his sufferings. His tears are not as
others' tears. His agony is not the agony of impious men.
His despair even has a dignity and sacredness about it.
Jeremiah was a man that trusted in God. But it is evident
from the sublime bursts of misery occurring in his prophecies.
that he was permitted to sound the depths of human woe. It
was his faith in God that separated him from all his countrymen, deprived him of their sympathies, made him a stranger
to their joys, and compelled him to drink the cup of sorrow
which they should have drunk. He trusted in God, and
therefore he could not hide from them that God was about to
pour upon them the vials of destruction, and to surrender them
into the hands of a heathen king. They listened with amazement to words that seemed to them nothing less than blasphemy, and denounced him as the enemy of his country, a




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traitor to the hallowed and God-defended interests of Judea.
When, in the freshness of youth, he received his prophetical
commission from the Lord, it was distinctly intimated to him
that " all should fight against him," the kings, the priests, the
people, the bad and the good, not excepting even the Godfearing and devout. He was a man ever spoken against; and
those that could agree upon no other topic, cordially harmonized upon the one subject of the baseness and treachery of
Jeremiah. Other reputed prophets might be true or might be
false; but that Jeremiah was a false prophet was something
not to be questioned. And it did not please the Lord to
give unto his servant that stern indifference that would have
lifted him above the reach of these cruel shafts. No, he left
him to the native sensitiveness and keen susceptibility to injury that characterized him. His was a nature of exquisite
poetic sensibility; and many a piercing cry of anguish escapes
him as he meets, remembers and broods upon the opprobrious
looks and words addressed to him. At times he loathes his
very existence, and abhors the day that gave him birth.
" Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of
strife and a man of contention to the whole earth."
Is our faith in the goodness of God staggered by the dis.
covery of what he permitted this his chosen servant to suffer?
Are we at a loss how to reconcile this inexorable rigor, with
the many declarations of the divine pitifulness? Or, on the
other hand, do we decide that the prophet's faith must have
failed him in those hours of bitterness, and that a deeperreaching glance into the future would have saved his susceptible soul those fearful shocks? No, faith has no alliance with
stoicism. It does not make us ignore present things. Faith
goes beyond sense and shows us actualities that cannot otherwise be discerned; but it does not set aside sense, or separate
our soul from the body that is in the world.-And what be.
comes of the divine compassion? Why, Jeremiah the sufferer,




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himself bears unequivocal testimony to the goodness of God.
It is he that teaches us to say, " Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."
At long intervals God calls a Job, a Jeremiah to the experience of their aggravated sorrows: but he supports them;
and their triumphant faith animates the drooping faith of
thousands who are called to tread inferior paths of sorrow.
Honor to Jeremiah, who notwithstanding all his excruciation
of soul, hath left us this testimony, "Blessed is the man that
trusteth in thee!" What believer will refuse to take up the
refrain?
APRIL 9.-"IHeal me, 0 Lord, and I shall be healed."-Jeremiah
xvii. 14.
For the devices of man only increase my malady. The utmost they can do is to conceal a plague-spot here and a plaguespot there; but concealment is not abatement. What is my
pride the better for all their prescriptions? What have they
done for my self-will? For my unbelief, slothfulness, irritability, prayerlessness, impulsiveness? I come to thee, 0 Lord.
He that created me, and whose creation I have spent my days
in marring, can alone restore to me his image, and make me
to walk in the health of heaven. Heal my heart, my understanding, my memory, my desires, my imagination, my hopes,
my fears, my body, my speech, my looks, my acts. I am in a
condition that renders me the prey of suffering in every form.
All my faculties torment me. My words come back upon me,
and pierce me like daggers. My memory is continually fetching some coal of fire to me. My desires carry me into paths
where venomous serpents lie in wait. My imagination still
beguiles me with the idea that it is my royal friend, and taking
me by the hand to lead me to some canopied and luxurious
seat, presently lets it go and with derision sees me sink into
some black abyss. Hope sits enthroned as it were a delegated




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angel; but a life-long and frightful experience leaves me unable to doubt the fact that a legion of tormenting spirits are
the ministers of this still-smiling enemy. Many endowments
of my nature-which, were I not a moral wreck, a spiritual
leper, would have each of them with its own particular key
given me the freedom of a heaven all its own-in this my
corrupt condition show themselves each provided with a key
to a place of torment all its own. So that the properties which
seemed to have most of glory and of paradise still hanging
about them, and which therefore inspired me with the most
undoubting reliance, are the very properties which have most
excoriated my soul and aggravated my malady. But heal thou
me and I shall be healed. Release me from my own perverted
will, my rash desires, my reckless imagination. If thou wilt
thou canst, and there is evidence of thy willingness.
APRIL 10. —"Thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help."Hosea xiii. 9.
God hath said, " Thou shalt not kill." But thou hast done
more than this. Imagine thyself in the presence of some
pure and spotless inhabitant of heaven, clad in perfections
that enable him to smile at any difficulty however gigantic,
and resplendent with the glory of God. Imagine thyself assailing him in his purity, wisdom, love, power, and glory; and
stripping him of all his perfections one after another, and
finally precipitating him to earth, a poor depraved sensual
rebel. Cease now to imagine; and recognize the stern reality
of this description. Thou hast done it; thou hast wrought
this destruction; and upon whom? Upon thyself. Thou hast
destroyed thyself. But for thy sin, thou wouldst have been
that bright celestial being.
Raise thyself now anew Co that pitch of purity and excellence. Regain paradise. Reinstate thyself among those who
11




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walk in the light of the enthroned Creator. Get thyself enveloped with an atmosphere that knows no taint of sin. Cast
all thy sins into a bottomless abyss, and roll an everlasting
stone upon them; and decorate thyself with the virtues of
Gabriel, the seraphic energies of Raphael! Thou canst not
do it; the very thought savors of madness. But it may be
done. From heaven thou didst bring down in frightful ruin
one of God's noblest works. The Son of God has come to
earth for the purpose of redeeming this ruined humanity, and
raising it to a higher, safer, more blessed pitch of dignity than
that from which it fell. "In me is thy help," saith the Lord.
APRIL 11.-" The Lord is good unto them that wait for him."-Lamentations iii. 25.
This modest text is supported by a bolder and more eloquent
one in Isaiah. "L Men have not heard, nor perceived by the
ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he
hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."* Those that
waited for the Messiah, and at length beheld him, found the
promise of these texts verified in their experience.
But we have not in this dispensation bid farewell to the attitude of waiting. The great and precious things bestowed
upon us, do not hinder our aspirations after more transcending
things to come. Faith wrestles.   Faith also waits.  Some
have faith to wrestle; but not to wait.
This waiting implies an unconquerable conviction that the
manifestations of goodness which we have asked of God, he
will grant in some more fitting time than the present, and after
full proof of our faith. It is immensely difficult for faith to
endure, if the season be protracted. For day after day comes
an i goes, saying, as it goes, " You see the folly of your expectation.  God has denied your request for some sufficient
reason. Your expectation is vain." The providence of God
* Isaiah Ixiv. 4.




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seems to use similar language, declaring with a thousand
voices, that your faith is erroneous and vain. By the law of
your nature you pass through multitudinous moods whose differences of light and shade make things look very differently,
and if faith pass serenely through them all, it is a wonder of
wonders.  But the exercise of faith tends also to perfect it;
and the repeated, deliberate, prayerful, reexamination of the
foundation laid for your future edifice, leaves at length the soul
as firmly persuaded of the expected, as it is of the present.
Nor while it seeks the future is it impatient with the present,
but cheerfully intelligent of whatever there is of good around.
APRIL 12.-" The Lord is my portion, saith my soul."-Lam. iii. 24.
Poor man, says the world. But no, says the believer; he is
to be pitied who boasts of any other portion than this.  If the
Lord be not thy portion, will any portion that thou hast continue?  Let it be power like that of Napoleon, wisdom like
that of Socrates; fame like that of Bacon, imagination like
that of Scott, wealth like that of the Bourbons; let it be
beauty, or valor, or wit, or industry; let it be troops of friends,
or one most loving heart; let it be what it may, it is a contemptible portion, if it be thine all.
He that becomes a follower of Christ, declares that the Lord
is his portion. He counts all but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of him. And not only does his soul say it; his
life, his daily life, must say it; must testify that he has forsaken all for Christ. How singular that, after all the glimpses
of his boundless wealth, and power, and majesty, granted by
Christ to the sons of men when on the earth, he should find so
few willing to take up with him for a portion. It was the
merest trifle for him to spread a table for five thousand men,
besides women and children; with but a word he loaded several boats full of large fishes; he raised the dead; all power in




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heaven and in earth was manifestly his. We see plainly that
all other portions must at last revert to him, and he will give
them to whom he will. But independently of all material
gifts, there is that in his character which makes him, him
alone, able to satisfy the soul throughout eternity.
APRIL 13.-" Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord."Hosea vi. 2.
Is it at all unreasonable to suppose that the contemplation
of God will yield us greater, more precious results than the
consideration of anything or of everything in this world that
he has made? You are wrapt up in the study of mineralogy,
or botany, or conchology; and have no time to spare for the
cultivation of your acquaintance with God. The sight of a
little shell has wonderful power to awaken all your faculties:
and you have no rest till you have ascertained its characteristics, traced and counted the lines upon it, and determined its
specific relations; but an invitation to come and contemplate
God leaves you listless and apathetic. You delight in archaeological researches, and with your whole soul embark in the
study of certain antiquities, with a view to determine at what
period, and by whom they were produced; yet are you never
for a moment tormented by the desire to increase your knowledge of God. You, my friend, have a great dread of ieing
found imperfectly acquainted with a certain literature, and
think nothing of devoting whole nights to the acquisition of
it; but your conscience is visited by no painful sense of your
defective knowledge of him from whom is every good gift.
Once we too were thus. If a man had anything curious to
tell us concerning the most distant star that twinkles in the
firmament, we waited for his words with eagerness; but no
solicitude to improve our acquaintance with the Divine Disposer of all, ever agitated our soul.




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But nom we grasp at thit assurance: "Then shall we know;"
and at the similar asseveration of Paul: " Then shall I know,
even as also I am known."  And the joy with which we hail
this prospect is a clear evidence that we have passed out of the
region of our former ignorance, and that we know God. Indifference and ignorance are here indissolubly linked, as also
are knowledge and thirst for knowledge.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. The
Lord has brought us into the pathway of the knowledge of
him, and bids us pursue that path through all its strange meanderings until it opens out upon the plain where God's throne
is. Our life is a following on to know the Lord. We marvel
at some of the experiences through which we are called to
pass: but afterwards we see that they afforded us some new
knowledge of our Lord. Our path suddenly disappeared in
some hideous cavern where we seemed to hear the roaring of
wild beasts; and we could not at all conceive what benefit
would result from our entering; but we entered; and when
by a favoring passage we emerged from that obscurity and
danger, we felt that we had obtained some new and valuable
insight into the divine character. Again, our path shot right
down into the impenetrable darkness of some deep pit; it was
some time before our eyes got accustomed to that darkness;
then we discovered a little door, and soon found ourselves in a
gallery of hidden treasures, several of which we gathered and
still retain. Pursuing thus the knowledge of God we found
ourselves like Joseph in Egypt, alone in the midst of a nation
that knew not God; and found that there was something here
to be learned concerning the divine perfections that could not
elsewhere be learned.*  We have not then to wait for some
future brighter opportunity; but by improvement of the present are to build for ourselves a bridge to that future.


* Referring to Irdia, where these Meditations were written.-A.
11 *




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APRIL 14.- "Whez I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto
sme."-Micah vii. 8.
He will, thou prophet of the living God! More happy art
thou in this thy strong and well-warranted persuasion than if
a tiara of the most effulgent diamonds were set upon thy brow,
to light up the chamber of thy darkness. Didst thou always
know this? Couldst thou from the beginning look thus serenely along the paths of life, conscious that betide whatever
might, thou shouldst enjoy the manifested presence of thy
God?
Perhaps not. Perhaps there was a period in thy life when
thou hadst indeed a strong conviction of the incomparable desirableness of such an assurance, and hadst a belief in its attainableness, but couldst not possess thyself of the privilege.
Withont this distinct perception of a present God, thy Saviour,
Friend, and Guide, life seemed an odious blank. For this thou
wert willing to sacrifice all things, and deem thyself an infinite
gainer by the exchange. But how enter this hidden life? By
faith, was the answer. But how believe? Oh how immense
this difficulty seemed to one accustomed to the death-state of
the soul, to unbelief, to the insane vision that perceives everything save Him by whom all things subsist. But he that had
given thee so much faith as to perceive the all-surpassing blessedness of a life in which God is throughout consciously intermingled, forsook thee not; and soon enabled thee to open wide
the eye of faith, and behold Him gloriously nigh, overpoweringly manifest; enabled thee to take into thy very sou] his
indestructible promise to abide with thee as thy Helper, Lover,
and Satisfier, for ever.
When God gives faith, he gives the opportunity of proving
it. He loves the sweet expression of it in confidential words;
loves still better the exhibition of it in indubitable acts.
"Thou shalt sit in darkness," he says to his trusting servant.
But firsb he leads the believer along some flowery walk, and




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accustoms him to a high measure of spiritual prosperity.
Then suddenly an unexpected tempest gathers about him, and
he finds himself in deepest, strangest night. Darkness is
come; but it is different in some of its elements from what the
believer had contemplated in the day of his declared faith.
Yes, designedly different. It was needful that his darkness
should be something never anticipated, in order that his faith
might have its full proof. The darkness seems to say, " God
is not in me, I am sent in wrath. Thy faith is presumption.
I am come to banish from thee the promises which thou hast
hitherto delighted in-to dispel the delusive idea of God thy
Comforter. Despair is the only thing that harmonizes with
me." The shadow thus speaks and frowns. But faith comes
nobly out of this conflict. It lets not go its talisman. It
seizes the word of God with a compulsory grasp. Immediately
the believer is compassed about with light, and looks with an
air of complacent triumph at the baffled shadow.
APRIL 15.-" Men ought always to pray and not to faint."-Luke xviii. 1.
The context informs us what that prayer is in which we
ought not to allow ourselves to faint. The prayer is that God
would be pleased to judge between his people and the world.
The world denies the claim of the righteous to be considered
the children of God. The one great need of the Church is,
that God should bear testimony unto the word of his grace.
and rebuke the nations with a voice they can but hear, saying,
"Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm."
The Lord Jesus taught us what to ask for, when he said to the
Father, " That the world may know that thou hast sent me and
hast loved my disciples as thou hast loved me." The revelation of God in his relation to believers, by their sanctification,
by the perfection of his image in them, by the gifts and graces
of his Hol) Spirit, by his providence, and by unprecedented




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methods reserved to be the special glory of the Litter days-is
what we ask. Is this a thing to stop asking? Does the sick
man give over seeking for health, because his sickness is protracted? Or does the hungry man desist from his search for
food, when it is not soon found? No, for he well knows that
if he fail of obtaining food, he fails of all. This benefit withdrawn, all others are withdrawn. Well therefore may we
continue in prayer, for what we ask is indispensable.
This continuing in prayer is a singularly profitable exercise.
When we cry to God and receive no answer, and still continue
in supplication, not wavering, we find our minds running with
a surprising vigilance through the pages of Scripture, snatching up a word of help here and another there. We become
most rapidly intelligent of its precious contents. Our views
of God expand; his character, his government, his purposes,
present themselves to us with a definiteness that they never
had before in our perceptions. Our knowledge of ourselves
in like manner advances in an equally accelerated ratio. And
all this tends to the increase of faith. The very discovery of
our own unworthiness tends, at such a time, to make us rest
more confidently on the righteous Advocate. We get a hundred preparatory blessings, and then at last we get the blessing
sought. Meantime our conceptions of that blessing have been
greatly elevated. If at first it ranked in our estimation as a
thousand, it now ranks as millions. We have looked at it in
the future, and seen it undergo many transfigurations. We
were consoled in the hour of our disappointed faith, by seeing
the prize put on superior beauty, and show itself more worth
pursuing than we had previously believed. Imagine a vase
with your name upon it, fast by the throne of God. As you
prayed, your heavenly Father dropped ever and anon a gift
brighter than your best conception into that vessel. Meanwhile he sought among the hours of your future life for one in
which t6e bestowal of this accumulating wealth would be largest




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in results; and marked that hour also on the vase. And while
you thought yourself poor, angels looked with admiration on
your treasure in heaven.
APRIL 16.-" The beloved of the Lord."-Deuteronomy xxxiii. 12.
Who is this beloved of the Lord? It is one who believes
n the love that God has toward him. We have not to bring
about the love of God towards us; but to recognize that love.
Peter had a great idea of his own love to Christ; " though all
men forsake thee, yet will I not forsake thee;" but John was
content to speak of himself as the beloved of the Lord.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.
His love to us is as our faith in his love, and in our own unworthiness. " O Daniel, greatly beloved," said the angel to that man
of God; and oftentimes a similar declaration runs down to us
from the skies. Surely facts speak as loudly as words; how
many facts can you at this moment point to, each and all declaring that you are the beloved of the Lord.
Do you still hesitate to class yourself as a third with Daniel
and John? Tell me, is there any greater expression of the
love of God, than was given in the surrender of his Son to
Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Calvary? Did Daniel or John
ever receive any more affecting love-token than this? Be only
bold enough to know the love that was expressed when Christ
tasted death for you, and you may without hesitation sit down
beneath the same tree with Daniel and John, and expect them
to listen while you speak of the crucified one.
But ever remember that you cannot begin to estimate the
love of Calvary, till you have given up all notions of your own
goodness. It makes an immense difference in estimating God's
love, whether that love was bestowed on an utterly vile and repulsive sinner, or upon an amiable being, adorned with many
graces, and naturally attractive. If you judge yourself to be
this last, then yc'l can never know anything about the love set




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forth in the gospel; and you will do well to avoid the society
of Daniel and John. Divine love made them amiable and
attractive; not found them so.
APRIL 17.-" Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord."Isaiah i. 18.
" Let there be an understanding between us. Let us talk
over the points of difference between us, and see if we cannot
come to a settlement. If you have any fault to find with me,
state it. If I am not what you would have me be, put your
objection into words. Be explicit. You alienate yourself
from me, shun my paths, avoid all approaches to communion
with me, shut up my word, look coldly on my people, and if
you can possibly get anything else to think of, no matter how
contemptible it be, you will not give a thought to me or to my
solicitations. Again I say, be explicit, be honest. I will not
object to any statement of your views, so that they be made in
a spirit of frankness, and with a willingness to be enlightened.
Come and let us reason together. Let us go by ourselves,
where there may be no curiosity of man to interfere with the
fullest intercommunication."
The Lord invites me to a conference with himself. Why
should I not go? Why should I not state to God himself my
difficulties. Is it right, is it honest, to be entertaining this
lukewarmness, this aversion, and not be willing to have the
grounds of it clearly defined? O my soul, come to an understanding with thy God. The main difficulty with thee is a
consciousness that after all the guilt will be found with thee,
and not a particle of blame attach to God. But observe, my
soul, how admirably this difficulty is met by his generous proposal. My sins are as scarlet, but he hastens to say that they
shall be as white as snow. lie meets me with a robe of justification, and royally adorns me at the very threshold of his




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house; so that I need not to dread the humiliating contrast of
my rags with that resplendent audience-chamber. And if he
so hasten to justify me, the most unholy of beings, shall I not be
willing to justify him, the holiest and best?  Yes, Lord, let
me reason with thee; for where thou mightest condemn, there
tl.)u dost vouchsafe the most surprising promises, the most
transporting tokens of love.
ArRIL 18.-"O God, thou art my God."-Psalm lxiii. 1.
Mine! All mine! All the revelation of thee in the Bible
is the revelation of my God. Thy wisdom is all for me. So
is thy power. So is thy goodness. So is thy truth, thy purity, thy justice; thy time is for me, thy eternity for me; thy
works for me. Thou sittest on the throne of the universe for
me; pervadest all space for me; arrangest all thy plans for me.
Many millions of millions of miles away, but a star to thine
eyes, is a sun huge in mass, dazzling in splendor, weighty in
attraction, beneficent in function. Around it, in orbit succeeding orbit, with velocities, densities, bulks, revolutions,
times, beautifully harmonized, are numerous planets, each
having its oceans and continents, its forests, its animals, its intelligent creation. Shall God take thought for thee, in that
distant group of worlds? Can he not let go the thought of
thee, as he enters that distant system and directs its sublime
movements?   No, he cannot let go the thought of thee. That
sun is commissioned not only to give light to those revolving
worlds, but ever, without a moment's intermission, to send
down to thee a ray of light expressive of his unforgetting love.
It hangs above thee by day, hindered by other light from
reaching thee; but no sooner does night open a door for it,
than it rushes to the spot where thou art. All the night long
it is there; thou hast but to look, and it meets thy glance.
Wllat meets thy glance?  Yon distant sun, thousands of times




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the size of this earth. The ray that meets thy eye is all for
thee; it is thine own particular token that the omnipresent
God, in whatsoever part of the universe he may be displaying
his perfections, cannot for an instant be unmindful of the relation existing between him and thee.
This in nature. How much more in grace. And we learn
these things first in grace.
APRIL 19.-" The Lord lifteth up the meek."-Psalm cxlvii. 6.
The meek are they who have consented to receive the
knowledge of themselves. Self-detection has led to self-spoliation. Their wardrobe has turned out to be a pirate's chest.
The more richly they went arrayed, the more they exposed
their own dishonor. They gladly now sink down to their
proper level, and find no place too low for them. Perhaps
they occasionally shrink back from some deeper humiliation.
But the Spirit of God and his providence convince them, and
they take that step too. They lose at length their reluctance,
and are content to be last of all and servant of all.
Oh! how few, how rare, are those meek ones! Am I one
of them, O Lord? Am I quite content to be overlooked in
the day when thou distributest honors on the earth? An I
willing to be despised by all, and made of no account? Is my
chief ambition to be useful, eminently but not ostensibly use.
ful? And if I get this spirit one day, does it abide with me?
Do I not find myself coming into new circumstances where my
mean estate troubles me? And through some insidious suggestion does there arise impatience of God's depressing providence? Thou that art meek and lowly of heart, teach me to
be meek, give me a meekness that shall pass through every
ordeal.
The meek shall be lifted up; they shall be exalted very
high. But in their utmost exaltation they will lose nothing




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of their meekness. In the highest or in the lowest situation,
they are at home, they are blessed. The idea of their own
merit has been ground out of them by the wheel of God's government; and their whole being is pervaded and beatified by
God's love.
APRIL 20. —"He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."-Psalm
Iv. 22.
Some one may say: "He will never allow the righteous to
fall away; but what right have I to regard myself as righteous? Of what avail is this promise to me?"
Well, it is of none, if thou art not righteous. In that case,
the wrath of God abideth on thee; there are no promises for
thee. But are there no promises for such as hunger and thirst
after righteousness? Yes, for they are righteous. The Publican went down to his house, justified rather than the Pharisee. To look unto the righteousness of Christ, is the righteousness of sinful man. The measure in which a man renounces the notion of his own righteousness, is generally the
measure according to which God estimates him as righteous.
Our text corresponds with the words: " My sheep shall never
perish, neither shall any be able to pluck them out of my
hand."
Others say: "We make no pretensions to piety, but we are
righteous, and none the less so that we have the boldness to
declare ourselves what we are."
Let us see. You daily receive at your board a poor creature
who, without your bounty, would be a miserable beggar, tottering to an obscure grave. You spread for him an excellent
banquet, and that as often as he has appetite. Yet he never
takes the slightest notice of you, never joins in any laudations
of your name, turns the subject of conversation when you are
mentioned. You have authorized him to go daily to your
treasurer, and receive whatever he needs for his daily expenses,
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and even for his prospective expenditure; yet he never admits
that he is indebted to you for the money, and is just as ready
to bestow it on your enemies as on your friends. Hie lives in
your house; sleeps upon your couch; receives raiment from
your wardrobe; is made glad by your wine; regaled by the
perfume of your flowers; entertained by your music; conveyed
in your carriages; instructed by your teachers; aided by your
wisdom; and upheld by your strength. Yet never is he found
rendering you any due respect, or troubling himself to know
what is your will. In a thousand things he violates your commands. But in his transactions with his fellow-servants, he is
particular not to defraud them. Shoul he indeed learn from
thee what his duties to them are, he would discover that he
comes exceedingly short even in these. But be it so. He is
very careful to conduct himself in such a manner towards them
as to be regarded as an honest man. Ten thousand mercies
from thee leave him as indifferent to thy will and pleasure as
ever he was; yet the least benefit from his fellow awakens in
him gratitude and a desire to requite the favor.-Shall such a
man be counted righteous? Does not the moral sense that
reveals itself in his communications with his fellow-men, serve
only the more signally to condemn him? He, and such as he,
are unrighteous; and the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.
APRIL 21.-" Let not your heart be troubled."-John xiv. 1.
If these words were appropriate at the time when they were
spoken, then can we hardly conceive of a situation in which
the people of God may be placed, in which these words would
be inappropriate. If at that time the disciples were not to
be troubled, then tell me, pray, what is the hour, what the
emergency, when it is fitting that their hearts should be
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Says one, " My child is dead; my belo\ ed one. For years
my predominant solicitude had been to make all things work
together for the beautifying of her life. All my plans, my
labors, my hopes, my prayers even, have had largely a reference
to her happiness. My present joys were in some degree constituted by the thought of what she would be in days to come.
And now she is suddenly gone-in a whirlwind of sufferingunder circumstances the most heart-rending. The world is for
me emptied, in a single hour."
But one of those who sat at table with Jesus might thus
reply: " We were with the Messiah for whom we had left
father and mother, wife and children. We had staked all our
hopes upon him. By following him we had brought upon us
the enmity of mankind; and by his departure we were to be
exposed to the full blast of that enmity. We had made up
our minds that he was the Lord of Life, and that all dignities
of heaven or earth were in his gift, and that of the increase
of his dominion there should be no end, and that he would
presently prepare for us twelve thrones corresponding to the
twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And now we were
told, and that by himself, that he was to be taken away; taken
violently away by the hands of sinners; subjected to all manner of outrages; be, as it were, denounced from heaven, God
not interposing for his deliverance; and to die a most ignominious and barbarous death. And yet we were bidden not
to let our hearts be troubled. The sun was to be as sackcloth,
and the moon as blood; all the powers of heaven were to be
shaken; yet we were to remain peaceful and serene."
One may say, " I could have met with equanimity all the
common woes of life; but my good name, which has never
been reproached, is now covered with opprobrium." The
apostles may answer: " This was what was about to happen to
us. We were to be universally regarded as the followers of a
manifest impostor, preachers of blasphemy, enemies of all




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righteousness* yet we were told not to let our hearts be
troubled."
Another speaks, and says: "' These things may be endured
by the grace of God. But where there is no manifestation of
God to the soul, when spiritual darkness has set in upon us,
can we be otherwise than troubled?" The apostles answer:
" What darkness was comparable to ours? When Christ was
crucified, it seemed that God was saying from heaven unto us,
'I know you not.' Depart from me, ye cursed, was what his
providence appeared to say, in a language that all could understand. Yet the Lord Jesus, knowing all things that should
happen, said unto us, let not your hearts be troubled."
APRIL 22.-" Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance."-Matthew iii. 8
A mighty angel stands in heaven upon a height at the foot
of which you dwell unconsciously; and he bears aloft in his
hands a stone, mountainous in size, which he is prepared to
hurl upon you. But another mighty one says: Stay; for he
repents, and will now bring forth fruits in evidence thereof.
Then the company of the just made perfect, bend their eager
gaze upon you to discern this evidence; and the stone descends
not, though it hangs above you. Well may you therefore give
heed to this admonition, and make haste to bring forth fruits.
A profession of religion is a solemn and open condemnation
of and shrinking from our past life. It is a profession of repentance, of a changed mind relatively to sin and to unrighteousness. Christ is exalted to give repentance. He saves men
from their sins by inspiring them with a hatred of their sins,
and by giving them a heart to pursue an opposite path. For
one that has made such a profession, to trifle with sin, to renew communications with his old sins, is a most dangerous
thing. When he indulges in a forbidden thing, he calls back
the ten thousand similar indulgences belonging to his past life.




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Seeing him turn to Christ, these sins had begun to flee from
him discomfited; but a single recommission arrests them, and
they exclaim, "he yet belongs to us." The ten thousand
talents had been forgiven the steward who professed repentance; but a single act that seemed to show his repentance unsound brought the whole of the huge debt back upon him.
Oh, my heart, is there not here instruction for thee?  Is it
not well for thee to entertain the idea that repentance is an indispensable barrier to keep thee from the tremendous claims of
thy past sins? When a feeling of pride surges within thee,
remember that the allowing of it will be like a standard lifted
up for all thy old sins of pride, a fearful host, to rally round.
Thy old sins, all of them, with all their power to alarm, to condemn, to destroy, are buried for thee, deep and safe; but the
stone that covers them is sealed by the evidences of thy change
of heart; and if at any time, something like the old heart is
seen in thee, immediately the stone begins to heave, and the
buried sins cry out, "We are unjustly here. He bringeth not
forth fruits meet for repentance."
APRIL 23.-" Lord, lift thou up upon us the light of thy countenance."
-Psalm iv. 6.
(ive us the tokens of thy favor, the expressions of thy grace,
the revelation of thy glory. Acknowledge us as thy sons
and daughters, privileged ones, having access to thine audiencechamber, and permitted to behold the majesty and kindness
that to others are veiled. Let the light of thy loving glance
descend into our soul. A day is coming when thy glory shall
be flashed abroad through all the heavens, and when it shall
fall like one immense sheet of lightning upon the nations. But
what the world cannot now behold, let us behold. Though the
rising of the Sun of Righteousness, in full-orbed glory, be not
yet, let at least the day-star arise in our hearts.
It is not in the hour of worldly prosperity that we are best
12*




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able to behold the light of God's countenance in its most
transporting manifestations.  The benefits that God bestows
equally upon the just and upon the unjust, upon his children
and his enemies, are not those that most favor our perception
of the light of God's countenance. The Spirit of glory and
of God resteth especially on those who are reproached for the
name of Christ. Stephen, when encompassed by his numerous
enemies, saw heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at
the right hand of the glory of God. Sometimes the revelation
of the glory is vouchsafed in the midst of the trial; (call to
mind several instances of this in the word of God;)-sometimes to prepare the believer for fiery trials; witness Isaiah,
Ezekiel;-sometimes after the enduring of the trials; witness
Job, Simeon, and others.
Is there not something held out to thee in this sentence,
that looms far higher than any conception that thou hast ventured to form of the readiness of God to reveal himself to the
friends of Jesus, and of his power to enrapture the soul by a
glance that faith discerns? If there be anything soul-gladdening in the light of a created countenance, what exalted
ideas may we not form of the incomparable delights that shall
descend into the soul when God, the Creator, the Redeemer,
the Sanctifier, fixes on us his unrestricted glance of love.
Let us utter this prayer with all intensity of desire and
strength of expectation. Let our life utter it. Men go down
into deep wells that they may see a star. a mere star; let us
not shrink from any position to which the angels of divine
providence may beckon us, and from which we are likely to
behold more gloriously the revelation of the countenance of
our God.
APRIL 24.-" From him cometh my salvation."-Psalm lxii. 1.
From whom? From him whose commandments I have so
flagrantly violated, and whose authority I have set at nought.




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Frm him whose countless benefits I have clutched without
noticing the hand that bestowed them. From the thrice-holy
One at whose reproof the pillars of heaven tremble and are
astonished; and by whose command the fallen angels are kept
under the chains of darkness. Perdition has overtaken myriads of being who went not so far in the contempt of God, as
I did; yet salvation cometh to me from him. All his perfections, the stability of his government, the interests of his holy
universe, seem to require the outpouring of his fiercest wrath
upon my head; yet from him cometh my salvation.
From him it cometh. Every day, every hour, it cometh to
me; by one agency, and by another; now in this manner, now
in that. It cometh to me in his word; in the answers to
prayer; in the examples of good men; in reverses and humiliations; and in the various providences that help me to see the
loathsomeness of sin. It comes to me in the Holy Spirit, and
in new views of the all-worthiness of Christ. And what has
not yet reached me is on its way to me. By faith I rejoice in
experiences to come; in deliverance from all sin and from all
corruption; in perfection, moral, intellectual, and physical.
IMy salvation. I know more evil of myself, than I can positively know of another. When I take some of the pictures
of my past life, and thrust them into the purity of heaven, the
whole creation seems to suffer violence, to groan and shudder
at the unendurable contrast. Shall this bosom that has been
the seat of affections so dishonorable, be interpenetrated with
the very love of God, love to all that are the fitting objects of
love, love ineffable and immaculate?
My salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, my Saviour, came to
earth to make an atonement, proclaim his gospel, establish his
church, pour out his Spirit. This was the Alpha of my salvation. I look for him now from heaven, in glory, to complete
in me his wondrous work, and present me faultless, transfigured,
angelic, before his Father's throne. This will be the Omega.




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APRIL 25.-" Forget not all his benefits."-Psalm ciii. 2.
The meaning is, forget not any, remember all. The right
recollection of a benefit is all but equal to a new benefit. As
God is the same, as the expressions of his goodness are expressions of eternal goodness, the recollection of a past benefit
may well be cherished since it is in a certain sense not past
but present. Each token of love let down by God into my
life, projects itself forward indefinitely, and accompanies me
on an undying mission, to declare that God and I are friends
through the Lord Jesus Christ. The domain of faith extends
not only over the present and the future, but over the past also.
It is faith that keeps snatching the past kindnesses of God
from the sea of oblivion.
The gifts of God are not bestowed upon believers merely to
relieve a want, or to meet a capacity for enjoyment. They are
not merely bestowed for the good that is in them but to reveal
something in the disposition of the giver. They are epistles
telling of his love, wisdom, and power. Now it is evident that
a past benefit remembered, must be about as valid for this
blessed purpose as a present benefit. God is bound over to
goodness by his past charities, if faith remembers them.
How odious is it not to remember benefits. The rich man
whose treasures are greater than he can compute, should not
treat with disdain a trifling present, if it express the good will
of a poor man. Nevertheless the rich do often exhibit such
disdain, especially in the form of forgetfulness. Benefits from
those whose kindness we value, we presume not to forget. But
is God a being so low in the scale, that gifts from him are
grasped only for their own sake, and the giver immediately
forgotten?  Do you like that your own presents to another
should be forgotten? No, not the least of them. It galls you
exceedingly if one out of ten benefits should pass from the
recollection of your beneficiary.
But how remember all these benefits? Those of a single




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day exceed in number the hairs of the head. Well, let there
be a readiness to remember them. Let faith look into the past
for them. Let them not be slighted.
We are not always able to see at the time the true meaning
of the benefit. The length and breadth of the divine goodness does not come out, until some time has elapsed, and we
are able to look back upon it from some vantage point in the
future. These past benefits are like books in our library that
we suppose we have read; but we take them down some day,
and are astonished at the wonderful things, before unrecognized, that present themselves to our improved perception.
APRIL 26.-" The riches of his grace."-Ephesians i. 7.
Your idea of riches, does it run most naturally in this direction? Perhaps you are blessed (as men say) with worldly
goods. Your wealth enables you to surround yourself with
many beautiful and tasteful articles that some people might
call objects of luxury; to live in a certain style; to associate
with a certain class to which you think you belong in a peculiar
sense. But, these are not your only riches. You are enabled
to approach God by faith in Christ the mediator, morning and
evening, to cast your care on him, commit yourself to his
guidance, rejoice in his goodness, meditate in his word, and
occupy yourself with elevating thoughts of the inheritance
incorruptible reserved in heaven for you. Of these two portions, the worldly and the heavenly, which is dearest to you?
You answer: "The heavenly of course. The favor of God,
that is life.  The love of Christ, this is true wealth.  It
pleases God to adorn my earthly path, by the gift of so much
wealth as surrounds me and mine with things that a refined
taste must prize; but my heart, while it accepts them with
thankfulness, cleaves not to them."
The answer appears unexceptionable; perhaps is so. But




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is it not a conceivable thing that God has given you of the
riches of earth, to test the force of your attachment to the
heavenly treasure? Are you not looking at things rather from
the modern point of view than from the apostolic and scriptural? Examine yourself. Would it be a very disastrous
thing to you to have to come down and associate with Christians of a humble order, as one of them? Do you grasp your
worldly substance with much less tenacity than the heavenly?
Do losses of the inferior kind seem to you every way inferior?
Does Christian affection, at all times and under all circumstances, seem to you of greater price than the friendship of
the worldly members of that society to which you fancy you
inherently belong? Oh, be honest!
APRIL 2?.-" Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." —
Matthew xi. 29.
In telling us this of himself, our Lord does not profess to
tell us anything new, but simply to refer to a well-known fact.
Everything in his life declared that he was meek and lowly of
heart. Power, wisdom, generosity, love-these things were
not more largely revealed in his life, than were his meekness
and lowliness of heart. For instance, in the choice of a position. He entered one of the lowest grades of society. He
had intercourse indeed with men of all ranks; but he was always a man of the people. His intimate companions, his
brethren, those among whom was his home, were fishermen,
carpenters, tax-gatherers. The rich invited him to their tables
sometimes, but it was either by way of condescension or curiosity. Observe the reception given him by Simon the Pharisee.
Simon doubtless knew well the laws of courtesy, and punctually
conformed to them in his intercourse with people of his own
grade; but when Jesus the Nazarene was his guest, he set
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not, and anointed not his head with oil; thinking it quite sufficient that this Galilean should have a place at his table.
Christ voluntarily assumed a position in social life, where he
would be looked down upon by men moving in the higher
spheres. He was the friend of publicans and sinners.
lie chose to be a Nazarene, though the prejudice agains
Nazareth was so strong that men familiarly said, " Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth?"
He was not merely lowly in life, but lowly in heart. Some
rich men feel ill at ease in the society of men of inferior
grades; they task themselves perhaps to be civil, kind, considerate; but they have a feeling that they are out of their element, and they shrink back with much comfort to themselves
into their accustomed sphere. But Christ was consciously at
home among his poor and illiterate companions. Their habits
of thought, their mode of life, their topics of conversation,
were not something strange to him. The utmost cordially
characterized his manner, and stamped his lowliness as genuine.
Learn of me; that is, be my disciples. The believer is one
who is learning of Christ to be meek and lowly of heart.
Does the notion of our own merit make it difficult for us to
walk in "all meekness and lowliness?" Surely, our merit is
hardly to be put in comparison with that of Christ. It may
be, we are not so bad as some people; but Christ is the most
meritorious being in the universe. Shall we rate ourselves
above him? In the assemblies of men, let us beware how we
take the higher place; for though we may think ourselves Ketter than some that are there present, yet are we not better
than Christ; and if we will but notice it, he takes the lower
place. If reproaches are offered us, let us consider that
greater reproaches are offered Christ, and he endures them.
Almost all men are complaining of the burden laid upon
them: they think that too much is imposed; every man would




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have his own yoke lightened in some respect. Now what
makes the burden heavy is simply the unwilling spirit  Let
us get from Christ a cheerfully submissive spirit; let us learn
from him not to quarrel with our appointed lot; and, on the
instant, by virtue of this inward change, our burden loses a
vast deal of its weight. Christ had a burden that would have
sunk him to a most speedy grave, if it had not been for his
meekness and lowliness of heart. And if we are like him in
these characteristics, it will make comparatively little difference what the burden laid upon us is; it will be found light.
Again, the oppressive thing to most men is that they have
to meet the responsibilities of life, alone. But Christ reveals
himself to believers as bearing the yoke of life with them;
their true yoke-fellow.
APRIL 28.-" Draw nigh to God."-James iv. 8.
There are too many, even among those reputed Christians,
who seem never to have drawn nigh to God. They have a
certain reverence for him, and occupy themselves considerably
with the doing of his will. But they do not seem to have
ever entered into the holy of holies, and beheld the peculiar
manifestations of God. They remain at a certain distance, and
think it reverential perhaps so to do. But true reverence will
not allow us to slight any means of becoming fitted to glorify
God. By drawing nigh to God, we are brought under the
power of his perfections, and become subject to his most potent
influences. He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than the greatest of the ancient prophets; and there is
no reason why we should not draw nigh as Abraham did when
he heard that Sodom was to be destroyed; as Moses did when
he saw the burning bush; and when he went up into the
mountain to be alone with the glory of God; as Isaiah did in
the temple, and as Daniel and others did. The Son of God
ever offers to accompany us into the presence of the divine




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majesty, and to sustain us in the interview; wherefore we need
not fear to go.
But how shall we draw nigh to God? What is meant by
this?
There is a great deal that is shadowy and dubious about the
communion that many have with God. They have no such
consciousness of having met and conversed with God, as they
have of their communications with men. There has been no
bright and animating manifestation of God to their souls.
They have not felt the power of his present majesty; nor
have his divine perfections taken hold upon them as by a special revelation. They know that God is revealed in his word
as gracious and merciful towards the race of man; but they
have not considered that it is the province of faith to single
out the believer, and bring him by himself into the presence
of his maker. He is to enter into peculiar and well-understood relations to God. God is his God; he is the child of
God; and there must be a conscious acquaintance and intimacy
quite distinct from the general goodness of God towards mankind. In order that we may draw nigh to God, we must become utterly dissatisfied with the vague sort of communion
that so many are content with. We must resolve to be satisfied
with nothing less than the bright shining of the divine presence upon our individual soul. We must believe it attainable,
and resolve to attain it at whatsoever cost.
Having begun to seek it earnestly, we shall perhaps experience many disappointments. The word of God unfolds itself,
it is true, more richly to our souls than once it did; and we
get juster conceptions of him. But the bright and soul-elevating discovery of him himself, we do not obtain.  The
more we seek, however, the more we perceive the importance
of what we seek; and feel that life without this conscious
union of the soul with God, is insupportable. We take this
conviction as an encouragement from on high, to go on. As
13




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we continue striving in prayer we are led to examine ourselves
earnestly to see if there is anything in our way of life that is
displeasing to God. We become very scrupulous; very severe
with ourselves; we cut off an indulgence here, and an indulgence there; and wonder how we should have formerly been
so careless. Duties that we had not formerly dreamed of, now
discover themselves to us; we find that we were before very
ill acquainted with the will of God. These discoveries perhaps only make us the more unhappy. For we feel that we
need a strength such as we have not, in order to live the life
we are called to. More and more we see the absolute necessity
of drawing nigh to God and strengthening ourselves in the
consciousness of our indissoluble union with him in Christ.
Finally, in some hour long to be remembered, there falls down
as it were a great vail, and with joy unspeakable we behold the
light of God's countenance, are made glad by the assurance
deeply buried in the soul, that an Almighty friend accompanies us along the journey of life.
APRIL 29.-" Mercy shall be built up forever."-Psalm lxxxix. 2.
" Forty centuries look upon you," said Bonaparte to his soldiers, pointing to the pyramids. Compared with the ordinary
structures of man, these are immense, massive, enduring. Yet
all the monuments of men are built upon leased ground, and
with borrowed materials. They must vanish away. Another
monument is to be reared; a monument to the mercy of God.
Nothing less than the entire length and breadth of the earth
will suffice for its foundation. Eve-i the sea must be dried up
to make room for it.
Of course the paltry monuments of man must disappear
when the time comes for the completion of this magnificent
structure. It is already begun. The foundations have been
dug in some places. The chief corner-stone has been laid, and




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so have the first and the second tiers of stones connected with
the foundation. The stakes have been set up that indicate its
dimensions. Laborers are at work in many quarries. The
mountains are heaving. The bowels of the earth prepare to
surrender their stores. A fiat has gone forth, heeded by some,
by many not heard, declaring that everything in heaven and
on earth is to be held in readiness for any exigency connected
with this building. It is to be the most glorious edifice that
the universe ever beheld. The light of it is to flash upon the
most distant worlds, and give them a glory that they never had
before. The central sun will find itself eclipsed by the effulgence streaming from this monument. The boldest conceptions of those who began the Tower of Babel, were utterly
childish in comparison with this structure that is to rear its
head far aloft above the highest mountains, far above the highest clouds, up, up among the stars, indeed far above all stars;
nor will any finite admeasurement ever determine its height.
This monument contains the mansions of the elect. It is
the Palace of the Lamb. Its stones are living stones. Its
pillars bear the image of Christ in living, breathing characters. Around the gallery of its dome, is an inscription, whos
every letter is a host of redeemed beings, all together spelling
the sentence, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son."
APRIL 30.-" All her paths are peace."-Proverbs iii. 17.
Can I trust thee, Wisdom? Dost thou tell the whole truth?
If I embrace this bold guarantee of thine, and commit myself
to thy paths, is it certain that my course shall be one ot uninterrupted and elevated peace?
" Walk in my paths, and God will be at peace with thee I
What an infinite gain is this! Where thou now art, the
Wrath of God, the hostility of the Omnipotent impends over




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thee. Wer. all the hosts of the universe arrayed against thee,
they would do thee the merest trifle of harm in comparison
with what the Almighty by a single sweep of his hand could
do thee. Destruction from him is not temporal, but eternal;
not partial, but total. Were all the hosts of heaven, earth,
and hell against thee, they could not make one hair of thy
head perish, if God were on thy side. Walk in my path, and
he is on thy side."
It must be of course, 0 Wisdom, an infinite gain to have the
Lord God on our side, and it seems to be certain that they who
walk in thy path have him at peace with them. Nevertheless,
I have heard, if I mistake not, that there are many afflictions
to the righteous. Is it not thy path that is called a narrow
path? Is it not said that men must take up their cross to
walk therein?  What is it that I have read about "persecutions, afflictions, reproaches, distresses?" Does not thy path
go down sometimes into dungeons, and into dens of lions? Are
not fires sometimes kindled to burn those that walk therein?
" Nevertheless, all my paths are peace. Were the things
you have mentioned, expressive of the wrath of God, they
would then militate against my declaration. But they who
walk in my path are taught by me what peace truly is. They
learn to find it in the sense of the favor of God, and in the
assurance that all who love God, must love them, sooner or
later. So with unvanquished peace, they bear their cross,
pursue the narrow path, descend into dungeons, and meet death
at the stake."
0 Wisdom, pardon my tardy acquiescence. Some doubts
yet linger. Tears ran down the cheeks of holy men of old,
night and day, because of those who kept not God's law. Will
not our hearts bleed in thy paths, over the miseries of the unregenerate multitude? Will not the consciousness of evil in
ourselves, war with our peace?
"I say not that if you walk imperfectly in my ways, you




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shall have perfect peace. I will not show you the evil of your
own heart, without showing you a fountain opened up for sin
and for uncleanness; and I will not show you the miseries of the
world without pointing out the all-adequate grace of God. I
promise no immunity from tears in my earthly path; but consolation from a sublime source, and revelations of a divine
sympathy which the believer will feel that it was better to have
had than not to have needed."
MAY 1.-" Save us, 0 God of our salvation." — Chronicles xvi. 35.
Thou art content to be known by this name, " God of our
salvation." Viewed in one light, the thing seems an infinite
wonder; in another light, no wonder. For in the accomplishment of our salvation, thy perfections come out in glorious
relief, and the whole creation finds itself unspeakably aided in
the work of making thee known. Let but one of the redeemed,
clothed in his full salvation, stand forth in the universe; and
it will matter little if the heaven and the earth flee away, and
return no more. For this redeemed sinner is such a monument
to the power, justice, wisdom, truth, and love of God, that no
finite being could ever master the entire revelation.
Thou hast devoted thyself, O God of our salvation, thyself
and all thy resources, to the work of delivering us from all sin,
from all folly, from all reproach of ignorance, from all corruption, from all misery, and from all weakness. Thou hast
so identified thyself with this work which thou hast taken in
hand, that not to accomplish it would be the extinction of thy
glory. From thy throne thou must save us who have fled to
thee for refuge through thy Son; or thou must quit that
throne. Thou art already known throughout all worlds as the
God of our salvation; and invitations to the marriage supper
of the Lamb, have been carried into all parts of thy dominions.
Save us, therefore, save us speedily, save us perfectly, save
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us from all relapse into unbelief, and from all remains of unbelief; save us from undue deference to the world; save us
from errors of understanding, and from cheats of the imagination; save us from an inadequate conception of the Gospel
standard; from resting contented with our attainments; save
us each day and hour from the particular hindrances of eacl
day and hour. Save us from letting go the hand that was
pierced for us.
MAY 2.-" The grass withereth, the flower faileth; but the word of our
God shall stand forever."-Isaiah xl. 8.
The contrast really intended here is not between the word
of God and the grass of the field; for there are many other
things to share with Scripture the honor of out-living the
flowers of earth. In one sense the Bible resembles the grass
of the field; if by great efforts the latter be rooted up and cast
into the fire, much time will not elapse before that same spot
is seen verdant again with a new growth. And many rulers
have sought to destroy the crop of Bibles sown in their dominions, but have spent their strength for nought. The contrast is really between man, his works and his glory, and the
word of God. Like grass, man shall wither; like the flower,
his glory shall pass away; but the word of our God endurcth
forever.
Even so, Isaiah! The word of God uttered by thee has
come down to us through twenty-five troubled centuries, serenely riding out the storms of every generation, and beholding the wreck of many empires. Whilst thou wert writing
thine unnoticed page, stupendous monuments were being
erected here and there in the world; but ruin has long since
overtaken these. During seventy generations the providence
of God has steadily corroborated thy statements, and shown
that the nations, before God, are nothing, less than nothing
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With what avidity would men drink in the intelligence that
a plant had been discovered whose fruit conferred immortality.
With what a frantic joy would they precipitate themselves toward that stray plant of heaven found upon the earth. But
the word of God really possesses and really communicates immortality.  It endures forever, and he who embraces it by
faith, endures forever. It is the word of life; and nothing
shall by any means harm them who have made it their own.
In the last day, when there shall be a terrific overthrow of the
pomp, pride, and strength of man, the word of God, so oft
rejected, so much despised upon the earth, will be seen upon
the throne of God, and all the friends of that word around
about the throne. Ye neologians and rationalists, and all who
have sought to draw the pen of unhallowed criticism through
this or that text, how will you stand confounded when you see
indestructible life and glory belonging to the word of God.
You will feel as though you had been detected in an attempt
to murder angels, beings possessing the life of heaven.
MAY 3.-" ]Be not dismayed, for I am thy God."-Isaiah xli. 10.
There are many things in this stage of existence that are
calculated to fright the souls of men. They are surrounded
by dangers. There is hardly anything, no matter how minute
and to all appearance contemptible, but may in some hour put
on strength enough to kill us. Many a little insect has taken
away the life of proud man. We do not know but that the
breath we are now breathing may convey some deadly disease
to our lungs. Our foot may slip; a blood-vessel may burst;
a stone may fall upon us; we may get up in our sleep and fall
from a window; a bone may stick in our throat. Men are
dying in all these ways. The people of God have other dangers. They are walking in a narrow path. The God of this
world is bringing a,: his cunning and all his resources to bear




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upon them, in efforts for their overthrow. Terrible is the open
wrath of their enemy; not less formidable the blandishments
of his disguised agents. The consciousness of sinfulness is
paralyzing; and the path of duty seems adapted only for one
a hundred times our superior in constancy, wisdom and power.
And can it be that there is one consideration which of
itself suffices to qualify a believer to look upon all the ills that
cluster thick around his pathway, and enables him to go victoriously onward to the end? There is. God is thy God.
Thine, if thou hast believed upon his Son. His strength is
thine; his wisdom thine; his resources are thine; his vigilance is thine; his omniscience thine. Not that thou becomest
omniscient or almighty, but these perfections of the Godhead
are available for thee to the full extent of thy necessities. If,
then, at any time thou art dismayed, this is the same as saying,
God is not equal to the difficulties that environ me. I need
more strength than he possesses, more wisdom, more knowledge.
I need another God besides him. Oh, utter nothing so dishonoring to the majesty of heaven as this. Beware, and never
be dismayed!
MAY 4.-" I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for my
own sake."-Isaiah xliii. 25.
This language, whether addressed to the partial Israel of
ancient times, or the universal Israel of our times, is appro
priate only to one who has been awakened to a true perception
of his transgressions, and to an earnest, engrossing solicitude
for pardon. The eyes of such a one have been opened. In
every page of the word of God he finds some chapter of his
own past history coming up to view, and exhibiting itself to
him in an aspect never before witnessed. The commandments
seem to address him by name; the denunciations seem winged
from the throne of God solely for him; the promises shrink
back from him affrighted. There seem to be not one, but ten




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thousand condemnations out against him. Where in all the
universe shall he find friends powerful enough and cordial
enough to come forvward and so plead that these dread writs
shall be cancelled?  Alas! what oratory will avail here?
What cunning excuses will induce the Almighty to overlook
the guilt of the sinner at the expense of his own infinite perfections? The sinner may have once imagined that it was the
easiest thing to get clear; but he now utterly contemns the help
of all created beings. No eloquence could lull the storm of
self-accusation within; much less appease the righteous indignation of Him who is greater than his heart. Ah yes! there
is an eloquence that here availeth; but it is that of no created
being. God manifest in the flesh speaketh from the cross, in
words of wondrous healing. " I, even I, whose commandments
thou hast transgressed, whose benefits thou hast forgotten, who
cast down the angels, sent the deluge, and overthrew Sodom,
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions."
For my own sake. The perfections of God which require
our destruction, in the absence of an atonement, require, now
that Christ has died and we have believed, our deliverance
from sin and misery, our elevation to glory, our everlasting
felicity. "The Father is glorified in the Son."  Christ is glorified in us. For his own sake, therefore, he will grant all that
we need. We ask him as it were to put on glory. We ask him
to enrich himself. We ask him to extend his kingdom, perfect
his dominion, put on new lustre in the eyes of the universe.
This is what we ask of him when we ask that our sins may be
blotted out. In bringing our vile selves to God, we bring
something infinitely precious. Angels could never be able to
make up any offering comparable to this in value. What is
the offering? It is the opportunity of glorifying himself in
his Son and his Son in us. But if we pray unbelievingly,
we destroy the opportunity; we cast away a pearl intended fox
the diadem of God.




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MAY 5.-" Thou art mine."-Isaiah xliii. 1.
Once thou hadst other proprietors. Sin, self, death, misery-these formerly boasted that thou wert theirs. But the
price I have paid shuts their mouths forever.
Self is slowest of all to understand this. Thou hast distinctly and joyfully recognised the transfer of thyself to me;
and yet again and again have I seen thee acting as though it
were simply an agreeable fiction. Thou hast sometimes lavished thine affections on objects with which thou hadst nothing properly to do. Thou hast given thyself to enterprises
which I had not commissioned thee to prosecute. Thou hast
refused to go at my bidding, when the sick waited for thee,
and the prisoner languished. Thou hast suffered the hungry
to go unfed, and the mourner uncomforted from thy door,
whither I had sent them, saying, " He is mine; he will help
thee, out of the resources which I have placed at his disposal."
In the day of tribulation, when it pleased thee to put forth my
hand upon that which is my own, didst thou not murmur,
didst thou not shrink offended from the rude encounter of my
providence? What meaneth this? Must my pleasure, after
all, give way to thy pleasure? The infinite price which I
have paid for thee, is it merely that self may sit upon a more
royal throne? Nay, thou art mine, and I will put thee in
whatsoever chamber seems most expedient to me; the chamber
of sickness, of poverty, of humiliation, of defamation, of bereavement, of death.
Thou art mine. Wherefore I give thee the Holy Spirit.
I have appointed thyself as his habitation on the earth. I
sanctify thee by the truth. I bestow upon thee mire own image. I draw thy affections to myself; and teach thee to love
the saints. I make thee meek and lowly. I make thee meet
for the inheritance of the saints in light. Why should I not?
Since I have called thee mine, adopted thee, bestowed on thee
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tions, surely there is nothing inappropriate in the gift to thee
of the most abundant influences of the Spirit. It would be
strange, if I should acknowledge thee as my own, and yet
leave thee to walk in thy rags, to drag on a weary life, in spiritual emaciation.
Thou art mine. Wherefore I cannot think of leaving thee
forever among sinners. A place is prepared for thee by Him
that died for thee. Thou must dwell in mansions that have
never known the contamination of sin. Angels must be thine
escort. Thou shalt go crowned with glory, honor and immortality; and shalt shine as the brightness of the firmament forever and ever. And if any one ask, " Who is this that walketh in so much state, and is radiant with so much gladness?let this answer suffice, " That he is mine. It is to my glory
that all that belongeth to me be glorious and blessed."
MAY 6.-"And beginning to sink he cried, Lord, save me."-Matthew
xiv. 30.
I thought myself to be strong in faith, and rejoiced in thy
command to evince that strength. I thought I would show
how much stronger my faith than that of others; and while
they abode quietly in their vessel, I would tread the waters
beneath my feet and hasten unto Jesus. I would put away
from me at least the reproach sometimes addressed to us disciples of being weak in faith. But it was simple presumption.
Now that the waves lift up themselves around about me, saying, " Jesus we know, but who art thou?" and threaten me
with the full force of that majesty with which God has invested
them, I find my supposed faith vanishing. Death himself has
seized me by my feet, and is dragging me down to a horrible
abyss.
Lord, save me!   Higher than these waves arise the
thoughts of my past folly and sinfulness. A light seems to




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flash along the multitudinous pages of past history, bringing
into strongest ru lief the instances of waywardness, passion, selfwill, neglect of instruction, pride and unbelief. I see myself
as I never saw myself; and I see that the light in which I
now stand revealed, is the very light in which my Lord has
long sought to exhibit me to myself. I only now am learning a lesson that has been held up before me a thousand
times.
Lord, save me, for I sink! I acknowledge, I feel, my helplessness. Thou mightest, indeed, still keep thine eye fixed on
my past exhibition of independence towards God; and instead
of my present cry, thou mightest justly hear former exclamations, contemning salvation.  Oh! hear them  not, remember
them not. In this -tumult of the waves it seems as though
they were clamorous, those former utterances of an unbelieving
and ungodly heart; clamorous more than ever to be heard in
this very moment; and as though my poor present cry out of
the depth could not possibly make its way to thee. Nevertheless, save me. Save me from going down into the pit.
Thou wilt say unto me perhaps, "If I save thee in this
hour, what assurance have I that thy former mind will not return to thee? If I pluck thee from this death, wilt thou not
soon be rushing again, in thy presumptuous self-confidence,
along the path of death?"  Well, Lord, thou must find the
assurance in thyself-in thy power not only to save me from
this horrible abyss, but from future dereliction, from a vain
heart, from unbelief and self-dependence. Save me from all.
MAY 7.-" Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor."2 Corinthians viii. 9.
Worlds, as countless as the sands of the sea-shore, were his,
and innumerable sovereignties lay low at his feet. Tell off the
sum of what he renounced, world by world, host by host, and




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a life would not suffice. Suppose the renunciation gradual,
and watch it from the throne of the universe. You would see
the suns of least magnitude, the heavens of greatest distance
vanishing one by one, very rapidly, from the face of the universe; worlds of greater magnitude following them into night;
great spaces would begin to appear on the outskirts of creation; faster and faster the mighty dominions of God would flee
away from the sceptre of the Son of God; at length he would
be left alone with our system; finally, with our earth. He is
yet King of kings, and Lord of lords. But now he leaves the
throne of his glory; and infinitely descending, shines for an
instant among the archangelic dignities; is presently seen
among cherubim; then passes downward with an expiring
glory, through powers and principalities. Vanishing from
the heavens, he is seen on earth, not in the likeness of an angel, but as a man. He traverses the exalted ranks of humanity, and refuses to tarry in them; nor does renunciation begin
to find its limits, until he has found for himself an abiding
place as a Nazarene carpenter, the son of a carpenter. He
enters on his ministry, and has not where to lay his head; receives with gratitude a cup of cold water; is made of so little
reputation that he is accused of being in league with Satan, is
denounced as a blasphemer, and an enemy of religion.
Thus poor did he become. Wherefore?   For your sakes.
That his example might take hold upon your consciences, and
lead you to follow in this path of renunciation. He teaches
you, like him, to lay aside glory, honor and power, wealth and
comfort. But what glory have you, the very dregs of creation,
to renounce? The thing is this. In departing from God you
have made for yourselves a world of delusion, and constituted
yourselves lord of that world. You have put yourselves in
the place of God, as the lawgiver of yourselves; you have put
your honor in the place of God's, and desired to have the
whole creation enraptured with yourself, rather than God; yet
14




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were urgent to have all things declare your glury, rather than
his. Renounce then, oh! renounce this usurped dignity, and
the wealth that you have chosen to call yours. Follow the
example of Christ, and become poor. This is needful in order
that subsequently, through his poverty, you may be made rich.
You must be changed into his image at the foot of the ladder,
and then shall you ascend it with him, even the very ladder
by whose multitudinous steps he came from his sublime throne
to earth.
MAY 8.-" This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him."-Psalm
xxxiv. 6.
Who was this poor man? Let us see if we can find out; if
we can ascertain the characteristics of those poor people whom
God so honorably mentions in his word.
Mere penury of worldly goods is not a sufficient title. He
must be poor in spirit-poor contentedly. His must be a
spirit cheerfully acquiescent in the allotments of God-with
all that he is reputed to have, placed unreservedly at his disposal; sensible that he is not even his own, but bought with a
price; his abilities and opportunities, his time and influence,
his soul and body, his tongue and pen, solemnly deeded to
God. This poor man has no strength of his own. He is poor
even in virtue, very poor; poor in wisdom. And so if you listen at his window, you will find him in the still hours, earnestly laboring in prayer that he may have given him strength,
virtue and wisdom.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. So the cry
of this poor man is in reality a key by which he can unlock
treasury after treasury of things beyond all price.
MAY 9.-"In thy presence is fullness of joy."-Psalm xvi. 11.
In the place where there is nothing to hinder the full per.




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ception of the glory of God, there is fullness of joy. The most
we can do in this world is to get a conception, faint at the
best, of beatific joy. As we perceive the presence of him who
once became manifest in our nature, loved us and washed us
from our sins in his own blood, we experience joy unspeakable;
but we cannot describe our experience as fullness of joy, with
out declaring that the company of the ungodly is as blessed as
that of angels; the sense of imperfection as sweet as that of
perfection; ignorance as good as consummate knowledge; lia
bility to temptation as enviable a state as that of inviolable
security. If we have here the presence of God, we have here
also the presence of a great deal that is inimical to the glory
of (God. Creation groans beneath this, and day and night
crieth cut, "How long, 0 Lord, how long?"  It waits for the
manifestation of the sons of God, which will be the manifestation of God; for the descent of the new Jerusalem, which will
be the advent of our expected Lord; for the new heaven and
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, even the Lord
of righteousness with his righteous ones. Then all that now
prohibits the full revelation of the Redeemer's glory, will have
been burnt up.
In that world of perfection to which we aspire, our eyes
shall not be able to light upon anything that is not filled with
all the fullness of God. All beings, all objects there, will be,
as it were, reservoirs charged with the perpetual fulfilling of
our joy; and nothing can be withdrawn from the cistern of our
experience without the eagerly proffered supplies of innumerable fountains. The desire of Christ, that his joy may be fullfilled in us, will there be realized. The bliss of God himself
will be drunk in by the infinite one whose name is Love,
through our experiences  Having the image of God, we shall
have his felicity.




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MAY 10.-" Boast not thyself of to-morrow."-Proverbs xxvii. 1.
How surprising the infatuation of man, in that while he
despises and abuses the gifts of God actually bestowed, he
makes sure of gifts to come. Hie makes havoc of to-day, as a
child makes havoc of some valuable book fallen within its
reach, and confidently expects that there shall be given to him
a morrow, and a long series of morrows. While he, on earth,
is busy with the transgression of God's commands, and with
casting contempt on the authority of God, God, in heaven, is
to be busy in prolonging the comfort, and giving all success to
the unsanctified purposes of this rebel. He calculates on the
subserviency of the elements, and even of the Lord of the
elements, to his paltry will.
Far be this from thee, O man of God! While God is giving
one inestimable boon, even the present with all its inherent
wealth, snatch not thou another from the throne of thy benefactor. The only preparation for the morrow, is the right use
of to-day. The stone in the hands of the builder must be put
in its place and fitted to receive another. The morrow comes
for nought, if to-day is not heeded. Neglect not the call that
comes to thee this day, the call to humble thyself on account
of many sins and follies, to break away from unprofitable ties,
to look upon the poor around thee, to speak unto thy impenitent neighbor, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to set
thy love purely upon God; for such neglect is nothing else
than boasting thyself of to-morrow.
MAY 11.-" Lord, save us: we perish."-Matthew viii. 25.
The disciples, we may suppose, had embarked with the Lord
Jesus in that vessel, with a feeling of great confidence, and
with the anticipation of a delightful sail over the familiar waters of that lake. Upon that lake most of them had spent
the chief part of their time from childhood; and under almost
no circumstances would they be likely to experience a feeling




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of fear. Now all things conspired to tranquilize their spirits.
Behold them, as the sun sinks over the hills beyond Capernaum,
and a gentle breeze wafts them over the placid waters; they
are grouped here and there upon the vessel, some communing
with the Lord Jesus of the works and ways of God, others
relating to the sailors and passengers the wonderful things that
Christ had performed. The sun sets; night steals quietly on;
the moon and the stars appear. The Lord Jesus, fatigued with
special labors, lies down and sleeps; and perhaps the last words
that visit his ear are expressions of confidence uttered by his
disciples. His human soul sleeps, but not the Divine Spirit
that dwelt in him; otherwise the orbs of heaven would have
stood still, nay, the heaven and the earth would have fled away,
and the sleep of death seized upon all created things. He
that keepeth Israel sleepeth not.  Presently clouds, black
clouds, come rushing over the face of the sky, and a strange
sound is heard coming over the waters. The sailors start up
in surprise and anxiety. But the disciples are heard saying,
"There is no danger; Christ is on board; he must live, and
so we cannot die. Hie has power over the elements; they cannot hurt a hair of our head." The entire face of the sky is
now shrouded in darkness; winds from various quarters rush
in quick succession down upon the waters; these lift themselves up in mighty billows; the vessel becomes unmanageable;
each wave, as it tosses her on high, seems to say, " What doest
thou here, oh thou frail and paltry thing of man's handicraft,
in the presence of God's sublime agencies and ministers?
What is man but a rebel? his life but a vapor? his work but
vanity? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God; and that hand is everywhere." Desolation and anguish take possession of the souls of those on board. The
mariners say, "Never did we behold anything like this; no
boat can outlive this." " But Jesus is on board," timidly reply
the disciples.  "Be he who he may," say some, "destruction
14 *




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hath taken hold of us, and there is no possible deliserance."
Others look at the disciples, saying to themselves, "If they
fear not, then there is yet hope."  But alas! they see them
soon give way to consternation. As the waters descend more
and more ponderously on the frail boat, their faith dies out.
They feel it expiring and say, " We have no faith, and therefore we perish," and immediately their faith expires. Then
they hasten to Jesus. " Carest thou not that we perish?"
Oh! strangely tempered disciples! Afraid of the winds
and waves, and yet not afraid to address such a stigmatizing
word as this to the Lord Jesus? And are all his past works
and suffering in vain?  Do you still doubt his care?   Jesus
awakes, and the only thing that he beholds is the unbelief of
his disciples; his ear tells him not of the fury and rack of
the elements, but of the guilty fears of his Galilean friends.
And his first reproof is for them.  He lets the storm rage on
tmrebuked, until he has rebuked the agitation of their souls.
And now they perceive that a most precious opportunity of
signalizing their faith in Christ had been given, and given in
vain. The elements had been let loose that their faith might
gain a victory, and go on to perfection. The progress of ordinary months might have been made in an hour, had they
been watchful. When will they understand that this matter
of the education of faith is the most important thing going
on under the sun? The school of faith is a school in which
we are advancing, lesson by lesson, to a condition where the
glory of God shall be perpetually revealed to the soul.
MAY 12. —" Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield
no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of
mpy salvation."-Habakkuk iii. 17, 18.
This is a noble utterance, Habakkuk I Thou hast surely




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read the book of Job, and art echoing that great word of his
-" Though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust in him." Thou
believest that the love which God has towards us, rests upon
some more solid evidence than the temporal benefits which he
bestows upon us; upon evidence so satisfactory, so unimpeachable, that even if the greatly-prospered servant of God saw
his flocks and herds rapidly perish, his merchandize carried
off by robbers or consumed by fire, his houses and lands confiscated by unjust power, his gold and silver fraudulently taken
from him, his friends alienated, his name beclouded, his person
imprisoned, his health impaired, his appetite vitiated, his sight
extinguished, his utterance impeded, he would still have occasions of undying and fervent gratitude, motives for joy unspeakable, a foundation for peace which passeth all understanding.
Thanks be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne for the
innumerable avenues by which the expressions of his goodness
come to us; but oh, while we adore him for these, let us feel
that he has placed the great truth of his love toward us sinners, once for all, upon an inviolable basis; so that though the
day, as it passes, may or may not have particular tokens of
his goodness to impart, that goodness can in no wise be questioned.
It is most likely, 0 Habakkuk, that God took thee at thy
word; and in some surprising way gave thee an opportunity
of evincing thy singleness of heart toward him; and that thou
now wearest some peculiar crown of honor and felicity in consequence of that proof given.
MAY 13.-" I am the light of the world."-John viii. 12.
What a wonderful consciousness was this for one that saw
his life gliding rapidly away in an obscure corner of the world,
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prepared for him at the capital. Knowing that the light of
life is to go forth from him, from him alone, to all nations,
peoples, and languages, how admirable is the quiet, unhasting
humility that enables him to sit down among the poorest and
meanest of earth, occupy himself with all their cares and solicitudes, heal their diseases, correct their errors, embrace their
infant children, partake of their humble meals, and listen in
their synagogues! He knew that he was to be the sun of all
the world, bathe the continents in light, and create new heavens
and new earth for the more effectual manifestation of his unimagined glory. Yet he could converse in a strain of perfect
tranquility with the Samaritan woman at the well, and could
go about Jerusalem looking for the poor man whom the Pharisees had put out of the synagogue.
This is something that should never be forgotten when we
read the Gospel; and the wonder is that it does not more attract the attention of men. The evidence of Christ's humility
and contentedness of spirit, rests upon the surest foundation;
all his actions and his mode of life declare that he was at home
among the poor and needy of earth, and sought not great things
for himself; but there drop from his lips at times, expressions
that indicate the perfect and abiding consciousness that he is
to sit down upon the throne of this world, and fill it with the
effulgence beaming from his countenance. Before the high
priest and Pilate he was as a lamb led to the slaughter, and as
a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his
mouth; and it was only with the greatest difficulty that they
coul ' force him once to speak and to disclose the sublime consciousness that was in him, by a reference to his future coming
in the clouds of heavr  and in the glory of God, to take complete possession of the world.




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MAY 14.-" He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted."-Psalm xxii. 24.
This is said with reference to the allegations of the men
who stood around the cross of Christ. They    ffirmled that
God evidently despised the sufferer, and so far from sympathizing with him in his affliction, abhorred him as a deceiver,
and was glad to have men execute their indignation with unchastened severity.  "It is beyond all question," said they,
"that the Lord is against him.  He has delivered him into
our hands, notwithstanding all tho reluctance of Pilate and
the attachment of his disciples; and in every way is aiding
us to fill the cup of his anguish and to pour contempt upon
him. The Lord himself is smiting him; and we are simply
falling in with the current of his providences."
Often, most often, the same language has been used by the
persecutors of Christ's people. They have averred that God
was delivering these into their hands to be tormented, imprisoned, defamed, and burnt. God brought forth in due time
the evidence that he had not despised nor abhorred the affliction of that afflicted one. There was evidence abundant in
the character, the words, and works of Christ that God could
not be indifferent to his sufferings; but a carnal world could
not see this evidence. By the resurrection of Jesus, the baptism of the Apostles, the love of the Church, and the spread
of the Gospel, evidence of an imposing kind has been given
The experience of every sinner that believes on Christ, from
its beginning onward through eternity, teems with evidence
that the Father sympathized with the sufferer of Calvary.
Every instance of a fulfilled promise, repeats this evidence.
MAY 15.-" Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?"Micah vii. 18.
There is a little flock who are acquainted with God; are so




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far acquainted with his essential perfections, and see so much
of his glory in Christ, that God is not ashamed to be known
as their God, and to have it understood among the angels of
heaven that the members of this flock do know him. But
viewing these as exceptional, innumerable conceptions of God
possess the minds of men; to express it otherwise, innumerable gods of widely different characters exist in the conceptions
of men, and frown upon the only true God. "O righteous
Father, the world hath not known thee," said Christ; but the
world angrily asserts that it knows him very well. Every
natural man has his deity, whom he prefers to the God of the
Bible; and conversion is just consenting that the true God
shall be God, and the god of one's fancy be annihilated. Men
have the highest idea of their own faculty of bodying forth
the true God, and look with proud disdain upon what seem to
them the bungling attempts of Scripture. One boasts that
his God has made no decrees concerning the salvation of particular persons. Another that his God saves all that are baptized. Another that his God finds much merit in man. The
God of another will actually save all.
But almost all these gods of men's devising, agree in one
respect. They make light of man's iniquity. They entertain
no sterner view of it than man himself, man the sinner, ordinarily entertains. Of course they are ready to forgive it; for
it is a light thing.
When, however, men begin to come to the knowledge of
the true God, then their iniquity rises from its tomb in all its
dread proportions, and the dread spectre lifts its head to the
skies, stretches out its hands to the East and to the West,
blots out creation from their view, and bids them come with it
to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Their formner God is fled into everlasting night; and all their former conceptions of divine grace, though multiplied a million
times, would fall short of that grace which they now see to be




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required. What shall they do?    Perish?  No, says Jod;
look unto the cross, know my grace, and live. Then from an
amazed heart cometh the ejaculation, Who is a God like unto
thee, that pardoneth iniquity?
MAY 16.-" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."James i. 17.
Temptation is not of God. What constitutes a thing tempt.
ing is something in the man or woman that looks upon it,
namely, a disposition more or less active to transgress, and take
what is forbidden. The fruit is suspended on the tree for an
admirable purpose; namely that men may have an opportunity
of evincing their fidelity towards God, and thus may obtain a
crown of life. The same thing is to one man a temptation, to
another a good gift of God, by means of which his walk of
righteousness is made more steadfast and honorable.  Whatever cometh down from above is good, unexceptionably good;
whatever evil thing exists, it has its origin elsewhere. Sin is
the devourer of the gifts of God, and the uncompromising
enemy of his beneficence.
It is not enough that God has created a thing. Has he
given it to you, to me, is the question. His gifts are perfectthat is, all their tendencies are good. And if we find some of
the tendencies of certain things are not good, we may conclude
that this is not one of God's gifts to us.
But all gifts arc useless, if we have not the gift of the Holy
Ghost.  By this we are enabled rightly to judge of other
things called gifts, and to know which are really sent us from
above. Without this we know not the proper use of anything,
and are sure to appropriate heaven's bounties to inferior ends.
We are to covet earnestly the best gifts. We are often permitted to make our choice among the collections of precious
things on exhibition around us. Now, the wise man will say,




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These are all very good, but the blessing connected with each
one depends upon the character of the chooser and the circumstances in which it is to be used; I need to know which
among all these will be of highest profit to me; and this by
my own wisdom I cannot know; wherefore I ask God to tell
me which is the perfect gift designed for me.
Innumerable objects of luxury attract the attention even of
the Christian, in this day; and he is ready to say, " My Father
hath bestowed these; let me take them in all gratitude." But
first ask thy Father, if these be the best, the perfect gifts; if
thy circumstances and thy profession make these most desirable.
MAY 17. —" As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear
my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with
him and he with me."-Revelation iii. 19, 20.
As many as I love. Is this the voice which has just been
giving expression to such intensity of holy disgust? Well
may we marvel at the modulations of which it is susceptible.
Ah, if there had not been love somewhere in thy heart, thou
wouldst not have threatened the Laodiceans with ignominious
ejection, but wouldst have cast them forth without any words of
condescending reproach. Thou sawest how that confusion and
alarm were being borne by thy words to their hearts, and how
they began to exclaim, " Whither shall we flee from his presence?  Who shall stand before him?    For the day of his
wrath is come." Thy words were mighty to tear down the
palace of delight in which they had enshrined themselves; to
tear it down for some at least. Even among these Laodiceans
were some who had no idea of parting with Christ; and who,
as soon as they saw that they had been building for themselves
an edifice that Christ approved not, looked upon it with detestation, and loathed themselves for their inconsiderateness;




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they were appalled at the thought that Christ had perhaps
had enough of them and had cast them clean off forever. So
powerfully indeed was this view impressed upon them by the
discovery of their folly, that they were fast giving way to a
conviction that hope and they had parted company eternally
But the Saviour draws them from the brink of despair with
the cords of love. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten;
be zealous, therefore, and repent."
Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men: The
love of Christ constraineth us. To those that are lukewarm,
both the language of stern rebuke and the language of encouragement are necessary. Without experience of his indignation, they will derive no profit from the exhibition of his love.
Too many churches, perhaps, derive no benefit from the
preaching of Christ's love; from week to week, and from year
to year, they only sink deeper in their spiritual apathy. They
need to be brought acquainted with Christ's glance of fire, and
to get their own indignation against themselves kindled by his
indignation. There is nothing like the mingled indignation
and love of the Saviour, for inspiring the soul with a genuine
zeal to do his will. The indignation does not diminish the
love, for it is the indignation of love, of wounded love. And
when the heart has begun to burn with a steady zeal, then the
indignation may withdraw into the past, and be looked at by
memory, and the soul's uninterrupted experience be of love.
Well for us, if we allow ourselves to hear the chastening rebuke of Christ contained in his word, and do not constrain him
to clothe it in afflictive providences. Let us beware how we
hide our conscience from the light of any portion of God's
truth. At the door of many how long does Jesus stand and
knock, while they hear not. They read, from time to time,
the very words which express his deep dissatisfaction with the
iniquity which they are regarding in their hearts; read, hear,
but never discern the voice of Christ addressed to themselves.
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When in a rougher fashion he at length knocks at their door
they become aware that such a forcible appeal has been made
necessary by their strange and long-protracted spiritual deafness.
It is the office of conscience to rebuke. It does this, not as
the enemy of the soul, but as the guardian of the soul's highest'
interests. It has, however, participated in the general ruin of
our nature; and seldom speaks as the sincere servant of truth.
But Christ is formed in us the hope of glory. Our conscience
puts on Christ. The great need of the Christian is, that
Christ and his conscience should be identified; that the rebuke
of his conscience may ever be the rebuke of Christ. To this
end let him give utmost heed to such rebukes; and by cords
of love enchain his whole nature to the new Christ-conscience
coming forth from the sepulchre of his dead nature.
MAY 18.-" He will subdue our iniquities."-Micah vii. 19.
Having had a taste of the power of these our enemies, we
look disconsolately around, much desiring, but little hoping,
that a deliverer may appear. We discover some, perhaps, who
excel in virtue. But we see at once that they can never medicine us to that sweet peace which they themselves possess.
They may instruct; but we need something more than instruction; there is that within us which laughs at instruction, human or divine. If some angels would only come and tarry
with us for a season; but alas! they would stand for a moment
aghast, and then spread their swiftest wings for the regions
where God reigns. They may sustain the believer, so that he
dash not his foot against a stone, but they have no power adequate for the creation of a believer out of an unbeliever. Creation!-this is the word-to be taken to pieces, as it were; reduced to nothingness, and then made to live, a new creature.
This is no mere speculation. The Creator consents to cre



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ate us over again. He takes us to the cross, and lifting up his
hand to heaven, swears that if we consent to die there, we shall
surely live there, and our new life shall be the participated life
of Him who knew no sin. We shall rise in the image of God.
If we have boldness to be crucified with Christ, happy are we.
He subdues our iniquities, then, by making us despair of
ever subduing them ourselves.-By pointing out to us some
trophies of his power, some incorrigible Peters, some wrathfu
Pauls, who have been emancipated by his act.-By convincing
us of his willingness to take our foes in hand.-By giving us a
conception of his marvelous love shown to sinners, in the surrender of his only-begotten.-By giving us, through faith, a
heavenly experience of that love. We feast upon it, and our
enemies are not. They are gone without a battle.
Why should there ever be anything more? The enemies
flee far and fast: one, however, remains crouching in the dark,
unseen-mutability; and in due time the others return, hoping
that their friend may have an opportunity of re-admitting
them. Then there are sad conflicts; and we wonder if, after
all, our iniquities are to abide unsubdued. We learn eventually that before their absolute subjugation, it is in many respects necessary that we should have an accurate acquaintance
with them, an utter detestation of them, a most watchful habit
of faith with respect to them. We learn, in fact, that the perpetuity of salvation is connected with the perpetuity of faith.
It is merely because of the imperfection and slumber of faith
that they ever venture to re-appear. They know very well
that we have no more of God than we have of faith.
MAY 19.-" The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not
at all acquit the wicked."-Nahum i. 3.
Because the Lord is slow to anger, men suppose that they
have nothing to apprehend from his anger. But, indeed, his




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anger is only the more terrible, because it is slow. He is slow
to anger; this shows that his anger is something different from
what we call anger. It is not an impulse; but moves with the
utmost possible deliberation.
It would be of the greatest advantage to men if they would
just take knowledge that the goodness of God expressed in
the innumerable gifts of Providence that strew their paths, is
not complacency, but suspended wrath. They lie down and
sleep; in the morning they awake, give a careless thought to
the circumstance that God has watched over them, and go
their way. They embark in many enterprises, and meet with
success. Comforts, honors, advantages, pour in from many
quarters. Why? The reason is, say they, that God is well
pleased with us. The question then arises, " Who is this God
that daily fetches out of his treasury things, new and old, to
bestow on hoary-headed sinners, whose life is dedicated to iniquity? What are we to think of a God who pays the salaries
of the servants of Satan, and affords them facilities for doing
his infamous will?" You know not God. He bestows upon
you providential kindnesses, because he would attract you to
his kingdom against which you are now in revolt; because he
would have you hear the word of his grace, and escape the uplifted bolt of his vengeance. He prolongs the day of mercy,
because he knows there is for you a lake of unquenchable fire,
an eternity of woe.
It would be a fearful impeachment of the power of Ged, if
the sinner, abiding in transgression, should after all come off
victorious. Transgression is the assumption of power greater
than that of God. Weak and contemptible is that legislator
whose laws may be broken with impunity. Better a thousand
times that he should make no laws at all. The sinner now for
a while cajoles himself with the idea that he is greater than
God; that he can contemn the commandments of God. But
God is as great in power as he is in long-suffering; and the




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imagined victory of man only prepares the way for the sublimer victory of God.
MAY 20.-" I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep."-John x. 14.
Thou art indeed the good shepherd; but we must acknowledge that there often appears in us something that looks very
much like a denial of this truth. Believing thee to be the
good shepherd, why are we sometimes so slow to follow thee?
Why do we ever doubt that thy commandments are better
than our own conceits? Why murmur at the ruggedness of
thy path? Why look with wistful eyes at the pastures which
thou forbiddest? We name thee the good shepherd; but is
there not some hypocrisy in the joy with which we do it?
The words are familiar to our lips; but our lives bear an ambiguous testimony.
If an enemy should overcome us, take away our armor in
which we trusted, and command us to follow him; fear might
constrain us to do so; but we should take every opportunity
of lagging behind; we should follow afar off; we should be
ever glancing to the right hand and to the left in search of
some solace; we should go as far as we dared in by-paths; we
should look wistfully to the sunny fields of liberty in the distance; we should go slowly when our enemy called; we should
do sullenly what he commanded. Has Christ any such disciples? Will he trouble himself long with those who cleave to
him chiefly through fear? These are the greatest reproach to
him. They stigmatize him fearfully. Whatever their mouth
may say, their conduct asserts him to be the bad shepherd.
Let me honor thee, 0 Lord, and in all my ways proclaim
thee the good shepherd, by doing cheerfully all thy will, not
setting aside those precepts of the Gospel that have fallen into
disuse in the Church, but ever acting upon the conviction that
each jot and tittle of what thou hast uttered has a relation to
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my well-being as intimate as the breath that visits my lungs
Whatever others may do, let me not pretend to know myself
better than thou knowest me; by supposing that thou hast
overrated my capacity in the tasks thou hast assigned, or underrated my necessity in the good things thou hast bestowed,
or ignored my urgency when the answer to prayer is long delayed.
MAY 21.-" The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."-H-abakkuk ii. 14.
The world with all its wisdom has not yet reached the platform where this humble servant of God stood more than two
thousand years ago. But indeed, others had stood there before
him. Isaiah had stood there and heard the song of the seraphim. Moses had stood there nearly a thousand years before,
and heard the asseveration of the divine majesty, " As I live,
all the earth shall be filled with my glory."  It is the fashion
with many to despise the stand-point of the ancient Israelites;
nevertheless, it was the stand-point from which a number of
them were permitted to see more of the future condition of
the nations of the earth than the most sagacious politician is
yet able to see.
What an idea of fulness does the contemplation of the sea
convey to us! The basin of the sea is full. A very little
added would cause a multitude of isles to disappear. The
earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. All his works
show forth his glory; and a long life might be spent in tracing
a little leaf through all the ramifications of its eloquent history. But the Gospel is being published; and thousands of
tongues are telling in many, many languages, the length and
breadth, the depth and height of God's immeasurable love in
Christ. Still the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in
pain; and the ministers of the gospel perpetually exclaim,
"How long, O Lord, how long?"       The voices of the old




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


prophets assure us tha, a race shall tread this earth in the
latter days, whose eye shall have been anointed with eye salve
to behold the full glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus
Christ, and to perceive the word "Bethel" written upon the
face of universal nature. Every tree shall be to them a pillar
in the temple of God; and every stone shall have written on
it the ineffable name of God. The mountains shall bring
peace, and the little hills shall yield joyously their contributions to the world-wide righteousness.
In this view a great interest attaches to this earth of ours,
even to every particular locality of it. Concerning every place
that we may visit, we have the assurance that a time will come
when the redeemed shall walk there and hearken diligently to
its song of emancipation, to its praises of God and the Lamb.
We know, indeed, that sin and the works and memorials of
sin are to be burnt out of the earth. We know, also, that our
bodies shall sleep in dust and arise glorious. The resurrection
of Christ is not only the guarantee of our resurrection, but
of that of the material world which was made by him, and
for him.
MAY 22.-" The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty."-Zephaniah iii. 17.
Most pitiable was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt.
Pharaoh seemed to delight in eliciting the most incredible
proofs of their subjection to his rod. There is ordinarily a
limit beyond which masters dare not go in trifling with the
lives and feelings of even the most abject slaves; but there
seemed to be no limit to Pharaoh's power to oppress. The
sacred sentiment of paternity he trampled on; and seemed to
feel that the Israelites were the very impersonation of helplessness. But soon it appeared that the Lord was in the midst
of this despised people, mighty to save; and with such exhibitions of might and majesty as never had accompanied the




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movements of any other people, they went forth from the
presence of their oppressors.
The Church of Christ is an habitation of God through the
Spirit. Lo, I am with you always, said Jesus. We know how
mighty he was in the midst of his disciples. After a lapse of
many years he appeared to John, and told him to reveal him to
the churches as walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, He is in the midst of us, mighty to save. Nothing
of his might has been lost to the Church. It was expedient
for us that he should go from earth in body, and be present
with us in spirit. We lost nothing by this arrangement. We
may therefore calculate on a manifestation of glory and of
power not by any means inferior to those that render lustrous
the pages of sacred history. Let us only be careful to put
far away all insignia of our own power and glory; and what
may we not expect!
But alas! what do we expect? Do we expect some sublime
revelations of might in the way of subduing our selfishness,
worldliness, passion, pride? Are we looking for divine might
to disclose itself in connection with our efforts for the good of
men?   Are we rivalling Elijah in faith, Moses in meekness
and zeal, Job in patience, Paul in earnestness, John in spirituality? Are we seeking to be holy as God is holy? Why not,
if the Lord be in the midst of us, mighty to save.
MAY 23.-" They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn."-Zechariah xii. 10.
Think not that they who were personally concerned in the
crucifixon of the Lord Jesus Christ, were sinners above all the
sinners of the world. Christ on the cross, the righteous Advocate, was able to find something extenuating in their conduct. " They know not what they do." Afterwards, when
they saw what they had done, when the Spirit of Pentecost




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made him known as the Prince of life, many of them repented
of their sin, and made haste to believe upon him. The mea
sure of knowledge is an important element in determining the
measure of sin. The measure of the means of knowing, let us
say rather. There are thousands who are every day guilty of
conduct as odious in the sight of heaven as that of the parties
who nailed Christ to the cross, and thrust a spear into his side.
These indeed, were mere Roman soldiers, having no personal
animosity to Christ, whose language even they did not understand; the guilty parties of that scene did not themselves lift
a finger against Christ. And their guilt falls immeasurably
short, as we have said, of many who now live, read the Gospel,
speak about it, profess to look to Christ for salvation, and yet
utterly falsify his religion in their practice. When men attributed his blessed works and words to satanic influence, the
heart of Christ was pierced; but it is even more pierced when
men profess to be his disciples, and by continuance in sin teach
the world that Christ has no objection to sin. These are engaged in crucifying the Son of God afresh. They crucify his
love with their contentions; his holiness with their profane
conduct; his justice with their unrighteousness; his mercy with
their unmercifulness; his truth with their deceit; his generosity with their selfishness. They crucify him by falsifying
him. Some pierce him by denying his divinity; some by
teaching that he will save all, whether they repent or not;
some by withholding his Gospel from the multitude; some by
exalting a mere ceremony to a glory above that of Christ;
some by substituting a crucifix for him; some in one way,
some in another. All whose life, teaching, conversation, go to
misrepresent or degrade Christ be they as numerous as they
may, as admired as you please, they are piercing Christ, and
they shall mourn. The thing which will fill Christ's meek
ones with ineffable joy, will fill the hearts of these professors
with anguish that no tongue can describe.




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MAY 24.-" His mercy is on them that fear him."-Luke i. 50.
Is there not reason to apprehend that we presume upon a
great deal of mercy that is not really accorded?  We know
that the world takes for granted that God forgives it, and reserves all its anxiety for matters that seem to it invested with
much more difficulty. But may it not be that we, who consider ourselves, on apparently good grounds, as God's real children, that we are daily presuming on God's forgiveness when
that forgiveness is not really pronounced?  We are not notified
of forgiveness by some special messenger; but are taught by
the Spirit of God to find it in the word of God by a process
in which there is some scope for self to intermingle and vitiate
the result. It requires no little wisdom, but especially much
meekness, and self-mistrust, and love of the truth, and docility, to ascertain unerringly, that forgiveness has been pronounced.
God's mercy is on them that fear him. It is not intended
to make men think lightly of transgression; but greatly to
increase their estimate of God's authority, and their loathing
for the sin forgiven. Is it impossible to find in our practice
the evidence that we continue on good terms with the sin that
we presume God is day by day forgiving? Are we aware that
this is a foul mockery of God, a caricature of his mercy?
There is no true fear of God before our eyes, if to-day's sin
keeps ever following upon yesterday's forgiveness.
MAY 25.-" There shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness."-Zcchariah xiii. 1.
The Jews were accustomed to regard themselves as a foun
tain of righteousness, the only one in the earth; their countr3
an oasis made glad by these beneficent and hallowed waters
whilh all the rest of the world was a wilderness; and Jerusa




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lem as the blessed spot where heaven and earth met together
and held one another in a fond embrace. At no time were
they more tenacious of these views than when the Son of God
dwelt among them, drinking his daily cup of ignominy. His
credentials showed that he had come to earth for the salvation
-of all nations. A word spoken against him, a hand lifted in
opposition to him, was therefore not only the most transcendent
outrage offered to the Deity, but the fearfulest crime against
all the dwellers upon the earth. Yet the Jews rejected him;
this is saying little; they put him to the most shameful and
most cruel death conceivable.
But that which filled up the measure of the iniquity of
man was used by infinite grace as a means for the most surprising manifestation of itself. The disciples were commanded
to begin at Jerusalem, in the proclamation of the Gospel.
Then did the Jews discover that their pre-eminence over
the nations was a pre-eminence of guilt; and having been
brought, many of them at least, into a posture of deep selfcondemnation and self-loathing, they discovered the fountain
of divine grace, drank thereof, and washed their sins away in
its purifying waters. It was then that Jerusalem attained to a
pre-eminence above the nations immeasurably more honorable
than any it had previously enjoyed; then, in that little season
which intervened between the first successes of the Gospel and
its publication in other places. Solomon with all the glory of
his court could not so ennoble Jerusalem, as the little company of believers did, who were all of one heart and of one
soul.
We faintly remember to have read in some book of imagination of a fountain having marvelous properties, and this
among the rest-that a few drops taken from it to any distant
place and there poured out, would immediately cause a similar
fountain there to spring up. Christ told the woman of Samaria that the water that he would give her, would be in her




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a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. Whosoevel
comes to him and drinks, not only finds his own thirst assuaged,
but discovers in himself a wealth of waters sufficient to slake
the thirst of numbers. Thus the fountain opened up to the
house of David and the people of Jerusalem in that little
company of believers, has been repeated and repeated, until
now there is hardly any place under the sun where this fountain of divine grace is not accessible. How tame and puerile
the efforts of man's fancy in comparison with the actual products of God's beneficence!  "Thou art a God that doeth
wonders." In order to discourse of wonders, men suppose
themselves driven from the actual world into the world of
sheer imagination. But they forsake the world of wonders
when they forsake the world of truth. Be it that they conceive a fountain most beautiful to behold; the eye is not satisfied with seeing; or, streaming with gold; there are a thousand
ills of life that mock at gold; or, communicating health; health
is merely a deliverance from one class of sufferings. But a
fountain which sheds abroad the love of God in the heart;
which gives the best of light to the understanding; elevates
the affections; banishes sin; gives everlasting life; and reveals a world worthy of that everlasting life: this is surely
beyond all comparison, The Wonderful Fountain.
MAY 26.-"If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them."-Matthew xviii. 19.
Men are fully aware of many of the advantages of partnerships. They even form partnerships for the prosecution of
some labors that would seem most likely to be well performed
by a single individual; as for instance, the labors of authorship. But they are not aware that any gain would result from
entering into partnership, with the promises of God as their
capital, and the throne of grace as their place of business.




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The encouragement of the text does not address itself merely
to an association formed of two persons; the context shows
that it does not. But our Lord teaches that association in
prayer is so exceedingly profitable, that even if two only should
embark in it, there would be grand results. Let three, four,
or a hundred and twenty, of one accord, of one mind, seek to
utilize the promises; commensurate fruits shall appear in some
early day of Pentecost. The great thing is not the numbers,
but the agreement. The prayer of two whose souls are attuned to exactly the same key, and who have learned to merge
their separate interests in one common interest, shall prevail
more than the prayer of tens of thousands, whose minds are
occupied, more or less, with lingering considerations of purely
personal good.
The Church in these latter times has grasped earnestly at
the advantages connected with association; and the number of
its societies is beyond estimate. But it is comparatively overlooked that association in prayer should take the lead of every
other association.  Upon the plateau in front of the mercyseat, God, as it were, sees innumerable suppliants, each one, in
some sense or other, standing by himself; and hears innumerable petitions which only accidentally coalesce, for the most
part are quite different in sentiment and aim from one another,
and sometimes are strangely opposed to one another. Now
God would teach us that in prosecuting our associate enterprises, we must prosecute them with united prayer.
The prizes held out to believing prayer, are also prizes for
Christian concord of the most intimate kind. Oh, who can
tell what mighty, what magnificent freight of celestial treasure
will reach the shores of this world, when Christians bind themselves together with the utmost stringency, before the mercyseat? surrendering all divided interests, and constituting themselves one firm; feeling that all depends upon their absolute
agreement. Cannot every parent understand this? Is it not




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his delight when a gift bestowed on one child is a gratification
to all? Is it not a grief to him to observe that his clhildren have
divided interest? Ten thousand prayers are dismissed daily,
with this one word, "Love one another with pure hearts fervently."
MAY 27. —"Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown."-Revelation iii. 11.
Hold fast what thou hast, because it is only for a little while
that thou must hold it under the pressure of adverse circumstances; and hold it fast because everlasting victory and dominion and blessedness shall reward thy fidelity. So might a
captain speak to a little band assaulted by a mighty host, when
in the distance a relieving force is seen approaching; a nation's
destiny depends upon their holding their own.
It is only for a little while, because the day of our salvation is
now nearer than we believed; and because we have learned
to wait. Delays that once were agonizing now pass with much
less severity over our disciplined natures. We have learned
obedience by the things we have suffered.
He, the plunderer, who goeth about seeking to despoil men
of the gifts that God has bestowed on them through Christ,
obtains his success chiefly by persuading men that in relinquishing or neglecting this and that spiritual gift, they are
doing nothing to jeopardize their crown. A man yields up
something of his energy, his watchfilness, his prayerfulness,
self-denial, humility or love, because he manages to persuade
himself that his title to glory, honor, and immortality, is safe
enough, independently of the vacillations of his spiritual life.
It is therefore for the Christian to keep carefully in mind. that
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. The example
of Paul is admirable here. If any man might think that lie
had got beyond the reach of being a castaway, it was Paul.




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Well, he had; he had assurance of his indestructible interest
in Christ; but he never allowed himself to feel that he had
got beyond the need of keeping his body under, of running
not uncertainly, of fighting not as one that beateth the air,
lest he himself should be a castaway. His assurance was connected with the witness of the Spirit within him, the Spirit
that led him habitually to count all things but loss that he
might win more and more of Christ, more and more of Christ's
likeness.
Christ will keep that which we have committed unto him;
and we must keep that which he has committed unto us. None
shall pluck us out of his hand; we are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation; we are kept by the good
Shepherd, because we keep within the hearing of his voice
and follow him.
The consciousness of sin often causes men to relax their
hold of Christ's salvation.  They have been overtaken by
temptation, have fallen into some snare, have yielded their
heart to some seductive vanity; and when they come to themselves, then confidence in Christ is fearfully shaken, and it will
be well if they let him not go altogether. Let them then hear
his voice saying, Hold fast what thou hast, that no man take
thy crown. Thy sin starts up with assumed indignation, pretending to have a great zeal for God, and says, " Is it not
enough that thy path was sin till thou enteredst the gates of
the kingdom, but wilt thou within the very borders of the
kingdom, sow the dragon's teeth of sin?" But fall not back;
drag thy sin to Christ, and there accuse both it and thyself,
and call upon Christ to avenge himself on thy recreant nature
by sanctifying it and clothing it with the armor of righteousness.
We can only hold fast what we have, by constantly using it.
If we have a measure of love, we must daily study the means
of manifesting it. It is easily recovered from yesterday but




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not from the day before. If we have joy, we must persevere
in rejoicing; every day must have its spiritual joy.  Our
peace too, we must daily see to it that it is with us. So with
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Each day is to be considered a stage, and we must ascertain regularly that none of our treasures have been left
behind. Christians are ready to think, until they have learned
the contrary, that their graces are safe when they are slumbering; but their slumber is fatal. Whatever we would retain
we must keep it near our consciousness; our will, our memory,
our understanding, all must be conversant with it.
Look into the diary of such a man as Jonathan Edwards,
to know how he held fhst to what he had, that no man should
take his crown. Look at these admirable resolutions, and at
the admirable obedience he rendered to them, and see how
high his estimate of every gracious communication from his
Lord, how strenuously he battled for the preservation of it.
MAY 28.-" Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness
arise."-Malachi iv. 2.
Unto them that stand in awe of God and are conversant
with the divine perfections, the Sun of righteousness makes
haste to arise. There has been a fulfilling of this truth ever
since the day of Pentecost. To one individual here, to another there, it is given to behold his rising. Here is one that
has been enabled to look upon Christ as the sacrifice for sin,
to approach God through him, and to rejoice in the goodly
prospects opening up before him. But soon he becomes conscious, of a great and growing need. He is not satisfied with
what he has seen of Christ. The very word of God excites
in him conceptions of a walk with Christ, glorious, elevating,
soul-satisfying, beyond anything that he has experienced. It
seems to him that thl3 world grows darker every day. He




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once rejoiced in the day-star and in the dawn, ani thought the
light amazing; but now he is consumed with longings to behold the bright manifestation of Christ to his soul; and it
seems as though midnight had come again. At length in some
happy hour, the scales fall from his eyes; the word of God
becomes luminous like the very vestments of Christ transfigured; and instead of finding himself alone in the world, he
finds himself in intimate alliance with a Being whose glory
fills the heavens. The whole world is now to him enlightened.
His sun is arisen. All the works of nature are seen as they
never were before. In a particular language that others cannot understand, the heavens declare to him the glory of God.
The sun that pursues its course through the skies is commissioned to remind him that God is love, and that God is
his.
He goes far in the strength of this joy. But at length he
discovers that Christ has laid the foundations of his new nature very deep; and that it is impossible for him to be conclusively satisfied with any private joy.  IeI is so made like unto
Christ that he cannot but look with longings as intense as he
ever knew, for that appearance of the Lord in his unlimited
glory, which will be the signal of the complete redemption of
the Church, as well as of the creation that now groaneth and
travaileth in pain.
MAY 29.-" He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in
himself."-1 John v. 10.
There is much evidence given anterior to faith; abundant
evidence; far more than men care to gather up, concerning
anything of worldly interest.  Yet the greatest and most surprising testimonies are reserved for the satisfaction of believers. If unbelief has its necessities, faith has its privileges.
Some would like to have, without any figure, a white stone
thrown down to them from heaven, with their name upon it,
lq) *




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beside the name of God-something that they can clutch in
their hand. But believers are content with a testimony more
appropriate to faith.
Christ promised his Spirit; he promised himself; he promised the indwelling of the Father in the heart of the believer,
who then has the witness in himself; even the faithful and
true witness, him that cannot lie, him that guideth into all
truth.
But how manifold is the testimony of this witness-even as
many as are his operations. The fruits of the Spirit are so
many expressions of this testimony. Consider the offices of
the Spirit as set forth by Christ to his disciples (John xiv.xvi.) The eighth chapter of Romans also describes this testimony. The seventh shows the misery of being without it.
There is no witness in the world more worthy of all acceptation. For who will venture to say that the spirit of man, with
the best aid of Satan, is able to counterfeit perfectly the sublimest and blessedest operations of the Godhead?
MAY 30.-" The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, wifh
his angels."-Matthew xvi. 27.
It seems to have been an important part of the divine plan
that the people of God, from Adam onward to the actual advent of the Messiah, should be momentarily expecting that
Messiah; the times and the seasons he dimly revealed, reserving them mainly for his own contemplation. And scarcely
had the Saviour at length alighted on this earth than he began
to direct the minds of the new people whom he was forming
for himself, to his ulterior advent in glory. To wait for the
Son of God from heaven, is as much the proper attitude of
the Church of this dispensation, as of that of former dispensations.
When he came on his errand of humiliation, there was no




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element of humiliation wanting; and when he cometh for the
exhibition of glory, we may be sure that there shall be no element of glory wanting. For consider that he cometh in the
glory of his Father. The inconceivable glory of God in the
material universe, in the angelic hierarchies, in the heaven of
heavens, must all be placed upon the Redeemer, even as once
our sins were all laid upon him. Yes, he must come clothed
with the virtues of all beings, with all the righteousness that is,
with all the wisdom that is, with all the beauty that is, all the
power, all the excellence of all existences. The glory of the
sun will be changed to sackcloth, the brightness of the heaven
to darkness, not by any change in them, but by the superior
glory then introduced. This glory is to burst upon the world
in a day and in an hour, when men expect it not: hence the
need that Christians should expect it in every day and hour.
The gospel includes both advents. Christ as often spoke to
his disciples of his future coming in glory, as of his dying in
Jerusalem.
MAY 31.-"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord."-Philippians iii. 8.
Excellency is to be estimated by adaptation. Viewed in
himself, Christ is without a peer. With all beings before him,
the Father chose Christ, saying, " This is my elect, in whom
my soul delighteth." When God has pronounced, what need
remains of deliberation? But happily for us, there is in
Christ not only infinite excellency, but adaptation to our state
and requirements.
As he is excellent, so is the knowledge of him excellent;
for we possess him by knowing him. There is nothing in the
world that may not cheerfully be sacrificed in the effort to
know Christ. If there be reason to believe that we shall enjoy better opportunities of knowing Christ in an inferior position, it is most becoming to descend into it. If wealth blocks




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up the avenues of our spiritual apprehension of Christ, it
must be removed.
We cannot know Christ, if we are without a will to obey
him. Since the path of duty is the path of this golden knowledge, let us go forward in it with delight. The peasant has
his few articles of furniture, some paltry pictures, a little patch
of ground, plain apparel, and perhaps thinks much of these
possessions; but make him master of a palace, with galleries
and treasuries, and how lightly will he then esteem his former
goods. Thus with the Christian.
JUNE 1.-" I am the bread of life."-John vi. 35.
Men have what they regard as life; and if you tell them
that it is not life, they smile at your quaint way of viewing
things, and at your figurative language. But, really, what men
call life is but a momentary evasion of death. Death dogs
you everywhere. He hath long since written his name upon
you; and he suffers not a day to go by in which he does not
extort a new confession from your mortal constitution, to the
effect that you are his. All pain, all weariness, all loss, all decay, proclaims that you are a respited criminal.
Men insist on regarding the existence they now possess as
natural, regular, and just what the universal system of things
requires. They cannot patiently hearken to the doctrine that
man is fallen, that his present estate is in consequence abnormal, out of joint. They call this life, deeming this to be
God's great gift, even his best; and are bewildered at the
statement that this is death, God's real gift of life having been
cast away. It is a great approach to emancipation for a soul
to discover that humanity is wrecked; at sea in an open and
shattered boat; defending itself from death for a little moment
by a drop of water and an ounce of bread; ready to perish
whenever it shall please the mysterious monarch to step from




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some billow into the boat. But when we have found that what
men call life is not life, a question of unspeakable interest
arises. Is there life for man? Will God, indeed, let us reenter Eden, and put forth our hand and eat of the fruit of the
tree of life, and live forever? When Christ, taking his stand
in the centre of the human family, proclaims, " I am the bread
of life," then Eden is come again, Eden with opened doors,
with no sword-waving cherubim, but with its tree of life in
full view, and within easy reach. The door that will be closed
against many in the last day, is no other than the door that
has stood open for them many a long year; and the life from
which they with anguish will be forever divorced, is just the
life that is now offered to them day by day, and offered in vain.
If we would have a lively illustration of the meaning of
these words, we should give our attention to the few barley
loaves that were taken from the basket of that lad, multiplied
and distributed to the apostles; which kept multiplying as
they kept breaking and distributing it to the muititude; which
kept on multiplying as the multitude kept breaking it and
handing it every man to his neighbor; which abundantly met
the wants of five thousand men, besides women and children,
and would have met the wants of the whole world had it been
there; which was so much greater for all its communications
that it required twelve baskets to hold it, after the banquet
was over.
JUNE 2.-" God was in Christ."-2 Corinthians v. 19.
You have false conceptions of some being, some one that has
claims upon your cordial love and heartiest obedience; his
claims you cannot recognize, his worth is utterly hidden from
you, and your embittered mind will not allow you to behold
him otherwise than as invested with dark and forbidding qualities. Knowing the force of your prejudice, he comes to you
in the disguise of a mean man, and is hired by you as a serv



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ant.  Gradually you marvel at the admirable characteristics
of this servant. He removes every stone from your path, and
does it without ostentation. He garlands your house about
with beautiful flowers. He spreads your table with food that
angels might eat. He entertains your children by endless devices, and enriches their minds with the best instruction. IIe
is continually averting some danger, saving some life. In some
hour of special magnanimity on his part, you shout aloud your
admiration of his character, and call Heaven to witness that
you will ever love him and ever serve him. At that moment,
the disguise falls from him, and your injured lord stands before you. The master against whom you had revolted was in
that matchless servant. Your prejudices left him no alternative but thus to approach you, thus to propitiate you. What
now can you do but fall at his feet with a contrite heart, deploring your former folly and wickedness, and consecrating
yourself unreservedly to the service of such a master.
Here is a province that professes to have a great attachment
to the sovereign, yet breaks all his laws without the slightest
compunction, affirming either that he had never made the laws,
or was indifferent about their execution. When any legate
landed on their shores, demanding tribute, they tore him in
pieces, affirming that he had come in his own name, and that
the sovereign required no tribute at their hands. Perhaps
they put a few lame and diseased animals that they knew not
what else to do with, on board the vessel, and sent it back to
the capital, while they boasted of their munificent fealty and
self-sacrificing devotedness. At length a stranger comes and
takes up his abode among them. His conduct is very differentc
from theirs, for it is blameless. He teaches and exemplifies
neighborly love; refuses to visit the places of amusement
which the sovereign had forbidden to be opened, to take anything, do anything, speak anything, contrary to the laws. He
speaks of the king, and relates what he has seen at his court




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and what he has not seen there. He assures the people that
if they will repent and unfeignedly submit to their monarch,
they shall meet with not only lenity, but boundless kindness;
but if they remain obdurate, he will come and overwhelm
them with his wrath. The people, from the highest to the
lowest, hear all this with shouts of derision, unbelief, and an.
ger; from day to day their anger becomes less and less controllable; at length they seize the stranger, determined to put
him to the most barbarous and shameful death. "At last,"
they then say, " we shall free the earth from the presence of
this blasphemer, who can do nothing but asperse the honor of
our sovereign." They bring their instruments of torture and
proceed to inflict upon him the most fiendish torments. At
that moment his imperial cohorts arrive and snatch him from
their hands; his nobles re-invest him with the symbols of
power, and bow the knee before him; and all the company of
the regicides stand appalled and utterly confounded. Their
sovereign was in that stranger; and it was the character, the
words, the ways of their sovereign, that they had been so intensely hating.  "God was in Christ."
JUNE 3.-" Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them."-Matthew xviii. 20.
We cross sea and land to visit the holy places. We exult
to look upon the wretched city that bears the name of the
place where Christ was condemned to death. We say, this
stream he crossed, this mountain he stood upon, this valley he
traversed, this shore he visited, in this town he was born, in
this place he was brought up. Romanists, Greeks, Armenians,
who know of no other holy places, jostle us and outstrip us.
But the question, " Where is Christ to be found now?" is far
more important than the question, where he once was. " The
world seeth me no more and thinketh of me in the patf. but




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ye see me. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father; but when
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth." The little companies that come together in upper
chambers and bye places, in the name of Christ, remembering
his promises, seeking his presence, cherishing his spirit, honoring his word-in these little companies Christ is to be found.
Is it possible that any one should be a lover of Christ and
not a lover of these assemblies? That they should be a weariness to the world, we can understand. But alas! there are
thousands who profess to be his, who never dream of frequenting these meetings of believers, held in honor of Christ, for
communion with Christ. These believers behold Christ in
one another. They speak his words; entertain his desires;
occupy themselves with his resolutions. He is present in their
characters, modelled upon his. He is present in the word
which they read, hearken to, believe. He is the subject of
their conversation. They dwell upon his life, sufferings, and
love. He is present by the Spirit, that takes of him and
shows unto them. They are convinced of sin, confess it, and
forsake it. They behold his glory, and rejoice greatly in him.
Such effects of Christ's words and glances often take place in
these meetings, as greatly surpass what took place when he
was visibly present with those twelve disciples of old. He is
present as a righteous advocate and intercessor. They are his
plenipotentiaries. He gives them their instructions, and clothes
them with power.
If Christ be in these assemblies, then are they the true centres from whence the mightiest influences flow abroad over the
world. Divine wisdom, truth, power and love, must be added
to the folly, weakness, ignorance, erringness, of the two or
three that meet in his name, in order that we may form a just
estimate of the moral value of these meetings. Some of the
grandest revolutions in society, have their origin here.




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JUNE 4.-" Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom T
am chief."-1 Timothy i. 15.
Every man looks upon himself as belonging to a small minority composed of the world's best men. If there were one
enormous circle drawn, and another very small one, the former
for the great transgressors and the latter for the comparatively
innocent, all the world with one consent would seek to crowd
into the smaller circle. And in this they would be acting
quite conscientiously. They are accustomed in their self-estimates to overrate the good and underrate the evil. Again,
they judge of themselves, not by their actual works, but by
their imaginations, aspirations, and unrealized capabilities.
Circumstances, they say to themselves, keep us down; but we
feel that we are capable of rising to the loftiest heights of
moral power. Their bad qualities again are treated as accidents, not properly belonging to them; as barnacles cleave to
the bottom of a ship. Thus it was with Paul, till the law
came, and he found himself compelled to apply God's standard
of goodness to himself. Then he was filled with horror; sin
revived and he died; the former Paul whom he had known
and admired, and wanted all the world to admire, disappeared,
and in his place came Sin, revealing itself in all his nature, all
his habits, and, as it were, possessing him, from the crown of
his head to the sole of his feet. He now finds it impossible to
see so much sin in any other as he sees in himself; just as it
is impossible for the eye to see so much of things at a distance,
as of things at hand.
This mighty and, as it seems, incredible change must pass
upon all men. Yes, all the proud, the boastful, the self-complacent, the moral; the souls that eulogize themselves for
heaven-born impulses and heaven-high aspirations; these all
must be brought to the condition into which the law brought
Paul. I say not that they will not be brought out of it.
17




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When the wrath of the Lamb shall be revealed, who shall be
able to stand?
JUNE 5.-" Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh,
shall find watching."-Luke xii. 37.
How everything in this world wears the appearance of a
house the master of which is away, far, far away; as good as
dead. Every one doeth that which is right in his own eyes,
and goeth about as though he had himself inherited all authority. A few, indeed, proclaim in this chamber and in that, the
remembered will of the master, and endeavor to turn back the
tide of rebellion and of ungodliness. But the others listen
not. They say, " Our Lord delayeth his coming, and there is
not the slightest likelihood that he will come in our days. He
hath stationed no guard to interfere with us; we have liberty;
let us avail ourselves of it." Carried away by the force of
their example, some from whom you would have expected
more fidelity, give over watching. But there is a little band
who keep watching, watching on, amid all the confusion and
iniquity around them. To a reflecting observer, it is quite
amazing to see how they go about all their appointed occupations, just as though the Lord were there, looking on; not
sparing themselves, not seeking their own, putting up with insults and injuries, multiplying their labors; introducing improvements into their way of doing things, increasing in skill,
in patience, in success, as months and years roll on. What is
the secret spring of their conduct? It is twofold. By faith
they know that their Lord sees them, even now, and is acquainted with all their ways; and they know also that he
cometh, none can say how soon, to take unto him his great
power and reign.




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JUNE 6.-"Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks."1 Thessalonians v. 17, 18.
You are always receiving; you are always needing. There
is no position that you are called to occupy in which you will
not find some expressions of divine goodness. There is no
cup so bitter given you by your heavenly Father that has not
in it some commingled good. Iz evertything give thanks. In
the pit of Joseph. In his prosperity. In his prison. In the
belly of the fish. Upon Job's dunghill.  Let John the Bap
tist in prison give thanks that he had received boldness to
declare the truth. Let the scourged disciples rejoice that they
are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. In every
trial you have this at least to give thanks for, that you are
tried; for you might have been cast away as reprobate. The
very fact of trial shows a thought of goodness toward you on
the part of God. Observe what you are receiving, and give
thanks for it: be sensible also of what you need, and pray for
it.
Pray without ceasing, forThe adversary is unceasingly on the alert.
The manna of grace does not keep.
Your nature is most volatile and mutable.
Prayer is the recognition of an unceasing fact, namely your
dependence on God.
JUNE 7.-"Walk in the Spirit."-Galatians v. 16.
Let the Spirit have the control of all your movements. Do
this thing, let alone that, adopt this habit, forsake that, speak
this word, dismiss that, go, stay, as the Spirit shall choose. It
is certainly a marvellous invention of God that the Spirit
should come down from heaven, enter into these satanized constitutions of ours, and undertake to exhibit a divine life upon
the earth through the instrumentality of anything so utterly




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intractable as these members, these hearts, these darkened un.
derstandings.  It seems like expecting that some mud-boat
shall mount into the skies, and wheel itself in beauty along
the clouds.
He that walketh in the Spirit, will be very shy of mere
impulses. He will cultivate a calm collectedness of soul, will
keep himself in a listening attitude, that he may ever hear the
still small voice of the Spirit. How wonderful that this mighty
subjugation of his nature, should be brought about by the
agency of a faint whisper that the least commotion renders
inaudible! What all the physical forces of the world would
have failed to accomplish, is brought about by a gentle mysterious whisper in the depth of one's nature. The world sees
the surprising result, and is all bewildered at the absence of a
sensible motive power.
JUNE 8.-" I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you."John xiv. 18.
More literally, I will not leave you orphans-bereaved of
all that you hold most dear, most necessary-helpless in the
presence of many foes-friendless in the presence of many
trials- skilless in the presence of an immense task. The pa.
rents are the complement of the little child.  It operates
through their wisdom and power and resources, to keep its
place in the world, and act its part. The Christian without
Christ, if such a thing can be conceived, is the most deplorably helpless being in the world. For he has been awakened
from the delusion that possesses mankind, that they are complete in themselves; he has seen the length and breadth of
the law of God; has discovered the bitter hostility of the
world to the righteous; and just in the measure that his sense
of need has been increased, he has seen the ability to help
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The nearest approach to such an orphan state of the C(aurch
was in the period between Christ's death and the resurrection.
To the disciples at that time Christ was really dead; his power,
wisdom, grace, were all dead; the promises were dead and
buried with him; all the advantages conferred by his teaching,
all the blessings derived from his presence, were crucified and
gone. These disciples had been taken up by the Saviour almost into heaven; and now by the unexpected death of their
leader and commander, they were let drop to a point of helplessness far below that of the rest of men. They shut the
doors for fear of the Jews who had crucified him, and who
might come at any moment and crucify them; and they looked
upon the swords which Christ had told them to take, instead
of all the promises; and a full conception of their misery
burst upon them. Hundreds of thousands of enemies on the
one hand; and they, a few inexpert fishermen with two or
three rusty swords on the other. Could anythinDg be more absurd than the idea of a conflict? One little word of promise
had once invested them with power over all the power of the
enemy; but all the promises were now buried with Christ, and
a great stone rolled upon them; and they were left alone with
their wretched swords. But Christ fulfilled his word. He
left them not a prey to the wrath of man and the malice of
the adversary. He came unto them; and with him came all
the promises. In fact, they themselves with him arose.
rhey breathed, they lived, when they again saw him breathing, living.
If at any time a soul be brought into a state of orphanage,
and seem to itself separated from  all grace and power and
hope; let it lay hold of this word. It may have been fitting
that it should have a taste of the misery of being without
Christ, under a sense of the need of Christ; but a taste suffices.
"I will come unto you," says Jesus.
17 *




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JUNE 9. —"If a man love me he will keep my words; and my Fathel
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him."
-John xiv. 23.
Jude wanted to know how the manifestation of Christ unto
his people exclusively, was to be effected. Christ in reply,
says, that the believer has something and God something to do;
it does not concern the believer to know how God will do his
part; all that concerns him is to know how he is to do his part.
Let him then keep the words of Christ, and the manifestation
will be brought about; the Godhead shall take up its abode
with him; let him keep the words of Christ, and he will keep
Christ with him; let the words of God abide with him, and
God will abide with him.
To know how to keep the words of Christ is the most important of all knowledge; to kee tthem is the most important
of all works.
The best of all teachers in this thing is love. Love of Christ
will not allow us to make light of any word of Christ. It views
the memory as a consecrated room fitted up for the reception
of the words of its object. The words of a man embody his
character;-imperfectly however;-for who is without guile?
The words of Christ give us Christ himself. They tell me
what he loves; in other words, what he wishes me to be; and
I must keep them perpetually that I may know what I should
perpetually be. I cannot keep the words of Christ and remove out of the path of Christ; or if they then abide with
me, it is to torture me, and I can have no peace, till I make
my way, wounded and wearied, back to the king's highway.
While I keep the words of Christ, I keep the tempter at a
distance; I thwart his endeavors as Christ himself thwarted
them. Let me keep the words of Christ, and the principles
of this world shall find no place in me. In keeping the words
of Christ, I keep the watchword by which I have access at ail
times to the throne of God's heavenly grace. Let me keep




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them then in affection, in memory, in faith, in obedience, in
prayer.
JUNE 10.-" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."-John
xiv. 27.
Christ makes his will, the hour of his departure having
come. Silver and gold he has none. To the eye of the world
it is a pauper going his way; and the wonder is that there
should be any to attend him in his last hours. He has lived
in the world and amassed nothing; not so much as to pay his
funeral expenses. His life is a failure; he has had the usual
advantages, yet, leaves the world as he entered it. You will
find no parchments in his drawers; no stray pieces of gold in
his coffers; it is a dead man dying; for what but a dead man
is he that has no worldly property?
This expresses the feeling, if not the reasoning, of many.
Yet why do men seek property? Is it not from the want of
peace? Why do we behold the world rushing passionately
along ten thousand paths? Because they find not peace. They
seek peace by appropriation, not by renunciation. Would not
even their own wisdom teach them to purchase peace, if an opportunity presented itself, by the surrender of a globe of gold?
The peace that Christ leaves, is his own peace. Consider
his life. He endured the constant contradiction of sinners.
He was numbered with the transgressors. He was stigmatized
as devilish in origin, character, and purpose. Each returning
day brought him new trials, new sufferings. So that the peace
he leaves is consistent with many trials, many afflictions. These
in fact serve for the proof of it.
The legatees of Christ have peace of conscience. Myriads
of sins, each of which-in the day of the mind's awakeninghas the tormenting faculty of many devils, are bound as to this
power, and that forever. We have peace in the deliverance
from inordinate desires:-in the consciousness of God's favor:_




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in the assurance that all things concerning us will be crdered
for the best:-in freedom from worldly cares:-in the certainty of Christ's victorious coming and everlasting reign.
JUNE 11. —" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."JOHN xv. 8.
This is a valid argument with those that are concerned for
the glory of God. It is addressed to those who are acquainted
with this spring of action. The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork; but in vain,
till Christians in a far higher degree exhibit his glory by showing that Christ is the true vine, and that they who abide in
him obtain the communications of a divine life, and produce
heavenly fruits on earth. What the sun, moon, and stars, the
hills and the floods, volcanoes and earthquakes, rainbows and
flowers, what the works of God in nature and in providence
have not succeeded in doing, it is yours under peculiar circumstances, and by the subordination of mightiest means, to attempt. Innumerable spectators from the worlds on high, watch
with breathless interest the progress of this experiment. And
can it be that what the magnificent and all-resplendent orbs of
space have not accomplished, shall be brought about by the instrumentality of a little company of converted sinners? That
you shall show forth the glory of God, and constrain the world
to take knowledge of his perfections?
Christ is the vine, and you are the branches; wherefore
your fruit is Christ's fruit. The world did not get rid of him
by killing him. He lives in you and produces fruit in you.
His meekness and lowliness are to find their exhibition through
you. His self-denial and love; his zeal and faithfulness; his
faith and prayerfulness; his wisdom and patience; his fortitude, his impartiality, his purity, all his admirable characteristics are to abide in the world, for you are in the world. Then




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will the world find itself baffled and confounded, when having
crucified Christ in Jerusalem, it finds him springing up again
not only in Jerusalem, but in Samaria, Joppa, Damascus, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, and in fact everywhere throughout the world.
JUNE 12.-" As the Father hath loved me, so have I you."-John xv. 9.
These disciples were the representatives of the universal
church. They stood in the place of all believers. We were
all there by proxy. It must never be supposed that the beautiful words and condescending acts of Christ were just for
Peter, John, James, and their companions. John is not the
only beloved disciple who is encouraged to lean upon the bosom
of his Lord. His love for the family of Bethany is not a singular love, with which other families have nothing to do. It
is a specimen of his love rather, intended to make glad ten
thousand families. That loving, solicitous question, "Lovest
thou me?" addressed to Peter, stops not with Peter, but makes
its whispered way to innumerable other professors, preserving
all its tenderness of intonation and fullness of expression.
The great thing is to have a persistent, unvanquishable faith
with regard to this, so as to be able to take our place at the
side of Christ, an accompany him through Galilee and Judea;
or, if you choose to express it so, to have him by us, in our
own place of residence, mingling his life with ours, questioning
us, upbraiding us, educating us for his own heaven of love.
And it is a happy thing for us that there is nothing about the
character of those first disciples to make us diffident in appropriating the gracious words addressed to them. There is no
halo of excellency about them to intimidate us. In fact, they
are just ourselves. Those things which, we are well aware,
constitute the most repugnant elements of our character,pride, unbelief, selfishness, passion, carnality, envy, sloth, cowardice,-these very things are found in them. They after



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wards put on, it is true, the armor of light; and shed lustre
upon their sacred calling, but this was after Christ had given
all his proofs of love.
I have loved you; and if you wish to know how much, why,
let us take the highest possible expression, even the love of the
infinite Father for his Son; so have I loved you. Nothing
could exceed the preciousness of this statement; no statement
was ever more corroborated by evidence. It is painful to think
of such a heavenly declaration being made in vain in the ear
of men; for the honor of Christ, see that you receive it, believe it, live upon it.
JUNE 13.-" If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love."
-JOHN xv. 10.
Christ's love takes us as it finds us; but it does not leave us
so. If it did not make us better, it would not be Christ's love, but
just common earth-love. There are two mighty chapters in the
history of Christ's love. One relates to the means by which he
brings us to himself, the other to the means by which he keeps
us with himself. After we have been brought to him, a sublime work expands itself before him. We are to be made like
unto himself. He will not rest until he has communicated
unto us his own perfections  These souls so loved are to be
made lovely. Christ would not be worthy of our continued
regard, if he left us to follow our own evil will; and the whole
story of his love would turn out a mere legend, if he taught
us not to honor the commandments of God. But this reproach
cannot be brought against Christ. Keep my commandments.,
he says, and abide in my love.
This is a different language from that of Sinai. It is not
the language of authority, so much as of love. The speaker
and his friend are taking counsel together as to the best mode
of perpetuating the hallowed sentiment by which they are
bound. "I cannot support the idea," says the fiiend, " of any




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interruption to this love. Tell me how it may be made immortal, unchangeable."  "I will tell you. Keep my commandments. They shall be to you like an amulet, or mystic
ring; so long as it remains with you, I cannot leave you."
"Oh! how delightful," exclaims the friend, " that there should
be commandments, expressive of thy will, and indicative of
the way of abiding in thy love. For it is the life of love, to
have something to do for its object, to have commandments to
keep. These commandments will keep us bound to one another. For thou hast said, "Without me ye can do nothing."
So I am to do nothing alone. Thy commandments remove me
from thee? No! not for an instant; they will but draw me more
and more closely to thee!"
JUNE 14.-" Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, he will give it you."-John xvi. 23.
Christ says this for the purpose, as it were, of inducing us
to consent to his departure. Having come into the world and
constituted himself our good Shepherd, and accustomed us to
lean on him for everything, we are rather confounded at the
suggestion that he is to go away again. Seeing this, he gives
us this reassuring promise. Whatsoever we ask of the Father,
he will give it. Well, suppose we ask for Christ. He will be
given. Not with the limitations of an earthly body. "If
thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." These reproaches are painful to the heart of Christ. It is expedient
that he go, that he may come again in spirit, in glorious omnipresence, and be the shepherd of a flock feeding on ten thousand hills.
Will the Father, indeed, give us everything that we ask?
Is thy name so potent in influence at the throne of grace, that
it is impossible for any gift to be withheld, if demanded in
that name? It is not merely the half of his kingdom that the
Father must yield to us, if we ask; whatsoever we ask we must




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receive. But in fact the gift has already been made. " The
Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his
hands." When, therefore, we ask anything in thy name, we
ask for what has already been made over to thee.
But to whom is this promise made? To the apostles and to
all who stand in the position that the apostles stood in. To
those who have apostolic work to do, and apply themselves to
it with apostolic consecration. With promises so vast, how
vast should have been the performance of the Church, how
rapid and signal her successes! Every generation of believers
that has come into existence, read the Gospel of John, and
gone its way, must stand condemned in the presence of these
unapprehended promises. Are we grasping them? Or even
looking them in the face? Or feeling our way towards them?
JUNE 15.-" In the world ye shall have tribulation."-John xvi. 33.
There was a new and wondrous trial of mankind, when
Christ dwelt on the earth. The world is always saying, "If
we had been in Eden, we would not have brought ruin on ourselves." By the coming of Christ the earth was, as it were,
made into a new Eden for the occasion, and men were tried
over again. It was no longer the question, " Will they sin?"
But, " Will they receive God manifest in the form of man?
How will they treat the most glorious and admirable being in
existence, infinitely humbling himself for their ealvation?"
The trial was made as easy for them as it could be. The
Jews were specially prepared for his coming. They were educated to feel their need of an almighty Saviour. He came in
the most propitiating guise conceivable. Yet he was rejected, abhorred, killed. Let the world now forever be silent
about its love of goodness, its noble aspirations, its heavenward
tendencies. He that made the world, the fountain of all excellence, came into the world, into the elect and well-tltored




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part of it, yet encountered from first to last nothing but opposition; and it was only by special efforts of divine power that.
his life was prolonged sufficiently for him to make a complete
manifestation of the divine nature, and accomplish all that was
requisite for the salvation of men.
As it is settled that the world has no sympathy with true
goodness, so there can be no question what kind of reception
it will give to those who come in the name of Christ, bearing the image of Christ. The world passes through many
plases, puts on many aspects; but it has its own particular orbit, from which it never breaks away. Its changes are always
within certain well-defined limits. It is true to itself, true to
its own rebellious will; and under no felicity of circumstances,
does it ever find itself sitting quietly and humbly on the steps
of God's throne.
Expect, therefore, that the lion and the tiger will give a
gentle and amicable reception to the lamb; but do not expect
that the world will provide accommodation for those who
travel along the narrow path that leadeth unto everlasting
life; or busy itself to take up the stones out of that path.
The world, indeed, has a great deal of wisdom, and has manifested it in these latter days by carefully studying how to treat
the Church so as to make the Church as little a source of discomfort as possible. Formerly it committed some blunders, by
proceeding against it with fire and sword; the faith, the joy,
the dying hymns of those whom it burnt at the stake kept
irritating the memory and making the ears to tingle, for a
long time. But now the world parries the testimony of the
Church by force of courtesy. It professes to be occupying itself with the subject of religion, and to have almost made up
its mind to embrace Christianity; begging meanwhile that it
may not be disturbed in its meditations. And then again,
alas! it has got many unsuspected victories over the Church,
and its banner is flying from many a fortress where it should
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never have been planted. But he that will live godly ii.
Christ Jesus, will find the world very decidedly opposed tc
him. It will seek at first to bind him perhaps with ribands,
and not with iron chains; but bind him it will, if it can.
JDNE 16.-"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God."-Romans v. 1.
We receive tidings of a treaty of peace between two nations
lately belligerent. Anon, we receive intimations of another war
possible. Rumors of wars never fail to agitate profoundly the
general bosom of mankind. But there is a rumor of another
war infinitely more dire than any, between man and his Maker.
It is long since this war has broken out; for thousands of
years it has been raging; and we see no signs of its immediate
cessation. Men perceive not that all their other miseries proceed from this feud; they seem not aware that the cruelty of
all other wars, the agony of all other scourges, are just scintillations from the battle-field where they and their Creator are
arrayed against one another. Let this feud be healed, and
there will be no need to entertain terror of this despot or of
that; to build barricades, or lavish treasures on forts and men
of-war. Diplomacy is spending all its strength in vain, while
it merely occupies itself with the differences between States.
Holy alliances may exercise the spirit of war in one direction,
but speedily it will reveal itself in another. There must be
peace between man and his Creator; then, and then only, will
the nations understand one another, and perceive that they
have one common interest.
Blessed be God, we have a Peace-maker, who gave himself
that man might be reconciled to God. His coming was the
expression of God's amity. The flag of truce is held out to
the world. The friends of peace are running to and fro in the
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Christ, thein accumulated sins shall be done away; that they
shall be held justified, and shall have the peace of God which
passeth all understanding.
JUNE 17.-"To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek
for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life."-Romans ii. 7.
The path of faith and that of well-doing are not diverse
from each other; they are one. A man that is in the path of
well-doing, and for whose deeds there is ever and anon dropping from the lips of God the expression, "Well done!" is
already saved in an important sense.  He has regained the
footing from whence the world by transgression fell. He has
certainly a large instalment of salvation. But, it is faith that
brought him into this heavenward path, and that enables him
to continue therein. It is faith that led him to renounce all
dependence upon his own miserable works, and to avail himself of the works of Christ to obtain acceptance with God, and
the freedom of that sacred path. It is faith that enables him
to see the incomparable superiority over everything that the
world can offer, of those grand prizes held up before him by
the Lord of all; to see glory, honor, and immortality where
they really are, where they exclusively are for man, in the new
Jerusalem.
There are many who are seeking for glory, honor, and immortality in very different paths from that of which we are
speaking. By the path of well-doing, we mean, in one word,
the path of God's will; and all doing that is not strictly modelled on this, we reject: though it might seem to be such doing as would regenerate a continent, reclaim a Sahara, or banish the deadliest plagues.
Nothing in all the success that has waited upon Satan in
his management of the world's affairs, is so saddening to contemplate, as the false direction he has been enabled to give to




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the enthusiasm of men. Enthusiasm is a beautiful and sacred
thing, implanted in us that we might launch forth on sublime
enterprises of mercy to man and of glory to God. Enthusiasm
would make o. a holy man a seraph. Men hardly know what
to do with this divine faculty. They thirst for glory, honor,
immortality, but limit their conceptions of these things to what
the world, the fallen, ruined, doomed world can give. As
though a criminal on his way to the place of execution, should
concern himself to obtain honor and glory from his fellowcriminals. A world that rose up in utmost ferocity against
the only faultless, the only truly glorious being that ever trod
its soil, is not a world competent to decide where glory should
be sought, what deeds are truly honorable, what immortality
is worthy of man's utmost endeavor. It having rejected the
elect of heaven, the only man found heroic in the eyes of God,
we can turn away from its heroes, and think lightly of its
honorable ones.
JUNE 18. —"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved."-Acts xvi. 31.
And is this so difficult? Does your heart find itself competent to everything, rather than this? Oh, what a reproach
to you! In fact, it is impossible to conceive of any more severe condemnation than that which you pass upon yourself,
and day by day reiterate, while you continue not to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You are asked to take his righteousness in preference to your own; his wisdom rather than your
own; his influence at the throne of God rather than your own.
You are asked to become the servant of Christ, rather than
continue the servant of sin; to be the friend of Christ, rather
than the friend of Satan; and to receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit to free you from the control of unclean spirits. You
are asked to choose him whom the good have chosen; him
whom all the angels, the most exalted of finite beings; whom




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God himself has chosen. You refuse; and choose rather to
identify yourself with the multitude that crucified him. The
blackest catalogue of crimes cannot more truly condemn a
man, than the fact that you believe not on Jesus Christ
condemns you. Your character comes out dark, base, odious,
by this one fact. In vain you pretend to have love for your
fellow-men, while you declare, as you emphatically do, " Not
this man!" Were a vessel freighted with provisions to apploach an island whose inhabitants were dying with starvation, what would you think of him who should refuse to cooperate in bringing her to shore? And what must be thought
of him who cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? You
may for the present be deemed respectable; but a day is
coming when Christ will be known as the touchstone of morality, and all who are without affinity with him, will be known
as utterly reprobate.
JUNE 19.-" While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."-Rom. v. 8.
Imagine a number of men whose hearts are filled with bitterness against their sovereign, and, in a certain chamber, are
industriously laboring at the construction of an infernal machine, to be exploded on some approaching day when the sovereign is to pass that way. The heart of this sovereign, say, is
kindness itself. He receives information of what these men
are doing. Disguising himself he comes among them, and
succeeds in convincing them that he is friendly, and will prove
a valuable confederate. They receive him into their band,
initiate him fully into their projects, and take his advice on
many points. He soon obtains a great influence over them.
They are struck with the superiority of his character, the generosity that beams in all his words and acts. He labors assiduously to do them good; relieves their wants; visits their
families that he may confer benefits upon them. His resources
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appear boundless, but not greater than his beneficence. When
injured or insulted, he exhibits an astonishing patience; and in
fine, by a purity and magnanimity such as they have never
witnessed, he succeeds in inspiring them with the utmost admiration. And day by day he labors with them in perfecting
that machine that is to be levelled against himself. They
unanimously agree that he shall be their sovereign, when they
have killed the reigning one, and that he shall distribute among
them the offices of the State just as may seem good to him. At
length the day arrives; and as the hour approaches, when the
king should pass that way, they wonder what has become of
their generous friend. Suddenly he appears among them;
throws off his disguise, and the sovereign stands revealed. " I
come," he says, " to save you from a great crime, and from a
fearful doom. You have already chosen me to be your sovereign, and sworn to submit with delight to all my commands.
I command that you shall come and dwell with me in my
palace. While you have been preparing this engine for my
destruction, I have been preparing sumptuous apartments for
your abode. I will associate with you as your friend, even as
I have done, and will do my best to fit you to fill the highest
offices of State."
Now, the thing that will most surprise these men, is the fact
that while they were sinners, while they were laboring for the
death of their sovereign, he in secret was earnestly laboring
for their highest good. And this is the thing that should most
surprise us when we come to Christ, namely, the fact that while
we were rearing higher the mountains of our iniquity, he was
engaged in carrying out a scheme of the most transcendant
mercy and kirdness toward us.




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JUNE 20.-" Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart." —
Psalm xxxi. 24.
Before you are conscious of any strength in your heart,
while you feel yourself exceedingly weak and utterly incompetent, even then you are to be of good courage. It requires
very little true courage to be bold when there is the consciousness of strength. The courage that is well-pleasing in the
sight of God, is the courage of faith; the courage of David,
whose sling and stone were nothing, but who trusted simply in
God.
Nothing is more essential to the Christian than good courage. Ile needs in the first place courage to go into the presence
of his sovereign, nothing daunted, however much humbled, by
the thought of his unworthiness, assured that all the virtue
of Christ is available for him. He needs courage to cancel the
various articles of the compact of sin between him and the
world; to come out from it and be separate; to be peculiar;
to confess that he has transferred his allegiance to the crucified
and risen one. He needs courage to break with the god of
this world, and adopt the badge of the revolutionists who are
seeking his overthrow. He needs courage to speak to those
whom he loves, of their great need. He needs courage to
manifest the new and better nature that has been given him.
He needs it to advance in a path of duty where there is no
pioneer, with only a chart for the day, and no intimation of the
morrow's perils.
JUNE 21.-" His anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life."Psalm xxx. 5
The idea is, that his anger is fugitive, his favor perennial.
The contrast is between the words moment and life. The contrast is sustained in what follows: "< Weeping may endure for
a night, but joy cometh in the morning," even in the morning
of a day, whose sun shall never go down. Paul renews it in




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the words, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory." As the ages of our prospective existence unfold to us,
the misery of our mortal span will be reduced by an easy
arithmetical progression, to something utterly infinitesimal.
Seventy years of suffering are not very much in an existence
that reaches to a thousand years; far from much, when proportioned to a period of ten thousand years; in a hundred
thousand years they are but as a drop to the bucket; in millions of years as a drop to the ocean, a mere thought, a flash
of lightning; in eternity, what?
You venture to observe, perhaps, that man is so constituted
that the present is to him necessarily like a mountain bounding his vision, and that he cannot be greatly affected by the
conception of unending plains stretching beyond.
To man's true constitution belongs faith, by means of which
he soars aloft and looks down upon his past, present, and future. Observe, that the momentary anger bears a most important relation to the eternal favor. It is that you may be
led to press more eagerly towards this, and battle more bravely
with the enemies that would cut you off from it, that weeping
is given to you for a night.
In all God's anger to his people there is mercy. It is an
unspeakable condescension in him to be angry. He might just
put forth his power and sweep you away into everlasting
misery. But no! he deigns to express to you his displeasure.
Thus did he even to the Ninevites; and they inferred that he
might, after all, pardon them.
JUNE 22.-" Teach me thy way, 0 Lord."-Psalm xxvii. 11.
It will hardly be denied by any reflecting person that it is
reasonable to suppose that there is for every human being a
particular line of procedure which commends itself to God as




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the best. and every deviation from which is a deviation from
that which is best. When we consider how admirably God
has organized man, how richly he has endowed him, with what
authority he has invested him, and with what appliances he
has surrounded him; when we consider what an infinitude of
wise and good thoughts God has bestowed in the preparation
of man for life; can we believe that God has no particular will
in regard to the way in which that life should be spent? We
should be greatly surprised if a man should expend an immense sum of money in the building of a ship; employ the
most skilful artificers in perfecting her with respect to a thousand anticipated necessities; render her strong, beautiful, swift,
commodious; and then launch her and leave her to float at
random over the waters, without any commander, without any
instructions. Yet this appears to be the idea that many inconsiderate persons entertain of human existence. They suppose that man is left without a chart, without instructions;
and leave it to be inferred that God is the most inconsistent of
all beings. Ask them why they suppose so; if they have
searched for the will of God, and found none; if they have
sincerely asked God for instructions, and obtained no answer;
if they have been cordially willing to leave unto God the full
control of their earthly existence; and they will be obliged to
reply that they have not. Not only have they not sought, they
have not been willing to see.
We know, however, that God has a will with regard to every
man, a will that takes note of every conceivable particular. We
know that he is disposed to make known this will, and disposed also to teach us to do it.
He teaches us to do it by making us sensible of our incompetency to guide ourselves. One after another, signal mistakes
occur, to show us how absolutely we need a guide more intelligent than ourselves. We get disgusted with our own ignorance
and short-sightedness. We are like a man who finds himself




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in the midst of a vast factory, crowded with the most complicated and ponderous machinery, where mighty engines of death
threaten him on the right hand and on the left, before and
behind; he makes a step in one direction, and receives a frightful blow; in another, and gets dreadfully lacerated; then he
cries out in agony for some one to take him by the hand and
lead him.
He teaches us to do it by showing us the incompetency of
others to guide us. Some persons are conscious of their inaptitude, and look to others to show them what to do with life.
They turn to Plato or Socrates, to Seneca or Confucius, to
Carlyle or to La Rochefoucauld, to this novelist or to that. In
fact, there is hardly any one desirous of teaching but has some
scholars. But, alas! they find no way that is in any degree
irreproachable. Life is with them a succession of bruises and
losses.
He teaches us to do his will, by letting us see it acted out in
the beautiful life of Christ.-By giving us to understand that
this will has reference, first and last, in great matters and small,
to our own best estate and most assured happiness.-By unfolding to us the Scriptures.-By writing his word in our hearts.
-By teaching us to abide in Christ.-By giving the Spirit to
abide in us.
JUNE 23.-" Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be ashamed."-Romans ix. 33.
After all, there is nothing that men detest so much as a
feeling of shame. We hear a great deal of calamities, bereavements, losses, sorrows, troubles, and numerous other synonyms; but all these are not near so odious to a man as a feeling of shame. There is not any calamity that men have not
accepted in preference to a momentary feeling of shame. A
feeling of shame in the mind of a man would make him insensible to the loss of his father, or of any other very dear friend;




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to the loss of property; nay, to the loss of a kingdolm. Thousands have come up to the door which opens on the path that
goes to everlasting life, and have seen that they were in danger
of everlasting burnings, and have yet accepted of this danger
rather than encounter the brief shame of entering.
So potent a principle has not been implanted in us for nothing. It was designed to be of unspeakable advantage to us.
And the Christian should seek that it may be as great an aid
as it has been a hindrance to him. True shame creates in us
a horror of everything that may bring upon us the reproach
of an enlightened conscience, the scorn of the holy, the renunciation of God. The soul has no more blessed guarantee,
under the grace of God, than the presence of true shame in
the heart. This will never for a moment allow us to blush for
what is not morally wrong, not a wilful transgression of the
will of God. This will suffer us to pay no tribute to the mere
conventionalities of life. This will keep us without guile;
enable us to walk without any cloak over our conduct; and to
regard with perfect equanimity the world's misapprehension
of our conduct.
A day is coming when self-condemning shame, shame inextinguishable, intolerable, soul-pervading, will take possession
of those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And all the shame that they have ever shrunk from in the
journey of life, will return multiplied ten thousand times, and
establish itself in their souls to go no more out for ever. Think
of this, ye proud ones, that daily avoid some path of duty from
some feeling of shame. You hold your heads erect among
ungodly men, but it is at a fearful cost. What you refuse to
experience is now but seed; it will grow to a whirlwind.




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JUNE 24.-" Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his
life."-Romans v. 10.
If we owe much to the death of Christ, we owe much more
to his life. It were little to give us the freedom of the universe, if in that universe we could not find Christ. It were
little to give us immortality, if there were no Sun of Righteousness to make that immortality glorious and beautiful. It.
would be like discovering some unknown friend in his dying
hour; we have hardly time to acquaint ourself with his amazing love, and to see the flash of his kindness illuminating our
life, before he is removed by death, and we are left to a desolation greater than we had ever known before, because of the
moral beauty and the heart of love that had for a moment
revealed themselves.
The death of Christ was one exhibition of the love of
Christ; he lives that he may, forever and forever, give us
newer, still newer, still newer expressions of his unfailing
goodness.  Being reconciled, there is no longer anything to
hinder the forthflowing of the divine beneficence toward us.
God is love; and we belong to the number of those whose
whole business in life, in everlasting life, is to be making advances in the experience of God's love. But there will be
ever something special in the manner by which we have become reconciled, to make us singularly dear to God and to
Christ. IIe hath graven our names upon the palms of his
hands. He was pierced for us. We were chosen in such a
furnace of affliction as had never been kindled by Babylonian
kings. He can never look upon us without the thought of
what he suffered to bring us nigh unto God.
JUNE 25.-" If God be for us, who can be against us?"-Rom. viii. 31.
If God be for us, we are justified in making light of all our
enemies. Any injury that they can do us is of little account,




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while we have this all-powerful ally. This seems a mere truism; but it is really the language of an uncommon faith. He
goes on to enumerate tribulation, persecution, distress, famine,
nakedness, peril, the sword. Now, these things involve tremendous losses; loss of honor, friends, domestic and social enjoyments, wealth, liberty, security, and even food and clothing.
Before the thousandth part of these evils, the boldest hearts
have recoiled, the strongest have turned and fled. The assurance that God would be with them had no more power to nerve
and comfort them, than if a shield made of cobwebs had been
presented to them. The language of Paul is the language
then of one whose faith has taught him to find everything excellent, everything desirable in God. In vain the world arrays
its forces, puts on its terrors; he knows the utter insignificance
of these compared with the treasures of might that dwell with
him, because God dwells with him.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the entire force of
Egypt was against them. The sea was against them. The
desert was against them. The Amalekites were against them.
All nations were against them. Their own inexperience, their
waywardness, their evil habits,-these were against them. But
God was with them. And they came off more than conquerors.
Thus it was with the apostles. The Jews were against them,
and so were the Gentiles. Stripes, bonds, and imprisonment
awaited them in every place. The power of the priesthood
was against them. All the powers of an empire, the mightiest
the world had ever seen, were against them. Yet they triumphed. God was with them, and none but God.
Had the church a faith more apostolic, there would not be
seen, as there is, alas! too much, a disposition to snatch at
worldly aid, and to avail ourselves of worldly wisdom. We
need to know that he who is with us is mightier than they
that are in the world. Knew we this better, we would enter
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many paths from which we now turn away; address ourselves
to many tasks to which we now shut our eyes.
JUNE 26. —" Quench not the Spirit."-1 Thessalonians v. 19.
This is the utterance of the Spirit, and teaches, if language
can teach anything, that the influences of the Spirit may be
lost. His presence is as the existence of a heaven-born flame
in the heart, which needs to be carefully watched and guarded,
which, if its proper aliment be withheld, will die out. The
language of Scripture from beginning to end, is perfectly consistent with itself, though the points that establish this consistency are not thrust conspicuously forward. Scripture is
exceedingly bold, far more bold than our theological systems;
and while it dwells on any truth, gives that truth all its appropriate magnitude, its fullness of honor, without fearing that
some other truth may thus suffer loss. The sovereignty of God,
the dependence of man, the safety of the elect, the perseverance
of the saints,-these things are declared with the utmost positiveness; the obligation of men to believe, to walk by faith, to
exercise all Christian affections, to grow in grace, to bring forth
fruit, to resist temptation, to work out their own salvation,these things also are stated in a most emphatic manner. To
deny the one class of truths is just as fatal as to deny the other.
The Spirit of God is omnipotent, the purposes of God are absolute; but if an individual obey not the guidance of the Spirit,
he will quench the Spirit. The man that discards the word
"if" from his theology, has no longer a Bible. If a man mock
the word of God, by saying that the Spirit may not be
quenched, there is reason to fear lest he have already quenched
the Spirit.
In order that you may not quench the Spirit, you must
make it a constant study to know what is the mind of the
Spirit. You must discriminate with the utmost care between




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his suggestions acd the suggestions of your own leceitful
heart.  You will keep in constant recollection what are the
offices of the Spirit, as described by Christ in the gospel of
John. You will be on your guard against impulsive movements, inconsiderate acts, rash words.  You will abide in
prayer. Search the word. Confess Christ on all possible occasions. Seek the society of his people. Shrink from conformity to the world, its vain fashions, unmeaning etiquette
Be scrupulous in your reading.  "What I say unto you, I say
unto all, Watch!"  "Have oil in your lamps.  " Quench not
the Spirit."
JlUNE 27.-" Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of
the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."Romans v. 17.
The object is to show that Christ has much more than repaired the ruin wrought by Adam, in the case of all those who
avail themselves of the salvation wrought out by him. Instead
of the one throne where Death sat and swayed the destinies
of man, there are now myriads, millions of thrones, on each of
which a believer is to sit and give the universe a visible demonstration of what Christ can bestow upon the soul that
comes to him.
First, he is to receive abundance of grace, and of the gift
of righteousness. It is impossible for him to receive this
without the renunciation of his own imagined goodness,
strength, and glory.  He must be emptied of self; impoverished with respect to- all that he has called wealth; ruined
with respect to all that he has called life, honor, and excellence. He dies. He lives again. The full tide of God's
abounding grace finds itself now at liberty to flow into his
soul. He follows the highway of holiness. He has a white
stone with a strange inscription, in exchange for which he is
to receive a crown of far more than imperial dignity, at the




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treasury of heaven. When asked if he is a king, he, like his
Lord: replies, "Thou sayest it;" and if you choose, you may
mock him as men did his Lord; he cannot, however, but bear
witness to the truth.
ThuE there are millions of kings, and each of them immeasurably more exalted than any king of earth ever was. Do
you ask, over whom they are to reign? Know that it does
not become the kings of Christ's appointment, to reign over
any but kings. All their subjects are kings. For they are
all subjects to each. This is one badge of their kingdom, that
they in honor prefer one another, and that each finds his happiness in consecration to the good of others.
JUNE 28.-"I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and
how thou canst not bear them that are evil."-Revelation ii. 2.
How many thousands are striving, by the sweat of their
brow, by sleepless nights, by sacrifices of health and wealth, by
bitter mental toil, by the unflagging consecration of all their
powers, to win the attention of men, and are striving in vain.
What disappointments pour daily upon them without inducing
them to seek another goal for their hopes. "The spurns that
patient merit of the unworthy takes," do not extinguish the
hope of winning from this unworthy world, sooner or later,
some slight acknowledgment of the powers now so unsuccessfully exerted. How many nobly-endowed spirits live and labor
under the constraining influence of the hope, for the most part
delusive, that the world will one day say to them, "I know
your works." To die unknown, is the one lake of fire which
they unresistingly seek to escape. Ask them if they will not
avail themselves of the consolation so certainly obtained by
those that seek it, the consolation of being known to Christ,
and they will laugh you to scorn.
On the other hand, the true people of Christ are stirred to




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their inmost depths by the belief that he, the Lord of glory,
knows their works, their labor and their patience. Their
works are not appreciated by men; they are spoken against as
evil doers; they spend their strength for naught, so far as the
applause of men is concerned; but they are rewarded abundantly in the thought that Jesus knows their works. The
words "Llabor" and "patience" seem   to qualify the word
' works." What they do for Christ they do energetically,
with heart and strength, and they persevere in the doing of it,
no matter how many hinderances and chilling influences present themselves.
Christ is jealous when he sees any servant of his, making
great account of the praise of others, happy or troubled as he
obtains it or misses it, discontented when there is only the approbation of Christ, and allowing the applause of Christians to
hide from him the dissatisfaction of Christ. Teach me, O Lord,
cost what it may, to find the peace which passeth all understanding in the assurance of thy regard for the poor service
thou enablest me to render. Let me not be willing that the
incentives derived from prospects held out by this rebellious,
sinful world, should succeed in animating others to deeds of
greater devotion and consecration, than shall be elicited from
me by the anticipation of that greeting which thou wilt extend
to him that overcomes, keeping thy works unto the end
JUNE 29.-" Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."Psalm xxxii. 7.
If one want poetry, there is a whole poem in these few
words.   Heaven, earth; time, eternity; saints, angels; the
redeemed soul; its sins, passions, frailties, woes, miseries fleeing
in the distance;-such, and more, are the characters and the
scenery presented to our imagination, or to our faith, as we
gaze into this verse. Perhaps some reminiscence of what he
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had himself,xperien -ed in his earthly career, visited the mind
of David, and assisted him to form a bright conception of what
God would do for him hereafter. He may have recalled the
morning when his offer to go forth and meet Goliath, elicited
only shouts of derision; and the evening of the same day,
when he was compassed about with songs of deliverance uttered by the host of the Israelites, while the surviving Philis
tines were fleeing overwhelmed with confusion, to their own
borders.
A person known to us once had a dream, which may help
to illustrate the text. He had been very recently brought to
the knowledge of Christ's saving truth. He dreamt that he
found himself in an open plain; when suddenly a terrible
being appeared, from whom he felt that he must escape, if he
would not forever perish. The only object that his eye could
discern was a small and rather mean-looking house. To this
he fled; entered it; and feeling that he was pursued, passed
through it, and through a yard that was attached to it. Presently he found himself at the foot of a mighty precipice that
rose as perpendicularly as a wall, and towered above the skies.
The enemy was upon him. He felt that he must go up this
wall-like precipice, or be lost; so he attempted the ascent.
His hands were here of no use; for there was nothing for
them to seize; and he had to plant his feet, in defiance of all
laws of gravitation, horizontally against the wall. Yet he was
actually enabled to mount up in this way. A prodigious effort
was needed at first; (yet, if there had been no invisible aid,
what could even a prodigious effort have accomplished under
such circumstances?) but as he held on his way, and mounted
higher and higher, even into the skies, the task became less
difficult; and though new heights, not anticipated, remained
to be climbed, yet he found a heart to climb them cheerfully
and hopefully. At length he reached the summit, and a vision,
glorious beyond description, burst upon his view. A multitude




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of the heavenly host were there, scattered over the plain, and
crowded upon gentle hills that overlooked the scene; their
eyes were all on him; and they all burst forth with songs of
deliverance on his account; while a being glorious enough to
be the Lord of all this enraptured host, came to him who had
there arrived, and received him, as he fainted through the force
of unspeakable emotions, and bore him away not altogether
insensible, for the songs of the jubilant host still sounded in
his ears.
JUNE 30.-"All are yours, and ye are Christ's."-1 Corinthians iii. 23.
The way to possess unlimited treasure is to give yourself
away. How little the philosophers who sought by alchemy to
obtain the art of transmuting mean things to precious,-how
little did they dream that the art of acquiring worlds of wealth
had been long before divulged, and that it consisted simply in
giving one's self away to Christ.  Men are victims of the
unhappy delusion that their own self is a nucleus, a beginning
of wealth, around which they must wrap acquisition after acquisition, till they have greatly magnified themselves. In this
way, however, they are only heaping up riches for the last day,
only fattening themselves for the slaughter. Let a man give
himself, and all belonging to himself, to Christ; feeling at the
same time that he is only giving what he had never any right
to withhold, what it were the most audacious usurpation to
think for a moment of withholding; let him rejoice to know
Christ as the Lord of all; and in that very hour he will find
himself possessor of all. All things were made for Him, it is
said; that is, for Christ; and if for Christ, then for the believer; for the two are joint-heirs.
All things are yours; therefore all the arrangements of God
are yours. In none of the arrangements of God is your happiness overlooked. The gold and silver of this world are found




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abu.dantly in the hands of others, not at all in yours,-well,
this is one of those arrangements that contemplate your good.
Worldly wealth does not belong to those who seem to have it;
but to those who get the good of it. There are a thousand
little conveniences of life which you could not enjoy were not
other men rich enough to embark in enterprises. They themselves perhaps receive great damage from the wealth that they
hold during the brief term of life; but your profit from it all
is guaranteed in heaven. All things are yours; the prosperity
of others, your own adversity, sickness, humiliation, losses, the
Plements, earth, heaven, time, eternity.
Your chief joy is, that you are Christ's; and you rejoice
that all things are yours, chiefly because they will serve to
make you a less unworthy possession to Christ. Holiness is
yours; the image of God; spiritual, moral, and physical perfection; a crown of glory that fadeth not away; magnificent
and inconceivable destinies. Viewing yourself as the property
of Christ, you rejoice for his sake that this wondrous wealth
is to roll in upon you, and that the mean stone is to be converted into a pearl of great price.
JULY 1.-" Take heed, and beware of covetousness."-Luke xii. 15.
Our Lord calls special attention to the danger by a special
admonition. Out of that little band that accompanied him,
one made shipwreck on this rock. The whole life of Jesus
was cast into a mould of uttermost hostility to it; and the
effect was seen in the Pentecostal Church, where no man called
anything his own. But we are fallen upon very different
times; and neither the example nor the earnest warnings of
Christ and his apostles, have power to keep down this spirit in
the Church. If the token of a pure Church is its freedom
from covetousness, then is the Church of our day corrupt in



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deed. The parable spoken in immediate connection wi h these
words, shows that our Lord understands by covetousness, the
laying up of much goods for many years, and rejoicing in that
provision. The man described in the parable did not, that we
are told, practise extortion or commit frauds in order to be
rich; but being, in the providence of God, made rich beyond
all his present wants, chose rather to consider his own future
possible wants, and make provision for them, than to alleviate
the actual wants of the poor around about him. He was unwilling to relinquish money that he did not now want, because
a time might come when he would want it.
The Church has utterly discarded the idea that there is anything in the word of God to hinder her from seeking any
amount of wealth. There are thousands and tens of thousands
of Christians, whose consciences would take alarm at once, at
the presence of sin in other forms, who are deterred by no
manner of scruple from embarking with all their heart in the
endeavor to accumulate wealth far beyond any actual and even
probable wants.  "They pull down their barns and build
greater," without a single ominous reflection coming to remind
them of the poor, in whose barns there is nothing.
How shall a man beware of covetousness? Let him learn
to look upon the things of others, to occupy himself more with
the greater wants of others than with his own lesser wants, to
know himself as simply a steward of the goods of God, and to
shrink far more from being written down in the estimation of
heaven "a fool," than in the estimation of earth. Had the
man in the parable pursued any other course than he did, men
would have said unto him, "thou fool;" but how infinitely
more dreadful to hear it from God. Let the Christian know
where his true wealth is; and trust God with his future wants
Has faith nothing to do with temporal matters? Who can
say it that ever read the word of God?




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JULY 2.-" Hide not thy face far from me."-Psalm xxvii. 9.
There are those who never need to use these words, because
they have no experience of that which is deprecated  They
know not what is meant by such language as this: " Cause
thy face to shine upon me." This language implies a personal
acquaintance with a personal God. It teaches that God is
pleased to make communications of his grace to the soul of
the believer, that are to him like the uplifting of a veil from
the face of the one beloved and adored. We ought all of us
to have far higher conceptions than we have, of the power of
God to manifest himself by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
It is not to be questioned that in this dispensation we are able
to have more glorious and surprising revelations of the Deity
than were enjoyed under the previous dispensation. Isaiah
and Daniel, Abraham and Ezekiel, envied us, and longed to be
in our place; and we greatly dishonor the Spirit, if we suppose that in this dispensation there is no provision made for
the occasional glorious manifestation of God unto the soul of
the believer. We are saved by hope, and our greatest blessedness is of course in the future; but the best preparation for
this is in the recognition of the sublime privileges now bestowed.
Let it not be thought that we honor Christ more by overlooking our present opportunities of knowing his glory, and waiting for his appearing in the clouds of heaven. If we truly
love his appearing, we will seek now to sound the utmost
depths of the meaning of the promises contained in the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel by John.
JULY 3.-" He will be our guide, even uuto death."-Psalm xlviii. 14.
The guide of whom? Of those who feel that this world is
a labyrinth, and that the secret of its mazes is known only to
God,-that it is the camp of an enemy; and that unless the
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security, not for a moment,-that it is a field thoroughly undermined and honey-combed, with subterranean trains of gunpowder in every direction, exploding every minute; and that
unless He lead us, we perish. What is the proof of this?
Is not this language mere rhapsody? "It certainly is," say
men in general; " the world we live in, is on the whole a safe
and comfortable world; peace and safety wait upon our paths."
Not so, we reply; we have the best warrant for our language.
The number of the dead and dying testifies to the danger.
You spread your table on the green sward; you bring forth
generous wines; you sit down with your companions, and pass
the hour in great conviviality; the birds sing pleasantly in the
neighboring grove; the face of nature seems gladsome enough.
Nevertheless, the field where you are sitting, is the field of the
dead and dying. Are there many that be saved? Not hitherto. The multitude still go in at the broad gate, and hasten
to destruction; the few go in at the straight gate, and obtain
life. The things that seem to you to smile so friendlily upon
you are the mortal enemies of men; the splendid halls to
which you hasten have vaults beneath them, and in these
vaults myriads of lost souls wait in anguish the day of Judgment. Man is so mortal, that almost anything is deadly to
him. Were you in a battle where nine men out of every ten
sent against the enemy were swept rapidly away, you would
not say, " Peace and safety."
He is the guide of those who feel their need of an all-wise,
all-powerful, all-condescending guide, and who are willing to
yield their own preferences to his, their own ideas to his, in
traveling over the glaciers of life. This word is a 'amp to
their feet, a light unto their path. He will hold their hand
till they reach the gate of death; and passing through it, they
will see that it is the gate of paradise. Death confesses itself
vanquished, when it sees them walking on the battlements
clothed in white.




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JULY 4.-" Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth
in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about."'-Psalm xxxii. 10.
These parallelisms of Scripture seem sometimes very rude.
This one, for instance, teaches us that the wicked are they whe
trust not in the Lord.  Men know not what to make of this
definition. As for the wicked, they say, we know well who
they are; these men that are brought up at the sessions of the
Civil Courts, and tried for felonies, murders, misdemeanors;
and besides these, certain other persons who have given us annoyance without rendering themselves amenable to the law.
Men that beat slaves to death, women that destroy their infants, children that expose their parents to the waves or to
wild animals,-these, too, are wicked.
But do you trust in God? have you made the everlasting
God your refuge? do you walk by faith? do you condemn
yourself and recognize Christ as the source of all your goodness, wisdom, strength? If not, then you need not go out of
yourself to find the wicked. '" Thou art the man;" the very
man the Bible talks so much about, as needing to be born
again, being under condemnation, a child of wrath, led captive
by the god of this world. How deplorable is it that in reading
the descriptions of the wicked in the Bible, you should always
be thinking of another, rather than of yourself. For what we
are now pressing upon you, though it may seem rude, yet has
in it a well-head of exquisite consolation. For observe, it is a
very simple matter to pass out of the ranks of the wicked, to
escape their many sorrows, and to find yourself compassed
about by mercy, as by a legion of angels. You have only to
trust in the Lord; to discover yourself ruined, and hasten to a
throne of grace; to let faith rule in your heart; to receive and
be governed by the Holy Spirit. The best of men that ever
lived, were once wicked like yourself, and only by faith in
God's goodness, through Christ, were they made to differ.




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JULY 5.-" The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and
saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."-Psalm xxxiv. 18.
Here again, the parallelism tells us something. He is nigh
to save. His presence is salvation. Their misery is not
nearer to them than their deliverer. To their broken heart,
the whole universe seems broken; to their desolate spirit, all
creation seems desolate. Crushed beneath a sense of unworthiness, forlornness, helplessness, they dare not lift up their
eyes to heaven, and they know that it is useless to lift them to
anything less than heaven. Irremediable sorrow seems their
portion. But the Lord hasteneth to the place where they sit
solitary. He does not announce his coming by angelic precursors; he does not descend on a bright cloud; no visible
glory, no audible sound attests his presence. But the eye of
the broken-hearted sinner falls upon the eighteenth verse of
the thirty-fourth Psalm, and beholds there the intimation of
God's presence. The earthquake of the heart has opened a
way for faith; and faith has opened a way for God. Formerly
this word would have seemed like an engaging falsehood, a poetical fiction; nothing less than a hand of flame tracing the
announcement in letters of fire upon the wall would have induced the recognition of such a truth. But faith lets God be
true; and places him also among those whose words are to be
believed. And if the Lord is nigh, then is all good nigh.
When the Lord was with the first disciples, lacked they anything? All our lost treasures are found again in him. All
our bankrupt powers are found perfected in him. In his presence is fulness of joy.
JULY 6-" Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray."-James v. 13.
This word that we now encounter is moving with haste and
earnestness among the haunts of men. Up one street, down
another, knocking at this door and at that, stopping to address
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here a company of noble personages, there a gathering of the
poor and mean, it wends its way with something angelic in its
mien, on very much the same mission that engaged the
thoughts and energies of our Lord when on the earth.
"Is any among you afflicted?"  It speaks in a kindly acent, knowing that many of these afflicted ones are unwilling
to disclose their inward grief. It speaks with earnestness, as
though it were conscious of possessing some medicament for
the woes of mankind. It does not merely say, " Art thou afflicted? But are there afflicted ones among you? Do you
know of any in the circle of your friends?"
"I know of some," will be the natural response. "I have
been myself afflicted, and shall probably be so again. Some
of my friends are even now afflicted, and most welcome would
my visit be to them, if I could banish their affliction. But
how may this be?"
Go and tell them to pray.
" But all men pray."
On the contrary, scarce. any pray. And here is the evil,
that almost all suppose they know what prayer is. As Naaman heard the command to wash in the Jordan, so they hear
the direction to pray. They are perfectly unable to under
stand how prayer should be the means of delivering them from
sorrow. Many came in contact with the garment of Jesus as
they crowded around him, without receiving any benefit;
others, touching in faith, found in a moment what they had
sought for scores of years. Go to your afflicted friends and
tell them to pray; to pray in faith; by the prayer of faith to
draw near to God the fountain of all good; in the name of our
sympathizing High-priest; and they shall receive the Holy
Ghost, who will disclose unto them the riches of the grace of
God imbedded in the promises; will convince them of their
own unworthiness and take away pride, that inward cancer,
that great enemy of peace; will remind them that whom God




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loveth he chasteneth; will make them aware that they have
been strangely oblivious of an inheritance most magnificent and
soul-satisfying, fading not away; will give them patience, submission, hope and love; and compensate them a hundred-fold
for that of which they have been bereft.
JULY 7.-" Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all."-Psalm xxxiv. 19.
The Bible does not mock the anguish-bitten soul by telling
it that the Christian cannot experience unhappiness or disappointment; or by telling it that it has no business to be
wretched. The followers of the righteous Jesus are told distinctly that there are afflictions for them; and that these afflictions are many. So in drawing up an inventory of what
belongs to them, they may put down many afflictions. These
are a part of their property.
We see that it is not a disreputable thing to suffer. We
are in good company.
The righteous man is infinitely more blessed in his afflictions
than the unrighteous man is in his exemption. The den of
lions may be a better place than the royal couch.
The afflictions of the righteous are those that he encounters
in the attempt to walk righteously. Some come upon him
from his unsubmissive nature struggling against the new principle that seeks to control it. Many from the wickedness of
men, who do their utmost that he may not continue in a path
that they abhor. Many from the lukewarmness and want of
sympathy of his brethren. Some from the suggestions of the
adversary, seeking to undermine his faith. Others again from
the strange procedure of God, very different from what he had
erringly anticipated. He thought that God would never let
him be cast into a pit or sold to Ishmaelites. He thought that
God would move with the speed of lightning to his rescue.




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He thought that God would call to him out of the clouds, " I
have heard thy prayer." Some afflictions come upon him from
wounded affections. Some from the disappearance of loved
ones. Happy for us if we are able to feel in all our afflictions
that they are the afflictions of the righteous. Not brought
upon us by our own folly-by the neglect of divine guidance —
by the contravention of providence.
All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something
glorious. The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds
an angel waiting for him at the door. And with every deliverance comes a specific blessing. One angel is named faith;
another, love; another, joy; another, long-suffering; another,
gentleness; another, goodness; another, meekness; another,
temperance; another, peace. Each of these graces says, "We
have come out of great tribulation."
JULY 8.-" The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of
them that trust in him shall be desolate."-Psalm xxxiv. 22.
The parallelism shows us that his servants are those that
trust in him. How can a man enter upon this service without
trusting in him? To acknowledge this master is rebellion to
the world. Thousands are ready to spring to their arms when
they see us put away from our forehead and from our hand the
sign of our submission to the powers of this world. A man
that would serve God, has no longer sword or spear to trust
in; riches or luck or cunning; rank or favor; the multitude
or the prince; a fortress or a cavern; learning or genius or
eloquence; nothing in fact remains for him to trust in but
God. The servant is not greater than his master; he partakes
with his master the hostility of the world; and he has naught
to look to but the promise of his master. Desolation seems
to stare him in the face; but he is assured that none of them
that trust in the Lord shall be desolate.




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233


Desolation seemed to frown upon the Pilgrim fathers as they
forsook the shores of the old world and went forth to a land
which they knew to be not at all flowing with milk and honeysrather indeed inhospitable, bleak and savage. Innumerable
dangers beset those infant colonies; but they found the grace
of the Lord corresponding with the word of the Lord. Instead of being outlaws they became lawgivers; instead of
being vilified as opposers of the faith, they became celebrated
as expounders of the faith; and the howling wilderness became as the garden of the Lord around them.
But sometimes the most bitter experience of desolation is
in the crowded walks of men; sometimes in the bosom of a
large family. Nothing is more desolating than to be closely
surrounded on every side by those who are called friends, kinsfolk, but who have no manner of sympathy with the ruling
sentiment of our heart. Often has one so situated longed for
the most lonely spot, and deeply felt that the solitary place
would be glad, beautiful, heavenlike, in comparison with his
situation. But often again has such a soul turned to God and
found it possible to obtain a triumph over its desolation. The
life of God perfected in that soul, has sent forth streams into
the uncongenial elements around, and so vindicated itself by
celestial love and patience that they too have been led to drink
and live. How blessed a thing was it that that soul could not
escape in the day of its weariness.
But those that do not trust in him shall be desolate. Perhaps they came to the borders of Canaan, and it seemed to
them an uninviting land; a sad and solitary existence seemed
to expand before them; they hesitated for a while; then the
persuasions of their worldly friends prevailed; they went back
to the multitude. But will the multitude keep them from desolation? Alas! can anything be more desolate than the soul
that is without God.
An hour is coming when men, as they have preferred to be
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without God, so they shall be driven with everlasting destruction from the glory of his presence; thenceforth will everlasting and universal desolation encompass them about, such as
eye hath not seen nor heart conceived.
JULY 9.-" God is faithful, by whom we were called unto the fellowship
of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."-I Corinthians i. 9.
Called unto the fellowship of Christ, seems to mean, called
unto a community of interest and of destiny with Christ. One
Spirit is to be common to the believer and Christ; to each
there is one life of humiliation, one eternity of glory; to each
the hatred of the world. Christ's peace and joy are the believer's; the same love of the Father is given to each; there is to
each a resurrection and ascension.  But he that is called to a
part is called to the whole. If we suffer with him, we shall
reign with him; not otherwise. He is indeed the Captain of
our salvation; and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. Though crucified with him, yet there were
sacrificial sorrows of his which we know not.
Of course it will be thought a sublime thing in the last day,
to sit down with Jesus on his throne, and participate a glory
that shall light up the universe. But only he shall sit there
who is now cordially associated with Christ in the midst of a
gainsaying and perverse generation.  The marvel is that, with
the certainty of such an exalted destiny in reserve, there should
be so little readiness to pursue the path that leads to it.  Is it
thought that God is not faithful, and that after enduring countless humiliations for the name of Christ, the reward will be
withheld? But God is not only faithful, he is faithfulness itself; he must cease to be himself before he can be unfaithful.
Faithfulness in God is simply acting in accordance with his
own character, simply having his own way. In order to induce
a man to be faithful, we labor to make him go out of himself,




DAILY MEDITATIONS.


-control his own inclinations and tendencies; it is almost lke
asking a barque driven with the wind and tossed, to remain
motionless on the bosom of the agitated waters. But God is a
rock; and a strange spectacle it would indeed be, if he should
vacillate and be thrown from his native steadfastness. He
knew our nature perfectly before he took that nature in hand
to redeem it. He cannot be taken by surprise at any developments in us. It was not because he believed us somewhat corrupt, that he undertook our redemption; he knew us to be
what we are only gradually discovering ourselves to be, utterly
corrupt. Heaven and earth then may pass away, but He will
remain faithful to his own declared purpose, and present us to
the scrutiny of the universe, holy, unblemished, unblameable.
JULY 10.-They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy
house, and thou shalt make them drink of thy pleasures."-Psalm xxxvi. 8.
The blessedness of God will be the blessedness of his people.
Their purity shall be without stain, their love without limit;
wherefore their happiness shall know no bound. Their character will correspond to the character of God; wherefore their
felicity will be the same as his. Men, as they are generally,
could find no satisfaction in God's house, in the place where
his glory has its highest revelation; nor is there anything attractive to them in the river of his pleasures. Satan has so
vitiated their palate with the caustic of sin, that they have no
faculty of appreciating'the banquet that is spread in heaven.
Even the Israelites preferred the leeks and onions of Egypt to
the manna from heaven.
Happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Give them the most exquisite viands that man can prepare,
and their tears will fall as they eat; they long to arise and hie
them to some humble chamber where believers bow the knee
before their heavenly Father and ask for his reviving grace.




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They have tasted of a particular food, and their whole nature
has been brought under the enchantment of it; they disdain
all that they formerly thought excellent; and never can they
be satisfied till that heaven-born appetite brings them to the
mansion of their Father, and to that garden where the saints
walk in light and drink of the river of the pleasures of God.
The river of thy pleasures. " This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased."  Thus saith the Eternal Father.
What sayest thou?   "In these things I delight," saith the
Lord; "in loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness."
What sayest thou?   "As a bridegroom rejoiceth over the
bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."  "The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that fear him."  Dost thou?  We must be
drinking even now of the river of the pleasures of God; then
have we an assured hope that our thirst shall be fully slaked
in the beatific future.
JULY 11. —"With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see
light."-Psalm xxxvi. 9.
In a few verses of this psalm, we have the elysium of God
divinely sketched, and how do all the elysian scenes of poets
fade in comparison with it. There is poetry and there is wisdom in the abstinence that controls the delineation. They
that minutely depict the home of the blessed and seek to present us with a finished drawing of it, forget that whatever can
be thus photographed is of necessity fallen from the region to
which faith, hope, and whatsoever is heavenly in us, aspires.
Give us a minute description of heaven and it is no more
heaven. For what we need to understand by heaven is a
place or a condition such as eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, heart not conceived; having so little in common with
earth that earthly language is no medium for the expression
of its marvels; and whose distinguishing elements must just




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be hinted; negations being more employed than affirmations.
Oh, how much reason have we to admire and rejoice in the reticence of the sacred writers, or rather of the Spirit who dwelt
in them!
Let us not fail also to admire the fact that everything which
is uttered concerning the place of God's glory, has reference to
us. We are told of a fountain of life, because we long to be
fully possessed by the life of heaven, to be emancipated from
the body of this death, to drink our full of the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.  We are told of God's light, because
in that marvellous light we shall see light, and never more be
compelled to look on darkness. There is darkness within us;
the light that we have is but light shining through the riven
darkness; and there is darkness on our path; and darkness in
the mind and in the speech of every man we walk with; and
a mighty pall of darkness stretches over the whole world.
There is darkness in the government of every land under the
sun, whether it be absolute, constitutional, or republican; darkness in all literature; darkness in the daily press; darkness in
all codes; darkness in the ministry. Almost everywhere, utter
darkness; in the Church, mingled darkness and light, and the
promise of unmixt light. We now believe in God's light;
soon we shall see it.
JULY 12.-" He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again."2 Corinthians v. 15.
Ile dicd for all; a glorious truth repeated in every variety
of language, and oftentimes with the utmost explicitness that
language can admit of. By virtue of this unlimited atonement, salvation may be offered to all, the gospel to every creature, the water of life to whomsoever will; by virtue of this,
men that believe not are condemned because they have not believed on the Son of God, and men are convinced of sin be



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cause of unbelief. It is this that gives its pathos t( the language of Christ.  " How often would I have gathered thee,
and thou wouldest not. I would, thou wouldest not. Ye will
not come unto me that ye may have life." And to the language of Paul: "Seeing that ye put away from yourselves
everlasting life."  And to the language of wisdom: " Because
I have called and ye refused, therefore ye shall call and I will
not answer."
But though there be an unlimited atonement there is a limited redemption. He died for all, and the result is not, that
all live; he died for all that they who live should not live unto
themselves. He died for all in the sense that all may live if
they will; he died for the elect in the sense that they will
actually will to live. Life is offered to all; but all are not
allowed to reject it
And this is the life that they obtain, namely a willingness
to live unto Christ; a purpose and a power to live according
to the mind of Christ. There is nothing that seems so much
like death to men as the subjugation of their own will to the
will of another. They know not that their own will is their
greatest enemy; enthroned within them for their present misery
and future destruction. The believer's happiness it is to discover that the will of Christ indicates the only path in which
he will find peace, purity, genuine liberty, dignity, immortality,
felicity.
JULY 13.-" If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."-2 Timothy ii. 12.
When he was on the earth, leading a life of sorrows and
perfecting his acquaintance with grief, no man appeared to
covet the privilege of suffering with him. John and James,
indeed, before they had obtained a glimpse of the cross, were
bold to say, " We are able to drink of thy cup, and to be baptized with thy baptism." Thomas also said, " Let us also go




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239


that we may die with him." Peter said, " I will lay down my
life for thy sake." So likewise said they all. Yet when the
hour of his enemies came, and the power of darkness, he was
left to tread the wine-press alone. His disciples forsook him;
or if they ventured to approach the place where he was a
prisoner, it was only to increase his suffering by the exhibition
of their unbelief and pusillanimity.
Imagine yourself there. You are in the secret. You know
that this is indeed the very king of the Jews, though they
mock him with a crown of thorns and with some faded and
tattered robe of state. You know that legions of angels are
waiting to receive his commands; though these servants of
servants smite him and revile him. You know that there is
buried within that suffering body, glory sufficient to bathe all
the mountains of the earth in radiance, and suffuse the heavens
with splendor in the absence of the sun; you know that there
is a joy set before him unspeakable, inconceivable, and that it
will be the sublimest of destinies to participate in that joy.
Well, what is the course you adopt?  It seems to you-does
it not?-that you must hasten to his side; nay, cast yourself
at his feet, and solicit the honor of suffering with him; confessing withal that, if you had the goodness of an archangel,
you would still be most unworthy of such a privilege. Christ
is not willing that you should be debarred this privilege.
Hie did not take his cross away to heaven with him. Ages
have not extinguished the opposition of the world to him.
Are you sure that you are really willing to perceive, to enter,
and to pursue the via dolorosa?  There does indeed seem
something most base in the refusal to join this king of glory
in the hour of his humiliation; but is it very certain that you
are not this very day demonstrating your spiritual affinity to
those who cried out, " Not this man, but Barabbas?" Have
you not turned aside from many a path, chiefly because you
caught a glimpse of something like calamity, and concluded




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that duty did not call you to enter it? Does not the anticipated elements of loss, shame, or danger, assist you much toc
readily in reaching your conclusions as to what is duty?
Formerly, in the days of the Church's simplicity, Christians
ascertained their path by the plain sense of Scripture. But
now the Church has become exceedingly wise and prudent,
and discovers that the old paths are many of them quite unnecessary. One is ashamed to differ from so many wise and
good men. And it is certainly a very foolish thing to run
after suffering. Yet is it a far more foolish thing to disregard
the monitions of the Spirit.  It is the acme of folly to do
anything that may jeopard our hope of reigning with Christ,
in the day that the kings of the earth shall be crouching in
dens and caves.
JULY 14.-" If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny
himself."-2 Timothy ii. 13.
He will not modify his purposes to suit our unbelief. What
madness to suppose that he will imitate us; and seeing that
we make light of his faithfulness, make light of it himself.
Let God be true, though every man a liar. God once declared
his purpose of bringing a deluge upon the earth. Men would
not believe the terrific word. The whole human race combined
to rear up a wall of unbelief under the protection of which
they thought themselves safe. On the one hand were all mankind with their "no;" on the other, God with his "yes."
Unbelievers thought themselves safe in their vast numbers and
perfect concord; but the word of God must be fulfilled whether
a single individual be the opposer, or a whole world.
Tlhe thought of the immense numbers that are without
Christ in the world, leads many to conclude that God will modify his declared purpose. Where there are so many to be
punished, it is unlikely that the penalty will be inflicted. Ac



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241


cording to this reasoning, man has saved himself by getting
the whole human family to persevere in rebellion. God delighteth in mercy; but he cannot cease to be a just and faithful God. It is altogether too much to expect that he will
follow the example of man, and give up the attributes of faithfulness, truthfulness, and holiness, after man has denied them
to him. The question from the foundation of the world has
been, shall man accommodate himself to God, or shall God
accommodate himself to man? The Bible says, " He that believeth not is condemned; there is no saving name but that of
Christ; no man cometh unto the Father but by him:" and
it is not denied that the Bible says these things. But, it is
said, God must accommodate himself to the stubbornness of
man. Vain hope. He abideth faithful, though not a believer
were found in the earth.
Dost thou, O Christian, render due honor to the inviolable
faithfulness of God? I fear lest occasionally thou incline to
some forbidden path, hoping that God will not visit you with
the rod. How unkind in you to set up God's love to you
against his love to his word! Would you actually introduce
division and conflict among the very perfections of God?
Christ has never promised that he will become a sinner to
gratify you. He will remain faithful; truth driven from every
threshold of man, finds an everlasting asylum with him.
Happy are they who have on their side the adamantine
faithfulness of Christ, and build upon it all their hopes of
happiness.
JULY 15.-" The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The
Lord knoweth them that are his."-2 Timothy ii. 19.
This is said with reference to some that appear unto men
to be the children of God, and afterwards fall away. Christians have no promise that they shall be kept from misconceptions on this point; and they arc sometimes greatly shocked
21




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to find the court of God's house strewn with columns. God is
the architect of his temple, and is cognizant of his own plan;
he allows stones and pillars to be placed in the edifice which
he knows do not permanently belong to it; but for the
places they temporarily occupy there are other materials
known to him; and no chasms, no unlovely vacancies shall
after all appear. Let this console us. The Lord knoweth
them that are his. These pseudo-Christians that figure for a
while upon the platform, and then pass away in the whirlwind
of sin, amid the triumphs of a scoffing world, were never
known to him for anything but what they really were.
The foundation laid by the Lord standeth sure, and amid
the shock of ages remains the same. The prophets and the
apostles are this foundation, the chief corner-stone being the
Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the Bible exhibits the religion that God requires of man. Every generation is made
to look upon this foundation, and is invited to build upon it.
It builds and builds; but its work is perhaps not accordant
with the foundation laid; and God quietly removes the superstructure, and summons the next generation. It builds and
builds; and its work, too, is swept away. Finally we are
reached. We behold the foundation, and we apply ourselves
to the work of completing the house of God. Will God be
pleased with our performance? Only if we adopt the apostolic
standard, and banish the futile thought of improving on the
plans of God.
JULY 16.-" He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him."-HIebrews vii. 25.
The reason is assigned and it is unanswerable:-" HTe ever
liveth to make intercession for them." Ile lives forever,
clothed with all the power derived from his propitiatory death,
and animated by the same heart of love that led him to die;
he lives in the very place where we most need him; he is




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243


there perpetually in our behalf. Hle was not more truly on
the earth for us than he is in heaven for us, ar.d we may confidently expect to be saved unto the uttermost.
Once we had no access to God. There were no invitations
for us, no promises. He saved us from that fearful condition.
lHe has endowed us with liberty to draw nigh to God. He has
given us his Holy Spirit,-has shed abroad the love of God in
our hearts,-has changed our hearts; overcome our sins; and
bound us to himself by indissoluble bonds. But all this is
scarcely more than a beginning.  We have received but an instalment. IHe is able to do vastly more than he has done. He
is able to save us from all moral weakness, so that we may look
serenely and fearlessly on all temptations, on all dangers that
beset us.
Is there some infirmity in yourself, some difficulty out of
yourself, that seems like a barrier in the way of your progress?
He is able to remove this. Have you been so often overcome
by the adversary, that you are ready to despair? Take care,
and do not disparage the ability of him that is with you to
succor you. Does some duty seem tremendous and altogether
beyond your force? He is able. Has he done so great things
for you that you are ashamed to ask him for more?  He requires you to ask until you be saved to the uttermost. Do you
shrink from death? Shrink not from the remaining salvation.
You must be saved from this present inglorious and inadequate
life; from a Church sadly imperfect to a Church clothed in
spotless purity; from a mortal and corruptible existence to an
immortal incorruptible one. You must be brought to the angels; to the seraphim; to the glorified Son of God; to the
throne where the river of the water of life takes its rise.
JULY 17.-"Be not weary in well-doing."-2 Thessalonians iii. 13.
This is said to the well-doer. To one even who is no novice




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in well-doing; but has been some time engaged in deeds of beneficence. You have begun well; you have gone on well; but
persevere. It may be that your kindness is not appreciated;
that your self-denial for the sake of others is even ridiculed;
that your motives are misrepresented; and that the more you
love, the less you are loved. But your well-doing is not welldoing if it be gone about chiefly for the sake of man's appreciation. He doeth well whose labors of love are amply rewarded
by the smile of God. There was a time when you were not
weary in seeking your own ease, pleasure, or advantage.
Should you labor longer or more cheerfully for that solitary
sinner, than-for a world of unhappy ones around you?
Consider that Christ was not weary in well-doing, though his
love was exhibited under the most adverse circumstances imaginable. Perhaps you may find on reflection that he has
been remarkably persevering in his efforts to do good to you.
Did you ever go to the door of some poor miserable degraded
being, and knock and knock; and when driven from the door
by a shower of reproaches, return at the first opportunity and
knock and knock; and being again thrust back with your undesired gifts, still return and endeavor to gain admission?
Hardly. But has there not been some such persistency as this
on the part of Christ, in his efforts to recover you from the
degradation of sin and the darkness of unbelief? God makes
his sun to rise and run his daily course through the skies that
you may be lighted along the path of duty; but how often does
that sun arise and pour his deluge of light around you, without any other thoughts arising in your own mind than such as
relate to your own pleasure. The marvel is that God should
not be weary of doing good to such a one. When you are
ready to get weary of your paltry beneficences, think that you
are suggesting to God that it is not worth while to continue
blessing the race to which you belong.




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JULY 18.-"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me."-Matthew xvi. 24.
One of the greatest triumphs ever obtained by Satan, was
when he induced men, from motives utterly unscriptural, and
in connection with a system not Christian, to institute religious
orders consecrated to poverty and external humiliation. In
recoiling from this error, Protestantism has, it is to be feared,
recoiled from the truth of which it is a perversion. The doctrine illustrating the spirituality of Christianity, voluntary
sacrifice of position, wealth or ease, in order that the sincerity
and faith and contentedness and hope and love of the Christian may be appropriately exhibited, this doctrine, though it
may claim as large and broad a foundation for itself in the
word of Christ as any other one doctrine, is now treated as a
foolish fantasy, if not indeed as a heresy; and he that maintains it and practises it must exhibit a good deal of wisdom in
other matters in order to be tolerated. There is no more sacred obligation resting upon Christians, under the sun, than
the obligation to show forth the divine origin of Christianity
by the exhibition, in their lives, of those evidences that are
most calculated to affect mankind generally. God loves his
people; he is no enemy to their comfort here; but he loves
his truth and the removal of stumbling-blocks from the paths
that tend to Christ; nor is it from harshness or indifference
that he says to any, " Sell all that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and follow me;" for he well knoweth that he has power
to bestow-with poverty and inferiority of position-peace,
and gladness such as riches can never impart. "But," you
say, "what can a solitary individual do?  If he resolve to do
just what his Lord says, his course will be at once eccentric
and unprofitable. The example of one man is nothing." But
the question already considered recurs: Do the words of Christ
accommodate themselves to the unbelief of the Church* and
21 *




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are all his requirements relaxed because Christians universally
shut their eyes to them?
JULY 19.-" Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom."-Luke xii. 32.
In these words we read the future destinies of the world
When an Alexander arises and hurries through the world,
snatching crowns on the right hand and on the left, and threatening to take unto himself all sublunary power, the people of
God are told to fear not; the kingdom is for them, not him.
So too when a Julius Caesar grasps at the sceptre of universal
dominion. And when a Napoleon appears on the scene, they
calmly wait to see him and his kingdom vanish. For they
have looked with Daniel on the image that expressed beforehand the vicissitudes of the world from the Babylonian dominion down to the time when dominion is given unto the Son
of man, and by him given to the people of the saints of the
Most High. The meek shall inherit the earth. Not only is
there for them an inheritance reserved in heaven; but thrones
shall come down from heaven and be set upon the earth; and
they shall sit thereon.  "For we shall reign on the earth."
But who are these unmanifested kings and priests? They
are now a little company of sheep; a little flock; mutely submissive when led to the slaughter; willing to be inglorious,
poor, weak, despised, rejected; fitting themselves to be all that
is great and excellent and powerful, by their willingness to be
nothing.
JULY 20.-" Ile that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."-John
iii. 36.
And he only; for "he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."  Several
important matters loom upon us in this little statement.  One




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of the most unintelligible things, to the world, is the declara.
tion so constantly made in the Scriptures, that man is without
life. At the very beginning of human history, Satan introduced, as a substitute for God's doctrine that man would die
in the day of his transgression, his own opposing doctrine that
man would not die. Adam believed Satan rather than God
and it has been the same with Adam's descendants until the
present hour. Men refuse to believe that they are in any
proper sense dead; that they need the breath of life to be
breathed into their soul. And refusing to believe this, they
give no heed to the offer of life made to them in the Gospel.
" In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."  "He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life-hath passed
from death unto life." Not knowing themselves dead through
transgression, they fail to live through faith. The death that
passed upon Adam was not a visible death; and the life that
comes to the believer is not a visible life; but the results of
both are in due time sufficiently visible.
You look upon the believer and upon yourself, and you say,
What has he that I have not? Wherein is he richer than I
am? I have physical and mental powers equal, if not superior, to his. Is he eloquent? Not more than I. Can he
reason? Not better than I. Is he well informed?  So am
I. Is he respected? I am more so. Has he wealth? I have
more. Is he generous? Men speak far more of my generosity than of his. Is he moral? I claim to be as much so.
He has a hope of heaven. And have I none?
I will tell you what he has that you have not. He has the
knowledge that sin is death. He knows that, naturally, he, in
common with all mankind, is under condemnation; is without
the favor of God; is exposed to eternal wrath. While deeply
sensible of the great goodness of God in bestowing upon him
many admirable gifts, he knows that these gifts only increase
the odiousness of his sins. He loathes his sins; his pride,




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selfishness, irreligion, insincerity. He is aware hat no mere
efforts of his own, with all the aid that he can obtain from
man, are adequate to restore his diseased, his dead nature. It
is life that he needs. And it is blasphemy to say that any
finite power can bestow this. He believes on the Son of God;
recognizing him to be morally and in respect to dignity, the
express image of the Father. He beholds God manifest in
the Son; and all the acts and words of Christ reveal to him
the character of the omnipresent G0od. He sees his own sins
expiated at the cross; and the broken body of Christ is the
legacy of life to him. The ascension of Christ is the guarantee of his own entire emancipation from sin, sorrow, frailty,
corruptibility. You have many things in common with him;
but, unlike you, he glories only in the cross of Christ. You
make many donations, and men praise you for them; but he
performs actions that will be mentioned with approbation by
Christ at the last day, in words like this: " You have done it
unto me." In a word, he has faith in Christ; and you have
not. Your faith is in yourself; and until you know yourself
to be without life, Christ can be of no advantage to you.
JULY 21.-" God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ."-Galatians vi. 14.
Whatever constitutes, in our opinion, our chief ground of
distinction, that is the thing in which we glory. Like the
fabled jewel in the toad, so there is in almost every man, if we
may believe him, a very wonderful jewel. He finds it in himself; though with respect to others the whole thing is a fable.
But even if there were this diamond in a man's nature, the
presence of self-esteem would turn it to carbon again. To
pride yourself on any good is to lose that good. Virtue comes
to you, not that she may make you love yourself, but love Him
that sent her to you.




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249


There are those, indeed, who glory in som:hing beside
themselves.  A man glories in his ancestors. A child in its
father.  Men are proud of their country. Soldiers glory in
their commander. A successful general inspires his soldiers
with the most intense enthusiasm, so that they are ready to
throw away their lives at the slightest expression of his will.
This enthusiasm, however, must be aided by a measure of
ignorance in order to endure. Passionate admiration has only
to come very near its object, to discover some fatal flaw. No
reputation of man;s safe where there is abundant light.
And the great art of men is to veil their heroes. Sometimes,
however, the greateR enemies of the Bible find themselves
speaking the language of the Bible.
" Where shall the wearied eye repose
When gazing on the great,
Where neither guilty glory glows
Nor despicable hate?"
Reading the history of humanity, Patl found but one page
on which his eye could rest, ever rest, with unmingled satisfaction. It was not the page that records the conquests of
Alexander; nor that which describes the eloquence of Demosthenes; nor that which treats of Thermopylae.  He passed
dissatisfied from Homer to Eschylus, to Plato, to Socrates, to
Pythagoras, to Cato. The page on which humanity came out
faultlessly glorious, was that which told of the death of Him
who had come down from the highest heavens and assumed
humanity that he might expose the worthlessness of all that
man had gloried in and make such an atonement for the sins
of men as would heal the division then yawning like a great
gulf between God and man. At the cross he had first obtained a correct view of himself and of all mankind; an acquaintance with God; a knowledge of time and of eternity.
And that which taught him to renounce the idea of man's




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nobility, was that also which disclosed the m.ans of rising to
the highest conceivable degree of nobility. It poured contempt on princes; but it raised men from the dunghill to array
them in robes of never-fading splendor, to crown them with
everlasting joy.
JULY 22.-"Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given
himself for us."-Ephesians v. 2.
That is to say, carry on the life which Christ lived. In
him love made its advent to the earth; and the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, shows plainly that
the idea of the Saviour was not that that divine love should
take its departure with him from the earth, but that it should
abide and have an inextinguishable life in his disciples, from
generation to generation, until he should come again. This,
then, is your vocation. To walk by faith, and to walk in love,
let these things be one in your experience.
What a sublime mission! God on his throne in heaven is
love. Love is with him enthroned in heaven; love, in you,
wanders over the earth. The whole universe is made for the
manifestation of his love; and the universe, as much of it as
you will, exists for the manifestation of your love. It is the
law of all created essences; and let there only be in you divine
love enthroned, and the whole creation will answer your glance,
and say to you, " Here am I." It must wait upon you, for it
mnust wait upon love. You are the follower of Christ; consequently you live to love.
You are, however, surrounded by a world of unloving and
unlovely beings; and how can you walk in love here? Consider that formerly you found no difficulty in loving yourself;
in spite of all the repulsive things you knew about yourself,
you went on loving yourself, with an unwavering steadfastness.
Consider, again, that Christ sets you the example. Does it




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become you to be more fastidious than he is?  Is the servant
greater than his Lord?  Do you presume to despise what he
regards?  Did he bring too much love down from heaven, and
must you send some of it back?  Consider, again, does it appear wrong that you should be loved? Does a little satisfy
you?  Would you have your brethren make light of the corn
mnand to love you? Again, is there any better way of bring
ing men to be lovely, than this very way of love? Finally, Is
there any habit more enriching and gladdening to your own
nature, than this sacred habit of love?
You may well say that you have not attained, neither are
already perfect. Nothing less is solicited at your hands, than
that you should give Christ's mighty love an unlimited range
of your nature.
" I cannot tutor my affections," you say; " I cannot by any
word of command constrain my heart to love."  Well, then,
try this way. Be filled with the knowledge of Christ's love to
you. Feed upon this food; the table is spread, and there is
no stinted supply. Love to him will follow without difficulty.
Then, as he is in heaven and his people are on earth, love
him in them. In them he is near.
JULY 23.-" This is his commandment, that we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another."-1 John iii. 23.
We have here not two commandments, but one. Faith is
naught without love; and love without faith is not the love
that is here commanded. "Love believeth all things;" and
faith " worketh by love," exhibits itself in love. Selfishness is
the grand impediment of love; but faith is that which gets the
victory over selfishness, by showing a man his utter unworthiness and the perfect folly of living unto himself. Faith makes
us acquainted with the love of Christ, and in fact introduces it
into the so'il; and this love begets love. Faith enables us to




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contemplate the truth th?.t Christ and his people are one, and
that in loving them we are responding to his love. Faith
shows us what there is of Christ in them, and what they are
to be hereafter. We have seen the crowns, the royal robes,
the celestial dwelling-places now in course of preparation for
them. The Holy Spirit in us is the author of faith; and he
will not tarry with us unless we love. If they have sins, faith
teaches us so to pray for them as to obtain their deliverance
therefrom. And faith also teaches us how to do good-not to
be always saying smooth things; not to leave their faults unheeded; not to aim that they may be always comfortable in
mind. But as it teaches us that the leaving of God's will undone, or the doing of what he willeth not, is the greatest calamity for ourselves, so it teaches us that this is their greatest
calamity; and it keeps us more intent upon their growth in
grace than upon their momentary pleasure, though even this
we cannot overlook unless there be a necessity. Christ did
not take it as a kindness when Peter said, " Far be it from
thee, Lord, to go up to Jerusalem, the city of thine enemies!"
Any one that attempts to love without faith will be sure to
make wretched work of it. For there will be no tendency in
his love to draw the object of it near to him who is the only
fountain of happiness, but rather to draw it more and more
away. A great deal that is called love is fatal and withering
toward the loved one. Pour the light of God's truth on what
are called romances, and what melancholy ghastly things do
they become.
JULY 24.-" He that covereth his sins shall not prosper."-Proverbs
xxviii. 13.
Almost all men are intent upon appearing better than they
really are. If a man cannot be what he ought to be, he attempts at least to appear so. His days are spent in a fraudulent attempt to pass himself off as something better than he




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253


is. The same amount of energy devoted to the purification of
his character, might result in something good. What watchfulness! What circumspection! What attention to circumstances! What study of men's characters! What perseverance! What self-command! Were these qualities and habits
devoted to the legitimate end of appearing well in the sight
of God, what magnificent results would be witnessed. These
are the very things that God requires of us: watchfulness.
carefulness, perseverance, self-control.  Man shows that he is
capable of these things; but he exercises them in seeking not
the essence, but a fiction; not the favor of God, but that of
man.
The habit is so inveterate that few are conscious of it. They
suppose they are acting naturally, and have no conception of
the measure of their insincerity. I speak not of the hypocrite, commonly so styled; but of all. The man who says, "1
thank God, I make no profession to be better than others;" he.
too, is playing a role, though he cheats himself with the contrary idea.
Insincerity in religion, the endeavor to obtain and perpetuate a reputation for piety, is something exceedingly offensive.
There is something monstrous about the idea of offering prayer
in such a way as to secure the commendation of man.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; for while he
covers them he cannot possibly get rid of them; and their presence will vitiate all prosperity. Let us endure the shame of
confessing them, that we may have the abiding glory of being
delivered from them. Let us act out our true characters, and
take our true place; then we may expect to make progress of
the most desirable kind. If man deride, no matter; we have
something that they have not.    Our position is a more
promising one than theirs; for truth is now on our side.
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JULY 25.-" They have washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God."-Revelation vii. 14, 15.
These robes are symbolical of their characters once defiled,
now made pure by virtue of the faith which they have exercised in him who died on Calvary that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself a peculiar people.
Observe here that their agency is spoken of. It was, indeed,
the blood of the Lamb that purged away the stains; but they
had something to do; they saw and loathed the impurity of
their garments, they approached the fountain, and washed
them white. Christ gave them the heart to do it.
The saints in light have something to distinguish them from
all angels, all other holy beings. They are not pure, but purified. They were once impure, once steeped in sin and meet
only for the inheritance of the devil and his angels. That they
have become the companions of those who are before the
throne, will be a wonder ceaseless through all eternity. The distinction is of course not honorable to them; but it is eminently
honorable to Christ; and they seek no honor but his. By reason of their intimate alliance with him, they feel at home in
heaven as though they had never dwelt elsewhere.
They wash their robes on earth that they may stand before
the throne of God. Do you belong to their number? Have
you knowledge of the blood of Christ? Such knowledge as
tends to the purification of your character, to your emancipation from sin? Not without your agency will this spiritual
transformation take place. Delay not; for how soon may "the
great day of his wrath" burst upon the world.
JULY 26.-" Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's."-1 Corinthians vi. 20.
Rights relating to property are carefully guarded by ijen.




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They greatly resent any unwarranted use of what belongs to
them. To touch their property is to touch them. The earth
is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.  Man sold himself to
Satan and presumed to transfer the earth and the fulness
thereof to the arch-apostate, and God so far allowed the bargain (for the punishment of man,) that Satan may be correctly
styled the god of this world. "i e that committeth sin is the
servant of sin;" this word is the charter of Satan's kingdom
upon earth. But into the slave-market of this world God hath
gone in the person of his Son, and paid the tremendous price
which authorizes him to take as many as he can find willing to
go, and create them anew in the image of the Son. They that
go, go willingly; fully and deliberately recognizing God's absolute property in them; and any subsequent alienation of
their powers to the will of another, is most base and inexcusable.
It is not therefore a fragment of you that has been purchased; but the whole. You would hardly presume to say
that the price was inadequate. Yet do you not seem to say
so? How much of your time is the Lord's? Do you dress,
feed, employ your body as unto the Lord? Is your tongue,
your hand consecrated all to him? Your memory, imagination, hope? Your love and faith? Your houses and lands?
Your influence?
JULY 27.-" Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."-Psalm
xlvi. 2.
The language of the highest faith is the language of the
lighest courage. Men that are bold enough to seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth, and who fear not
that they shall ever know what fear is, may at any moment be
reduced to a condition of the most abject timidity by the reve.




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lation of that God whom they have scorned to make their refuge and strength.
Fear is to be the everlasting portion of him who in this life
refuses to fear. Men exclude from their attention those truths
that are calculated to alarm them; and resolve to retain their
self-confidence unbroken, at whatever cost. They wish to be
without fear; and in many instances their wish is gratified;
they pass through life, and pass away from it, without any
painful apprehension. But they have only been accumulating
an everlasting fund of terror and agony, and they inherit, on
the other side of the grave, with incalculable interest, what
they refused to receive on this side. They defended themselves against fear by the amulet of delusion; by some scheme
of future things which their own vain minds had elaborated;
but delusion is not allowed to cross the grave; and there they
will find themselves bereft of their armor. " Fear hath torment."
Who can express this torment? The terror-stricken soul experiences not only the inflicted sorrow of the moment, but by anticipation the dread interminable suffering of all time to come.
How shall our souls be strong in the day when Christ shall
come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?
There is another question more important; and if it be rightly
answered, we can dismiss the first. What am I now fearing?
The displeasure of man, or that of God? The scorn of man
or that of God?   When the world says, "Enter not this
path," and God says, " Enter it;" when the world says, "Be
conformed to me," and God says, " Be not conformed;" when
the world says, "Speak not of God, of Christ, of sin, of eternity;" and God says, "Speak of them;" whom do I obey?
If I fear not in my daily, hourly walk, the wrath and derision
of mankind, I shall be kept from fear in the great day of God's
wrath, and shall dwell in safety where I now dwell in safety,
beneath the shadow of his wings.




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JULY 28.-" God is my salvation and my glory."-Psalm lxii. 7.
God is my Saviour; and inasmuch as he saves me by bringing me into blessed relations to himself, clothes me with the
garment of his own unsullied righteousness, and makes me to
bear his image, I may well speak of him as my salvation. This,
like a thousand other passages of the Old Testament, teaches
the divinity of Christ, and it is a marvel how any one can say
that the evidences of this are chiefly confined to the New
Testament. Every passage in the Old Testament that exhibits
God as the Saviour of his people, is as true a testimony to the.
divinity of Christ as anything in his own works and words.
The doctrine of Christ's divinity is dear to the believer, not
only because of the honor that thereby redounds to Christ, but
because all the honor of Christ thereby redounds io God. It
is not merely the exaltation of Christ, but the condescension
of God, that attracts him to the gospel. He does not merely
add divinity to him who sat upon the margin of the well at
Sychar, and who sailed upon the lake of Gennesareth; he adds
humanity to the infinite God, in whom he lives, moves, and has
his being.
It is one thing to hold the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and
it is another to draw from the doctrine its fullness of blessing.
Iave I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me?    Many that are accustomed to read the gospel
have no idea of the power with which its statements would
come to their soul, if they would allow this doctrine to flash
its light upon the words.
They read for instance, Oh, ye of little faith, how long shall
I be with you, how long shall I suffer you? Let them consider these words as revealing the mind of him who is not far
from any one of us, the omniscient and immutable God; and
let them discover by means of them with what strong dissatisfaction he who compasseth their path and their lying-down regards their unbelief. Iow long shall he be with us unknown
22 -*




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and unperceived; how long shall the boundless and ever-present
riches of his grace be offered us in vain? " Ie that hath seen
me hath seen the Father." Let us labor to connect the idea
of the Almighty, the Ever-living, Ever-present one, with the
words and acts of Christ.
JULY 29.-" Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up."-James iv. 19.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord; that is, humble yourself truly; for his eye is as a flame of fire; and no
mere pretence of humility will pass current with him. He
does not ask you to conceal your pride from the observation of
men, but to mortify it. He does not ask you to be humble
merely in your addresses to him; for he is ever with you.
In order to humble yourself, know yourself. Pride grows
in the atmosphere of falsehood. It is only by dint of lying
that a soul maintains its pride. Let God reveal you to yourself. Perhaps the esteem in which you are held by man, interposes a difficulty. You have a position in society. Men
look up to you. They treat you with no little deference. Receiving thus attention and respect all the day long, it becomes
difficult for you to entertain those depreciatory views of yourself that God requires. But, do men honor you for what is
really commendable in you; or, for things that are merely adventitious, and that are found in innumerable instances connected with ungodliness?  If they honor you for wealth,
influence, or even for talent, call to mind that there are thousands of worthless men in the world that surpass you in these
respects. It is in direct violation of the command of God tlhat
men give their admiration to these tlings. What they have
not learned, you should quickly learn, namely, to recognize
God as the giver of all good gifts, and to ascribe unto him
honor and glory. It is of more importance that you should be




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259


humble, than that you should be wealthy and looked up to.
And you know what Christ hath told us to do, when cherished
things hinder us from obtaining something better. It is with
reference to the difficulties you now plead that Christ has said,
" How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven." It is hard for them to humble themselves in
tile sight of God; and without humility there is no entering
into the kingdom of heaven.
Perhaps you say, "No, I am not rich, but poor; mean in
station; unknown to the men of the world; but God has bestowed his grace upon me and enabled me to walk in his paths;
Christian brethren admire the work that God hath wrought
in me, and their commendation hinders me from being clothed
with humility."  Hearken! your attainments are of a very superficial character, if humility, the knowledge of your own
profound unworthiness, be not a constant tenant of your breast.
Most imperfect and questionable is the fabric of your Christian
character, if it be not founded broadly and solidly in humility.
Just exactly therefore in the degree in which you are vain of
your attainments, you condemn your attainments. Say unto
pride, I have no need of thee until I have acquired self-knowledge and the deep conviction of my own utter unworthiness
and weakness, and until my soul has got thoroughly imbued
with the persuasion of its dependence on the grace of Christ
for all things. Let me first obtain that humility without which
every individual is but a loathsome leper in the universe of
God. Then, if thou please, come to me; but thou shalt come
in vain. Thou wilt find no footing on the landing-place of my
soul. Thy proper place is with the wicked, the incorrigible,
the base, the carnal, the devilish. The wickedest being in existence is the proudest. A man's pride is ever commensurate
with his blindness and alienation from God.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up.




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JuIL 30.-" To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit."-Isaiah lxvi. 2.
What mighty efforts, and how many, to obtain the regard
of men: how rare the effort to obtain the regard of God!
Tile admiring glance of God passes by the great and noble,
the wise and prudent, the wealthy, the powerful, all the illustrious that shine as stars in the firmament of this world, and
singles out some obscure person who is distinguished by nothing but a poor and contrite spirit. God looks to him and
God alone. The mere possession of humility leaves him without the slightest power to attract the attention of men. If he
had but an arithmetical talent; or an uncommon memory; ol
an unusual degree of muscular power; could he but dance, run
far, walk quickly, eat much, drink much, fast much; had he
any kind of ability almost, men would look to him; but being
merely a humble man, of a contrite spirit, singular only in his
freedom from pride; they do not look to him. God looks to
him.
God can do something with such a man as that. God is
love, and delighteth in mercy, and he is ever seeking whom
he can bless; and when he finds a man of a poor and contrite
spirit, he has the opportunity of blessing. For such a one
will receive the gifts of God without being lifted up by them;
he knows that all comes to him in the way of unmerited grace;
and his heart will glow the more with gratitude and self-for
getting affection, the more that God bestows upon him. He
is of course docile, teachable; he will learn the ways of God
and will walk therein. Do not imagine that he is a poorspirited creature, trembling at the face of man. No, this contrite-hearted man, when he hath once tasted of the joy of
God's salvation, and taken knowledge of the eye of his God
and his Saviour fixed upon him, is thenceforth lion-hearted in
the presence of men. He is at the disposition of God, and is
whatever his heavenly Master wishes him to be. It is a light




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thing for the Spirit of God to make of such a one a Luther, a
Knox. a Plaul; to bestow upon him   all human excellencies;
and give him   power to thresh mountains, to revolutionize
kingdoms, to lo any work soever that needeth to be done.
IIe is in the school of God, to be educated by God. Hie has
begun aright; and eye hath not yet seen. ear hath not yet
heard, heart hath not yet conceived, what he will become in
the plastic hand of his divine Fashioner.
JULY 31. —"And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: These
things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars;
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art
dead."-Revelation iii. 1.
The seven spirits and the seven stars have a relation to each
other. It is the divine Spirit that is spoken of thus; and the
intention is not to lower our conception of his divinity, but to
exalt it. The Spirit is wholly wheresoever he is; but his manifestations are modified and affected by the exigencies of those
whom he blesses with his presence. The unity of the Spirit
shall be witnessed in its perfection, only when the different
denominations of Christians flow together. He that hath the
seven stars and knows their divers conditions, wants, trials, infirmities, and characteristics, hath the seven Spirits, and is
able to minister unto each church just what influence and operation of the Holy Spirit may be demanded. The number
" seven" seems suggested by the candelabrum of the tabernacle
with its seven lamps. In chapter iv. 5 we read of seven lamps
before the throne which are the seven Spirits of God. In v.
6, the Lamb's seven eyes are said to be the seven Spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth. As no one could attribute
seven eyes to Christ in any natural sense, so it would be wildly
absurd for any one to conceive of essential plurality in the
Spirit. It is by his divine perfections that Christ is present
in all tl e world; and it is thus the Spirit of God is present.




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"I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest
and art dead."  The expression "I know thy works" has been
hitherto used in a commendatory and encouraging sense  It
was a matter of congratulation to the four churches mentioned
in the preceding chapter, that the Lord was acquainted with
their works. But it was otherwise with the church of Sardis.
The works were such as to proclaim this church dead. The
gardener has no difficulty in discerning the evidences that a
plant is dead. The persistent absence of fruit when fruit is
due, is sufficient to condemn the tree.
It is bad enough to be dead, but, oh, how perilous to be
dead with a name to live! The life-giving influences that
would seek the merely dead, turn aside from that which professes to have life. Salvation is running to and fro in the
earth, seeking the lost; but when it comes near that which
professes to be in Christ, it is turned away by the declaration,
"I have no need." The more there is of this semblance,
(with no reality) the greater the danger. But this is not all.
The dead thing that has a name to live, is deadly; it deals in
death; it assimilates all around to itself; it testifies powerfully
against vital religion by the exhibition of a lifeless religion.
If the light in you be darkness, how great that darkness!
How mightily grew Sardis! how large the place it occupies in
the ecclesiastical history of the last eighteen centuries! how
baleful its influence upon the other churches, so that they had
almost to hide their diminished heads; and how largely is it
represented at the present day upon the earth! Men know
our name; Christ knows our works.
AUGUST 1.-" Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
— Isaiah xlv. 22.
Thus early and thus distinctly do we find the gospel emancipated, and the Spirit of God breaking away from his prison



DAILY MEDITATIONS.


2o3


house, from Judea, to utter a premonitory invitation in the
ears of distant nations, occupied with their idols. We should
never allow ourselves to suppose that when God was bestowing
so much labor of love upon the Jewish nation, that he was
then unmindful of the rest of mankind. God took nothing
v away from the other nations of the earth, when he made the
Jewish people the object of peculiar care. Not one prophet
was taken away from the other families of the earth; not one
truth that had been bestowed upon mankind at large was suppressed; and not one promise that made known God as the
bearer of all who call upon him in truth, was taken back.
The Jewish economy was an economy of special grace, with
reference to a glorious end embracing the destinies of all nations. When God chose Abraham, he over and over declared
that his thoughts were on something more than the seed of
Abraham. "In you shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed."  And from first to last, all that God did to the Jewish nation had reference to the hour when the Lord Jesus
should command his Gospel to be preached among all nations,
and when the completed volume of the grace of God, the Old
Testament and the New Testament should be tendered, with
all their revelations and all their promises, to every creature.
The very Jewish feasts had a world-wide significance. The
passover told of the Lamb that should take away the sin of the
world; the feast of weeks told of the pentecostal publication
of the gospel in all tongues; the feast of tabernacles tells of the
mighty ingathering that is to be.
AUGUST 2.-"Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth."
-Revelation xvi. 15.
A thief comes only where he is not expected. His great interest is that people should be off their guard. Where there
is watchfulness, there is no opening for him. Our Lord comau




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as a thief upon the world, because the world has no expectation
of him. The world has no more thought of his coming than
it has of the coming of Socrates or Alexander.  This is not, be
it understood, because Christ has done anything to keep the
world unaware of his coming. IIe has sent the fullest information to every creature. He has given an open book to the
world in which is an ample account of his future coming. The
mode, the circumstances, and something too of the time, are
published beforehand. What makes his coming to be that of
the thief, is the blindness, the stupidity of men in all that relates to religious matters. IIe shows them even the key by
which he will enter their house; but nothing produces an impression.
There are those who profess to be his servants, who also say,
"Our Lord delayeth his coming."   Their sense of responsibility loses its keenness, and they are in great danger of being
found in an unprepared state. Blessed are they who say, The
time is short. We know not what the morrow may bring forth.
They sleep not without seeing that there is oil for their lamps.
AUGUST 3.-" Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."Hebrews xiii. 8.
Amidst the mutations of character, the fluctuations of time,
and the vicissitudes of events, the soul longs for something that
does not and that cannot change, to which it may attach itself
and thus find compensation for all the mutabilities of which it
is compelled to have experience in this world. There needs
of course something else besides immutability in order to constitute an object worthy of our earnest attention and heart-felt
confidence. We cannot desire immutability where there is
anything less than perfection. But where the highest possible
excellence resides, there unchangeableness becomes a thing
greatly to be desired. Above all when we stand in a certain




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relation to this incomparable object; when the perfections of
this unchangeable one are made available for us; when his
power supplements our weakness; his wisdom our ignorance;
when he in all his plenitude of perfection is our own particular
treasury from whence we may draw everlasting supplies. Then,
Oh, then, let change approach him not, but stand respectfully
beyond the circle drawn by his divine nature.
How vain were it to go everywhere preaching the gospel of
the grace of God, of God's grace incarnate in Christ, if Christ
were not the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Why should
we go telling men of what Christ said and did to the leper, of
his conversation with the woman of Samaria, of his instructions
to his disciples, his rebukes addressed to the Pharisees, his demeanor in the presence of his enemies, his emotion at the
grave of Lazarus, his kindness to sinners and publicans, his invitations to the laboring and heavy-laden, his affliction and
agony in Gethsemane, his sufferance of indignities in the Praetorium, his prayer on the cross, and his words to the penitent
thief; why should we go about telling men these things, if it
were not that they occurred in the life of one who is the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever?
Yes, this gospel is everlasting. It is not an ancient book;
but the book of this generation. There is not the least trace
of decrepitude about it. It blooms with immortal youth. By
means of it Christ this very day approaches you, and reveals
feelings that he entertains for you, entertains for you now, will
ever entertain. An archangelic trump uttering in the skies
the words, " Come unto me ALL ye that labor and are heavyladen, and I will give you rest," would not be to us any more
reliable evidence of the present disposition of Him who sits
upon the throne, than these same words in the Gospel afford.
And it becomes us to be well aware of this as we peruse the
gospel history or dwell upon its statements. Would not some
find in their hand a new and wondrous gospel, radiant with a
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glory hitherto unsuspected, if they would begin to read it with
this great truth firmly enthroned in their convictions, that
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever?
AUGUST 4.-" Behold, I stand at the door and knock."-Rev. iii. 20.
In manifold ways, Christ reveals unto men that he is willing
and ready to enter into relations with them; and to those who
have already some knowledge of him, he gives many a token
that he is ready to enter into more intimate and hallowed relations with them. He does not wait, that men should seek
him; he does not send word that he is waiting for them; he
comes to them. He does not merely come: he stands and
knocks.
The door is for the purpose of excluding enemies, and those
whose visits are unwelcome; and you quickly rise when you
hear the voice of a friend, and hasten to open the door that
there may be no barrier between him and you. Another person might easily discover your feelings towards the one that
knocks, by the response you make. Your countenance, your
movements, all would show the feelings you entertain. Christ
stands and knocks, and men are not aware of it. They are so
busy hearkening to voices of earth, the world makes such a
sound in their ears, or the slumber of unbelief is so heavy, that
they hear not the Saviour's knock. Blessed are they who cultivate the faculty of quickly detecting the foot-fall of Christ,
and start up as soon as they hear his knock.
He knocks by his providence, as when he takes away your
property, or your health, or your bosom friend; when he places
you in new and trying circumstances with many and widebranching responsibilities; when he takes you away from loved
scenes; when some mighty display of his power in the natural
world, arrests your attention;-by his servants, moving them
to address you in the language of exhortation or admonition;




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-by his word, with its gracious promises or tender upbraidings;-by a manifest work of grace in the heart of another.
I say unto you, hearken; hearken diligently, turning away
fiom the vain babbling of the world; and you shall hear the
knock of Christ. You shall never be without an intimation
from him, that he is nigh and ready to bless. Show hospitality
to him in the world and he will receive you into everlasting
habitations; receive him into your heart and he will give you an
abundant entrance into the glorious mansions of his Father. How
wise was it in that poor woman to share her supper with
Elijah; famine was just then coming over the threshold to instal himself at her board; but was compelled to take an everlasting flight. " If any man hear my voice, and open unto
me," says Christ, " I will come in and sup with him and he
with me; I will come and make his earthly lot glad with my
presence, and he shall come and participate with me the glory
and felicity of the heavenly life."
AUGUST 5.-" The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me."-Psalm
exxxviii. 8.
He will perfect my happiness. "My people shall be satisfied
with my goodness."  He will perfect his own image in me.
He will make me perfect in wisdom; perfect to know and to
do his will; perfect to glorify the Redeemer; perfect in beauty
and in strength.
The thought of humanity being again clothed with perfection is something altogether wonderful. It was a light thing
to call a world into existence out of nothing; but to take a
nature that had become earthly, sensual, devilish, and so refashion it that it should be transparent to all the rays of the
Godhead, is what a mere finite conception would never have
shadowed forth
Man is engaged in perfecting himself. From the very be



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ginning he has insisted upon it that all he wanted was room
and time and liberty, and he would make of humanity something very admirable. IIe has had all the opportunities and
advantages he could desire.  Sometimes, in some little corner
of the world, God has permitted him to clothe himself with
literary and artistic glory; to surround himself with beautiful
statues and paintings; and to rise to the heights of a sublime
eloquence.  But Greece and Rome in their palmiest days, only
afforded new evidence of the depravity and spiritual blindness
of man, and what he was, only came out the more opprobriously by the intimations of what he might have been, and all
succeeding cycles have shown his expectation of self-wrought
perfection to be utterly delusive. In this our boasted day the
most frightful immorality in the most favored places under the
sun, shows anew the utter vanity of this most baseless hope.
And all this time there has been present with man a heavendescended system, pledging him perfection in the truest and
amplest sense of the word. What need we talk of the perfectibility of man? It is impossible with man; most possible
with God. There are in the midst of us men and women
whom God is engaged in carrying to perfection. Let us join
ourselves to their number. They are despised by the world;
so was Christ. The world sees in them indeed what it could
not see in Christ; much imperfection; but it might see something else if it would; namely, a. germinant perfection.
It was because Christ was made perfect in suffering, that we
have this hope. In the day of sorrow and of calamity, do I
bear well in mind that God is perfecting that which concerneth
me?
AUGUST 6. —"Ire which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly."2 Corinthians ix. 6.
The farmer could not make a greater mistake, than to suppose he would gain by not scattering his seed in the field. To




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keep the seed is to deprive it of its value; to cut oneself off
from the blessing that might have been expected; and to inflict the greatest wound upon the future. No, scatter it; throw
it away and let it go to naught, apparently, and be long lost,
if need be, and forgotten; in its appointed time it will come
up loaded with treasures which it has gathered from the secret
places of the earth. Then will it appear that your wealth is
proportioned to your liberality.
There is to be a judgment according to works. By faith in
Christ we succeed to heaven; but our works, evincing the
measure of our faith, will determine the place we are to occupy
ir. heaven, the degree of glory with which we are to be invested.
But what is meant by sowing? Using the gifts of God according to the will of God, and consequently in a way that
will produce the greatest amount of good to our fellow-men.
Much wisdom is needed in order to give aright; but we are
responsible to have this wisdom. The man who receives gifts
from God, receives an appointment from God; namely, that
of donor; and the wisdom to discharge the functions connected
with this appointment will surely not be withheld, if it be ingenuously asked. We are to look upon the world as God looks
upon it, and then we shall know how to minister to our fellowmen.
You are a believer, are you not? You are expecting
heaven through the grace of Christ which you appropriate by
faith. But do not suppose, 0 friend, that the faith by which
you shall be saved is one faith, and the faith that leads to generous acts is another faith. When I see you scattering seed, I
look at the very faith which is to bring about your salvation.
Your daily, hourly movements, call men to look upon that precious principle which is to open for you, if they be opened for
you, the gates of heaven. You are to live by faith; to live
now by it, if you would live hereafter by it.
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AUGUST 7.-"We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works."-Ephesians ii. 10.
If we are created anew, we are created unto good works.
The world ought not to be angry with God for creating men
anew; for he is creating them for this among other things that
they may tread in the footsteps of their Divine Master and
abound in good works to their fellow-men. The world, however, is irritated at the proposition that men need a special
creation in order to become competent to bestow good gifts.
It professes to be able to point to men, who have spent fortune, time, health, in a whole-hearted endeavor to do good to
their fellow-men.
But consider that it is one thing to give a poor creature on
his way to the gallows, a cup of water, and another thing to
save him from the gallows. One thing to make the cell of a
criminal comfortable, and another thing to save him from
crime and put within his reach the means of attaining to everlasting bliss. The world, obedient to the instincts that God
has implanted, often looks around to see what oasis it can create in the desert of this world; but alas! the trees which it
plants yield no immortal fruit.
Until a poor creature has been brought to God, all that you
can do for him is of comparatively little moment. If your
benefits tend to this, even indirectly, well and good. You
may exercise your generosity in such a way as shall tend to
keep the man ignorant that there is a gospel, and that he
needs it absolutely.
AUGUST 8.-" Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown
of life."-Revelation ii. 10.
The meaning is not, Be thou faithful all thy days; but,
have thou that faithfulness which characterizes the martyi
disciple, leads him to count not his life dear unto himself, and
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vice of his Master. The expression does not refer to length
of service, but to entireness of consecration. Be thou unrebukably faithful in all possible situations and circumstances.
Christ requires of every disciple that he should have the
spirit of a martyr. At the very outset he informs those who
come unto him that they are to take up their cross and follow
him. And if at any time he should summon any number of
his followers, and send them upon a service where death is
certain, not one of them has any right to complain. It was
so written in the bond. They gave him from the very first
their early life, to receive from him a heavenly life.
We are to be faithful unto death, this day, and every day.
We are to live a life of entire consecration; crucified unto the
world and the world unto us. And if we have sufficient faith
to let him day by day, and in all things dispose of us, take what
he will, give what he will, send where he will, we need not
envy those who literally suffered martyrdom for his name's
sake. For us, too, there is laid up a crown of life. Not
merely do we obtain a true life in exchange for the false life
of this earth; but a glorious life; a life that shall be to us
more ennobling and exalting than all the crowns of earth.
AUGUST 9.-" These tHings have I written unto you, that ye may know
that ye have eternal life.' -1 John v. 13.
By life the Scripture means, true life, life in union to God,
in the image of God; life with bliss and purity. An eternity
under conditions like those that belong to the life of sinful
man, were utterly undesirable. True life includes everything
desirable, and the entire universe of God is just one of its perquisites. They that believe in Christ have Christ. They that
have Christ have life. They that have life, have it eternally.
They that have eternal life may know that they have it, and
rejoice in the antcpast even in this world. The Bible is given




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to furnish them with the means of knowing that they have it
If they find their names there, they shall certainly find them
in the Lamb's book of life. As many as are the children of
God, they are led by the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of
truth, and not only sanctifies them by the truth, but shows them
their own new image in the mirror of the truth.
AUGUST 10.-"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not
the Son, hath not life."-1 John v. 12.
Hast thou considered well, 0 John the son of Zebedee, the
beloved disciple, what is implied in these words of thine?
These words fly in the face of all human philosophies, and
give a picture of the world such as all the world is sure to abhor. They will laugh thee to scorn, with thy description of
mankind as being without life save as they find it in Christ.
For thy words, if they mean anything, declare that all the
world have become obnoxious to the everlasting wrath of God.
and are going down to perdition, no man having any goodness
upon which he can rely for salvation; and that the favor of
God, even life everlasting, is only to be obtained by renuncia,
tion of one's own wisdom and virtue and strength, or rather
of the vain dream of these, and by a simple, whole-souled faith
in Christ who died for sinners. These words of thine contain
the very essence of the gospel, and exhibit it in stern, positive,
uncompromising language, such as men can by no means brook.
The gospel thus uttered irritates men beyond endurance; and
makes them bring fagots and prepare the stake. At all events
they will think thee a poor, bigoted, self-blinded creature, with
thy horrid Calvinistic representation of mankind.
I know what I say-might John reply,-and what effect it
is calculated to produce upon men. And yet I know that I
speak with love and with wisdom; love and wisdom given from
on high. A great many beautiful gifts of God still linger




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around fallen humanity, and testify of that height from which
it has fallen; these gifts men look upon as a pledge of salvation; a faital error and a strange one; for they only enhance
the condemnation of those who, possessing them, nevertheless
abide not in the love and communion of God, but obey their
own vitiated will. I would fain have all men know of the
grace of God; therefore I tell them of their utter gracelessness and absolute need of Christ. This despised word of mine
shall live. From this time onward through all generations, it
shall be without interruption precious to companies of believing men. Philosophies, religions, empires shall pass away, but
this word shall not pass away. He that hath the Son hath
life; he that hath not the Son hath not life.
AUGUST 11.-" Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain,
that are ready to die."-Revelation iii. 2.
Unhappily, it is when men most need to be watchful, when
the flame of heavenly grace is flickering in its socket, that
they are least disposed to be watchful. We find that as men
advance in holiness, make great attainments, ascend far up
above the region in which ordinary believers walk, that they
become watchful to an amazing degree. A habit of argus eyed
watchfulness is in fact, itself, the evidence of a great victory
over the enemy of the soul. When men have declined from
grace, and when the adversary has all but riveted his chains
again upon them, in the moment when, if ever, they need to
be watchful, just then they are least of all disposed to fear, to
strive, to watch. Happy for them if they hear in that critical
moment the sovereign voice of Christ, saying, " Be watchful
and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.
Arise, get oil for your lamps, before it be too late."
Imagine a great army, reduced through the heedlessness
and effeminacy of their general, to a mere handful of men;




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their tents are pitched in an exposed place; the enemy in
great numbers look down from the cliffs above, and you fully
expect that in the next minute these overwhelming forces will
burst upon the poor, weak remnant and annihilate it. But
just then it discovers its danger, and its leader remembers in
that momentous juncture that he has with him a sword of divine temper, a breast-plate that will quench all fiery darts, an
invisible legion of angels: he scales the heights, he calls upon
his Lord, his heavenly auxiliaries fight for him, and soon he
finds himself in a large place. Thenceforward, let him never
forget the ominous experience of that hour past; and let him
tremble at the thought of every step that would take him down
into that valley of confusion, hard by the abyss of perdition.
AUGUST 12.-" In due season we shall reap if we faint not."-Gal. vi. 9.
When the sinner turns from the error of his way, submits
to God and gives himself to the service of Christ, he thinks
that he will never fail to enjoy the tokens of his Father's
favor. The change in himself is immense. He is now day
and night intent upon doing the will of God, whereas formerly
he recked not of it; he checks within himself a hundred
impulses that formerly had full sway. He naturally expects
that perpetual successes shall wait upon him in his efforts to do
good. And at first, for the maturing of his faith, God often
vouchsafes to him prompt and glad results. But he is soon
called to pursue a higher walk of faith, and find long intervals
between the seed-time and the harvest.
W'e shall reap. Others scatter in vain. Of all mankind,?
only the people of God shall gather a harvest unto everlasting
life. They sow the seed that God gives them in the way appointed by him. They deny themselves for the good of others,
of property, ease, friends, health; and whatsoever they do,
they do for the glory of Christ. From men they oftentimes




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reap ingratitude, enmity, defamation.  But these things only
augment the splendor of their reward.
/f' we fiint,not. This prepares us for a stern trial of faith.
for a long long period (at least so seeming,) in which we shall
be giving much and receiving naught. We spend our days,
our golden days, the most precious of all our possessions; we
throw them as it were into a gulf, with all our energies, our
intellectual efforts, our physical strength, the glow of our aspirations, the enthusiasm of our nature, our property of various
kinds; and so far as there is anything to show for it all, we
may take up the refrain, " We have spent our strength for
naught and our labor in vain." But if we endure unto the
end, if we keep Christ's works unto the end, if we faint not,
we shall reap, and that, too, with a fullness surpassing our utmost conceptions.
In due season. What is the due season God can judge, better than any other. It is not so distant that we should be
discouraged. It is sufficiently distant to afford an opportunity
for the full exhibition of our faith.
AUGUST 13.-" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."-Revelation xiv. 13.
The additional words " from henceforth," give this passage
a specific and prophetical meaning. Neglecting these at present, we may consider the great unquestionable truth that there
is for the Christian a blessedness in death. Not but that there
is something better than death. Death is one of the enemies
of Christ that must be put under his feet, and his saints shall
one day get the victory over it, and, undergoing a change at
his advent, live on eternally. In the meantime however, death
is constrained with other agencies to work together for good to
the people of God. Their faith deprives him of his terrors.
Three thousand souls an hour, fifty a minute, pass away from




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earth. How few of these die in the Lord! Think of this you
that know the Lord, and whom he has commissioned to make
him known. You are to meet these souls again; and happy
will it be for you if you are able to show that you sought earnestly to obtain for your fellow-men this blessedness.
They are blessed, for they have great peace in the hour of
their dissolution. Their cheerful exit confirms the faith of
those that behold, and brings heaven near. It sometimes carries conviction to the impenitent, and leads them to seek that
God who has such power to sustain and bless the souls of his
people. They pass away from a world of sin and temptation
and disappointment and vanity, to a world of light and purity.
They depart to be with Christ,-to dwell in the mansions which
he has prepared for them,-to associate with angels and with
saints in light,-to drink of the rivers of pleasure that are forever at the right hand of God,-to obtain a crown of righteousness.
And if the king has summoned one of his own away from
your side, can you greatly grieve? Does not the blessedness
of that departure greatly overbear your individual brief loss,
and flash down a glory upon your own desolation? Do you
think much more of your own poor blessedness, thus interrupted, than of the perfect beatitude into which the other has
entered?  Would you make war upon this text?    For the
dead that die in the Lord are blessed for this among other reasons, that they leave behind them unspeakable consolations.
Yes, it teaches that the survivor, who had a property in the
one taken away, has not lost anything, but has seen his property taken upon high, that it may be rendered immeasurably
more valuable and kept securely till the day of the restitution
of all things. We do not want our wealth with us, but in the
country to which we are going. "How great is thy goodness
which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee." And the
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Him then prepare a place for thee, in the way that seems best
to Him.  Too large an earnest of the inheritance that is to
come, might check the vigor of our aspirations. The little
paradises of earth, very little worthy of the name, yet clothe
themselves with the superior power that belongs to present
things, and disrobe from our view the only true paradise above.
AUGUST 14.-"Pe not slothful, but followers of them who through faith
anJ patience inherit the promises."-Hebrews vi. 12.
Does not this word "slothful" accurately characterize the
habit of mind of most professors of religion?  While we behold them diligently in the pursuit of worldly good, laboring
untiringly on in the acquisition of wealth; while we see them
exercising circumspection, vigilance, forethought, sagacity in
their temporal vocation, and giving to it the best energies of
their nature, we see them indolent and sluggish in all that relates to their heavenly calling. They read the newspapers
with a closeness of observation that nothing can escape; but
the Bible with a carelessness that leaves them just as ignorant
afterwards as they were before. When topics of the day are
discussed, their minds are easily kept on the stretch; but in
religious meetings they are obliged to exert themselves not a
little to keep awake. Any excuse is sufficient to make them
dismiss or postpone a religious duty; while in the other engagements of life, they are sufficiently punctual. They are
minutely attentive to the state of their body, and take good
note of every ailment however insignificant; but they are not
at all vigilant in the examination of their hearts and in the
avoidance of whatever is likely to be prejudicial to their spiritual interests. On the whole they think it enough to give to
religion the mere fragments of their time and attention and
thought and energy.
Be not as they are. Be not slothful. Be slothful with re24




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spect to all other things, rather than this. Let your greatest
energy be given to this. Not merely because it is becoming,
but because it is necessary. There would be a very serious
defect in the way of salvation, if it bestowed its priceless gifts
on slothful men. If you would inherit the promised kingdom,
you must model your life upon the lives of those whose faith
and patience are honorably mentioned in the eleventh chapter
of Hebrews. Be sure that nothing less is required of you
han was demanded of them.
AUGUST 15-"That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."-Romans xii. 1.
You are exempt from the necessity of bringing lambs and
heifers to the altar; but the aim of the gospel is to lead you
to do what the law could not induce men to do, consecrate
your own body to the Lord, bringing it daily to the altar, and
devoting it to the execution as well as the enduring of his will.
You are ever ready to yield it unto death as Abraham was his
son; but the angel of the Lord ever interposes and says, God
has some work for this body to do; see to the doing of that
and come again.
It is of course only by the consecration of the soul that that
of the body can be accomplished. God's will must be cordially embraced by the heart, before the feet or the hands or
the tongue will move to execute it. So intimate is the union
of soul and body that the consecration of the one involves that
of the other. Let no man suppose that his heart is really
given to the Lord, if the functions of his body be not employed in carrying out the revealed will of God. The Holy
Ghost does not nestle in the heart, shrouded from sight. He
is not living in us if he is not effluent from us. He is perpetually forth-flowing by the tongue, the eyes, the hand, the feet,
the entire person. (John vii. 38.)




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AUGUST 16.-"Return, ye backsliding children, and i will heal your
backslidings."-Jeremiah iii. 22.
Abandon the idea that you must recover yourselves from
your backslidings and then approach God. Perhaps you think
that you could then approach him with some confidence. But
does God forget? And will he look complacently upon your
mended piety? He will look with just as much disgust upon
the patched robe as upon the rent robe. But further you ought
to know better than to entertain such an heretical notion as
that you are able to recover yourself from your backsliding.
Could you do that you would be the wonder of created beings.
To recover you is in fact the work of God's power in its highest flight. Do not suppose that your sin, the stigma of your
declension from grace, must get a little old, and then you will
have a face to appear before God. This delusive idea will take
you every day further and further away from God, and make
your case more and more hopeless.
No, with all the guilt of your backsliding full and fresh in
view, hasten to God. The only place in the universe where
sin can be disposed of, is the throne of God's grace. If you
throw it into any obscure pit and think you have done with it,
you make a signal mistake. A legion of armed warriors will
one day come up out of that pit and fall upon you with unappeasable ire. God alone is able to heal your backsliding, and
he does it by leading you to dwell upon the character and work
of our sympathizing High Priest, who does not break the
bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, nor cast away as
worthless what seems to men irrevocably gone.
AUGUST 17.-" Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee the
desires of thine heart."-Psalm xxxvii. 4.
Turn not disdainfully away from these words of God, as
though t4iey had no claim upon your attention. These words




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come to you, so to speak, upon your own invitation. For,
what have you done all your life long, but rush hither and
thither, into this path and into that, crying unceasingly, "How
shall I obtain the desires of my heart?"  Behold here an answer to your life-long question. The explanation of all your
disappointments, the remedy of all your sorrows, is here.
Though there were on your table, waiting your perusal, numerous missives, some with the royal seal, others communicating
news of enormous gains accruing to you, yet would it be wise
in you to leave them all unnoticed rather than this text. If
this be left to you, no matter though the wind carried them all
away. Nay, if you should escape from a burning hljuse with
nothing but this word, you were richer than the richest of the
sons of earth. For what all other things faintly and stammeringly promise to bestow, this positively promises. What is
anything good for, if it yield you not the desires of your heart?
Do you take this to be one of those kind lies with which a
mother lulls her child to rest? Or a flight of fancy with more
strength of expression than depth of meaning?  Is every
foolish promise of the world to be believed before the deliberate promise of the most high God?
In order that the desires of a man's heart should be gratified,
it is needful that they should be rectified. He must let himself be led into the path that leads to felicity. He must delight himself in the Lord.
"But," you reply, "this is mere mysticism, pietism. The
world is full of beautiful and attractive objects, made so by
God, and placed opposite to us, that we may look upon them
and rejoice in them. Why should not a man rejoice in his
own marvellous faculties, bestowed by his Creator?  Why
should he not rejoice in human society and in all the amenities
that strew the path of life? Why should he not rejoice in
art, in poetry, music, painting, in nature and in the representations of nature, in the characteristics of his time, the onward




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sweep of humanity, in the immense variety of literature, in
the food so abundantly provided him?  What can there be
better than to delight in these?"
Is thy heart satisfied with them? Is discontent a stranger
to thy heart, and do murmurs remain far from thy lips? Canst
thou say, I want no more?
Couldst thou answer these questions in the affirmative, there
would still remain a difficulty. Thy beautiful things fade;
the objects of thy delight vanish away. The more attractive
a thing is, the more fatal will it prove to thy happiness. For
all that is in the world is merely here on exhibition. It appears, is admired, and is then withdrawn.
No, it is no mysticism, but the truest philosophy, the only
wisdom, to delight thyself in the Lord. Do this, not by despising his works, but by discerning the connection between
them and him, and hearkening to the tale which they tell of
him. All beautiful and excellent things are sent to show you
the perfections of your God and to whisper to you of his love.
Delight yourself in him who gave his Son to die for you; in
other words love the things that he loves, shun what he disapproves; and it becomes as certain that your desires will be
gratified as that the desires of God will be fulfilled.
AUGUST 18.-" Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and
he shall bring it to pass."-Psalm xxxvii. 5.
We shall find it impossible to commit our way unto the
Lord, unless it be a way that he approves. For it is only by
faith that a man can commit his way unto the Lord; and if
there be the least suspicion in the heart, that the way be not a
good one, faith will refuse to have anything to do with it. As
well might you expect Achan to bring his wedge of gold and
Babylonish garment to Joshua and ask him to take care of
24 *




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them; or a deserter to inquire of his general the way to the
enemy's camp.
Having found reason to believe that your chosen way is approved of heaven, let heaven have the entire direction of
whatever relates to it. Having resolved to go to Rome to
preach the gospel there, be content that God should bring
you there in chains, as a culprit, and keep you there as a
prisoner.
And this committing must be a continuous, not a single act.
You are to trust ever in His wisdom, goodness, and power —not
only in generals but in particulars. And however extraordinary may seem to be his guidance, however near to the precipice he may take you, you are not to snatch the reins out of
his hand. " Whatever is, is best," to him who, with an enlightened and genuine faith, has committed his way unto the
iLord, and to him alone.
Are we really willing to have all our ways submitted to God
for him to pronounce upon them? Are there not some of our
ways which have become to us through long habit like a second nature, concerning which we have never really taken
counsel of God? There is nothing about which a man needs
to be more scrutinizing than about his oldest ways, his most
confirmed habits and views. Hie is too apt to take for granted
the divine approbation of them.
Why are some Christians so anxious and fearful, in view of
some anticipated contingency? Evidently because they have
not left the matter with him. They have taken it to him and
brought it away with them.
It may seem a prodigious faith to regard God on his throne
as studious of all that concerns us; but such faith is really no
bolder than is the faith that God spared not his only begotten
Son.
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he
shall bring it to pass.




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AUGUST 13.-"We walk by faith, not by sight."-2 Corinthians v. 7.
Every man's world is what his heart makes it to be. When
his heart changes, the world changes. When faith has come
in and renewed his heart, he thenceforth walks in a new
world. A new aspect comes over the face of all things.
Faith reveals to him new and most important truths concerning everything, so that he can no longer take a step in just
the mood that he formerly did, nor look upon a single individual as he once did.
Imagine a man on a beautiful island where there are a
thousand objects to allure the senses and gratify the mind.
He walks in groves, or reclines in bowers, or sits upon the
grassy bank of a stream, or wanders through the halls of a palace; now with one gay company, now with another. Or if
he list he embarks in some serious enterprise, and seeks to give
his higher energies play. Until, one day, wandering alone to
the extremity of the island, he discovers to his amazement
that it is a floating island, and that a mighty current is bearing it on with all its palaces and battlements and hanging gardens and with all its companies of pleasure-loving people, bearing it away, bearing it whither? Ah, this now becomes the
most important of all questions! As he returns, everything as
sumes in his eyes an unwonted look. As he reaches the summit of a hill, or passes along the verge of a precipice, or looks
upon a waterfall, or sees a company of men, or hears music, or
notices a tradesman counting his gains, one thought possesses
his mind; these are all in motion, whither are they going?
Music is no longer music, wine no longer wine, health no
longer health to him. The discovery he has made puts an ext:nguisher upon all that he once called light, all that he once
called pleasure. At length, after many fruitless inquiries, he
meets with one who inhabits another little island connected for
the present with the larger one, and who tells him that the
island is sweeping on ) a gulf of destruction and to an abyss




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of darkness; and that at the last moment the little isle tenanted by those who have known their danger and taken refuge
there, will be detached and anchored forever in a blessed region. He believes. Henceforth how different will be all his
perceptions and all his conduct from what they once were.
AUGUST 20.-" Trust in the Lord and do good; and verily shalt thou be
fed."-Psalm xxxvii. 3.
In many ways faith leads to beneficence. Faith discovers to
us the infinite mercy shown by God in providing a ransom for
us; and the contemplation of this sacrifice prompts us to engage in enterprises for the good of our fellow-men. It shows
us God delighting in the reciprocal love of his creatures one to
another, and seeking to make them mutually exponents of his
love. It reveals to us the Lord Jesus who pleased not himself,
and went about doing good; and teaches us, that we are his
disciples only while we follow him. It keeps fresh in our memory the promises; such as, " he that givcth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord;" "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It
shows us that we have nothing which we can properly call our
own, since we are one and all stewards of God, and must hereafter give an account of our stewardship. And it enables us
to rest in full assurance upon the declarations of God and of
Christ, that we shall be fed, that no good thing shall be withheld from us, that we are of more account than many sparrows.
We need faith in order to know how to do good. To be
charitable, we have not merely to overcome our own reluctance
to give, but we must learn from God how to relieve the wants
of men. It is not enough to stretch forth the hand; it must
be stretched forth in wisdom, wisdom obtained by faith. Again,
if a man whose character is not what it should be, who does
not honor God, ol 'he word of God, if such an one engages




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285


from some mctive or other in works of beneficence, there is
reason to believe that he will indirectly do more evil than he
will directly do good. For his kind acts will tend to propitiate
men with his defective religion, and will go far to make them
believe that the fear of God is not after all of very great importance.
AUGUST 21.-" To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show
the salvation of God."-Psalm 1. 23.
It is perhaps needless to remark that the word conversation
is intended to include the entire conduct,-literally, the uay.
The ordering of one's conversation, implies meditation and
study as to what one's conduct should be, in its various particulars; a definite and well-understood standard; a solemn and
sustained resolution to live according to that standard, by the
help of God.
Most men allow themselves to be wafted along by the current of events; their conduct is determined by circumstances
and casual influences rather than by their own forethought and
decision. And so, too, with Christians. Very many of these
simply rejoice that they are acted on by better influences than
once they were; and do not realize their obligation to labor,
under the teaching of the Spirit of God, at the formation of a
new and holy nature. Many seem to imagine that the responsibility rests with the Spirit of God, and that they are to be
perfected in holiness by some mysterious process, that may
just as well go on when they are asleep as at any other time.
But the Spirit of God does what he does in us through our
own agency and with our own consciousness. This is the principal drift of the direction, " Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling; for it is God who [thus] worketh in
you to will and to do of his own good pleasure."
Perhaps no man that ever lived (if we except the apostles)
engaged more earnestly than Jonathan Edwards in the work




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of ordering his conversation aright. His diary reveals him to
us, a youth of nineteen or twenty, exercising the most intense
watchfulness over himself, and laying hold with the utmost
avidity of every flaw that appeared in his heart or life, in order
to bring his energies to bear upon it, frame a resolution adapted
to it, and cry to God for deliverance from it. All that forecast, and preparation, and study, and determination, and prayer
could do to furnish him with armor in the hour of temptation,
he compelled them to do. Other men when they have once
fallen into temptation, succumb to it afterwards the more
easily; but with him it was otherwise; he availed himself of
the knowledge of sin once obtained, to defeat it on subsequent
occasions. Any one who will carefully read his memoirs, will
discover a striking illustration of the fact that God awakens
the utmost energy of the soul when he would accomplish the
deliverance of the soul. He fought the good fight of faith.
Others who have not come so prominently before us, may perhaps have fought it still better. If so, we shall know them in
the day of judgment.
God will give unto those who order their conversation aright,
glorious and transporting views of the Saviour and of redemption through him.
AUGUST 22. —"Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me."-Psalm 1. 15.
There are some whose cry in the day of trouble God will
not hear; those, namely, who, in the day of their prosperity,
heard not the cry of the poor and stretched forth no helping
hand to the afflicted, and thus gave good evidence that they
had no ear for the voice of God. For in the guise of a poor
man Christ stood at their door, time and again, knocking and
asking for admittance; but they would not hear. In the day
of their calamity, I 9 will not hear their cry. To whom then




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287


is this promise given? To him who hath made the Lord his
refige, and taken the divine will for his guide.
How naturally does friendship say, " Should you fall into
any difficulty, don't hesitate to call upon me; I will do what I
can for you." Ah, but these earthly friends, they are not alsways as good as their promises. A man does not seem so interesting to them when he is in trouble as when he is in prosperity; his defects come out more conspicuously. And even
when their affection remains unchanged, how poor is their
ability.
God does not say to us, " You shall not know trouble." But
he says, " Trouble shall come upon you in order that I may
have a peculiar opportunity of signalizing my love toward you,
and of exhibiting my power to sustain. And in order that
you may have a peculiar opportunity of showing your love to
me, your trust, your patience, your steadfastness. And in order
that the world may see the wonderful understanding between
God's people and himself."
Iwill deliver thee. Who can doubt it when he calls to mind
how this Deliverer endured, in Gethsemane and on Calvary,
trouble such as never visited the soul of mere man, in order
to pluck us as a brand from the burning. If he delivered
when it cost his soul so much to deliver, how much more may
we confidently expect that he will be with us in our lesser
troubles, seeing that he is now rich in mercy.
AUGUST 23.-" The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and
Ve delighteth in his way."-Psalm xxxvii. 23.
When his Son was on the earth, clothing humanity with a
perfection it had not known since it had forfeited paradise, the
beautiful spectacle attracted the regard of God, and nothing
would do but that he should send his voice down into the ranks




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of men exclaiming, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased."
When Christ was about to depart out of the world, he took
steps to have this pleased regard of the Father continue towards those whom he was to leave behind, even to his disciples
of all future time. He offered up the prayer, " That the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.
For I am no more in the world, but they are in the world;
and I am glorified in them." The Father could not resist
these arguments. And so the Lord delighteth in the way of
the good man, of him whose steps are ordered by him, and
who follows in the footsteps of Christ. For he only is a good
man in the estimation of heaven, whose steps are ordered by
the Lord, who is led by the Spirit of God, to whom the word
of God is a lamp.
AUGUST 24.-" Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer,
nor his mercy from me."-Psalm lxvi. 20.
This language is appropriate to one who, having been led to
supplicate God with respect to some matter that was very near
his heart, has afterwards perhaps waited long and seen many
things that appeared to be designed by Providence to extinguish
faith and hope, but has persevered in expectation, and finally in
some golden hour, never to be forgotten, has received the answer to his prayer, in most abundant measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over.
Thus was it perhaps with the sisters of Lazarus, in the day
of his sore sickness. His sickness had at first no power to
affright them, for they knew the love of Jesus, and judged it
sufficient to communicate to him their need. They felt that
their prayer must be answered, their brother must be saved;
the necessity for it lay very deep, even in the depths of Christ's
own character, who could not but be true unto himself. But




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thenceforward everything seemed to frown upon their expectation.  Their brother sank rapidly; Jesus came not; there
came no messagr even. The hours as they vanished seemed to
say in louder and still louder tones, "Prayer avails nothing;
faith in Christ" is a delusion.  And when Lazarus was buried,
did it not seem as though all the promises were buried with
him, the faithfulness of Christ shut up with him in the sepulchre? But, the stone is at length rolled away, and Lazarus
comes forth; best of all, comes forth into the light of noonday the imperishable faithfulness of Christ.  Then with overflowing hearts they blessed God, who had not turned away their
prayer, nor his mercy from them.
Nothing is more important than that we should cherish a
habit of pouring forth our hearts in gratitude to God, in view
of his mercy shown in responses to our prayers. One end for
which he grants us our desires, is that we may express gratitude to him; and it is therefore a piece of dishonesty in us to
neglect this.  Gratitude is a most important aid to faith.  It
serves to sink the memorials of benefits deep into the mind;
and our faith, in the hour of prayer, takes great courage from
the contemplation of these. And then again, a thing may be
a good deal more than itself. In itself a mere trifle, yet
as an expression of God's mercy, and as a token that we have
a friend on the throne, it is of priceless value. If we take it
without gratitude, a mere trifle; but if we consider well what
it betokens, and set our gratitude to work to gather from it a
treasure of divine love, this treasure shall not be wanting.
AUGUST 25.-" Be thou exalted, 0 God, above the heavens, and thy
glory above all the earth."-Psalm cviii. 5.
Whether men honor him or not, God is forever infinitely
honorable.  Iis perfections remain the same. By virtue of
his divine powel and Godhead, he is exalted where no con25




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ception of a finite being can follow him, much less add any.
thing to or take anything from his exaltedness. But when
God condescended to call creation into existence, it was for the
purpose of revealing himself unto his intelligent subjects, and
setting up a throne in the heart of each of them.
In this world, men are in a state of revolt; they have cast
down the throne of God in their heart, and denied their obligation to glorify him. They are bent upon their own exaltation,
nd conceive that they have enough to do to accomplish their
own glory, without attending to that of God. We have all
heard of the Calendar published in France within a few
years, in which all the days of the year were distributed among
three hundred and sixty-five great men, who in their several
days were to be worshipped by men, and this was to be the
only worship. But those who thus proclaim man to be the
only divine being known, are just a little more outspoken than
their fellow-men. For he who sees without sorrow and solicitude how God is slighted and forgotten in the world; he who
protests not against the ungodly ways of men; he who is not
intent upon knowing the perfections of God; earnestly and
assiduously studies not the word; knows not Christ as God
manifest in the flesh; prays not, labors not, that God by his
Spirit may be enthroned in his own heart; he is one of those
who are engaged in the bold and absurd attempt to dismiss
God and put man in his place.
Christians are a little company who say from the heart, as
they address God, " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory," and who are consecrated to the great work of restoring to God, so far as in them lies, the glory that is due to
him. Understand then, 0 Christian, thy vocation. Thou art
to live in such a way, that all thy actions, all thy deportment
shall give expression to the great trath that God is on the
throne of the universe, that He alone is worthy to have his
will done by all, that he is ineffably, incomparably glorious.




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And the blasphemous extravagance of self-glorification to which
man is carried at the present day, should only be an additional
stimulus to the Christian to exalt God by humble obedience,
by love to his brethren, by the prayer of faith, by self-denial
and watchfulness, by simplicity of life and of speech, by communicating the knowledge of Christ, and by wise, loving, and
faithful remonstrances with men, upon the greatness of their
error.
AUGUST 26. —"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."-Psalm
cxxvi. 5.
The tears of those that sow, flow from various causes. Here
is one who has greatly hungered and thirsted after the communications of God's love; who mourns over his own heart of
unbelief; over his inaptitude for the things of God; who has
been fascinated by the conception of a divine life to be led on
the earth, a life of conscious union with God attended by
peace flowing like a river, and revealing itself by ardent love,
cheerful labor, and large success. But the very conception of
the thing only makes his actual experience more inglorious
and more insupportable. Tears are his meat night and day.
In this state, how can it be expected that he should go forth
and exhort men to believe on Jesus; or engage in the distribution of tracts setting forth the preciousness of Christ? Nevertheless, he does it. With a heart breaking for the longing it
hath, he tells his fellow-man that religion is the one thing
needful; and brushing away a tear, he assures them that the
only true happiness to be found on earth is to be found in
Christ. And in this there is no insincerity. For his deepest
conviction is this: that there is no joy worthy of the name
save that which Christ gives to his people. He does not
speak from present experience, but from faith
Here is another who trusted on the Lord that Ile would




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bear testimony to the word of His grace; but many a long
year fulfils the ministry of this word without any such testimony being borne. Another is keenly sensitive to the taunts
and reproaches of men, and the harvest of these is the only
harvest that he seems to gather. Consider Jeremiah among
the Jews, Brainerd among the Indians, and a thousand others.
Let it not be supposed, however, that the words of life come
with most power from an afflicted heart. It is often well that
the heart should have had experience of affliction. But the
servant of Christ should not be content till the kingdom of
heaven, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost, be fully come in his heart.  God meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; and the command to rejoice in the Lord is a command that must be obeyed. Blessed
is he that mourneth: why? because he shall be comforted.
This mourning must pass away, and then the blessedness will
appear in the consolation.
AUGUST 27.-" Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ."-1 Corinthians xv. 57.
" Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." There are two parties in this world;
one consisting of the cross-bearers, the other consisting of the
unconverted. In numbers the former are very few. If we
sift the nations reputed Christian, correcting our own conceptions by the standard of Christ, the numbers will diminish
faster than the army of Gideon. They are indeed a little
flock. It may be that they do not exceed, even in this our
day, one in a hundred of the population of the globe.
They were once fewer than they now are; and we have thus
two wonders; one that they have succeeded in maintaining
their footing upon the shore of this world; another that they
should have an inviolable promise to the effect that they will




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actually obtain the victory and sit down upon the vacated
thrones of the earth. For there is no special prowess to compensate for the paucity of their number; there are no advantages of rank; no superiority of discipline. The world thinks
itself able to crumple them up as a piece of paper. There is
no obvious reason why they should not be crushed at any moment. In fact the world has often trodden them under its
heel, and exclaimed with a sense of relief, " There, they are
gone;" but the next moment they were found springing up
again in some quarter. The world has gained ever so many
overwhelming victories over them; and is exceedingly provoked to find that it is none the better for all its victories.
The Church unbrokenly lives on.
In fact what seem to the world to be its victories, are the
victories of the Church. For Christ's people are fighting the
fight of faith. They have no weapons of their own, but the
stars in their courses fight for them. When persecuted most,
they are most strong in faith; and when they are strong in
faith, all things fight for them, even the heavens above and
the earth beneath.
AuvusT 28.-"Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive."-Psalm
lxxxvi. 5.,
God's commandment is good. The law of his will designates
the only path in which it is good for men to walk. It cannot
be that God's choice should be otherwise than best. But man
has broken God's law, and discarded God's choice. He has
left the path that infinite goodness appointed to him. The
question now arises, How can it be good in God to forgive man
for abandoning that path? Is it becoming to let man obtain
such a stupendous victory, and proceeding by a forbidden path,
possess himself of the very good that God placed at the terminus of the path of obedience? Is the arrogance of man
25-*




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gross enough to aspire to such a success as this, nd throw such
contempt as this upon the law of God?
What then? must man suffer?  Why not, rather than that
man should enter heaven with a torn law of God for his banner? The welfare of the entire universe hangs by the adamantine chain of God's authority; let this be shattered, and
chaos is come again.
What otherwise could never have been, has been brought
about by the incarnation, obedience, and death of the Son of
God. God is now good even when he forgives. All his perfections rejoice over the accepted sinner.
God is ready to forgive. Let us act upon this unimpeacha.
ble truth. Have we not too often approached God as though
it would require an immense deal of persuasion to induce him
to forgive us? If Christ be there, there is no reason why we
should not expect to obtain it most promptly and profusely;
for there is something more accomplished by our forgiveness
than the mere mitigation of our inward torment; there is the
honor bestowed upon Christ. This translates the matter to the
very court of heaven, and invests it with more than archangelic dignity. God is ever ready to honor his Son; he is
therefore ever ready to forgive those who have a true faith in
Christ.
AUGUST 29.-" Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God."-1 Corinthians x. 31.
We ought to be much affected by the condescension of God.
He talks to us as to angels. What more could he say, in the
way of commandment, to any being, than he here says to us?
It is evident that he puts us in the first rank of his servants.
He is willing to overlook the fact that we are moral cripples,
spiritual lepers. He does not thrust us down into an inferior
chamber and assign to us some base work, but he bids us do the




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work of Raphael; that is, to show forth the glory of God, in
all our acts and movements, great and small.
Hie that assigns to us so comprehensive and exalted a
function, gives grace according to the largeness of his command.
The will of God does not relate to the great movements of
our life, passing over the lesser. He does not say, " Arise, go
to Joppa," and then leave us to go there in any way we please.
His will is to be the staple of our existence, and to go with us
from breath to breath along the entire journey of life. Christ
would not let go of the will of God to take up a piece of
bread, after his forty days' fast. The Christian cannot partake
of an abundant meal, if his " neighbor" stand hungering
there; or if some pressing duty be to be discharged.    No
more in little matters than in great does he presume to live
unto himself.
This command requires us to be ever looking unto God;
and is designed to establish a perpetual commerce between our
soul and him who loves us. People think this will hamper
them; whereas it is just the being invested with a divine life.
As well might they complain of being compelled to wear an
emblem of royalty on the brow.
AUGUST 30.-" Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive
ne."-Psalm cxxxviii. 7.
Some obtain their experience early, others later, but it seems
that all who live long in this world must learn by experience
the bitter truth that the elements of trouble are very numerous
in this stage of man's existence. The youthful heart, taught
of God to desire happiness, takes counsel of its imagination
how to seek it, and delights itself with dreams of earthly bliss
which must soon be dispelled. Very often it gets angry with
God for not equaling the creations of its own imagination, for
allowing his divine power to be surpassed by the poor concep



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tion of a mortal; not considering that this is a world of rouble,
because it is a world of sin. These disappointments in too
many cases deaden the heart; destroy its poetry, its enthusiasm, its sensibility.  But they that go with all their hopes and
aspirations to God, and seek in him what the world cannot
give, their hearts shall live. Wonderful it is to see in the
Christian of threescore years, all the sensibility and enthusiasm, the freshness, and glow of youth. And yet it is no wonder, for the paradise he looks at, is in the skies, and is every
day drawing nearer and becoming more glorious to the sight.
His feelings partake of the nature of the immortal realms
which he contemplates and seeks.
AvavsT 31.-" The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come."-Revelation xxii. 7.
To whom is the invocation addressed? To Jesus or to the
sinner?  If we connect the words with those that go before,
it appears to be the Saviour that is invoked: if with what
comes after, the invitation is to the sinner; " Let him that is
athirst, come." But we need not adopt either view to the exclusion of the other. For he who with all cordiality says,
" Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," cannot be otherwise than
greatly concerned to see his kingdom extended in the world.
He will best show his solicitude for the coming of Christ, by
laboring to induce men to come and take of the water of life.
"Let him that heareth say, Come." Thou hearest, thou
hast long heard the Gospel. Thou art ever found in thy place
in the congregation of the people of God, hearkening diligently unto the words of life. In this and in that gathering
we meet thee, and thou art ever attentive to the exposition of
God's word. Thou art interested in the various religious topics
that are brought under discussion; and everything that promises to render thee more spiritual, more believing, more joyful




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in Christ is welcome to thee. But pardon me if I suggest
that there is such a thing as being religiously luxurious. Remember what world thou art placed in. The question is not,
what kind of piety might be appropriate to some Elysian plain,
where all is odoriferous of heaven, and significant of triumph;
but it is this, what kind of piety is most suited to thee in thy
present condition? Thou art in this world to utter the invitations of God to fallen man. Thou hast a ministry, and it is
to say the word " Come," in such tones as may be best adapted
to draw the attention of men to the proffered mercy of God.
Rejoice that in the benignant providence of God you are in
these latter days furnished with so many facilities for extending
the invitations of the Gospel to your fellow-men. Hle that
gives to Tract and Bible and Missionary Societies, that gives
in faith and simplicity and at some personal cost, he in his
measure is saying to his fellow-men, " Come."  But surely
these agencies were not raised up by God in order that the
main body of Christians might get easily off from the ministry
of invitation assigned them.
Let every one who saith " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,"
see to it that his whole life be an enunciation of the Gospel,
his whole being transfused with the spirit of invitation; and
that there be in his looks, words, acts, manners, way of life,
nothing but that which shall tend to make Christ attractive to
his fellow-men.
The Spirit and the bride say, Come. We are the bride of
Christ, and with us is the Spirit, if we earnestly and lovingly desire the coming of Christ, wrestle with Christ to set up his
kingdom in the hearts of men, and with men to c me to Christ.
Let the bride in this way make herself ready.




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SEPTEMBER 1. —"Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come,
and will not tarry." —Hebrews x. 37.
Among many that profess to be the people of God, we find
one (scarcely one in a thousand) whose manner of life seems
to express his conviction that the time is short, very short.
He is like one who waking from slumber finds that his barque
has drifted within the influence of currents that are hurrying
her fast towards the rapids, fast to destruction, and perceives
in a glance that whatever is to be done is to be done at once,
and done with all might. The accumulated business of life,
so long lost sight of, is to be despatched with all possible expedition. The talents so long buried are to be dug up and got
into circulation at once, that there may be a respectable return
to exhibit when the Master comes,-who knows how soon?  Energy, circumspection, perseverance, in fine the consecration of
all the powers, must compensate so far as may be for the immense treasures of time that have been squandered.  "He
cometh, he cometh," is the motto of such a one. Other men,
other Christians even, look on with astonishment, and fancy
that the man must be beside himself to labor so vehemently.
They bid him check his great zeal and mingle moderation with
his earnestness. But he replies, " One thing I do. The past
time of my life must suffice for apathy and self-indulgence.
The Master whose service I have too long neglected, cometh
quickly.  He hath ordained me that I should bring forth
fruit, and I must make the most of the brief season that remains."
A little while! A great work! The views of many Christians are very defective with respect to b)th of these facts.
"Our Lord delayeth his coming," seems to be the impression
on their minds. Their energies, their earnestness, their selfdenial, their consecration, are exhibited in efforts that have no
reference to the deliverance of their souls from baneful influences. The work of religion is one which is easily disposed




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of, they imagine, in an occasional hour, in the leisure moments
which the greater business of life is generous enough to grant.
Is there not coming an hour when the sign of the Son of
Man having appeared in heaven, all mankind will become
aware that the sun of their probation is just about to sink forever, the Sun of Righteousness just about to rise in glory unconceived; and when the possessors of the Gospel who have
left undone their Master's bidding, will be filled with terror
and confusion at the thought of the immense work committed
to them, and to which they had hardly put their finger; while
they that knew he would not tarry, shall lift up their head,
knowing that their redemption draweth nigh. Which of us
shall be able to stand?
SEPTEMBER 2.-" Lead us not into temptation."-Matthew vi. 13.
If you ask me to show you a wise man, I will ask you to
find for me a man who, morning, noon, and night, offereth to
God this prayer. You find him, and you say to me, " Why,
this is a poor man, a mean man, an ignorant man, an obscure
man; I asked him some ordinary questions, and he could not
answer them. In his hand was a book, and he told me frankly
that having no wisdom of his own, he was obliged to make use
of that book. And yet you tell me he is the wisest of men.
His wisdom multiplied ten thousand times would not equal the
wisdom of some that are known to me."  To this I rejoin:
Your wise man and mine are alike in one respect. They are
exposed to a common danger. They have an enemy whose
power enables him to laugh at all the wisdom of man, and
whose malignity will bring everlasting ruin upon those whom
he subjugates. Woe then to him who is foolish enough to
trust in any wisdom of his own. He is daily led into temptation without knowing it, and daily succumbs; and day by day
the fetters of the enemy are more strongly riveted upon him.




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No man was ever so far advanced in the divine life, as not to
need to utter these words. In fact the holiest breathe this
petition with the most fiequency.  And if an angel should be
sent from heaven into the midst of us, it would be ever upon
his lips.
"This is a world of temptation, and it would be difficult so to
dispose of ourselves as never to encounter temptation."  True:
and many advantages flow to the Christian from the fact that
he is exposed to temptation. His graces are thus strengthened.
His self-knowledge is increased. IHe relies more implicitly
upon the word of God. But the tempter knows how to combine circumstances, and so to adapt his wiles to the spiritual
state of a man, as at times to bring an unexpected and powerful
temptation to bear upon him. With reference to such temptations as these the Christian offers up this prayer. God gives
a man the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit with regard to ordinary temptations, those that he is already familiar
with; and gives him a spirit of prayer with regard to others,
from which in answer to this prayer, he delivers him. There
is one way of dealing with present temptations, and another
way of dealing with those that are future. If, relying on our
strength of faith, we cease to be apprehensive of new and subtle arrangements by which our affections may become entangled, we are almost certain to sustain damage.
If after all it pleases God to bring the petitioner into temptation, he is not brought into it as other men are. God will
indicate, in the trying hour, the way of escape.
SEPTEMBER 3.-" If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him."-Hebrews x. 38.
God taketh pleasure in then that fear him, and who manifest their fear to displease him by constantly and carefully
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them. When a man is pressing forward in the path of God,
all heaven and earth rejoice, reflecting the joy of God. The
sun shines not in vain for him; it lights him along the pathway of holiness. The earth is encouraged to run cheerfully
her race of a thousand miles a minute
The Bible lives with reference to such a soul. Its commands, its promises, its invitations, all its words are clothed
with their proper majesty, and bring to bear the influences of
omnipotence upon this soul. But it is sad when such a soul
in some evil day begins to slacken its energies; sadder still
when it quite ceases to press forward; but oh how melancholy
the spectacle when it actually begins to go back. The sun has
his mission, and he continues to shine; and the earth too
sweeps on in her orbit; the time has not come for the displeasure of God to enunciate itself; but it is none the less stern
and terrible for its present silence.
You have come and looked upon the suffering Son of God.
You have taken note of his dignity; of his humiliation; of his
purity; of his death; of his perfect ability and fitness to save.
You have looked into the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone; you have beheld the tree of life in the midst of the
paradise of God; you have seen a Lamb in the midst of the
throne as it had been slain; you have tasted of the manifold
banquet of the word of God, and have had experience of the
powers of the world to come; and after all, you conclude to go
back. It appears now, that while you suffered yourself to be
drawn to Christ, to be drawn by the cords of the gospel far on
your way to him, there was all the time a forgotten cord attaching you to the world. Your chains seemed to be all severed by the mighty love of Christ; but your former master
spun one of these chains to an invisible cord of immense extent, and you were not allowed to feel that there was any such
cord until you had accomplished a large part of your journey
to the kingdom of heaven. Your master watched his time;
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and at length availed himself of the hold he still had upon you,
and drew you backward. Many were astonished; for they had
never perceived that very minute and long-drawn bond.
SEPTEMBER 4.-" Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee
great and mighty things which thou knowest not."-Jeremiah xxxiii. 3.
Great and mighty things had been shown unto Jeremiah.
Great discoveries of the glory of God had been permitted him.
He had walked with God on most intimate terms. He had
experience of the power of God to render him as a brazen
column in the midst of hostile Jerusalem, and to sustain him
in his most trying ministry. God also had shown him the
great and mighty things of his wrath that he intended to bring
to pass upon Judea, and upon the nations round about. Yet
Jeremiah was not to rest satisfied. His business was to obtain
the utmost measure of divine communication. IIe was now in
the court of the prison. He is told to pray for great things.
Another would have thought first of his own deliverance. But
the great and mighty things which it pleased the Lord to bestow and Jeremiah to receive, related to the deliverance of the
people of God from their future captivity, and the restoration
of God's goodness to them.
We may learn from this, not to rest satisfied with any communications of God's grace that we have received, but to
cherish a spirit of expectation and desire. The best evidence
that we value what we have received, is when it has enkindled
our aspirations for what is yet beyond. For you observe that
God requires to be asked for the great and mighty things of
his grace, before he bestows them. And if the path of duty
take you to the court of the prison, you may, like Jeremiah,
find communications such as were not made in the temple even.




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SEPTEMBER 5.-" The Lord will not cast off forever."-Lam. iii. 31.
From the context, the meaning is evident. He casts off his
people from certain experiences of his love of which they have
shown themselves unworthy, until they are humbled and penitent, fervent and believing.  God does not arbitrarily resume
his benefits. There is ever an adequate reason, and if we
search the records of our experience, we shall find it. We
should very carefully note what it was in our conduct, what
remissness or sluggishness or waywardness or worldliness,
that caused the Spirit of God to cease from shedding abroad
the love of God in our heart; and when we have been restored, we should be careful not again to grieve him. Happy
are they to whom it is given to know that they are not finally
cast off. Their contrition, their humiliation, their ardent
longing of soul, are the best evidences that they are not.
SEPTEMBER 6. —" And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you
to walk in my statutes."-Ezekiel xxxvi. 27.
A sublime expression of sovereignty; but let none therefore
say, " We must remain as we are until he puts his Spirit within
us." For God observes a process in this as in his other
works; and in every step of this process he requires the cooperation of man. He shows an individual that he is without
the Spirit of God; that he is spiritually dead; excites in him
desires after life and blessedness; shows him what he is not to
trust in; what he is to trust in; teaches him to pray; answers
his prayer; and excites in him faith in the Lord Jesus. Then
only perhaps does an individual discover that he has been influenced throughout by the Holy Spirit.  But he who refuses
to do anything until he is sensible of the Spirit's influences,
will never do anything in the way of working out his salvation,




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SEPTEMBER 7.-"Thou, O Lord, remainest forever; thy throne from
generation to generation."-Lamentations v. 19.
The instability of many of the tlings with which we have
to do in this world, only tends to make the believer appreciate
the more, by contrast, the immutability of his God. The
Lord of all sits upon his throne, and before him the universe
passes like a panorama. He is unchangeable in character as
well as in sovereignty. As we follow the indications of geology into the dim chambers of what seems to be a past eternity, it is a comfort to think there was then the same God that
we now know; presiding over the strange processes of those
times with the same wisdom and power that now dwell in
him; have the same boundless love that has been so marvellously exhibited in our dispensation; the very same Being in
fact who became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, spoke
graciously to man and made an atonement for the sins of men.
Too often the idea of immutability is connected in the minds
of men with that of insensibility. But this is an error.
There is but one immutable Being in the universe, and his
name is LOVE.
Clouds and darkness are around about the throne of God, so
that men see not that throne, and remain voluntarily ignorant
of its existence. The thrones of this world are alone visible to
them. To know what monarchies they stand in awe of, we
have only to ascertain from their conduct whose commands
they obey, whose will they execute. We find that they are
influenced by mandates that come not from the throne of God.
But all these inferior thrones and dominions vanish away.
How many have come and gone since the prophet wrote these
words. And as the others have passed away, so those that
now exist must disappear from earth. That government that
has in it the elements of perfect stability, man has not sucseeded nor will succeed in devising.
Thou, O Lord, remainest forever: to whom then shall we




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go, but to thee? Our immortal souls awakened by thy Spirit,
find themselves in the midst of a creation that crumbles at the
touch, and are filled with consternation as they behold themselves cast upon the billows of a world that has no one element
of immortality to which they can ally themselves, nothing akin
to themselves to afford them a hope of companionship in the
day when all beside shall have dissolved. We flee to thee, 0
Lord, and find in thee a thousand times more than even the
permanency of present things would have yielded us.
What gives the unchangeableness of God such a value in
our eyes is that we may take refuge in him and be made like
unto him. When we shall have been made perfect in love,
we shall be able to look from the calm heights of an inviolate
safety, upon the elements of change and destruction.
SEPTEMBER 8.-" I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you a heart of flesh."-Ezekiel xxxvi. 26.
This stony heart is not what is commonly understood by a
hard heart, an unfeeling heart. A person of a gentle tender
yielding disposition may yet have what God regards as a stony
heart. A heart insensible to the word of God is what is here
spoken of. The commands, the promises, the invitations all
fail to make an impression upon one with such a heart; he
refuses to see his sin, his helplessness, his danger, his need, the
holiness, the grace, the love of God. The mighty and countless motives of the Bible are lost upon him. He perhaps
flatters himself that he has a great deal of sensibility. He
weeps at a tale of distress; and the more fictitious it is, the
more he weeps. He perhaps is religious, in his own and others'
estimation. Israel, of whose stony heart the text primarily
speaks, was exceedingly devout and imagined itself blameless
in all the ordinances of the Lord.
In the physical system of man the heart sometimes ossifies.
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The most fearful and also the most shameful condition into
which a moral being can fall, the lowest depth that he can
reach, is that in which his heart becomes unable to distinguish
the voice of God. Around him are ten thousand utterances;
an angel would be ravished with the harmony: all the day
long in one way or in another, God speaks; but he hears not.
What an expanse of promise there is in this one word I
will give you a heart offlesh. You will sail over it long and
find no limits. All the fruit of the Spirit, all Christian graces
with all their manifestations, all triumphs of faith, are comprehended in it. When this promise is verified, immediately
the entire word of God puts on its appropriate power. From
Genesis to Revelation, everything starts into life. In giving
us the heart of flesh, God gives us everything that he has
made. The heavens begin to tell us his glory, and the firmament to show us his handiwork; the lily addresses our faith
and the wind whispers of the Spirit; and we look upon all
things as made by Him and for him and for us who believe in
him.
SEPTEMBER 9.- "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee."-Isaiah
liv. 8.
If God withholds from us the tokens of his love, an explanation may almost always be found in the fact that we had
made light of them in some way or another. God gives his
love unto us that he may draw us by its sweet influences to
renounce evil and to embrace good. If we receive the expressions of his loving-kindness and manifest no corresponding
readiness to forsake sin, then it becomes needful that we should
take lessons in the value and virtue of his love, through the
privation of it.
There is amazing condescension in this language. The Lord
as it were apologizes to his people. It is but a little w-'ath; I




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hid my face for a moment only; I will make it up to you a
millionfold with everlasting kindness.
We can imagine a certain believer replying; " Thou doest
all things well; and after what thou hast already shown of
thy wisdom and love, thou canst well be trusted with the government of thy people. Still blame me not, if I urge that
thy wrath is something so fearful, so unendurable, that a little
of it, even a grain of mustard seed of it, is to our feelings
something altogether tremendous and mountainous. If thou
pour out thy wrath upon those that know thee not, they may
indeed pine for the loss of this and that temporal blessing, but
the thought of thy anger gives them not a moment's unhappiness. But thy love is our life, nay, a thousand times more
than life; it is that which raises life to an infinite value; and
the loss of it reduces life to an infinite evil. Far be it ever
from thee, Lord, to give us to taste of thy unmixed wrath.
If it be needful that we should experience a little wrath, let
there be much love mixed with it. Let us not be bereft of
the promises. Let us see the light shining at the extremity
of the dark passage that we have to thread. Treat us not as
though we were so insensible to thy love that a large privation
of it could be easily borne.
The language of the text will have a different meaning to
different believers. Some have been permitted to experience
such marvellous discoveries of the grace of God, they have
been brought into such secrets of the divine favor, that the
privation which seems to them utterly insupportable, would
not affect another in the least.
SEPTEMBER 10.-"Hear, and your soul shall live."-Isaiah Iv. 3.
The true life of the soul is in union with God. The souls
of men are dead, because they are separated from God. Each
man walke'h apart, liveth unto himself, cleaveth to the earth;




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he calls it solitude when his fellow-men are not there. The
word of God is life-giving. We have not to go to a distant
planet for the bread of life. Without any movement of ours,
it has already been introduced into this world. We have not
to pay for the liberty to appropriate it. All the price required
has been already paid. We have only to hear. If we hear,
our souls shall live. If we hear not, then life and immortality
shall never be their portion.
Hear the word of life. All the days of your life, you have
heard it with your outward ear, but it has never made its way
to your inmost soul. The adversary that has such dominion
over you has lined the passage betwixt your outward ear and
your inmost soul with gins and traps, so that the word may
not travel in safety. We see hundreds of chariot loads of
precious truth go in at the portal of your ear; but it is too
manifest that none of it reaches the place of power in your
mind.
Hear!  Enter into conflict with your adversary for the possession of-this truth. It is your life, therefore embrace it with
the instinct of self-preservation. Let everything else go, in
laying hold of this. There was a man who, after many years
of labor, was returning from California with a number of bags
of most fine gold. The steamer was wrecked, and finding
himself in the water with his bags, he let them all go that he
might seize an old plank that came floating along. He es
caped with his life and without his bags. I am afraid that he
never was quite reconciled to the loss of his bags. Suppose,
however, that what seemed an old rotten plank, should turn
out to have an inscription on it, guiding him to a treasure a
thousand times greater than what he had cast away. In that
case he never would give another thought to what he had relinquished, unless it were a thought of self-congratulaticn that
he had made such a wonderful exchange.




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SEPTEMB REi 11.-" Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure."-2 Peter i. 10.
The context sheds all the light that we need upon this passage, explaining both the nature of the diligence that we are
to use, and the object to be obtained by it.  "If ye do these
things, ye shall never fall."  The things are mentioned before: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to
virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance;" &c. The
words "shall never fall" have an innmediate reference to the
words "to make sure."  Let no one bring in here his theory
of election to destroy the force of this passage. God has his
elect ones; and he accomplishes his purposes with regard to
them by teaching them to take heed lest they fall, and to use
all diligence in making their calling and election sure. They
that despise these admonitions make it certain that they are
not elected.
It is not to be supposed that after an individual believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ he must wait a good while and make
great progress in holiness, before he can make his calling and
election sure. There is no reason why he should not have assurance of faith at the moment when he first looks to Christ
for salvation. He that thirsting comes to Christ and drinks,
may with absolute confidence conclude that his name is written in the Lamb's book of life. But that which makes his
calling and election sure then, will not suffice to make it sure
in days that follow. There must be growth in grace; and
there must be expanding evidence. The soul must keep adding to its spiritual stores; must show that it has commerce
with the skies. It can no more derive assurance from past
experience than it can derive life from it.
In an important sense, salvation is neither a past thing nor
a future thing; but strictly a present thing. If Christ is my
Saviour, then he is saving me to-day. If he is my Shepherd,
then he is leading me to-day.  If lie is my Lord, then he is




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ruling me to-day. To-day he teaches me, warns me, encourages
me, blesses me, intercedes for me, brings me to God, destroys
the works of the devil.
SEPTEMBER 12.-" The Lord hath comforted his people, and will have
mercy upon his afflicted."-Isaiah xlix. 13.
Perhaps throughout the wide domains of God, there is
hardly any sight more remarkable than that presented by the
little flock of believers who, in this world of iniquity and of
misery where Satan's seat is, regard the Lord as their King
and are kept by him through faith unto salvation  Their existence is a marvel; their peace and joy another; their triumphs another. They are without a visible Leader, and have
no visible Comforter; yet they pursue their wav and have an
invincible hope.
The Lord comforts his people, ordinarily, not by changing
the course of his providence, not by crowning them with an
outward prosperity, but by opening their heart to attend unto
the precious declarations of his word. The Spirit is the Comforter, and he is the Spirit of truth. Christ prayed that the
cup mnight be taken away from him; but afterward we hear
him saying, " The cup which my Father hath given me, shall
I not drink it?" The Father answered his prayer by some
inward memorial of his goodness, and the cup just now so
dreadful is taken cheerfully and with unfaltering hand by the
Saviour. When the soul is in some deep distress it imagines
that nothing less than the removal of the very cause of thet
distress will ever comfort it; but God prefers to show his
power to sustain and bless the soul in the midst of the trying
providence. He is glorified when the believer is delivered
from his gloom without being delivered from that which caused
thbe gloom. This finds itself vanquished when it seems to be




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most triumphant; and is utterly at a loss to understand how
its instruments of torture should produce no longer any pain.
SEPTEMBER 13.-"Make thy way straight before my face."-Psalm v. 8.
It is especially when a feeling has taken possession of the
mind that the Lord calls us to enter some new sphere, to engage in some new labor for his glory, that we long for an explicit revelation of his will. It is to be feared that too many
grieve the Spirit of God by dismissing this conviction of duty
from their mind, when there cometh not some plain providential notice of what the Lord would have them to do. The
Lord still teaches by his word, and the way is this. He shows
us the greatness of the love of Christ, and constrains us by
this to desire to be more engaged for the glory of God.  He
teaches us to observe our position, our aptitude and various
circumstances.  He takes away from our mind all bias, the
great impediment to right judgment.  And he gives us a quick
understanding to perceive the suggestions and monitions of
the Spirit. He gives us faith, and a willingness to go forward
without a preliminary sense of strength.
SEPTEMBER 14.-" The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be
confounded."-Isaiah 1. 7.
Help is needed to discharge duties that are too great for us,
to encounter dangers that are too severe for us, to face enemies
that are too powerful for us, to bear up under sore disappointments, under the loss of friends, of health, of fortune, to sustain the consciousness of our deep demerit, and in fact it is
difficult to exhaust the catalogue of the ends for which we need
help. Yet there are very few who are visited with a sense of
any such need as this.  The reason is that men generally take
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enemies, avoid as far as they can the path of present danger,
and stultify themselves with ideas of their own goodness. The
man that does not attempt to climb the Alps llas no need of a
guide; the mariner who mystifies himself as to the condition
of his ship and denies his danger, rejects the offer of help.
We need help from God to know our helplessness. The
greatest of all our enemies is in the royal chamber of our inmost being and rules us with a rod of iron, though it be bound
about with ivy leaves. We need help from God himself to
become aware of the true character of this enthroned enemy,
and to see the desolations he has wrought in our heritage.
Alas for them who know not their need of help. The triumph
of their foe is complete. They are led captive at his will, even
though we see them occupying the high places of the earth,
admired and followed by vast crowds.
It requires but little faith, comparatively, to use the language of this text when there is a very inadequate idea of the
difficulties, dangers, impediments, humiliations that may be
found in one's path. If a believer entertains the idea that
the covenant relation in which he stands to the Lord, secures
him against any very severe stroke, he may then use this language without knowing what he says. But he has a wrong
idea. The Lord sometimes appoints unto his people tasks of a
most formidable character, trials that seem studiously calculated to grind them to powder. If there be some contingency
that the believer deprecates with all the might of his soul, the
mere imagination of which is utterly dreadful to him, so that
he is ready to say, " I will cheerfully meet all other conceivable forms of trial rather than this," it is not impossible that the
Lord may see fit to single out this very trial for him.
The Lord wishes his people to feel that being allied to him,
they are allied to all strength and need fear no evil. But he
proceeds with unspeakable gentleness. He gives experience
of his power to sustain, in various ways. He gives a sense of




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his own love, wisdom, and faithfulness that prepares the heart
to encounter the desolation which it speedily dreads. And by
the time that we come into the presence of the dreaded thing,
faith has so far got the victory, that we wonder at ourselves
for ever having felt such a shrinking from a trial so easily
borne. Then is the Lord glorified.
SEPTEMBER 15.-" Let all those that put their trust in thee, rejoice."Psalm v. 11.
"That put their trust in thee."  Among all the people on
the face of the earth, these are the only ones that properly
speaking have anything to do with joy.
In thee-in the God of the Bible-the God of whom Moses
wrote, whom David feared, whom Elijah served, whom Isaiah
saw in the temple, whose angel succored Daniel, who was manifest in Christ, and who for Christ's sake gave the Spirit to
the apostles and giveth it unto us. Some believe that they
can improve npon the character of God in the Bible. They
discover here a blemish, there another. They pity those who
insist upon looking to God just as he is revealed in his word.
Yet they call themselves Christians, and imagine that they are
trusting in God. But they who do not implicitly trust his
word cannot be said to trust in Him.
That put their trust in thee. They trust not in uncertain
riches, for happiness and security against the possible ills of
time, but in God. They show the trust they put in God, by
daring to be singular, to be unconformed to the ways of the
world, and boldly setting aside the decretals of society where
these tend to hinder the fullest exhibition of pure religion.
They trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemption.  They believe that every divine commlnandment is good, is the expression of wisdom and
love, and they view disobedience as a fall from faith. They
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evince their faith in God, by surrendering themselves to the
direction of the Spirit of God, to be guided by him in all
things and in all times.  A life of perfect fitith would be a life
of perfect obedience. There is faith, however, before there is
perfect faith. The first lispings of faith are agreeable to God.
There is the promise of eventual perfection in them.
Let these rejoice. For by faith they have access to a domain that is altogether enchanting and soul-satisfying. The
romises of God are theirs, and winged by these they escape
from the dark and frowning things of earth, to scenes that are
radiant with all that is beautiful and heavenly. Other men
are chained to earth; these sit in heavenly places. Other men
are chained to the present; these expatiate in a veritable future, not illusory. Other men are chained to men; these walk
with God.
SEPTEMBER 16.-" I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer."Isaiah xlix. 26.
What an inconceivable length and breadth, depth and height
has every such declaration as this! The whole life-journey
of the Christian is a journey into the treasures that lie heaped
up in this sentence. In it, in fact, are all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. After a month of some peculiar experience, let the believer come and look into this verse, and
he will find what he never found before. In the avenue commanded by this verse, no two Christians are at exactly the
same place; no two have gathered from it exactly the same
amount of blessing.
When the repentant sinner looks upon the cross of Jesus
Christ, he takes hold of the great, surprising truth, that the
Lord of the universe has entered into a specific covenant for
his redemption.  He has found a friend, one pledged to go all
lengths in the matter of his deliverance from danger, sin and
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dent with an uncreated glory. Iis Saviour is seen by him to
be no less a being than God. But his conceptions of God are
yet exceedingly imperfect. Daily he meditates in the word;
follows the Lord Jesus through all the scenes of his earthly
ministry; avails himself of all the apostolic expositions; familiarizes himself with the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel
and John. The character of God unfolds itself wonderfully
tc his view; and as it does so, the words " I the Lord am thy
Saviour and thy Redeemer" undergo many transfigurations,
pass from one glory to another. The whole universe waits
upon this little text, for all the hosts of heaven exist to make
known Him whose relation to the sinner is set forth in this
passage.
There are innumerable sorrows of life that cannot but take
to flight when faith waves this sentence over them. Why art
thou cast down, my brother? Hast thou found reason to believe that this Saviour and Redeemer is not so great a person
as was once supposed; and that you have committed your destinies to a person who is very little more capable than yourself
of bringing you to bliss and purity and glory?   Your look
seems to intimate that you have made such a discovery. If
you really believe that He who has taken upon him to conduct
you to paradise is a being of absolute power, infinite authority,
matchless wisdom, unfailing faithfulness, and inexhaustible
mercy, why art thou cast down? In the presence of his infinite perfection, lift up your petty ills and see what they look
like.
SEPTEMBER 17.-"I, even I, am he that comforteth you."-Isaiah
li. 12.
Your affliction is very great; but there is a corresponding
greatness in your comforter. I that died on Calvary, that have
all power in heaven and in e,,:th, who am from everlasting to
everlasting, I am he that comforteth you. I looked upon your




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sorrow long before you came into existence, and on every page
of my word that I caused to be written, I introduced some
word of comfort with reference to you. Turn over the leaves
of Scripture and see how much I have been occupied about
you in days of yore. With all wisdom and kindness I sought
out such expressions as were calculated to dissipate your grief.
In due time I became incarnate, and every loving thing that I
did, I commanded that the news of it should be conveyed to
you. I showed my pierced hands and feet to my disciples and
instructed them to tell the gospel of my grace to you. I have
comforted thousands and tens of thousands whose misery was
quite as invincible perhaps as thine. Shall I at last fail with
thee? Must I experience a new humiliation? Must it be at
length proclaimed that thou hast lost something of superior
value to what I can bestow, of greater worth than myself?
There is one disadvantage, as it seems to men, connected with
these offices of mine. I can only comfort by means of the
truth. I have no illusions to offer. The world with its illusions finds no difficulty in banishing this and that sorrow. But
it banishes them to an isle whither the individual himself must
soon come and find them stronger a thousand-fold than when
they left him. My solace is for to-day, to-morrow and forever.
This thou hast, that thov. art not willing to take refuge from
thy sorrow in the world's illusions. Thou hast summoned me
and I am come. My name is Love. If there be excellence
anywhere in the universe, it has been bestowed by me. All
the glory and beauty and joy of the universe are mine; and a
thousand times more.
SEPTEMBER 18.-" Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child?
For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still."-Jeremiah xxxi. 20.
Written according to the analogy of the English language,
this would be, " Is not Ephraim my dear son? Is he not a




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pleasant child?" The sins of the ten tribes, represented by
Ephraim, had required of the Lord to withhold from them the
expressions of his kindness, and to give them into the hands of
their enemies that they might have a taste of the great difference between the service of an earthly master and that of
their heavenly master. But as a king whose son has transgressed the laws of the land, and whom it has been found
necessary to send into exile, is still remembered as a son, and
will be recalled as soon as justice allows, to his father's presence, so God yearned over those whom he had been constrained
to banish for a season from his presence.
Believers are the sons of God in the midst of a perverse
generation. When they forget their high descent and live as
men that are yet in their sins, they bring a cloud over their
conscience through which the rays of the divine love faintly
penetrate. But when some sense of the bitterness of their
situation has taken hold upon them, and longings for communion with God are intermingled with fears lest they have forfeited all hope of restoration, then they may hear the marvellous expressions of our text. Paternity is a bond not easily
broken. What God hath wrought in you in former days,
though it be much of it fallen into unsightliness and ruin, is
vet a memorial of his grace that may be viewed as having an
attraction for Him. Yes, if you will give God an opportunity
of glorifying his Son by means of you, if Christ may yet be
honored through you, there is no reason why you should doubt
that God will take pleasure in you, and regard you as a pleasant
son.
SEPTEMBER 19. —"All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of
our God."-Isaiah Ii. 10.
These words are remarkable as being the utterance of a
Hebrew prophet, in days when Gentiles were viewed as cast27 *




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aways.  What Christ long afterwards comr:ndcde   is here
prophesied.  We now behold the beginning of the fulfilment.
The ends of the earth are becoming in some sense acquainted
with the wonderful ransom paid for sinners by the Lord Jesus
Christ.
The universal preaching of the Gospel brings out first and
foremost the great truth of the universality of man's apostasy
and of his inherent opposition to the divine plan of salvation.
The Gospel triumphs nowhere without a struggle, without a
conflict  It has to endure the contradiction of sinners. But
the salvation of God is seen in every country when men and
women of that country embrace the truth as it is in Jesus.
But it seems to the benighted people perdition, not salvation;
and its proclaimers are counted destroyers, not benefactors.
But there is power-and it is, in alliance with the Gospel, to
he revealed from heaven in due time,-to convince all these
ungodly men of their ungodly deeds, and make them sensible
of their absolute need of just such a salvation as that which
Christ offers.
Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
He shall see that for which his soul travailed in such indescribable anguish in the garden of Gethsemane; the joy that
was set before him he shall experience, when his people shall
be one in him, even as he is one with the Father; when the
New Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven, and
kings shall bring their honor and their glory into it; when his
bride shall have been presented before the throne of his Father's
glory, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, when all his
people hare seen of the tra —ail of their souls and are satisfied.




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SEPTEMnEr 20.-" Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked."-Revelation iii. 17.
Take away the sense of need, and blessings are bestowed in
vain. They are no longer blessings.  Food is of no avail to a
man whose appetite is satisfied. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness; they shall be filled, but not in
any sense that shall leave them unacquainted with need. They
shall never hunger, as those who have not the means of satisfying their hunger; but only as those who have much goods
laid up for everlasting days in Christ. The spring of our
happiness is not in ourselves, but in Christ, and so it shall ever
be; and the spiritual life that flows to us from him, meets and
must ever meet, a desire in us. Desire is not banished from
heaven; it walks hand in hand with satisfaction. The branch
receives from the vine what the branch needs. Desire brings
us to the throne of grace and desire keeps us there.
A Christian without a sense of need; what an unhappy
spectacle! The Laodicean church had need of nothing. Was
it that their cup was running over through the unmeasured
outpouring of the Holy Spirit?  Was the love of God so shed
abroad in their hearts that they had no room for more? Not
so. Could you satisfy the personal need of the true follower
of Christ, he would immediately annex the need of his neighbor; and while there remained a single discoverable need in
all the world, he would refuse to know himself unneeding.
The abundance of grace bestowed upon the Christian, has
not the tendency to destroy his sense of need. Unto him that
hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, more
and more; for the Spirit of God so gives as to make us value
his gifts and desire what he has yet to bestow. The sense of
fulness accompanies very low degrees of attainment. If desire goes to sleep, it is because we loiter so much in the path
of life, or turn aside to bypaths.




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Worldly prosperity has ever been a great snat e to the Church.
Account for it as we may, desire for spiritual blessings is very
much overborne by the acquisition of worldly wealth.   A
Christian community has some advantages over others, in the
pursuit uf wealth. Their personal expenditure is limited, in
some degree at least, by their professed principles.  They are
the followers of one who made himself poor. They are industrious, provident, economical, self-subduing, guarded and
thoughtful. They gradually become wealthy. Their wealth
they look upon as the expression of God's favor. Pride, selfconfidence, worldliness, are pretty sure to follow. Where your
treasure is there will your heart be also. The place in their
regard occupied by their earthly riches, interferes decidedly
with the absorbing attractions that should belong to the things
which pertain to life and godliness. Were there grace enough
to maintain unbroken the consecration of our all to Christ,
then the flowing in of worldly substance would not be harmful;
it would be understood that Christ is just availing himself of
our stewardship to pour abroad upon a needy world, not merely
spiritual but temporal goods. But too commonly, this consecration fails, when the amount of what is to be consecrated,
increases. As there never was a time, probably, when Christians had so large a share of the gold and silver of this world,
as they now have, we may well believe that the admonitions
contained in this epistle to the Laodiceans, deserve to be seriously pondered at this day, and zealously acted upon.
SEPTEMBER 21.-" Ie will not always chide, neither will he keep his
anger forever."-Psalm ciii. 9.
The believer walks as seeing him who is invisible, and receives everything from the hand of his heavenly Father. He
does not overlook the part that he himself may have had in
bringing ab)ut a calamity; nor the part that his fellow-men




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321


may have had in it; nor the agency of evil spirits; nor the
laws of nature, if so you choose to call them; but after noticing these causes his soul looks away to the Great Cause, to
Hlim who sitteth upon the throne of the universe and is not
unmindful of a fluttering sparrow.
God has not given a constitution to the universe that limits
in the least his power to deal, at any and every moment, with
each individual soul in the way that his blessed impulses may
suggest. How lamentably defective, how strangely erring are
those philosophies that imagine that the Almighty has tied up
his own hands, and only loosens them at some great intervals
to give the machinery of creation a new activity. Men in general conceive of God as without present liberty to do anything
in the universe; with far less faculty of spontaneous action
than they themselves possess. They may like or dislike, give
or withhold, but God must let the course of nature flow unbrokenly on. But the Christian is not thus without God in
the world. Not only are all things of him, but all things are
through him and to him. He is not only at the beginning
and end of time, but present with all his works throughout
the entire course of time.
The Christian knows that there is a relation connecting him
and God, and he sees and knows all things in this relation.
You might suppose, perhaps, that in the day of his affliction
it would be an aggravation of his grief to recognize God as the
author of it; but I assure you that he is not at all willing to
exchange this conviction for the notion that his affliction canle
undesigned. "Let me rather," he says, "feel that God is
chiding me, than that God is without care for me. Woe is
me, if I am cast adrift upon the ocean of circumstances. I
would not desire a heaven that circumstances could give me.
The light and glory of this universe is gone, the dignity of existence is destroyed, the attraction of the future is no more,
when it becomes doubtful that God is in immediate relation




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with every one of his creatures.  I know that He is mine and
that I am His; and when He chides, I accept it as a gracious
token of his interest in me, and rejoice to think that it will
soon be succeeded by tokens of a heavenlier kind. If he
chide, it is but for a small moment, the smallest possible moment that the necessities of my nature will admit of."
SEPTEMBER 22.-"Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."-1 Peter ii. 25.
Drawing nigh to Peter, many years after the ascension of
his Lord, we find him reading; and looking over his shoulder,
see that he is occupied with our own good Isaiah, and that his
attention is directed to what we designate as the fifty-third
chapter and sixth verse: " All we like sheep have gone
astray." And when he takes up his pen to write to the
churches, how readily and naturally do the words glide from
him: <" Ye were as sheep going astray." We need not suppose that Peter, writing this, was unmindful of the sad facts
of his own early history, when he went astray denying the
Lord that was about to lay down his life for him.
The knowledge that the Christian has of the natures of men
is not so much insight as experience. Men resent the description he gives of the heart of man; but they should consider
that he is relating what he has seen in his own heart, being
taught of God that heart answereth to heart. He is no misanthropist, expressing his disgust at the treatment he has received from man, but a philanthropist, telling the result of
certain experiments to which his own heart has been subjected.
Men desire independence.   They wish to be let alone.
They prefer to choose their own paths. They scorn the suggestion that a shepherd is necessary to them. Yet there is
something occurring every passing hour to show them their




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need of a superior being to guide them; one who can see the
end fiom the beginning; who knows the qualities and tendencies of all things; who looks upon dangers and losses before
they arise and makes provision for them; who can tear in
pieces the lion and the bear; can furnish a shelter from the
- storm, a shadow from the heat. At every moment evil in some
form starts up, saying, " You are my prey; you are wandering
in this world without God; you have not this mark upon your
forehead." Nevertheless, men insist upon running the gauntlet of all the ills that line the pathway of life, until, all hacked
to pieces, they sink into their final place of unrest and misery.
Happy are they, alas how few, who perceive the forlornness of
a life without God, and allow themselves to be found of the
good Shepherd and brought back to his little flock and to its
glorious destinies!
SEPTEMBER 23.-" If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." -
John vii.:37.
Who is this that stands in the midst of an assemblage of
mortals and makes proclamation in a loud and fearless voice,
that if any man, not merely in that assembly but throughout
the whole world, desire happiness, he should draw near and
obtain what he desires?  Who is this that offers to heal all
human woes and accomplish in behalf of the entire human family, deliverance from the curse? That speaks of himself as
a fountain of the water of life springing up in the centre of
the earth, and sending forth abundant streams to bless all nations, tribes, and tongues?  That not merely undertakes the
highest functions of deity, but reveals the deity as present in
the very midst of the family of man, bringing to the doors and
hearts of men the most distinctive gifts of heaven?  He that
speaks must be either a madman or God manifest in the flesh.
Draw nigh to him and behold. He opens the eyes of the
blind; but that is little. He heals all diseases; that too is




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little.  Ile raises the dead; even that is little. It is one thing
to recall men from the grave; another thing to fill their souls
with imperishable joy. Behold him then on the cross. He
cries out, "I thirst."  All the billows of the wrath of God
pass over him. You ask, " How can this sufferer heal the
woes of men? This thirster quench the thirst of the world?"
Understand that those billows are of' the wrath of God not
against him, but against you and your fellow-sinners; and that
he emerges from this deep baptism of anguish with a charter
of life for all that shall believe upon him.
In the vanity fair of this world you see over many a shop a
scroll bearing the words, "If any man thirst let him  come
hither and drink." The servants of Satan exhibit a thousand
blandishments.  What Christ alone can do, a thousand illusions
of life profess to do. All that they can do is really to destroy
the souls that trust in them.
The question for you is: Do you thirst?  Have you desires
ungratified? Aspirations after a higher, nobler existence;
after purity, heavenly wisdom, love, usefulness, communion
with the blessed, immortality and glory?  Come then to the
meek and lovely one, to him whose hand and feet were pierced.
His word is nigh thee. Embrace it with thy heart, then shalt
thou find him in thy heart; and in finding him, thou findest
happiness and a crown of life.
SEPTEMBER 24.-"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and
great shall be the peace of thy children."-Isaiah liv. 13.
They that are Christ's are Abraham's seed, and we are
among the posterity whose privileges are here foreshadowed.
The people of God are those that are taught of God, and they
that are taught of God, have great peace. The throne of God
is the seat of a great teacher. The course of nature is a course
of instruction. The universe is one vast school. God writes




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lessons for men on the firmament, on the sea, on the sands, on
the mountains, on the forests; yea on every leaf. We tread
on problems; tasks are set us in the air we breathe. If we
shut up all our senses and bury ourselves in the recesses of
our being, even there some question shall address us, some
lesson shall meet us. But sin makes men insensible to all this.
The firmament may declare the glory of God; but they will
hear so much of the declaration as they list, and no more
Their ninds are drugged with sin so that the instructions of
creation and of providence are lost upon them. They are
without God in a world where everything proclaims his presence, his perfections and his glory.
But some are taught of the Lord. They are taught concerning their own ignorance, their sinfulness, their danger.
They are shown their need of something that is not in nature,
even an Almighty Saviour, an All-wise Sanctifier. They are
taught to behold all excellence in Christ, and to repose all confidence in him. They bring all their knowledge to God-all
that they have been collecting since childhood-that he may
look it over and cast away what he will. They want no opinions but the opinions of God; no wisdom but that which is
from above.
Wonderful is the mystery of life. Creatures of clay, we
are as gods in our liberty of choice, in our conscious freedom,
and as devils in the abuse of that freedom. All the experiments carried on for the last six thousand years show that there
is something fearfully amiss. One man uses his freedom in
one way, another in another way; a thousand men in a thousand different ways; but it is manifest with respect to all, that
they none of them hit upon a right theory and practice of
life. They are perpetually coming in conflict with the machinery of the universe, getting entangled and bruised in the
wheels of God's providence, and passing merely from one
phase of confusion to another. "Why are we en lowed with
28




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this liberty," say they, " but that we may use it? Why are
we made voluntary beings but that we may carry out our volitions? We are permitted to act as we like, why is it not
good to do so?"
Here is their mistake, their great and fatal mistake. Their
liberty is given them in order that they may freely do the will
of God. It would be derogatory to the character of God to
make his intelligent creatures serve him by compulsion, by irresistible force. He disdains to be served otherwise than by
choice and love. But the universe is so constituted that it is
impossible for men to find true peace or solid advantage while
they follow their own capricious wills. Everything repulses
man, lacerates him, torments him. The wonder is that he is
so slow to discover what is the true use to be made of his liberty. When at length he delights himself in the Lord, then
does the Lord grant him the desires of his heart. When he
chooses to do God's will, then he becomes as God in several
most surprising respects. Apart from God, a worm; united to
God, he is a temple of God, a throne of God.
SEPTEMBER 25.-" To us belongeth confusion of face, because we have
sinned against thee."-Daniel ix. 8.
A great many of our confessions of sin fall trippingly from
the tongue, as though the commission and the acknowledgment
were all a mere matter of course. How little of self-reproach
there seems to be in it all! How little shame, how little confusion of face! A public exposure-the attention of men drawn
to one of the least of these sins-would fill us with unspeakable shame. Is God then nobody in comparison with man?
Because God has forgiven us so readily, are we to make light
of the sins committed against him? But in order that God
might forgive us the least of all these sins, it was necessary
that Christ should endure the contradiction of sinners, pass
through the agony of Gethsemane, and die upon the cross.




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Christians sometimes say, "6 Of what avail is it to be studying our committed sins'?   Rather let us exercise faith."
Faith is everything indeed  but faith will never attain its proper proportions where there is no just idea of what it is that
God has forgiven us. How can we rightly know the goodness
of God, if we do not know the greatness of sin? In fact this
is one of the exercises of faith, one of her most distinctive and
honorable triumphs; the perception, namely, of what sin really
is. Some Christians imagine that they will lose their peace in
this way. Let them lose it, and get a better one. Do they
not know that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth, and that
he is given to guide us into all truth, that relating to ourselves
and that relating to God? Contrition and faith are not enemies; contrition and love, contrition and joy; all these in fact
be-ong together.
SEPTEMBER 26. —"Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs
sufferings."-1 Peter iv. 13.
Had Peter done as he promised to do, and followed Christ
from Gethsemane, content to be bound with him, mocked with
him, scourged with him, condemned with him, and crucified
with him, what an incomparably exalted place would he have
had in our regard. Nothing but his own treacherous heart
hindered him from occupying this worthiest and sublimest of
places occupied by mere finite men. However, as his Lord
generously foretold, he followed him afterwards. He met the
same hostility, the same bitterness and cruelty; and we read
in the Acts that he rejoiced in being counted worthy to suffer
for the name of the Lord Jesus. Oh! that we might have
faith in the day of reproach and injury encountered in Christ's
service, to perceive him, even the Prince of the kings of the
earth, at our side, dividing with us the indignities that are
heaped upon us. Who would not call that a light affliction
Who would not rejoice?




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


SEPTEMBER 27.-"I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."-Psalm xvii. 15.
Christ prayed for his people that they might be with him
where he was (" where I am") and behold his glory. Christ
is formed in us, the hope of glory; glorious now as revealed
by faith, so that we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory; but immeasurably more glorious upon the throne of the
heavenly majesty, entrancing the universe with the image of
the invisible God.
I shall be satisfied: let a man look into his heart and see
how much is comprehended in this. Ile imagines almost that
his heart is a bottomless abyss, and that God might empty into
it all his treasures and fail to fill it. But his cup shall run
over. He shall be satisfied. And throughout a never-ending
eternity he shall never more be cursed with unsatisfied desires.
SEPTEMBER 28.- I have seen his ways, and will heal him."-Isaiah
lvii. 18.
The greater part of mankind pass through the earthly stage
of their existence without anything that can appropriately be
termed the knowledge of God. To others, however, it is given
in some most solemn moment to find themselves suddenly in
the presence of God and to be overwhelmed with the perception of his holiness, power, sovereignty, and omniscience. The
scales fall from their eyes, and they behold that sublime and
offended Majesty in whose august presence they, in willing
unconsciousness, have been for many a long year committing
their abominable transgressions.  Then they exclaim  with
amazement and profoundest humiliation: " Thou hast searched
me and known me; thou art acquainted with all my ways."
The relations of that hour are very partial, very imperfect;
were they otherwise it would be impossible to sustain them.
Man has become so naturalized in the domain of falsehood,




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that to strip him at once of all his falsehood would be to rend
his body and soul asunder and consign the immortal part of
him to everlasting despair. There is reason to believe that
such a day will dawn for the world at large; a day when the
Lord shall be revealed in his glory, and every eye shall see
him; and multitudes shall call upon the mountains to fall
upon them and hide them from the face of him that sitteth
upon the throne. But now we have as it were only adumbrations of the judgment that is to come.
Is there not something very humiliating and condemning in
the thought that you are so bound up in falsehood, it has become such a part of your life, that it is necessary to proceed
with great caution in removing from you the many folds of
it?-Yet even the partial revelations of that hour when God
enabled you to perceive him present in his holiness and majesty,
filled your soul with terror, and you could not at all comprehend how peace and joy could ever consist with the discoveries
then made. But perhaps this reflection then arose in your
mind: that if God had intended you to have experience of
his wrath alone, he would probably have still deferred the hour
of manifestation, until you had passed the bourne of hope,
the bourne of life.
" I have seen his ways, saith the Lord," and what terrible
sentence may we not look for, as a sequence to this announcement? But lo, the most gracious of all words issue from his
lips: "I will heal him."  The knowledge which God has of
our corruption and deep depravity, soon becomes to us a ground
of confidence; he knows what we need; perfectly aware of
what we are, he has undertaken to restore us, and he will certainly accomplish what he has taken in hand.
28 *




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SEPTEMBER 29.-" For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth
and smote him; I hid me and was wroth; and he went on frowardly in
the way of his heart."-Isaiah lvii. 17.
God is love; and we were called into being that in our
measure we might manifest forth this truth, by loving one
another. But we are an apostate race; and each one, so far
from seeking to be the servant of all, is bent upon serving
himself of all.  Men are consecrated first and foremost to the
augmentation of their own gains. Ordinarily they understand
by covetousness some extraordinary development of the passion
for gain. But the question is not, what definition of it is
given in man's code, but what in God's code? Now, God
stigmatizes as covetousness all desire for gain that checks the
exercise of faith in God and love to man; that is selfish in
origin and in tendency; that is hostile to a spirit of humble
contentment; that is inconsistent with perfect peace.
This age is intensely selfish, and yet finds it very difficult to
become sensible of its selfishness. There are so many noble
enterprises afoot; so many asylums built; so many colleges
and schools established; missions for the heathen, home missions, city missions; patriotic funds, famine funds; in fine,
mention if you can an evil that has lifted up its head in any
part of the world, for which we have not made some benevolent arrangement. I do not shut my eyes to these generous
schemes.  It certainly looks as though the law of love were
written on the forehead of the times. I would do all honor
to the age, or rather to the Father of ages, the giver of every
good and perfect gift.  But ascribe it not to malevolence or
envy, if I suggest that the age is simply giving of its abundance. With the one hand it gives its thousand, but with the
other it grasps its tens of thousands. There is a spirit of
profound calculation that has too much to do with these gifts.
Almost all these noble benefactions have had their origin with
the Church; but how few members of the Church give even




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tithes of all that they possess.  Men think themselves benevolent because they look at what they give; God thinks them
covet us, because he sees what they withhold.
The question is: How does God deal with his people when
they become covetous?  You will say, He chastises them and
makes them poor in spirit. Nay, this is not his way. Were
it such, then would his people wait for his providential correction and believe themselves justified in pressing forward in that
evil path, until he should meet them. With an infinitely profounder wisdom God deals with them. He chastises them indeed, but it is by withdrawing himself. And they perceive it
lot. And now does their position become most dangerous.
For being freed from many remonstrances addressed them by
the Holy Spirit, they precipitate themselves faster and still
faster along their chosen career. They become more and more
worldly, more and more hardened. What shall hinder them
from crossing that path beyond which the Spirit of God will
never seek them?
What we need then to learn is this: To be on our guard
against the earliest developments of this passion, and to hearken
diligently to the reproof of the Spirit of God while his voice
is yet distinctly audible: for let the evil inclination get but a
little more strength and we shall make shipwreck of our faith.
SEPTEMBER 30.-" There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.'Isaiah lvii. 21.
The wicked are sometimes seen flourishing as a green baytree. Their cup of worldly prosperity runneth over. To the
spectator their days appear to flow by in pleasantness and peace.
They conform to the world's code of morals, and their praises
are on the tongues of all. They fare sumptuously every day
and fancy that they are to sit down at the banquet of everlasting life. Peace and prosperity are within their gates, if we
may believe appearances.  But we prefer to believe God. He




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knoweth all hearts. He knows what is worthy to be called
peace.
That certainly is not worthy to be called peace, which cannot
endure to face all truth. You look down deep into the heart
of the splendid sinner with whom all seems to go serenely, and
you see a stone sealed with many seals. You ask, what is underneath that stone? Hist! breathe no such unwelcome interrogations as this. There is a mystery about that stone and
all inquiry is disallowed, all mention of it forbidden. You are
waved disdainfully away from those mysterious penetralia.
There is One however who knoweth well the secrets of all
hearts, and who is willing to make known to you the mystery
of that stone and the chamber underneath. Hearken! Beneath that stone are buried many things, implacably hostile to
the peace of that man. The law of his being is such that it
is not possible to extrude them from the mind, to bury them
in the depths of the sea; wherefore, as the only alternative
they are buried in the depths of his own mind. There are
the suppressed memories of innumerable sins, the blotted records of many experiences, the disregarded warnings of conscience. There, in that chamber are many forgotten passages
of Scripture, once heard, once for a moment or more revolved
in the mind; many words of Christ and his apostles. Many
fragments of sermons and counsels of pious friends are there.
Vows, prayers even are there. Nay, there are thunders there
thunders of God's providence. Truth in her most tremendou
forms is there. There these all are buried, but not forever.
There is to be a resurrection, a terrible retribution. The man
has made for himself a hell within himself, and has covered it
over with a stone and bound down the stone with a few frail
bands. and he calls this peace.




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333


OCTOBER 1.-" The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days
of thy mourning shall be ended."-Isaiah lx. 20.
Indicated in the last verse of the preceding chapter, these
glorious prospects are displayed before God's spiritual Israel.
They that reject Christ reject all the good forespoken by the
prophets, and the wrath of God abideth upon them.     All
things belong to them who belong to Christ. Christians are
taught to contemplate not merely their own individual blessedness and perfection; but the unspeakable blessedness and unconceived glory of that condition upon which the whole Church
of the living God shall, as the bride of the Lord Jesus, as the
New Jerusalem come down from heaven, one day enter. They
are now the light of the world; the Lord shall be their everlasting light. There shall be no night there. And this marvellous condition of things is immediately to succeed just such
a condition of things as that which now exists, when darkness
covers the earth, and gross darkness the people.
The Lord shall be thine everlasting light. He who by faith
embraces the Christ of the gospel, who kisses the Son in the
day of his humiliation when his visage is marred more than
any man's, shall then be enraptured by the sun-eclipsing glory
that shall burst from the countenance of Christ the King of
kings, Lord of lords, his Christ, forever his, with all his glory
his.
OCTOBER 2.-" Let us draw near with a true heart."-IIebrews x. 22.
Seek to sound the depths of the meaning of this word, dram
near. Examine the supplications of a thousand suppliants, and
they will show these suppliants scattered at a thousand different distances from God, but almost all at a great distance, and
out of the whole perhaps only one close to the throne of
grace.
There is much to hinder this drawing near. There is the
inherited habit of unbelieving prayer. The supineness of the




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soul. Worldly care. Worldly joy. Inappreciation of the
possible blessing. Fear of discovering some unheeded responsibilities. Want of realization of God's personality. And a
multitude of others.
There are to be combats all along the road. It is here we
must fight the good fight of faith. It is a noble victory when
we get near to God; fbr it is a pledge of all other victories.
OCTOBER 3.-" He only is my rock."-Psalm lxii. 2.
O, happy Psalmist, who canst use this language? Not only
is God thy rock; he is thine only rock. On him dost thou
build thy confidence. He is thy only refuge, thy only safeguard.
How grievously do they insult God who rely in part upon
him, in part on something else; and who with the utmost emphasis of their souls deprecate being left alone with God, shut
up to him alone. They would fain eke out the insufficiency
of their wealth by his riches of mercy; the inadequacy of
their wisdom, by his treasures of wisdom; the imperfections
of their strength, by his power; their defective title to heaven,
by his readiness to save. The grace of the gospel they accept
as supplemental to their own goodness. Sometimes it happens
to such to be stripped of all their wealth, their wisdom, their
goodness; and lo! to the surprise of their Christian friends,
they are found to be the prey of an intense despair. Then is
it seen how very slight and contemptible a part they had assigned to God in the matter of their salvation. They are unutterably wretched, because God alone is left them.
Happy are they who begin by recognizing God as their only;
rock. This rock is soon found to be marvellous in its properties. Beneath the footsteps of faith, springs of joy, peace,
wisdom, hope, love start up, creating first an oasis, then a paradise; walls of every precious stone rise and enclose it; angels
encamp around about it.




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OCTOnER 4.-' The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon hin ii truth."Psalm cxlv. 18.
That call upon him not because they think it a decorous
thing, not as an act of homage merely, but because they need
what he alone can give, and believe that he will give it to
them, if they ask wisely and in faith.
They call upon him in truth, who make nothing of themselves, everything of Christ. They call upon him in truth,
who overlook none of his attributes, but view him as his word
reveals him. " If ye abide in me and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
We bring God nigh to us by banishing falsehood from us,
by making room for the truth in our hearts.  "If any man
love me he will keep my words; and my Father will love him,
and will come unto him and make his abode with him."
OCTOBER 5.-" Be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."-Hebrews xiii. 5.
This promise was addressed in the first instance to Joshua;
not because he was Joshua, but because he was a believer;
nd it is valid for every believer.
The believer is to be content with such things as he has.
"Behold Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, his body full of
sores, without food, shelter, friends. Is he to be content with
such things as he has? IHe has nothing." Yes, he has something. Let us try to take an inventory of it.   He has a
Father in heaven, upon the throne of thrones, possessing all
wealth and exercising all power; forgetting him never and
making all the vicissitudes and severities of life conduce to
his ultimate unspeakable good. He has a Saviour in heaven;
one that died for him and washed him from his sins ill his own
blood; his righteous Advocate ever interceding for him. IIe
has a Holy Spirit who has taken up his abode in that polluted
heart to make it angelic, spotless and perfect. The angels of




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heaven are his friends; they celebrated the day of his conversion with songs of transport; they hold his crippled limbs
so that he does not fall; and they are waiting to convey him
to paradise. All the saints in the light of heaven wait for
him that they may know him and love him. He has promises
more in number than it is possible to count, and each so precious that all the money in the world could not buy it. He
has an inheritance ten thousand times more magnificent than
the boasted patrimonies of earth.  Everlasting life is his.
His diseased body shall be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. To all his other treasures, he may well add this
treasure, contentment.
Why art thou cast down? Perhaps thine earthly wealth
has taken to itself wings and flown. Perhaps some great man
has looked disdainfully upon thee. Perhaps some cherished
scheme has been frustrated. Thou hast met with ingratitude.
Some dear friend has fallen from thee. Some loved one has
died. Some disease has taken hold of thee. Well, these
things dispirit the children of this world; for in losing these
they lose their all. But why should the loss of such things
affect thee? The wealth that is lost, is nothing to that which
remains to thee. The great man who despises thee is a very
insignificant being in the presence of certain friends of thine.
If thou losest a friend of earth, thou hast thousands of glorious ones who will never fail thee. Thou hast a throne prepared for thee in a region where no sickness is, where death
never comes.   Thou hast Christ with all his unsearchable
riches.  Wilt thou yet mourn because of the crumbs that
have fallen from thy table?
It is in vain we talk of the unsearchable riches of Christ,
if we greatly bewail the disasters of time. How shall the
world ever learn that Christ is to us precious, if we are not
content with such things as we have in the world, be they no
matter how few, how mean?




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337


OCTOBER 6.-"If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally."-James i. 5.
Wisdom is the last thing of the need of which mnen become
sensible. Worldly wisdom indeed they desire to have in larger
measure; but it is the rarest thing in the world to see. man
who is deeply sensible of his need of that wisdom which God
gives in answer to prayer. This only shows how amazingly
unwise men arc. It is because they have not this wisdom at
all, that they are conscious of no need. Yet, would they but
know it, this wisdom would give them virtually all that they
so impetuously seek in the world. They long for a power by
which they may rise superior to the ills of life. They long to
lift themselves on high above their enemies. They long to
possess themselves of all the good things of life. But as the
world is constituted, it is impossible for man by dint of getting
to satisfy this desire; or by quaffing the cup of pleasure to
attain unto happiness; or by clothing himself with authority
to escape all human enmity. Let God however breathe upon
his soul, let heavenly wisdom become the tenant of his heart,
and lo! "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" fall
harmless at his feet.
What causes most of the misery of men, is that their minds
are chafed and vexed by something in their condition. With
this repugnant something they enter into conflict thinking that
if they can only banish it, all will be well. Perhaps they do
not succeed. There it remains, fiowning upon them; and in
their souls abideth torment. Perhaps after many struggles,
they get rid of this repugnant thing; but scarcely have they
began to congratulate themselves upon their victory, when lo,
on the opposite side, a new circumstance wearing the same
ecowl, enters into the circle. Yes, this earth would get rid of
almost all her burden, and spring forward like an unyoked
Pegasus, if men would cease from battling with their external
condition, and seek from God wisdom; even wisdom to outweigh
29




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


in the balances of heaven, the offers, illusions, dignities, comforts, discomforts, losses, trials, troubles of every day.
OCTOBER 7.-""We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will
not fear what man shall do unto me."-Hlebrews xiii. 6.
Here we have an admirable expression of Christian confidence.  It is pure confidence in God, viewed as the source not
only of one's own strength, but of all strength, so that there
emains nothing in the world worthy to excite alarm.  "The
Lord is my helper," saith the believer.  "I am not counting
upon some future alliance with him; but speak from a deep and
satisfying experience of his presence and faithfulness. I have
been shorn of all my former conceit of strength; and have
hearkened to the proposal of the Infinite One, a proposal to be
unto me strength, wisdom, righteousness. On the day that I
became bankrupt, I entered into the possession of all riches."
If the Lord be thy helper, and if all the power of man is
inferior to that which accompanies thee, then why dost thou
not do some great, some world-surprising thing? Thou hast
no occasion to fear aught that man may attempt. To all the
waves of hostility thou art able to say, "Thus far shall ye
come and no farther."   Ride now victoriously through the
earth and establish thy beneficent dominion throughout all
lands, giving men relief from the oppressions under which
they have languished for so many ages. A similar suggestion
was once made to the Lord Jesus Christ. Iad he been willing to set aside the will of God, and to put himself under the
guidance of that evil spirit of expediency that rules in the
counsels of the princes of this world, had he accommodated
himself to the expectations of the Jews and presented himself
as a temporal and political Messiah, all the kingdoms of the
world might have been his, but he would have been sinmpi
the vicegerent of the God of this world. "God is my helper
and I may avail myself of his power without limit."




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339


But why does He help me? Because I have yielded myself unto his guidance. lie giveth his power to those only
who first accept of his wisdom.  He giveth strength to those
who have renounced all ambitious and selfish views; who have
committed themselves unto him to be taught, moulded and
used by him.
Nevertheless, when we call to mind that God delighteth in
mercy; that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sin of th
world; that the Triune God has a sublime enterprise on foot,
looking forward to the transference of all kingdoms unto his
Son; when we consider certain of the promises, as, for instance,
this, " Greater works than these shall ye do;" and this, " He
that overcometh to him will I give power over the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron;" when we remember
the words of Daniel, "The people of the saints of the most
High God shall take the kingdom and possess the greatness
of the kingdom under the whole heaven;" when we allow
these soul-enkindling declarations to come home to our consciousness; does it not seem as though he, who in genuine
faith is able to speak of God as his helper, and to look disdainfully upon all that man can do against him, should go forth
clothed in a transcendent power and obtain some world-wide
display of the glory of his Lord?
" When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?"
OCTOBER 8.-"Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts."-Romans v. 5.
Alps on Alps arise, as the believer presses forward in his
course. He beholds a summit, and exclaims, "My God will
meet me there, and there will gainsayers be confounded."
But when he reaches it, he receives not the expected testimony, and unbelievers make a mock of his disappointed hopes.
He would be troubled; but in the absence of the external tes



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timony, he receives an inward sweet assurance of the love and
faithfulness of God, and in the very hour of his disappointment, his face shines with a singular joy. Looking up he
sees a higher mount. Oh, he exclaims, it is there, not here,
that God should meet me. I must reach the higher summit.
He reaches it, and it proves to be a new summit of sorrow for
him.  Again, a wave of heavenly bliss rolls over his heart, and
he refuses to be confounded. A still higher peak catches his
aspiring eye.
Observe now, all his disappointments are real conquests.
Those inferior summits mark the way that he must necessarily
tread, in his course to the hill of transfiguration.  In his great
hope he is not confounded, only in his lesser hopes that lay
hold of time, place, and circumstance.  From every hill of
disappointment, he carries off a rich spoil.
OCTOBER 9.-" In all their affliction he was afflicted."-Isaiah lxiii. 8.
We need not feel so bitterly towards affliction, since we are
indebted to it for the knowledge of this most wonderful fact,
that our divine Friend enters into our sorrow with all his heart,
and perfectly identifies himself with us in our tribulation.
Sympathy is really a more valuable proof of love, sometimes,
than the hindrance of the calamity would have been. Every
king can scatter handfuls of gold and save many from want;
but where is the king whose eye melts, whose heart overflows,
in sympathy with the sons and daughters of want? Ah, we
have to seek in heaven for such a king as this. "Saul, Saul,"
he says, "why persecutest thou me?  I have felt keenly the
reproaches thou hast uttered against my disciples; the stripes
inflicted on them were to me the same as those that I endured
in the house of Pilate; the drops of their blood were precious
to me as those that I myself let fall from my own thornwounded head."




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341


OCTOBER 10.-" I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that
are right."-Isaiah xlv. 19.
An incontestable truth, one would say. Who will dare to
deny that God speaks things which are right? That were at
once the height of folly and of guilt.
Is it so? Then do all men dwell upon the heights of folly
and of guilt. They have built for themselves permanent habitations there. There are innumerable things that men declare
to be right; they do them and repent not at the remembrance
of them; they commend them in others; yet these things are
diametrically opposite to the things that God sanctions. You
speak of a becoming pride; God says, "Blessed are the poor
in spirit."  You say that men should not submit to injuries
and insults.  He says, "Blessed are the meek."  You think
it a light thing when men neglect religion; God says, "One
thing is needful."  When men pray much, you talk of cant
and hypocrisy; God says, " Pray without ceasing." In a word
go through the Bible; compare its declarations with your own
expressed views; and if you still insist that God declares
things that are right, you must admit that you have hitherto
been in thought, word and practice, wrong, wrong, wrong!
OCTOBER 11 -" Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again
for our justification."-Romans iv. 25.
That we might not fall into the hands of the living God,
Christ was delivered into the hands of sinful men. He stood
before an earthly tribunal where Injustice sat in state, in order
that we might escape the dread tribunal where infinite Justice
sits. He was delivered up by sinful men to sinful men. Yet
he was delivered up by a righteous God, with his own glad
consent, to all the sufferings that man could inflict. He that
was delivered up, was the only sinless being that ever walked
this earth; was divine as well as human; his sinlessness as a
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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


man made him a meet sacrifice for the sins of men; his divine
nature gave infinite value to his sufferings, so that it became
right in view of them to offer all men deliverance from all the
woe that they are obnoxious to, by sin.
How amazing that there should be found in all the wide
world a single being reluctant to avail himself of the cxpiation thus made for sin. The utmost eloquence of men, the
most terrible warnings in providence, the profoundest experience of the misery springing out of their league with sin, all
fail to obtain for this wondrous gospel of the grace of God,
entrance into the hearts of men. They say unto God, day by
day, hour by hour, " Thou holy God, impute unto us all our
offences. Let it be with us as though Christ had not died.
Let there be no Gethsemane or Calvary for us. We know that
we are not sinless beings and must forever drink without draining the cup which threw him into an agony of unutterable
suffering; that we are not invested with omnipotence, and
cannot rise from the grave victorious; our Calvary conducts
us to endless torment. Nevertheless we wish to appear before
the tribunal of divine justice with all our sins upon our head.
Had we any other wish, we would express it by believing on
Christ."
As for thee, O semi-believer, convinced of thy sins, sensible
of their enormity, longing for deliverance, assured that Christ
alone can give it, yet stopping there, spending thy days in
lamentation, imploring grace and yet neglecting to appropriate
it, why dost thou live as though Christ were still in the tomb?
The unbeliever lives as though Christ had not died; thou
livest as though he had not risen. Repent of this thy folly, and
hasten to bear before the world thine own special testimony to
the truth of. Christ's resurrection, by a joyful trust in him
that ever liveth to make intercession.




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343


CCTOBER 12.-" Thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me."-Psalm iii. 3.
In the battle of this world, the Christian is seen without a
shield. And just where he is, is the thickest of the fight.
The adversary hurls his best forces against that spot, evidently
supposing that there is only this impediment between him and
victory. It is wonderful then that the Christian should pass
scathless through this shower of fiery darts. Those that are
in the secret know that-while apparently unprotected-he is
in reality defended by an invisible shield. While he abides
in faith, God encompasses him round about and nothing can
by any means harm him.
The Lord is a shield to him who has been taught what are
the true dangers, what the true enemies, that beset the path
of a man through this world-who knows and is not ashamed
to confess that the god of this world is a being of tremendous
power, with his servants in all high places, with the wisest and
greatest of men among his captives, with a plenitude of resources, a knowledge of the heart, that a mere unaided mortal
can do nothing against. Formerly he was the subject of that
prince. Then at length he became sensible of the wrath of
God that cometh upon the ungodly. "Whither shall I flee,
where shall I find a defence?" became his cry of agony. The
sky was darkened with the arrows of the Almighty. Then
was revealed to him the cross of Christ. He saw that the Son
of God was himself his shield, receiving in his own person the
storm of wrath that should have come upon him. He has
now peace with God. But he becomes exposed to the fierce
assaults of the adversary. In the world he has tribulation
Sin seeks to regain dominion over him. But Christ doth not
leave him nor forsake him. He is to him a sun and a shield;
a sun to give him the light of life, and a shield to protect him
in the path of life.
God is a shield to me, says the believer; to me, all to my.
self. The shield of my fellow-soldier will be of little avail to




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me. I need a shield that I can call my own. And God, with
all his perfections, all his grace, is mine as truly as though
he were mine alone. All his promises are mine as truly as
though no one else had any interest in them. All his providence is mine. There is a blessed and indissoluble connexion
established by faith, between my weakness and his strength,
my danger and his protection, my ignorance and his guidance,
my sin and his righteousness, my world-wide necessities and
his world-wide sufficiency, my unlimited aspirations and his
endless glory.
OCTOBER 13.-" He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him."-Psalm
cxlv. 19.
Let us look at these persons whose desires are to be fulfilled.
They are worthy to be looked at; for there is not their like
upon the earth. The desires of other men are their torments,
the keenest elements of their misery; taking them up to all
high mountains only to cast them deeper down. Other men
find their desires, however comely and angelic they may at
first appear, however they may descend to them upon a rainbow as from heaven, at last to be demons, domiciliated in
their soul to make it as much like a hell as may be. So that
they are ready to say, "Blessed is the man that desireth
nothing."
There are some whose bitter experiences make them to look
with wrath upon the heavens and the earth that God has
made. The language of their heart, sometimes that of their
lips, is this: "All this is very beautiful; but in all this
beauty there is a profound and hateful snare.    The sun
moving so majestically over our heads, and pouring such unceasing floods of marvellous light around us, says,' God is love,
and delighteth in mercy; he is not far away; he maketh your
wants his care;' but the sun only lies as it thus speaks. Its
rising and setting, its magnificent panoramas in the western




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345


skies at even tide, its exquisite arrangements of light and
shade in valleys and in glens, its care for every i:.significant
seed, all say to me, ' hope on, hope ever,' but it is all a cruel
beguilement. Every tree, every leaf of a tree. every pebble,
shell, blade of grass, ripple of a stream, everything keeps telling some tale of the power and beneficence of God, but it is a
lying tale. The whole universe is fitted up as it were for the
purpose of stimulating to the utmost our desires and aspirations, and strengthening to the utmost our confidence that
they will be gratified; but it is one vast imposture. We are seduced to open the door of the heart to a troop of hopes which
soon go mad and lacerate our sensibilities in a way that no
language can express. God should have placed us in a world
of desolation and of gloom; then we should not have been maddened through the influence of lovely and delusive prospects.
We would have calculated on a miserable existence, and should
have found it."
Alas, my friend that you should speak thus. Do you really
believe that God finds satisfaction in tormenting you; and that
he has made a world where hope is the arch-tormentor? You
have set out with one fatal error, and have persisted in cherishing it. All things declare the glory and the goodness of
God, and say, "Hope on, hope ever:" but to whom do they
say it? To those who fear God; who know him as their king;
who take his word as a lamp to their feet; who repent of sin,
believe on his Son and embrace his promises. All things shall
work together for good to them; and after they are tried they
shall receive the promise, shall enter upon the fruition of their
highest hopes and wildest imaginings. To them the universe
speaks, and there is no delusion in its speech. But to you its
language is this: " Knowest thou not that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance "' It is all intended to lead
thee, a contrite and repentant sinner, to the feet of God. All
true, all heaven-descended hope begins at the cross of Christ.




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Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you."
OCTOBER 14.-" I will hear what God the Lord will speak."-Psalm
\xxxv. 8.
V ilt thou indeed? Art thou really purposed to ascertain
what revelation there is of thy Creator's will concerning thee?
After many a long year of fatal independence and destructive
self-government, has it at length dawned upon thy perception
that the Being who made thee, and who made all worlds, is,
after all, the Being most competent to decide what life thou
shouldst lead, most worthy to be trusted with the determination
of thy lot and the accomplishment of thy happiness?  After
having hearkened to every other speaker and followed the suggestions of every benighted sinner, wilt thou at last hear what
God the Lord has to say? Then let us rejoice over the auspicious hour that has at length come to thee. There is no
greater moment in the whole of existence than that in which
a wayward sinner pauses in his career to hear what God the
Lord will say.
But note, that all this magnanimous determination of thine
will amount to nothing, just nothing, if there be not in thee a
willingness to hear all that the Lord will speak. If out of a
hundred words of God, thou fix upon one and resolve to honor
it, while the rest lie all dishonored, that word which thou
hearest will turn against thee, and in the last day bring on
thee additional condemnation. How many fancy that they are
hearkening to God's word, while all the time they are onlyr
hearkening to their own hearts' lusts. Half a dozen pages
would contain all their Bible-theirs truly, not God's.
It is impossible to hear what God the Lord will speak, while
a thousand vain voices are allowed to have thy attention. There
is too much noise in thine own heart for thee to hear. Thou




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347


art too much busied about thine own will, to become acquainted
with the will of God. The Lord will not lead thee by the
right hand, while another leads thee by the left.
OCTOBER 15.-"IHe healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their
wounds."-Psalm clxvii. 3.
Yet there are many that die of a broken heart. Some
beautiful dream vanishes after having lured them to embark
all their hopes and affections upon it; the phantom vessel disappears and they are left a prey to the angry billows; but
even then, would they but know it, there is deliverance for
them. Admit that all their hopes are blasted; God, whose
matchless title is this, " The God of hope," remains. All the
good you have dreamed of, and infinitely more, resides in him.
God is not dead; why then should you die? The Physician
of souls rejoices when some very shattered and woe-worn heart
of man is brought to him to be healed: he has then a peculiar
opportunity of showing what lie can do. This Physician was
himself made perfect through sufferings; made perfect to deliver others from suffering. His heart was once melted within
him; he was wounded for our transgressions. He knoweth
how to succor them that are tempted; to heal the brokenhearted.
Have you lost some very precious object? He teaches you
that all truly precious things are precious to God, and are to be
counted as altogether safe with him when they disappear from
your sight. He then reveals to you something of his own
excellence, his own preciousness, so that you are soon found
rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He does
not make light of your affections, though they may have been
erring; he makes no mock of your broken heart; your sorrow
is sacred with him; but he brings you into a path that leads
to a city where all the good are gathered together, and death
and pain have no admission.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


OCTOBER 16.-" Let us hold fast the profession of ur faith without
wavering."-lecbrews x. 23.
We have professed to believe that God gave his Son to bear
our sins in his own body on the tree; that God has accepted
us in his Son; that he is our heavenly Father, and Christ our
perpetual intercessor; that not having spared his only begotten
Son, he will with him also freely give us all things; that whatever we ask according to his will, we have the petitions that
we desired of him; that not one jot or tittle of Lis word can
pass away. Now the things we have thus professed to receive
let us hold fast. Immense efforts are made to get them from
our grasp. Sometimes we are left alone for a season that we
may be lulled asleep; but the design never sleeps in the purpose of the adversary. Should a man walk through a crowded
city with rubies, diamonds and precious pearls sprinkled over
his garments, and expect that no attempt will be made to snatch
from him these treasures, his security will not be so much misplaced as that of the man who, walking through this world
with the promises of God conspicuous about him, fancies that
no endeavor will be made to lessen his store. It is not that
the promises are wanted; but it is wanted that men should
not believe upon them. When, therefore, you hear a whisper
to the effect that you have done well in giving evidence of
your zeal and self-denial and independence of the world, and
that now you may without any danger relax a little in the
rigidness of your principles, remember that God abhors all
wavering and instability: hold fast the profession of your
faith. Know no change but that involved in progress. Hold
fast what you have, while you add to it what you lack.
OCTOBER 1.-" The chastisement of our peace was upon him."-Isaiah
liii. 5.
He rendered satisfaction to divine justice for the offences




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committed by us, and exhausted the chastisement appointed to
us, so that we have reconciliation with God. His spotless
purity and the infinite dignity of his person immensely enhanced the value of his sufferings, so that without being the
same in kind and in duration as divine justice would have demanded, had we, the offenders, been the sufferers, they were
nevertheless abundantly ample as an atonement for the sins of
men. In fact the justice and holiness of God and the honor
of his law, are just as gloriously illustrated by the death of
Christ, as is the kindness of God to a fallen world.
Peace having been purchased for us at so tremendous a
price, the question remains, Have we peace?  We see how it
is to be obtained. Let us see in the death of Christ, the chasiisement due to us, in the cup which his Father gave him all
the wrath due to our iniquities; and let us put on the robe of
Christ's immaculate righteousness given us at the cross. There
are some that make the cross of Christ an excuse for sinning;
but they really know not that cross; they contemplate not the
real Christ, nor have any knowledge of his real sufferings.
Forgiveness received there, actually there, not at an imaginary
Calvary, forgiveness received in company with a sense of what
was undergone by Christ, dissolves the power of sin in the
soul and renovates the heart.
OCTOBER 18.-" It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might
learn thy statutes."-Psalm cxix. 71.
What would this world be without calamity!    Men talk
about the mystery of present things. The mystery would be
infinitely greater, if there was no affliction. We should be
utterly at a loss to know what to make of the character of
God, if unmingled prosperity were the lot of man.    This
world would then resemble a Hindoo heaven; and it would be
necessary to suppose Hindoo gods presiding over it, in order
30




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to get rid of the monstrous anomaly of impenitent sinners occupying the seats of the blessed.
The Christian has reason to thank God that things have not
been accommodated to his wishes. When the mist of tears
was in his eyes, he looked into the word of God and saw magnificent things. When Jonah came up from the depths of
ocean, he showed that he had learned the statutes of God.
One could not go too deep to get such knowledge as he obtained. Nothing now could hinder him from going to Nineveh. It is just the same as though he had brought up from
the deep an army of twelve legions of the most formidable
troops. The word of God, grasped by faith, was all this to
him and more. IIe still, however, needed further affliction;
for there were some statutes not yet learned.  Sone gourds
were to wither. He was to descend into a further vale of humiliation. Even the profoundest affliction does not, perhaps,
teach us everything; a mistake we sometimes make. But
why should we compel God to use harsh measures with us?
Why not sit at the feet of Jesus and learn quietly what we
need to learn?
OCTOBER 19. —"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation."James i. 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth whatever ordeal the Lord
may see fit that he should be subjected to, for the discovery
of his heart. These temptations are simply processes of examination; they are opportunities which the Lord giveth us
of verifying our professions.
To men that boast of their inward goodness and strength,
Providence often seems to say, " You have thought yourself
obliged to speak of your own good qualities, because the vicissitudes of your life were not such as to bring out the evidence
of these qualities; but I will now so order events that your
goodness shall have a perfect opportunity of revealing itself."




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351


Men that praise themselves ought never to find any fault when
disappointments and disasters befal them; for if they indeed
possess that strength of mind and superiority of character of
which they boast, they will feel these trials little and their inward excellence will be enabled to speak for itself. In their
case we too often see that pride cometh before a fall. Men
are continually clamoring-without being aware of it-for
some severer condition of life; they are continually challenging circumstances to assume a more forbidding and hostile
attitude; they find themselves in an inadequate sphere; they
are conscious of virtues that have never yet found expression;
they urge God (by self-laudation) to put them into the fire
and see if they will not come forth as gold.
Now the Christian does not boast, but he makes a profession. He professes to have renounced the idea of his own
goodness, and to be as dependent on God for moral goodness
as for physical. God says, " It is well; but men will not believe thee; I will put thee in a situation calculated to elicit
the full evidence of this." The Lord perhaps raises him then
to considerable distinction; all men praise him; and it is interesting to see the Christian preserving his humility and prayer.
fulness in the midst of this fiery trial. He professes to fear
God rather than man. Then men bring great rocks and say,
"Fear God, by all means; all that we ask is that you should
give up an infinitesimal part of what you call the fear of God,
and do our will in one most insignificant particular; otherwise
we will grind you to powder beneath these rocks."  "Grind,"
is his reply; and we see that his profession was not in vain.
He professes to have a spirit of submission to all the appointments of the Lord. T1 3n the Lord proceeds to deal with him
in a way that seems to him altogether strange and unaccountable and uncalled for; the things that befall him seem to him
not to have been in the bond; it strikes him that submission
is hardly the thing called for and that he does well to be an



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gry. But happily he considers that the providence of God
has taken this provocative aspect for the very purpose of enabling the spirit of submission in him to manifest itself more
unimpeachably; and so he endures.
I wish to remember always, and especially at the time when
my will is suffering opposition, when a stone seems to be given
in reply to my request for bread, that the stone so given is
much better than bread; the opportunity of glorifying God by
yielding my will to his, is much more valuable than the goud
then withheld. Blessed is not the man that is exempt from
trial; but blessed is the man that endures it, maintaining tc
the end his patience, zeal, hope, love and joy.
OCTOBER 20.-" When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."-James i. 12.
This is a very evil world. It lieth in wickedness. The
Prince of evil reigns over it. No wonder the Christian longs
to take the wings of a dove and flee away and be at rest. But
it is well for him to bear in mind that in this very world, where
the enemies of God appear to have everything their own way,
there is wonderful scope given for the exhibition of love to
God. In some respects heaven cannot equal it. In heaven it
is not given unto love to declare itself by suffering. There
are no reproaches to be borne there; no humiliations to be
encountered; no injuries to be sustained. We see from the
example of the Lord Jesus Christ how that even divine love
itself is able to clothe itself with honor by means of suffering.
Our only chance of signalizing our love to Christ by longsuffering, meekness and self-renunciation, is that which we now
enjoy.
We see here that they who endure temptation are they who
love God. We profess to love God more than self and all its
possessions. If the Lord lays upon us a tax of one per cent.,




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353


he gives us to that extent an opportunity of showing our
sincerity.  If the tax amount to ten per cent., then the opportunity is so much greater; if to fifty per cent., then it looks
as though the Lord had confidence in us. He takes us at our
word. He believes in our whole-hearted love. And if the
tax swallow up everything we have, and leave us utterly bankrupt of all worldly good, then let us consider that God has
only taken what we long ago recognized as his; and let us call
to mind that there is a precious relation between the trial endured and the crown of life.  " When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life."
There are some whose piety is of so utterly defective a character that it is well understood beforehand that they cannot
endure trial. They can only maintain their position in the
church by the most tender and delicate treatment.  How then
will they pass in safety through the terrors of the day of the
Lord? He cometh with a rod of iron; and everything that
can be broken in pieces by that rod must be broken. The
bruised reed indeed he will not break; he heals it and gives it
strength, and it becomes a rod in his hand. He bestows the
most tender and delicate treatment; but it is by way of preparation for the trial. And after the trial, the crown of life.
OCTOBER 21.-" He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance."-2 Peter iii. 9.
We read elsewhere of " God our Saviour, who will have all
men to be saved." The Gospel, promulgated for every creature, is the expression of this divine willingness that men
should come to repentance.  "Knowest thou not," says Paul
to the hardened sinner, " that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance?" Thus we see that all the goodness so
profusely exhibited in the providence of God to men generally,
is an expression of God's will that they should turn away from
3" *




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


their sins and seek his grace. Day by day, during many, many
years, he supplies the table of the impenitent man with palatable and suitable food; clothes him and his with raiment; fills
his granaries and his coffers; and does it all not simply that
he may meet the temporal wants of this sinner, but that he
may touch his heart and lead him to turn penitently to his
God. The sun returns to the east day after day, not because
a law of nature requires it, but because the God of nature is
the God of grace, and would have all men come to repentance.
Many there are who reckon confidently upon a future display
of the mercy of God, who yet are utterly unobservant of the
mercy now shown. They seek the mercy of God in the wrong
place, that is to say at the judgment seat; while they spend
their days in treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.
They utterly object to the doctrine of a hell, which they repudiate as involving the sacrifice of God's perfections. Well,
if they like, there shall be no hell. God wishes not that there
should be any. He is ready to cancel, with respect to them,
every denunciation of future punishment contained in the
Bible. He is ready to exceed, a thousand fold, all their conceptions of divine goodness. He will not only destroy, for
them, the hell of unquenchable fire, but the inward hell whose
materials are heaped up within their own heart, the hell of sin,
which, if undestroyed, will nullify for them all the heavens of
creation. He will purify them from all unhallowed affections
and unlawful desires; give them the tastes and aptitudes of
heaven, the love of Christ, the hatred of sin; and will then
give them to dwell in the place for which he has fitted them.
God is not willing that any should perish; his unwillingness
is written upon the face of universal things; but they who
come not to repentance, cannot but perish. In the day of the
flood, the door of the ark shall not be open; if you insist upon
making God a liar, if you regard his prophesied wrath as a
fiction, you can surely reproach no one but yourself when you




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find that he hath spoken truth. If you flatter yourself with
the idea that God will accommodate himself to your impious
unbelief; and falsify his own word to show that you were right
in viewing him as a liar, you do but evince the amazing and
persistent blindness of your nature.
OCTOBEn 22.-"I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."-Job
llii. 6.
It is difficult to conceive of higher testimony than that
which was borne to the character of Job. To be distinguished among a few, is as much honor as men generally dare
to aspire to. But the mere thought of being distinguished
above all men dwelling on the face of the earth, is enough to
intoxicate the soul of man. Now of Job, it was deliberately
stated, that there was not his like upon the earth, a perfect
and upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil. And by
whom was this testimony borne? By God himself, by the
Being that knew infallibly all men. And who can look upon
the character of Job without admiration? His keen sensibility to reproach, the agony caused by his dim intelligence of
what those providences signified, only served to bring out
more conspicuously his noble trust in God, his inextinguishable hopefulness. In the presence of his calumniators he held
fast his integrity; without at all meaning to deny that he was
a fallible being dependent for all on the mercy of God, he yet
refused to admit their insinuations and allow that he had been
living the life of a hypocrite. But when God was revealed in
his glory, such a flood of light was poured upon his character,
that the least sin seemed too odious to contemplate, a burden
greater than his menlory could bear.
As for thee, O reader, tell me, hast thou ever been brought to
abhor thyself? A flush of indignation is thy response. The
very suggestion fills thee with disgust. O pardon me, dear




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reader! It is evident that thou art a much better m tn than
Job. He was-above all men that lived in his day-a man
after God's own heart. But thou art greatly his superior. If
God looked down from heaven with so much satisfaction, when
Job inhabited this earth, if the divine words of commendation
were passed from angel to angel through all the celestial ranks;
how must heaven be affected as it looks down upon thee! If
the miseries of Job were appointed to thee, thou wouldst endure them all with a patience and a piety surpassing those of
Job! Else why dost thou declare that thou hast never known,
will never know, self abhorrence?
OCTOBER 23. —"Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he underBtandeth and knoweth me."-Jeremiah ix. 24.
This is an intellectual age. Of nothing do men boast more
than of their stupendous knowledge and sublime wisdom.
They play with worlds, the worlds of geology and astronomy.
But there are a great many competitors for fame; and out of
thousands that seek to be glorified of men, scarce two or three
succeed in attaining an eminent place in the world's regard.
It is surprising that among the vast numbers doomed to disappointment there should be so few led to inquire whether there
may not be honor to be obtained in some other quarter.
What think you-we would say to such a one-what think
you of gaining honor in the presence of the angels of heaven,
of clothing yourself with distinction among the sinless ones,
of obtaining an understanding that will qualify you to stand
close to the very throne of God?
Imagine a temple of fame; upon lofty seats are seen Plato,
Cicero, Goethe, Kant, Arago, Lamartine, Byron, Dante and
many others of the world's immortal ones; an angel descends
from heaven with a chaplet of unfading glory; goes from one
to another of these applauded ones and finally leaves the tenm




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357


pie, chaplet in hand; at the foot of the steps he sees a poor
despised creature eating a crust of bread and softly murmuring, with a heart full of joy, the name of the Crucified Friend
of man; he greets him with the utmost respect and bestows on
him the chaplet.
OCTOBER 24.-" The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away."-Job
i. 21.
But if he gave, why should he take away? Why does he
resume what he has transferred to another? But he has transferred nothing to another in such a sense that it has ceased to
be his own. The most exalted of created beings has nothing
whatever in this sense. The kingdom of God is a kingdom
where every inch of the soil belongs to the sovereign, where
all the property belongs to him, and where he is ever at perfect
liberty to dispose of everything as he will. And this arrangement is not arbitrary, but gracious. He disposes of all things
with reference to the happiness of all.
Men insist upon being the sovereigns of what has been committed to them. They hold it for themselves and not for him.
Then when they lose it they gnash their teeth; they are without consolation.  What is worse than their loss, they see a tyrant upon the throne of the universe. As far as their own
misery is concerned, this tyranny is a real one. Viewing God
as a tyrant, and being ever in bitter conflict with his government, it is the same to them, in respect to their wretchedness,
as though God were a tyrant. Therefore Christ says in the
parable: "Thou knewest that I was an austere man, gathering
where I had not strewed." Oh, what torment, what an antepast of future woe do men give unto themselves, when they
malign God in their thoughts!
On the other hand, they who look upon all their possessions
as strictly speaking the possessions of God, and wh:, cherish a




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perpetual readiness to yield everything at his command, sustain
no losses. They do not perhaps get broken into the habit of
parting company with loved and familiar things without a pang;
but with the pang there is the consolation of knowing that
God has taken his own for some sufficient reason, and that a
God of boundless goodness still sits upon the throne of the
universe.
OCTOBER 25.-" Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."-1 John iii. 1.
When by a divine rescript we are designated the sons of
God, a pledge is given that the following petition of Christ
shall be fulfilled in our behalf: " That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them." Christ is the Son of God;
but we are to be exalted to his own height of glory and majesty; we are to sit with him upon his throne; and it is to be
manifest to all the universe that we too are sons of God. He
has this pre-eminence over all, that he is what he is by virtue
of his own incomparable merit; and we shall be what we shall
be by virtue of the same merit, not ours but his. When
Christ shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is.
There are so many mere honorary titles in this world, that
men are led to look upon the titles given in the word of God,
as also honorary. But this is a serious error. When God
gives titles, he bears testimony to the character of a man,
makes known the man's relation to Him, and gives an earnest
of what he intends to make of him. Christ gave Peter, in
the days of his instability, when he was like a wave, driven
with the wind and tossed, gave him even then the title of
Peter, or rock, foreshadowing what he intended to make of
him.
Beloved, we are now the sons of God,-called so and con



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stituted so. We have consequently unlimited life, unlimited
wealth, unlimited privilege. Much has been bestowed, much
is yet to be bestowed. When God says to me, "Thou art my
son," he op3ns to me the door of an ascending stairway leading
up to his throne. By the grace of God the steps are there
before me and the liberty to ascend; but every several step is
to be gained by an expanding faith, is to be conquered by the
grace of God in me. If I have feeble conceptions of what
God means by calling me his son, I shall linger in the lower
steps; if I have higher and more correct views I will run
boldly up the pathway of light. Let me believe that God has
gone as far as it is possible for God himself to go in the enunciation of my privileges; that he has told me to look upon
the seraphim and cherubim as no nearer to him than I myself
am or am to be; that I have part and lot the most intimate in
all the glory, majesty, affluence, power and blessedness of God;
that my name is written along with his own over everything;
that every being in the universe is commanded to love me
under pain of being accounted guilty of treason against the
Sovereign of the skies. I am a son of God, and therefore
the representative of the invisible God. The world indeed
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. But there is to be,
in an hour known to God, the manifestation of the sons of
God.
OCTOBER 26.-" The Lord is good to all."-PsALM cxlv. 9.
The Lord is good;-this is an independent proposition.
He is good to the good, to all the heavenly companies that do
his bidding, and rejoice in his government. That he should
be good to sinners of earth, habitually violating his precepts,
is a statement that goes far beyond the other. To a few of
them? To thousands of them?    To all of them? He has:
Bo made mankind that it is impossible for the least of them




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to exist without countless specific acts of kindness shown by
God. Even corporeal life, what does it involve? Processes
of infinite number and variety. Was it an act of surprising
kindness on the part of Christ to give sight to the blind, and
is it nothing that God should this day continue to you this
wonderful faculty? Is there any less wisdom, power or goodness displayed in the preservation of an organ than in the bestowing of it? Physiology will tell you there is not. Look
then at your various faculties and members and susceptibilities
and tastes; at your physical and mental endowments; and understand that the multitude of God's thoughts towards you in
a single hour are so many that they could not be expressed in
the largest volume ever written. If you are affected by this
consideration, then extend your gaze beyond yourself and see
the lines of relationship by which God has brought all things
to your door. In some far off field you see grain growing, so
that in some future day that appetite of yours may be regaled.
And that grain is waited upon by universal nature. The very
stars have a commission to care for it.
God is thus good to all. Were it not that he opened his
hand, the desire of no living creature would be satisfied.
Well, therefore, may the Psalmist say, " Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord." Mankind, however, are far
from doing thus. Judging from the murmurs, loud complaints, deep curses, reproaches, expressions of surprise, repinings, sighs, groans, tears, looks of vexation and disappointment, from all the tokens of dissatisfaction that meet us on
every side, we can only conclude that men look upon God as
the very opposite of good to them. They have no mind for
the eulogy of God. " Let everything that hath breath praise
the Lord," says the Psalmist; but his exhortation is in vain.
The hearts of men may glow with admiration sometimes; but
God is not the object. And nothing is gained by the augmentation of benefits. Generally indeed the more marked the




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goodness of God to them, the less they are ditsposed to praise
him. What then is to be done?  Could the diiticulty in their
heart be removed, could they be recovered from the dominion
of sin, then would they rejoice in him, and even the least
mercy would fill them with rapture.  This is what God in his
goodness has done. He hath provided a Saviour, through
whom men may escape from that horrid heart of theirs which
swallows up the goodness of God like a mighty Maelstrom; he
has commanded his gospel to be preached to every creature.
OCTOBER 27.-" That where I am, there ye may be also."-John xiv. 3.
Lord, is this thy desire?  Didst thou take such a desire as
this to heaven with thee? When thou wert parted from thy
disciples and a cloud was about to receive thee out of their
sight, were these sweet and love-expressing words still hovering on thy lips?  When thou didst ascend up far above all
principality and power, and might and dominion, when the
hosts of heaven clustered gladly and adoringly around thee,
were thine eyes still fixed on us, and did the desire still predominate in thy heart, that where thou art, there we might be
also?  Did this desire still follow thee to the throne where
thou rulest heaven and earth?  Has it kept possession of thy
breast during all these ages?  And now that thou art surrounded by thy Daniels and Pauls, Elijahs and Johns, Abrahamus and Peters, Luthers and Weslcys, Whitefields and Brainerds, is there this still wanting in the cup of thy blessedness,
namely, that we thy saints on earth should be with thee, where
thou art?  Then, O, our loving Lord, help us to reciprocate
this desire, to set our affections on high, to lay aside every
weight and run the race before us. Make us rapidly meet for
the inheritance of the saints in light. Walk with us in our
wilderness, that we may walk with thee in the place of thy
glory.
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OCTOBER 28. —"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou
shalt enlarge my heart."-Psalm cxix. 32.
God enlarges our heart by taking away from it the idea of
our own righteousness and of our own strength; by taking
away from us hardness of heart and insensibility; by delivering us from the oppressive fear of an offended God; by casting out a great deal of selfishness; by breathing into us the
new life of faith in Christ, and making us buoyant with the
delightful assurance of God's undeclining favor; by the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts.
Then no wonder that we run the way of his commandments.
These are no longer grievous, for they are paired with promises; and with every indication of duty there is an indication
of help. We run; we have not now to be dragged. It is no
longer the place of task; it is the place of pleasant communion and co-operation with him who has said, " Without me
ye can do nothing." The way of his commandments, is simply a way where love finds beautiful opportunities of express
ing itself.
But alas! are there not many among us that need greatly
to have their hearts enlarged? Their pace in the divine course
is not even a fast walk. What is it that chokes their hearts?
Here is a brother, whose heart is choked, we have too much
reason to fear, by an all-absorbing and exclusive attachment to
" The Church;" and who is not aware how unkind a part he
is acting toward that very branch of Christ's Church which
he thus ignorantly and injuriously idolizes. Here is a brother
whose heart is choked by a false charity which inclines him to
regard all men as pretty nearly safe, and not in need of his
self-denying efforts. Iow many have their hearts so occupied
by mercantile matters or political questions, that it is impossi.
ble for them to make haste in the doing of Christ's comm:mrndmnents.




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OCTOBER 29.-"And rejoice in hope of the glory of God."-Romans
v. 2.
Happy the soul that is able to find its joy in the indulgence
of such a hope as this. Fallen man rejoices in hope of his
own glory; not of his own true glory, but of a false and
worldly glory, utterly disconnected with the glory of God.
That soul is already largely redeemed that has learned to identify its own interests with the glory of God. And this hope
shall be fulfilled; nothing is more certain. The glory of God
must go forth triumphant one of these days, and conquer all
the detestable glory that men and devils have been bringing
like a pall of bedizened sackcloth over the face of universal
things.
The Christian is even now greatly conversant with the glory
of God; but the more that he knows of it the more passionately does he long for that moment when it shall be manifested
with all its appropriate sublimity; when every eye shall see
it; when the idolized ones of earth shall hide their heads in
caves and dens; when Christ shall be admired in his believers;
when they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, and their bodies
made like unto Christ's glorious body; when the New Jerusalem shall come down from God out of heaven, having "the
glory of God."
OCTOBER 30.-" I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."-Isaiah xli. 10.
Even in the giving of promises, God has made manifest that
he giveth liberally and upbraideth not. The necessity of reiterating promises, is sometimes irksome to us; we want people
to take us at our word. But God knows the stupendous
strength of unbelief in the heart of man. If a mountain of
granite is to be reduced to powder by successive strokes of an
instrument, there must be a vast number of strokes. If we
wish to form some conception of the nature of unbelief let




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us look at the n:ighty stores of promise accumulated with a
view to its overthrow.  The guilt of it, who can tell?  God
says, "I will strengthen thee;" yet we dare not go forward
without a weapon. He says, " I will help thee;" yet we lie
down miserable if there be no provision in the house for the
morrow's wants.   He says, "I will uphold thee;" yet we
shrink from taking up some responsibility pointed out to us by
him.  "I will uphold thee," he says, "by the right hand of
my righteousness; I pledge my own infinite ability that thou
shalt prevail; I pledge my righteousness; so that if I uphold
thee not, my righteousness remains to me no more: my justice
is forfeited; I am become like the gods of the heathen, unholy, not to be relied on. Wilt thou make me such a one?"
Oh, that Christians would consider how grossly they asperse
the character of God and misrepresent him to the world, by
failing to embrace and act upon these exceeding great and
precious promises.
PCTOBER 31.-" I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."-Rom. i. 16.
This seems a very moderate declaration of attachment; but
very few can go so far as this. The gospel of Christ is the
word that sets forth Christ. It is nothing apart from Christ.
As IHe is honorable, so is it; as He is excellent, so is it. To
be ashamed of it, is to be ashamed of Him.
Are you ashamed to speak, look, and act in such a way as
to show your conviction that you and all men are lost sinners
until recovered by the grace of God; and that you are dependent upon this grace for all power to conquer sin, resist temptation, know the truth? You flatter yourself that you are not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because when you are with
Christians, you laud Christ; but on other occasions you keep
back the " one thing needful," and give unscriptural prominence to the man y things not vitally needful. Are you willing




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to speak as Christ spoke; to express the opinions expressed
by the Son of God; to talk in promiscuous companies of the
necessity of cutting off a right hand, plucking out a right eye;
to make mention of unquenchable fires, and a never-dying
worm; to tell men that except they repent, they shall all likewise perish; and to discourse of the mansions in the skies, and
the return of Christ to judge mankind? If our conversation
is quite of another character, if reference to these things is
never or seldom made by us, is there not the strongest reason to believe that we are ashamed of the gospel of Christ?
In fact, the presence of gospel truth in very many societies
where Christians are frequently found, would be as startling as
the presence of Christ himself. We are not even conscious of
the humiliating defeats that we, professors of the gospel, have
sustained.
NoVEMBER 1.-" Thou, Lord, wilt bless the rightcous."-Psalm v. 12.
Having bestowed righteousness, thou wilt express thy pleasure in that righteousness. We should not need a revelation
from heaven to tell us this. It ought to be an unquestionable,
self-evident axiom, that God who has all gifts at his disposal,
will bestow his best gifts upon those who please him most.
But there is none righteous, no, not one. Well, in the absolute sense of the word, Christ is the only righteous one that
ever sojourned on this earth. He knew no sin. But they that
believe on him, their faith is counted to them for righteousness.
They receive of his fullness. Through him the unjust are
justified.  Amd having been brought nigh to God, what is to
hinder that they should obtain deliverance from sin?  They
ask and receive. They are changed into the image of Christ.
God blesses them by bringing their wills into coincidence with
his own; and then their ulterior blessedness becomes a thing
as inevitable as the eventual triumph of the will of God.
It is because a man has no goodness of his own on which to
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build any hope, that he is enabled so assuredly to anticipate
the very highest measure of blessedness of which it is possible
to conceive. For consider, the righteousness on which his
hopes are founded, is an infinite righteousness; the merit of
all heavenly beings added together would make nothing approaching it. While a man clings to the idea of his own
merit, he shrivels up his destiny into nothing; when he loses
that idea and knows nothing but the merit of Christ, crucified
for sinners, the Lord of all, his destiny expands into a roll like
that of the illimitable heavens, all written over with words of
beauty and of wealth.
" Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous."  It does not become
a sovereign to bestow little favors. As God has shown forth
his eternal power and Godhead in creation, so in what he will
do for the righteous, he will take care that there be a magnificent and all-eclipsing display of his regard for righteousness.
What we need is, ever to believe that God ever remembers
this purpose of his; and to say, in every situation of life, God
is blessing me, by preparing me for future blessing.  While
Christ is preparing for me a place in heaven, he is preparing
me on earth for that place in heaven.  There is, therefore, a
connection of the most intimate and neceesary kird between
the disappointments, humiliations, kesses, sorrows, affictions
of the believer on earth, and the digaitv, felicity, purity,
splendor, power, to be found by him at the right hana of
Christ.
NOVEMBER 2.-" Unto you therefore which bMiowe, he is precious." -
1 Peter ii. 7.
Before you, seated in the cavern of thi aworld, the wizard
of this world causes to appear, one after another, scenes of
beauty, dissolving scenes that scarce have presented themselves
to your vision before they have gone, leaving you in darkness.
The wizard shows them to vou that he may bind you to him.




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self forever. "All these things will I bestow upon you," he
says, ' if you fall down and worship me."  " The realities are
in my chambers," he says; "I give them   to whomsoever I
will."  Infatuated man, madly pursuing these vanished visions, descends deeper and deeper into the region of death and
despair.  Happy he, unutterably happy, if, ere it be too late, his
eyes be anointed with a celestial eye-salve and he discover that
all the glorious visions that ever darted across his path or illumined his conceptions, when they dissolved as visions became reconstituted as realities in Christ. Yes, this is the
wondrous knowledge that the believer obtains by faith. All
exquisite music died out in Christ, to live in him forever; all
beautiful sunsets vanished not into night, but into the blessed
reality of Christ; all lovely flowers faded to bloom perennially
in him; the smile of youth, the look of love, the scintillation
of genius, the burst of eloquence, everything that lent a momentary radiance to life, has its apotheosis in Christ, is found
in him by the believer.
Christ is precious to me, because I believe that the beauty
and attractiveness of all admirable things owe their charm to
him, and yield their charm to him. They crossed my path
that they might speak to me of him. My enthusiasm staggered like a drunken man in the pathway of this world, and
only knew its vocation when it discovered him.
When he cometh, the new Jerusalem cometh; the paradise
of God cometh; the river of the water of life; saints; angels;
the new heaven; the new earth; all beauty, all splendor, all
sanctity; the fruition of all right desires, the realization of all
lovely dreams; love; in a word all that is precious cometh; nor
will it ever after be possible for me to conceive of a good not
found in the Jegion irradiated by his smile.




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NOVEMBER 3.-" Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." —
Isaiah xl. 1.
And how were the servants of God to comfort the people of
God?  By telling them of Christ. This became the burden
of Isaiah's prophecies, as recorded in the fortieth chapter and
onwards; and all the prophets his successors continued this
strain. This was the banquet that God saw fit to provide for
his ancient people. They demanded other comfort, and demanded in vain.  When Jesus himself appeared, they refused
to accept the comfort; they saw no beauty in him that they
should desire him. They asked for one that should deliver
them from the Roman yoke; make them honorable and powerful above all nations; and spread a favoring mantle over all their
sins. They would none of God's comfort. But the banquet
which they scorned to honor with their presence, was not left
without guests; the broken and contrite of all nations, the poverty-stricken, the sick, the blind, these came and partook;
and lo! they were comforted, they were made whole and
crowns of everlasting joy were seen upon their heads; while
the rejecters soon found themselves the poorest and unhappiest
in creation, deprived of the very shadows which they had preferred to the substance.
We are to comfort God's people by presenting Christ to
them, and showing them their need of this very Messiah and
no other. And if they are unwilling to be comforted in this
way, we are not at liberty to give them  comfort in any other
way. Any other way is a way of delusion.
NOVEMBER 4.-" Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life."-Psalm xxiii. 6.
When Love divine was about to follow Christ back to heaven,
he said, " Not so; I am no more in the world, but these are in




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the world."  So this Love has ever since tarried with the people
of God
The Christian knows that goodness and mercy shall go with
him all the days of his life, as two attendant angels. IHe
knows that they have f'ollowed him hitherto. But it is some.
times difficult for him to perceive that they are with him.
When Jeremiah was in that deep, dark dungeon, where there
was no water, but mire, it seemed as though goodness and
mercy had left him and gone to walk on the battlements of
Jerusalem. Men came to the border of that pestilential pit
and asked him mockingly where those companions of his now
were. But Jeremiah's eyes getting accustomed to the darkness
soon discovered them there. They gave him some bread of
heaven to eat. Then when Jerusalem was taken, and the
proud enemies of the prophet were carried into captivity, Jeremiah remained in the land; goodness and mercy followed him
all his days. Persecution is not so persevering as they are.
When Elijah was under the juniper-tree, goodness and mercy
awoke him and ministered unto him. "Why do you flee for
your life?" they said; "have we fled from thee?"  "I do
well to be angry," said Jonah, insulting these heavenly attendants to their face. He said to goodness, " Thou art an imposter, not goodness, but unkindness:" and to mercy, " Thou art
severity, thou hast no beauty, get thee gone."  Did they follow
him still? They sat down and said to him, "We will not go."
They might have spoken of the depths of the sea whither and
whence they had accompanied him; but they spoke to him of
the much cattle that was in Nineveh, and of an immense number of innocent little children.
How often have I been ready to use the language of Jonah;
how often frowned on these celestial ones, and motioned them
angrily away, because they would not take the form my fancy
painted yet have they still followed me. Be astonished, O
earth!




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NOVEMBER 5.-" As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him."-Psalm ciii. 11.
Perfect love casteth out fear; but not the fear here spoken
of. There is no torment in this fear. It is at home in company with the most unlimited confidence. The man that trusts
in God is the same as the man that fears God; the two expressions are convertible, and are over and over interchanged in
the word of God. Let the man that thinks he fears God, see
to it that he trusts in God: and let the man that thinks he
trusts in God, see to it that he fears God.
He fears God who has a high sense of the value of his
favor, and cannot bear that any cloud should come in for a
moment between his conscience and the smile of God. He
that is most assiduous in the endeavor to please God; who is
most distressed at the thought of his displeasure; he to whom
his commandments are not grievous; who beholds with satisfaction all the attributes of God; he it is that fears God. You
observe that this fearer of God is in the enjoyment of God's
infinite mercy; so that the spring of his devotion is not the
apprehension of wrath. The love of God shed abroad in his
heart leads him to fear God.
How much David knew of the height of the heavens, what
estimate he formed of the distance of the heavenly bodies, we
know not. Doubtless he viewed them as at distances more vast
than any that separate the different points of the earth's surface. He would have heard with much surprise a statement
to the effect that a journey of four hours performed at the rate
of the velocity of light, 200,000 miles a second, would take
us only to the outskirts of our system; a journey of three or
four years would take us to the first fixed stars; a journey of
60,000 years would take us to the stars of a certain distant
nebula; and that we should even then be probably in the lower
parts of creation. What would have been the effect of such
% revelati in as this, upon his mind? His conceptions of the




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power, wisdom, majesty. immensity of God, would have been
vastly augmented; but think you that his conceptions of the
mercy of God would have not been elevated? They would
have been elevated; for the mercy of God is in the nature of
God; grows as that grows upon us, expands as that expands
before us; and when through Christ we have entered into
relation to it, every star becomes an exponent of it, every
insterstellar space a link in the endless chain that measures it.
NOVE.fMBER 6.-" As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."-Psalm ciii. 12.
Among those who read the Bible, how small a proportion,
what an insignificant minority are the broken and contrite in
heart! How rare a thing it is to see a man who is bowed down
beneath a sense of his sinfulness, and who finds it difficult to
conceive that there should ever be pardon for him!   How
small the number of such!
Now see what honor God has put upon these few. A great
deal of his word seems to be intended just for them. God, so
to speak, passes by the crowds of those who are comfortable
in spirit and have an easy faith in the mercy of God, to come
to some poor faltering sinner and convince him of the freeness
and unmeasured fulness of divine mercy. You and I must
often see that the word of God is not troubling itself about
us, but about some deeply-convicted, hesitating, trembling soul.
NOVEMBER 7.-" Keep thy heart with all diligence."-Proverbs iv. 23.
Keep that which is good, in it; that which is evil, out:
thoughts, feelings, purposes, imaginations, desires. Especially,
keep God's word in it. Quench not the Spirit. Cherish a
memory for what is good. Be as a gardener; be as a banker.
For the mind is God's wonderful gift.




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


As our thoughts, so our words and acts.
As our thoughts, so our future life.
Be as the pilot.
Thermlopylc.
Our peace easily destroyed by unwatchfulness.
God looks at the heart.
las given us suitable objects to think about,-to love.
NOVEMBER 8.-" The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well
)f water springing up into everlasting life."-John iv. 14.
" Art thou able, O Christ, to slake the thirst of my soul?
Dost thou know what strength of desire there is in me?  Consider what seas of goodness have, in the providence of God,
been poured upon me without in the least diminishing the
force of aspiration within me. Whatever is given, seems only
to stimulate my imagination and send it soaring a higher flight.
Thus it would appear that in the very nature of things I never
can know satisfaction. Give me everything that I can now
conceive of, and scarcely will I have looked upon it before my
conception has found its wings again; and where my conception goes there also goes my desire. How then canst thou give
me water to quench the thirst of my soul? Knowest thou
my soul and her thirst?  Where hast thou that water?"
He that formed thee knoweth thee. Thy conception cannot
exceed the conception of God; must indeed, even in its wildest
flight, fall infinitely short of it. Thine is a conception of
desire; his is a conception relating to the satisfaction of that
desire. Wonderful therefore as thou art in thy mental constitution, gigantic as is the power of aspiration in thee, He
that made thee is infinitely more wonderful.  It would indeed
have been the greatest mistake on his part, to make a creature
with a power of conception which he himself could not overtake. He has made no such mistake as this. All his perfec



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tions testify that he is able to satisfy thee.  Let it be therefore
firmly settled in your mind that there is no absolute and invincible difficulty in the way of your blessedness.
There is a disordered thirst that nothing can assuage. The
torment remains, however often or abundantly you answer the
call of the patient for water.  Oh, if you could give him some
water that would reach the seat of his disease, subdue his fever,
and recover him from that mad disordered thirst, you woulc
approve yourself the very physician that he needs.  Now thi,
is what Christ does.  He knows well that if he gave thee all
wealth, all luxury, all art, all renown, all success, all power, all
beautiful sights and sounds, yet would not these unbounded
largesses tend in the least to slake the thirst of thy soul for
happiness. B]ut the water that he giveth thee, goes to thy
soul and cures the terrible disease that has made havoc of thy
life; changes the character of thy desire; causes to spring up
in thee emotions and affections corresponding to the wise and
loving thoughts of God; and then satisfies these desires.
Has the water that Christ has given thee become, O Christian, a well in thee?  Hast thou within thyself a well of perennial purity and bliss, of beautiful thoughts, delight in God,
willingness to do his will, peace, strength to resist temptation,
love to your fellow-men, anticipation of glory? If there be in
thee this inexhaustible well of all that is desirable, then hast
thou enough not only for thyself, but for thy neighbors, for all
mankind in fact.  Yes, if thou alone of all the family of man,
were in possession of such a well, from thee there might go
forth streams to make glad the entire face of earth, to satisfy
the entire wants of men. For this well in thee, is Christ in
thee.
NovEMBER 9.-"A rewarder of them that diligently seek him."-Hebrows xi. 6.
It is a great moment in a man's life when h3 ascertains that
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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


he does not know God. The next step is to ascertain that one
ought to know God. After this a man may still go knocking
at many wrong doors; but let us hope that he will at length
reach the right door, even the Bible, and conclusively set
himself to seek God therein.
If we want to know what it is to seek diligently, we need
no dictionary; we need only look around us; in every community there are men who seem to have assigned themselves this
articular task of exhibiting in their own persons, what diligence is. It is true they are not seeking God; but having
seen with what consecration they seek their object, we shall be
at no loss to know what it is diligently to seek God.
Is it that the Lord conceals himself from us? That he has
shut himself in from our gaze, like an oriental king, within
many enclosures; and stationed cherubim with fiery swords at
every gate, to make it impossible for us to approach him?
Nay, not so.  Whatever difficulties there are have not been
interposed by him, but by us. So far as God is concerned
there is a clear course before us. No man that ever lived in
the world enjoyed better opportunities of finding God than I
that write, or you that read this meditation.
He must be sought with an undivided heart. IHe must be
the supreme object of search. To many he is but one object
of search out of many. They go out into the world seeking
various things, and bring home in their bag a hundred spoils
of earth, with one or two words of God at the bottom; what
wonder if these words are stifled by the company they are
found in. In fact the words themselves flee away at the first
opportunity; they will not stay to breathe that fetid atmosphere. A man that diligently seeks God, has renounced the
search of other things; to this one port he hies him crowding
all canvass, watching all that favors, all that opposes; knowing
that the provision on board will suffice only so far as to that
port. To neglect the least gale that blows, to lose the least




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current, to be overburdened with cargo in the least degree,
may involve the destruction of all. The commander of such
a vessel thinks of the port and of the means of reaching it,
while he cats, while he drinks, while he talks, while he sleeps
even; his eye continually wanders from his chart to his compass, thence to his sails. thence to the sky, thence to the sea,
thence to his men, thence to his chart again.
NOVEMBErn 10.-"I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."-Genesis xxxii. 26.
There is an erroneous idea of submission abroad in the
world.  Quite likely, the error obtains in the Church to some
extent.  There are many things in our condition here to
which we are simply called to submit. God has placed them,
and woe to him who would seek to displace them. But there
are other things which have been placed in our way expressly
that we might enter into conflict with them and overcome
them. There are difficulties placed in our path, to give us opportunities of evincing what faith, courage, perseverance, wisdom, energy, prayerfulness, devotedness are in us. God withholds some things from us, with a prohibition; it is treason to
go on seeking them; and he withholds other things, by way
of incitation; that we may be stirred up to engage with all
faith and assiduity in the search for them; and that the conquest of them may be the reward of valiant and all-conquering
endeavor.
If we understand the Christian doctrine of submission, as
implying that we are to drag ourselves feebly, faintly along
the pathway of life; that there is to be no great forth-putting
of power in connection with us; we understand it wrongly.
Because we are the servants of God, are we therefore to be
without energy, choice, decision, determination, perseverance?
[s the voluntary part of our nature to be plucked up by the




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


roots?  Is there nothing in the way of enterprise to challenge
the highest exercise of all our powers?  Surely there is. Behold David, the Shepherd's boy. When he saw the bear and
afterwards the lion come near the flock, he did not say, "God
hath sent these, and it would be fool-hardy or sinful in me to
resist them."  Perhaps he said, "God has sent these to prove
me, that I may show what courage and fidelity and faith are
in me."  At all events he engaged them in the name of his
God and slew them.
When we ask and do not obtain, we are not always to suppose that our suit is dismissed: sometimes we are simply challenged by the silence of God to be more urgent, more believing. The Syro-Phenician woman would have done wrong
had she gone away submissive, when Christ gave signs that
her prayer was not to be granted. By faith Jacob had power
with God and prevailed. Faith creates a new condition of
things, so that it becomes expedient for God to grant what
otherwise would have been withheld. Ite will say " No" to
less faith and " Yes" to more faith. All things are possible to
him that believeth.  When we get nigh to God, let us make
the most of our advantage. Let us obtain great blessings not
only for ourselves, but for others. Let us view God as he is
revealed at the cross, and not care much for the apparent
frown of his providence, but contend with it and get the
better of it, by faith.
NOVEMBER 1 1.-" Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."-1 Timothy iv. 8.
The life that now is.  Covetousness reading this begins to
glow with delight; it exclaims, " This is the very thing I seek;
'the life that now is;' and of course ' that which is to come.'
Religion is a good thing after all; I will give myself to it at
once."  But the promise is not to thee, O covetousness; it is
to godliness. It is to the soul in which covetousness is dead;




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to the godly soul, which says, "One thing is needful;" whose
affections are set on things above; which looks upon the favor
of God as life, and upon worldliness as death. This promise
is to the follower of Christ who has taken up his cross and covenanted to abandon the paths of worldly pleasure. Yes; the
promise of the life that now is can only be made to him who
has learned to look upon life as a means of serving God, glorifying Christ, revealing the truth and working out salvation.
He that is absorbed in the life that now is, loses both this life
and that which is to come; he that is godly, that lives unto
God, gains this life and that which is to come. Gains this
life, because his sorrow is worth, a hundred times over, the
joy of the ungodly; his life is not a prey to vanity; his days
are so many steps toward a blissful condition; and God approves. Gains it, because all things work together for his
good;-gains it, because all the promises are his; he has
peace; he has joy, love, humility, purity, and a hope that will
not fail him.
NovErBER 12.-"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
that fear him, and delivereth them."-Psalm xxxiv. 7.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them
all the Lord delivereth them. If wordly men are competent
to eflect the deliverance, the Lord accomplishes it by them.
If saints are needed, saints are employed. If the impediments cannot be removed in this way, if supernatural aid is
necessary, then the angels receive their commission. If an
army of these invincible ones are needed, they are sent, and
under the guidance of their leader they encamp around about
the imperilled believer. If the work to be performed is beyond the prowess of any created beings, the Omnipotent Spirit
hastens to put forth his irresistible energies in behalf of his
servant.
All our biographies are necessarily very imperfect. We
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have not in this world the materials for writing them. The
most remarkable incidents have to be omitted, or just shadowed forth, as the documents relating to the operations of
one's invisible attendants are not with us, but in the other
world. If only our eyes were opened, like those of the servant of Elisha, to behold these celestial auxiliaries with their
fiery chariots!
NOVEMBER 13.-"I have loved thee with an everlasting love."-Jeremiah xxxi. 3.
God considered that this life of ours is very short, very fugitive, and that crowd it as he might with expressions of his
kindness, he never would be able to give anything like a sufficient revelation of his love. So he resolved to take time
beforehand, a great deal of it, and fill all heaven and earth,
from the very beginning on continuously, with the manifestations of his love to the creature that was to live in this our
day, was to hover for a little about the middle of this century,
and then be gone. When by the recovering grace of Christ
we have been brought to take delight in the knowledge of the
love of God, we find that God was mindful of us, in the far
off days of a by-gone eternity; and myriads of years ago
placed in the depths of space suns, whose rays swift-travelling,
should reach our locality in our day, and assure us that he
thought of us when the morning stars first sang together. lie
thought of us; and scarce had the transgression of Adami
brought a curse upon the world in which we were to have ex.
istence, when God hastened to announce that in the fulness of
time, his own Son should come into the world, and absorb in
his own person the manifold curse. If we labor in vain to find
the beginning of this love, much more shall we labcr in vain
to learn the future duration of it.




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NOVEMBER 14.-" I will put my law in their inward parts and write it
in their hearts."-Jeremiah xxxi. 33.
The law of God is written in our hearts, when it is the best
expression of our desires, the best description of our tastes
and affections, the best enunciation of our resolutions, the true
exponent of our faith, the most conspicuous thing in our memories. It is written in our hearts, when our words give utterance to it in thousand fold modulation; when our acts embody
it; when our influence is its influence. When Christ abides
in our heart by faith, then is the law written in our hearts.
When we are led by the Spirit of God. When we call ourselves unprofitable servants and repudiate our own righteousness. When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost given unto us.
NOVEMBER 15.-" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him."Psalm xxv. 14.
Of the fear here so honorably spoken of, suffice it now to
say that it is not by any means a sentiment that repels from
God, but on the contrary one that draws to God. They that
fear the Lord, in the honorable and Scriptural sense, are they
who are powerfully affected by the promise here given. To
the great majority of men, alas, to many who assume the name
of Christians, the promise here recorded possesses no charm.
Their spirits are no way stirred within them by the prospect
of being made the confidants of God. They shall not be his
confidants. This singularly exalted condition is, for them to
whom is the promise, like a day-star arising in the heart,-like
a cynosure drawing them patiently, perseveringly, earnestly on
in the pathway of obedience, faith and love. Abraham was
the friend of God; and God approved himself a friend indeed;
he would not hide from him the thing which was hidden from
all the rest of the world. Moses too was the friend of God,




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and brought into surprising intimacy; the secret uf the Lord
was with him. "Henceforth," said Christ to the apostles, "I
call you not servants but friends; for all things whatsoever I
have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you."
And doubtless there are those now upon the earth who recline as it were upon the bosom of their Lord and drink in
his most secret communications, unintelligible to others. They
partake of hidden manna. " To him that overcometh, Christ
giveth a white stone, and in the stone a new name written
which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."
But, in Christ is not the veil done away, so that we all with
open face behold the glory of the Lord? Yes, but we do not
all behold all glory. The degrees of glory are in number infinite. Great is the mystery of godliness; and veil after veil
must be removed before we shall see him as he is. Perhaps
there is nothing we all so much need to learn as this, that there
is something beyond, of which our past experience is not able
to give us any conception. The mystery that lies before us we
are not conscious of: we are conscious of what we know, not
of what we do not know. It is a great thing to be brought to
see the veiled glory before us in our path; to get the conception of an attainable intimacy that is much beyond anything
we have known.
Men may pervert; Satan m jy counterfeit; but the word of
God remains in its integrity for the children of God. The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Not in the
way of some new revelation, extra-scriptural; but by opening
their eyes to behold wonderful things in the word of God;
things that ordinary eye hath not seen, ear not heard, heart
not conceived.
NOYEMBER 16.-" Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood."-Revelation v. 9.
Men Qf this world look with ineffable scorn upon the ous



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toinm, sentiments and language of those whose chief pleasure
is in celebrating the dying love of Christ, crucified for sinners.
They detest, they loathe the language of mlany of our hymns;
for example, such lines as these:
" Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Slhall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more."
Religion in some sober and decorous form, (they say) we
revere; but this canting Methodism with its absurd vocabulary, ringing the changes on such expressions as-Lamb. bleeding Lamb, wounded side, dying love, fountain filled with blood,
lover of my soul, precious Redeemer,-this insane and driveling piety we cannot away with. They would flee away from a
prayer meeting, where these and similar expressions were uttered in hymns or prayers. Suppose, as they fled from such a
place, the apostle John should meet them, seize them by the
hand and hurry them into a chamber of such stupendous dimensions that it was impossible for any finite eye to discover
either the walls or the ceiling; bathed in an unearthly radiancy; redolent with odors issuing from golden vials; interpenetrated with the seraphic melody of countless golden harps,
and the harmonious chants of myriads of voices; and should
bring to their notice that these beatified myriads were engaged
in adoring the same being whom those Christians were praising,
and addressing him, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in
the very same-the identical language that they had found so
offensive in that first assembly.  Would this suffice to convince
them that the wrong taste, the fillacious judgment, the insanity
are ou their part rather than on that of the psalm-singing




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NOVEMBER 17.-"Your adversary the devil, as a rearing lion walkcth
about, seeking whom he may devour."-1 Peter v. S.
The reference here would seemn to be to the efforts made to
intimidate the followers of Christ, by penal enactments, sanguinary edicts, or by popular violence. The early Christians
were summoned before magistrates and commanded to renounce
the faith they had embraced or had shown themselves ready t>
embrace, by some unequivocal act of homage to a heathen di
vinity or to the image of the emperor. Satan made himself
as terrible as possible, saying, " Cast away your confidence, or
I will tear you limb from limb."  But it was not by resisting
him that men were devoured; it was by succumbing to him.
They that were terrified by his roar, and driven from the obnoxious path, became his prey. Though we have no Roman
Emperors to launch against us withering edicts, yet the adversary has not by any means ceased to go about as a roaring lion;
he still deals in intimidation. Thousands are hindered from
coming out of the world by his monitory roar, which threatens
them with the wrath of the world if they have anything to
do with the life of faith. Sometimes the consciousness of sin
is made the means of producing alarm. The convinced sinner
is made to see his sins standing like so many genii of tremendous stature and intolerable wrath along the pathway of redemption. The aim of the adversary, in these loud heartmelting roars, is to drown the still small voice of the Spirit
of God, so that we may not hear the assurance of divine help
and infallible deliverance. The adversary roars now like a
lion; but if we meet him, he becomes less and less a lion, and
eventually takes to ignominious flight; but the Spirit of God,t
speaking like a dove, if we refuse to hearken to him, shall
finally be heard in a voice louder than ten thousand thunders,
shall come to us clothed in all the wrath of the Lamb; and
who shall then be able to stand, what heart shall then endure?




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NOVE3rnER 18.-"MaIrk the perfect man and behold the upright; for
the end of that man is peacc."-Psaln xxxvii. 37.
We are heie called upon to observe the providential wisdom
and faithfulness of God, shown in his care of the good. We
are not merely to glance at these good ones, but to keep our
eye upon them; for though God's providence may, for a season,
appear to be adverse to them, yet at the end it will be found
that he has led them carefully by his all-righteous hand. Not
that they will die in affluence, in splendor, or in great worldly
honor; but they shall exhibit their sure trust in God by a
tranquil and serene deportment, by a heavenly peace, by a
prayer breathed for their enemies in the very hour when they
are stoned to death.
But there are many who say, " Show us the perfect man;
let us see the upright man; we look for such in vain."  We
answer, The Judge of all the earth sees some whoni he is willing thus to designate; it is a reproach to you, if you know
them not. He says not, the perfect angel, but the perfect man;
in other words, the sinner, who has turned from the error of
his ways, and become, in most important respects, what God
would have him to be. The eye of God, wandering over the
outspread ranks of humanity, reposes at length upon one who
having recognized his deep-dyed guilt, his imminent danger,
and fled for refuge to the Redeemer, has consecrated himself
to God, identified himself with the cause and with the people
of God, and gi7en himself to the study and pursuit of perfection. Such are living epistles, known and read of all men;
by their lives religiously condemning, convincing, inviting,
persuading others. Their testimony, like that of the word of
God, is disliked and spoken against.
If indeed you have sincerely looked and looked in vain, then
be alarmed at the thought of the evil days upon which you
have fallen. For such men are the salt of the earth; and
when they are withdrawn, swift destruction cometh. If there




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are none such, how much reason is there that you and I should
seek by the grace of God, to be such.
NOVEMBER 19.-" IIe that ovcrcometh shall inherit all things." —Revelation xxi. 7.
Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, says Christ.
Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.
Give us this day our daily bread. We are crucified unto the
world and the world unto us.
Naturally, we grasp at all. We embrace with our hands all
that we possibly can, and embrace the rest with our desires.
What we are not able to inscribe with our name as possessor,
we inscribe with our name as candidate. Now, when we go
over to Christ, we have to detach ourselves from all this.  We
renounce all. We bring the little of the world that we possess, and the remainder of the world that we longed after, and
lay all down at the feet of Christ. By faith we learn to behold all excellence in him, and to find our world in him. When
perfected in this we inherit all things.
It is a dishonorable thing for the sons of God to be co-partners with ungodly men; and the ungodly possess this earth
and the things that are therein; the degradation of sin has
passed like a tremendous wave over the whole globe, and rendered all unfit for the people of God. But a day cometh when
the wicked shall be driven hence; when a new heaven and a
new earth shall appear; then the saints shall inherit all things.
The idea of possession current in this base world, involves the
idea of privation for others. We only possess when others do
not possess. But in the world to come of which we speak, it
is very different. Nothing is so much deprecated there as exclusive possession. A thing is there only possessed when all
possess it. It is the world of love, and nothing else is called




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gain that involves privation for others. What makes this inheritance of all things so entrancing, is that many others inherit with us. Their joy, their glory, their wealth, are the
most important elements in our joy, glory and wealth.
NOVEMBER 20.-" The God of all comfort."-2 Corinthians i. 3.
God is represented to us as the God of all patience and consolation, the God of peace, the God of hope, the God of grace,
the God of comfort, all expressions denoting his relations to
his people, and designed to reveal him to them as the all-sufficient and inexhaustible fountain of peace, patience, and comfort. As often as the word comfort is mentioned, and how
often it is! our thoughts should be spontaneously turned from
the petty, the misnamed comfort of earth, to the infinite Comforter. Do we know him as the God of all comfort?
He brought his people out of Egypt; removed them from
the land of Goshen to the wilderness; from their homes, their
hearths, their associations, their accustomed board, to a waste
and howling wilderness, where no fields waved with plenty,
where no fertilizing and gladdening streams were seen, where
the sun smote them by day, and wild beasts prowled by night.
Was he in this a God of comfort? Many of them thought
not, they murmured against him.    Yet their descendants
through all generations, regarded this act of God as an amazing proof of his love: as indeed it was. In the absence of
earthly comforts, the sufficiency of God came out gloriously.
No people were ever more tenderly cared for than they were.
He led them with the gentleness of a good shepherd. He
would very soon have brought them into a land flowing with
milk and honey, had they suffered him
33




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


NOVEMBER 21.-" The Lord taketh pleasure il his people.". Psalm
cxlix. 4.
If this world should resolve to send an embassy to the most
high God, whom would it choose?  Well, the princes of this
world would be represented; the brother of some Czar, or the
nephew of some Emperor would go for them.     The bishops
and high clergy would be represented by some legate of ample
wealth. The literary world would send some Gothe, or Confucius, or Plato.  The merchants would send a Rothschild.
The artists would find a Raphael. There would be an ermined
judge and a decorated physician. The military would send a
Iannibal, the transcendentalists a Kant.  All orders would be
represented. But if, as the servant of some one of this company, a meek and lowly Christian might obtain permission to
go, this one alone of all the company would be permitted to
enter the audience-chamber of God. He taketh pleasure in
such, not in the wise, the noble, the wealthy, the mitred.  Like
him may we learn to take pleasure in such.
NOVEMBER 22. "This is the promise that he hath promised us, even
eternal life." 1 John i. 25.
Not that we shall be exempt from loss, disappointment, sickness, human unkindness, embarrassment, vexation, insult, defamation, humiliation; not that we shall have in this world all
the displays of providential favor on which we may have calculated; these are not the things promised; the promise
that he hath promised us is eternal life.  God may have dealt
strangely with thee, O my soul; but say frankly, has he at all
dealt with thee in a way to hinder the fulfilment of the prom.
ise made thee?
We are saved by hope. He that believeth hath eternal life;
he hath entered upon it; he is living a new life, one that
stretches out into eternity; but what he has experienced is




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only the beginning of it. We know not yet what we shall
be; as the infant little knows what is the life it possesses, what
its endowments, its susceptibilities, its privileges.
This promise of eternal life is the door opening out from
the gloom  of this world into the ever-blooming paradise of
God.   To the common ear of man it is an empty sound.  Men
care nothing for eternal life, because they know nothing of
life.  A man must have experience of life before he can hail
with rapture the promise that that life shall be eternally his.
What is life?  Life in God is life. A vital conscious union
of the soul with God through Christ; so that the individual
is transferred to God; his body, his soul, his understanding,
his affections, his desires, his purposes, all under the direction
of God; not in such a way as to diminish in the least his individuality, his voluntariness; but to enhance it, refine it, perfect it; this is life. Now with regard to the mere life of the
body, hardly any one has it in perfection; death and decay
have set their marks on all. Of even the merely corporeal
life of paradise, we have but a faint shadow. Similarly, with
regard to those who have entered upon eternal life, spiritual
life is with them a matter of degree; one has it in one degree,
one in another; but who has it in perfection?  According to
the degree in which we possess it, does the simple promise of
eternal life seem to us a sufficient dowry; a talisman under
the influence of which deserts are no longer deserts to us, privations no longer privations.
Eternal life and all things essentially conducive to it; such
is our portion.  Sometimes Satan may creep into our imagination and persuade us that some bright and beautiful phantom,
some lovely creation wrought out of the stuff that rainbows
are made of, is absolutely necessary to the web of our eternal
life. and then we cling to it with something of the tenacity of
our love to Christ; Satan laughs, but we awake in spite of
him, and notwithstanding the scar at heart, soon satiate our



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selves with that better portion, now better understood. God
builds the bridge by which we pass into the unclouded region
of eternal life, stone by stone, as we step by step advance;
every day he lays down the stone on which we are that day to
put our foot. Some beholding the far-stretching morass before
them and discerning no bridge, refuse to advance; they wait
for God; but God has put down a stone for them, and will
add no other until they have begun to walk.
NOVEMBER 23.-" Thy people shall be milling in the day of thy power."
Psalm ex. 3.
Voluntarily, heartily following thy banners; volunteering to
yield their substance, to forsake their hearths, to fight the good
fight of faith. In that day there will be no constraint or distraint; no legal enactments to maintain a ministry; no political alliance, no dependance on the state. The willingness of
Christ's people will afford all the scope that is requisite for
the manifestation of Christ's power. Then shall be heard a
loud voice exclaiming, " Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ."
The great dragon, that old serpent, is cast out, when there is
no longer aught intermediate between Christ and his people:
when his servants are willing to recognize him as their own
Master.
Oh. reader! Brother or sister, hast thou anything of the
spirit that animated Isaiah in the hour when he said, " Here
am I, send me?" How few there are that have wills like the
will of Christ. How difficult it is to find a workman for Christ
when the work is at all difficult.  How long must we advertise
for a missionary to go out into the highways and hedges, that
he may constrain men to come in. But when the work is of a
less trying character, the emoluments greater, how many candidates we have. Oh, what an unwiling age it is, with all its




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boasted piety. All the world's promises must be mingled with
the promises of Christ, in order to induce Christians, what we
call Christians, to do some special work for Christ. Christ and
the king must go into partnership, then men will enlist under
the banners that are called by kingly courtesy the banners of
Christ.  Oh, the dread blindness that has fallen upon us all.
When, oh, when shall there be found a willing people for
Christ? Men that shall say with Paul, " I do this thing willingly," and give proof of what they say? A Church voluntarily contributing, laboring, preaching, abstaining, and in a
word, accomplishing all the functions of a Church, unconstrained, and purely because Christ wills it?
NOVEMBER 24.-""His truth shall be thy shield and buckler."-Psalm
xci. 4.
When the adversary heard, by the waters of Jordan, a voice
from heaven exclaiming, " This is my beloved Son in whom I
am well pleased," he started like one who suddenly discovers a
hostile army in the heart of his dominions. Fast he followed
him on whom the Lord had lain help, followed him to the wilderness, and rained upon him those missiles by which he had
conquered in ten thousand battles. He said to himself no
doubt. " Adam was the Son of God and bore the image of
God; was I not victorious over him? Who is this that cometh down from God out of heaven? and what is his armor?"
His armor was simply the word of God. This was his shield
and buckler; and all the fiery darts of the adversary were
hurled in vain. The shield by which Christ came victorious
out of his combats with the prince of the power of the air,
he took not away with him to heaven, but left for his people.
Satan gnashes his teeth when he sees it in the hand of some
puny stripling, a candidate for heaven; for it tells him of
maddening defeats sustained by him of old. Yes, thou little
33 e




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


one, thou hast a buckler of amazing virtue! If the shield of
Achilles was sung by Iomer, who shall sing the praises of thy
shield?
This shield has strange properties. It is only against the
adversaries of the Lord that it is of any avail. It is only a
follower of Christ that can lift it. It is only while one walks
in the appointed path that he can lift it; let him turn to the
right hand or the left, and immediately it becomes heavy as
iron. What a sad spectacle to see a poor deluded being dragging it after him with all his might. Instead of a shield it is
to him a fearful incumbrance. Not there, not there, my friend!
Come to the king's highway; then will it be to you a shield
indeed!
NOVEMBER 25.-" 0 grave, where is thy victory?"-1 Corinthians
xv. 55.
In great cities we find monumental arches, columns, obelisks
and tablets, telling of victories won by man over man; but
death writes his name loftily on all these, saying " Man's victories are my victories." But the monumental trophies of
death are found in all cities great and small, in all places, in
fact. Death lords it everywhere and over all. Scarcely has
humanity begun to put on nobility or virtue in any quarter,
before death appears and sweeps away the excellent object,
terrifying the stricken admirers with the display of its prodigious power.
Yet we make bold to say, " Where is thy victory, 0 grave?
Where, O death, thy sting?" We tell death to the face that
the captives whom lie has apparently taken are not to be found
in his chambers. In fact we can point to them in mansions
where death has no admission. We can show the Son of God,
once dead on Calvary, standing at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And with him the saints redeemed from the
earth, the noble, the beautiful, the virtuous, dwelling in habita



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1391


tions not made with hands, clothed in purity, exempt from
pain and sorrow, and not at all despondent because of their
mortal remains sleeping in dust. How art thou become a picture of confusion, 0 death, standing there with a crumbling
bone in thy hand and looking at a celestial being walking amid
the groves of the New Jerusalem, once connected with earthly
life by that bone, now wearing many crowns of perfection bestowed by him who died and rose again! After having conquered all, behold, thou art thyself conquered, and a new inviolable life given to those who once succumbed to thee. Behold the keys of death and hades are in the hands of our Lord;
and what wonder if hereafter thou shouldst be compelled to
restore even the dust of the once dead. Sweep as thou wilt
with thy scythe from pole to pole; there is a sword impending
over thee. Thou thyself shalt die. What canst thou do to
him whose life is hid with Christ in God? He will sit upon
a throne in the day when thou shalt be driven to darkness.
NOVE,.MBER 26.-" Them also who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with
him." — Thessalonians iv. 14.
The Jews who gnashed with their teeth on Stephen, hurried
him forth without the walls of Jerusalem, and stoned him to
death with a fury like that with which they had crucified his
master and forerunner, would have been confounded to learn
that the stoned Stephen was after all not dead, but sleeping a
heavenly and exquisite sleep. They will see him when he
awakes; when he comes forth again, his spirit from the chambers of the skies, his dust from the chambers of earth; when
Stephen, with his face shining indeed like that of an angel,
cometh with the thousands of saints and with the king of
saints. This sleep of tlhe righteous is simply with reference
to this world; they are disrobed for a season from this visible
scene; they are in a slumber so that we cannot hold converse




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with them. Their awakening has also reference to this earth;
they are to come again with powers sublimely recruited. But
while asleep with reference to us, they are awake with reference to heaven. They are with the spirits of just men made
perfect.
The advent we look for is the advent of all the good. We
look back to them in history; we look forward to them in
prophecy. Their advent will be a baptism of fire for this
earth. Heaven will come with them. The throne of God
with them; Christ with them. Shall we be there?     When
the Lamb's book of life is opened, shall our names be read
off? If we now live in Jesus, we shall sleep in Jesus, and
afterwards appear with him in glory.
NOVEMBER 27.-" I am he that liveth and was dead."-Revelation i. 18.
Yes Lord, the fact of thy death is an inextinguishable fact.
Nothing is more impossible, more inconceivable, than that the
prints of the nails should be effaced from thy hand, the memory of thy agony from thy heart or from thy Father's heart,
the chants of angels and redeemed ones die out and leave no
echo in heaven. The story of the cross has indeed inwoven
itself with all existences; the whole universe has bathed in it
and got a richer life. Thy death is the expression of divine
love to me; and I have consequently a most profound interest
in the memorials of that death. Thy cross does not merely
tell of God, but of me; of God's love to me; and when thou
sayest, " I am alive for evermore," that is the same as saying,
God's love for me liveth for evermore. God ar.d I live together
in thee. The story of the cross is the story of me; it is my
name and my magnificent destinies that are inwoven with
all existences, mentioned in all chants of heaven. There is
not an angel of heaven that would venture to remain ignorant
of me. Fer, Christ tasted death for me.




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NOVEM.BER 28.-' My mercy will I keep for him for evermore."-Psalm
lxxxix. 28.
Ever bestowed, never exhausted. The vessel that contains
it is one that can never be emptied. God himself is a vessel
of mercy to communicate mercy to me; and I am a vessel of
mercy to receive that mercy. To say that God will keep mercy
is to say that God will keep himself. There is mercy in him;
and I am its object. Mercy first makes me an appropriate
object for itself, and ever after keeps me so. I can say to my
soul, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years:
laid up too in a granary safer than any granary of earth;
enough for thy wants in time and in eternity; eat, drink, and
take thine ease. Eat the fbod of angels; drink the water of
life; experience the true rest of the soul in Christ."
NOVEMBER 29.-" The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself."-Psalm iv. 3.
Set him apart by making him godly; teaching him to set
his affections upon things above; to hunger and thirst after
righteousness; to count all things worthless in comparison with
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; to meditate day
and night in God's word; to cultivate a prayerful habit of
mind; to delight in the society of the people of God; and to
hold all personal interests of trivial moment in comparison with
the interests of the Gospel, the extension of Christ's kingdom,
the salvation of souls. Take a worldly man in the midst of
worldly companions; with them seeking now pleasure, now
wealth, now renown; with them despising the Bible and the
men that reverence it. Let now an arrow from the quiver of
the Almighty, an arrow dipped in the blood of the Lamb, wing
its way to his heart. Suddenly a mighty revolution is wrought
in that heart. Repentance creates a perfect anarchy, and faith
erects the throne of God; he is now a new man, a godly man.




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He begins with joy to relate his new experiences to his companions; they listen with amazement; draw off to a little distance to see if the fit will pass; and when they find him a
veritable believer, an enthusiastic and incurable servant of
Christ, they flee far from him as though he were a leper. It
is not that he is alienated from them, that he takes no longer
an interest in them; he takes, it is likely, a deeper interest in
them  than ever he did before; but his new feelings, aims,
tastes are such as they cannot at all sympathize with. Thus
he is set apart.
But he is set apart for the Lord.  For the Lord to bless.
To receive the manifestations of God. To understand the designs of God. To be comforted by the promises of God. To
be the servant of God, his witness, his steward, his son. To
declare the Gospel. To be the depository of the Holy Spirit.
To suffer. To be poor in spirit. To search the word. To
run the race of glory. To come off conqueror. To inherit
all things.
Perhaps, O reader, you are not thus set apart. You are at
home in the world, and the world is at home with you. You
are of it. There is nothing that jars in your intercourse with
it. And perhaps you know of some one that is set apart from
you and your world. You feel that there is a wall betwixt
him and you, a high impracticable wall. What he loves, you
cannot love; what he beholds, you care not to behold; what
he disdains, you value; and what he flees from, you allow.
You know that he was not always thus; and there is something
deep within you testifying that nothing less than a divine power
has wrought this change. Now if God hath set him apart
for himself, what is your condition? I-e has been taken and
you have been left. He has been taken for God; you have
been left for Satan. He has been taken for mercy, you have
been left for wrath. The ark has received him, the deluge
awaits you. IRe has been sealed with the seal of God; the




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destroying angel will pass bv him and speed to you on whose
forehead is not seen the name of' God.
NOVEMBER 30.-" The peace of God which passeth all understanding."
— Philippians iv. 7.
It is possible that by the peace of God is here meant the
friendship, the amity of God. To get anything like a conception of the peace of God, it is needful to know the barrier of
enmity once existing between you and God. We may view
tne barrier which you erected around yourself to hinder God
from approaching you, to exclude his messengers, his word, the
voice of his providence, his law, his summons to judgment,
every remembrancer of him. Or, we may contemplate the
tremendous rampart, higher than the highest heaven, deeper
than the lowest hell, built by the perfections of God around
his inviolable majesty, forbidding every transgressor even to
look upon him; of which not the combined force of all angels
within, or of all devils without, would ever have removed one
stone. But this mighty middle wall of partition, Christ, designated the Breaker, hath pierced with gateways, adorned with
gates of pearl; and every several stone, once breathing defiance, is now made transparent for the smile of God to come
through to you, and for the vision of your everlasting inheritance to stream upon you. Truly such a peace as this.bsolute peace between the most Holy One and you, a once rebellious worm, passeth understanding.  This amity is not a merely
negative thing, not merely the removal of wrath. This peace
of God is like music. Harmony is the perfection of so'md,
not the absence of sound. The return to the soul of God, in
peace, leads at once to an ineffable discourse, a melodious commerce of the two spirits finite and infinite. And not only so;
but this peace begets another peace (if it be another) between
the various souls thus reconciled to God. They are so brought




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together in harmony that a marvellous correspondence of love
spontaneously commences. Separated formerly by a multitude
of individual interests, they now love one another in fervor
and purity. There is a harmony in the different powers and
appetites of the individual soul. There is peace within; peace
with God, peace with the people of God. This spiritual music
beginning at the throne of God and flowing through all godly
souls in heaven and in earth, and returning to the great source
again, is by the unreconciled unheard, unsuspected; it passeth
understanding.
DECEMBER 1.-" The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his
ears are open unto their prayers."-1 Peter iii. 12.
This is a truth quite distinct from that of the omniscience
of God. That God should be omniscient is one thing; that
his omniscience should be for me, is another thing. Yes, it is
a sublime proposition that omniscience and omnipotence should
enter into everlasting alliance with the weakness and blindness
of a creature. The righteous ones here spoken of are they
that fling away their own righteousness as dross, and make
themselves very insignificant. It is not because they are wise
that heavenly wisdom wings its way to them; not because they
are good and strong that divine goodness and power are their
perpetual auxiliaries. You need not envy them the attention
they receive from the King of kings; they would never have
been noticed by him if they had had any such righteousness
as you boast of.
How hard it is for you to see what is the true life divinely
appointed for man and hastily relinquished by him. Man's
perfection is something utterly different from what man considers it to be. Man goes on building himself up in goodness.
He expects or aims to carry his edifice to the skies. A little
more and I shall be there, he says as often as he puts down
one new stone. He does not take note that the heavens are




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lising above him. Though a thousand giants should undertake
to help with his tower, and should carry it to the height of a
mile, would he be any nearer the heavens?  Mount Blanc
would look down in pity and tell him of the moon a quarter
of a million of miles high. The moon would look down in
pity and tell him of the sun a hundred millions of miles high.
The sun would look down in pity and tell him of Saturn a
thousand millions away. And Saturn would say, " We are in
the lowest depths of the heavens. Ascend to us and your elevation will be, in comparison with the starry heavens, as the
tiniest ant-hill in comparison with Chimborazo."  For six
thousand years humanity has been possessed by this mad dream
of a perfection starting from earth and growing up into the
heavens. It is a forlorn error. No, the perfection of humanity
is in giving way to God. Cast down, cast down that paltry
edifice; give up the notion of your own independent goodness;
and make room for the goodness of God in you. Let God
work in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. And
think not that this self-renunciation is death; it is the true
life; the life of God in the soul is life indeed; the energy of
God is energy indeed; and the moral beauty of God is moral
beauty indeed.
DECEMBER 2.-" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away."-Matthew xxiv. 35.
On the day when these words were spoken, had it been announced in Rome that there was one then speaking whose
words would never pass away, some would have said, " It must
be the Emperor, his words will outlive all." Others would have
fixed upon a certain historian; others upon an orator; others
upon a poet. But no one would have conceived that a despised
Galilean seated upon a hill opposite Jerusalem, and conversing
with his disciples, was speaking words that would outlive all
others. The speaker died by the hands of men; he passed
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away from earth; but his words have been living in the world
with a most tremendous life from that day to this. They smote
Judaism; they went forth and assailed all religions of the
earth; they returned and overthrew Jerusalem; they wrestled
with Rome in her pride and overcame her; the mightiest systems fled from before them; they made the wilderness to blos
som as the rose. After the lapse of eighteen centuries our
report is this, that every day eight thousand copies of the
Scriptures, the testimony of Jesus, are added to the many
millions already existing in hundreds of languages.
Especially, had the philosophers of Athens and of Rome
heard the words of which this immortality and universal victory were predicted, would they have deemed their fulfilment
incredible. That he should be crucified and his doctrine be
none the less promulgated; that his disciples should be hated
of all men, yet should none the less spend their time and
strength in preaching his gospel; that the Jews should be carried captive into all lands; and a multitude of other things
of equally improbable realization, were distinctly foretold by
him.
What a wonderful thing that we should be in the world
along with these all-conquering words. A legion of angels
would not effect such changes in the successive generations of
men, as these words of the Lord Jesus.  We have something
that will outlive the heavens and the earth, and will judge us,
you and me, in the last day.
DECEMBER 3.-"Iie that believeth not is condemned already."-John
iii. 18.
He has pronounced his own condemnation. Christ is the
test of all men and of all things.  Every man that hears of
Christ, discovers the outline of his character, gets a vision of
his voluntary suffering, and death, and glorious resurrection,




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and unchanging love, and yet believes not on him, every such
man declares himself to be unworthy of everlasting life.
There is no affinity between him and Christ, and it is easily
calculated, therefore, what are his true affinities. There is no
need for him to perpetrate any signal act of infamy in order
to bring down condemnation on hlinself. God has drawn nigh
to him in the person of the Son; and, before the essential perfrctions of deity, this man has not bowed the knee. When
C(hrist appears in glory, of course every knee shall bow; but
in the case of many this tardy homuage will be no lhomage. It
is not because of his dazzling glory and irresistible sovereignty
that God clailms to be honored and adored; but because of his
moral excellencies, because of the attributes that were revealed
upon the cross.
DECEMBEiR 4.-" Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."
-Psalm cxii. 4.
There was thick darkness no doubt in the den where Daniel
lay; in the dungeon where Paul and Silas sat; and in the living prison where Jonah was confined. There is no light s
beautiful, so precious as that which ariseth to make glad the
countenance of the righteous as he gropes in darkness. He
says, "It is well for me that I have had experience of the
darkness that I might be enraptured with the light." Before
the light ariseth, there must be a victory of faith in his soul.
Ite must acquiesce in the darkness for the sake of him that
sent it. He must say, "This is the proper place, the proper
condition for me." He must wrap his calamity about him like
a cloak, because of him who hath sent it. Thus a day-star
arises in his heart; after that the day breaks for him. If the
light that is in you be darkness how great is that darkness.
The Holy Ghost lighteth up a light within you, whose mild
radiance will go far to dissipate your surrounding darkness.




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If you muffle up this inner lantern, in vain will you wait for
light to arise externally upon your path.
DECEMBER 5.-" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever
and ever."-Daniel xii. 3.
If we could look into the books of immortality, and turn
over its pages of the future, and trace the paths of light belonging to the names that are now ascendant in our skies, we
should see them to be of length unequal: one brilliant luminary of our day soon vanishing into night, and another passing
on, but sooner or later, like all the rest disappearing from the
heaven of fame. But when the lights of this world shall have
gone out, then will be seen coming up in indescribable splendor and overwhelming glory, the names that have nothing now
connected with them but ignominy and obscurity. Then will
it be known who are the wise; and men will marvel that they
should have ever remained ignorant a single moment of this
unquestionable truth, that they who turn many to righteous.
ness are wise above all others.
DECEMBER 6.-" The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints."
Psalm xxxvii. 28.
The faithfulness of the Lord to his people is secured not
more by the fact that he delighteth in mercy than by the fact
that he loveth judgment. The propitiation made for sin is so
effectual that by it all the perfections of God become pledged
to promote the everlasting interests of those who believe. It
is God in the unlimited fulness of his nature, not a part of
God, that is made favorable to the sinner by the blood of Jesus
The believer should understand that he is not taking refuge in
one perfection of God against another; but that it is God




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himself, with all his attributes, that is reconciled to him. Before he was clothed with the righteousness of Christ, every
divine attribute was against him; love as well as justice. And
after he is brought nigh through the blood of the Lamb, the
justice as well as love of God guarantees his safety and blessedness.
Consider and confess: dost thou not feel, speak and act, in
thy intercourse with God, as though there were but a partial
reconciliation, as though in Christ there had accrued to thee
but a small measure of the divine benignity?  Does it not
seem to thee when thou wouldst appropriate largely of the
grace of God, as though his justice interposed and said,
"Enough?"   Does not the holiness of God, in thy conception,
take out from every promise its largest benison and give thee
a husk? If so, then there is a grievous wrong continually
done by thee to the Lamb that was slain, and to every perfection of God. Is God divided? Did Christ die to obtain for
thee the crumbs that fall from his Father's table, and is it
necessary that another Christ should die to obtain for thee
permission to sit down as a guest, as a child?
If there be in us a genuine faith in Christ, then is God
wholly ours. Christ himself has not a more infinite love to
expatiate in than the meanest believer hath. God is reconciled to us, or he is not. If reconciled, then every promise is
ours in its utmost conceivable amplitude.  We are as free to
take of the water of life as Paul was, or as John was. One
disciple is designated " the beloved" because he has a singular
faith. We must believe the love that God hath towards us,
and then we have the love.
There are many who wonder that they experience in such
feeble measure the power of divine truth to animate and elevate and bless their souls. They marvel that they should daily
be in communion with him at whose right hand are pleasures
for evermore, with whom is the fountain of life, yet that they
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should be so unacquainted with the joy unspeakable that many
saints have experienced.  But how could it be otherwise?
Unbelief nullifies God. Faith finds a living God. God gives
himself as faith gives itself. Where there is but a little faith,
the tide of divine love is constrained to narrow itself down
accordingly. But God is there, even the same God whose
smile enraptures the seraphim. Christ has brought you to
him and to the infinite fulness of his nature. God is not in
your future; he is in your present. Listen no longer to the
lie of unbelief, but understand that there is even now for you,
this day, this hour, the love wherewith the Father loved Christ.
You have not a half Christ; you have not a portion of God.
DECEMBER 7.-" The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and
he delighteth in his way."-Psalm xxxvii. 23.
A good man is one whose steps are ordered by the Lord.
Having come to the conclusion that there is none good but
God, he has sought such an alliance with God as secures to
him the benefit of the divine goodness. A good man is one
in whom you can behold the goodness of the Lord. To the
world's apprehension a good man is one who is able to order
his steps aright, able of himself to know and to pursue the
best path. This is a fundamental error; and religion can only
begin with its overthrow.
God has a book in which is written the ideal history of every
man; the biography as it would have been had the man's steps
been ordered by the Lord; and another in which is written
the actual history of every man. The books are open side by
side, and what a contrast do they present. " Oh that they had
hearkened to my commandments!" saith the Lord; nor is it
possible for any one to look upon these two records without
taking up the lamentation. What a hallowed and beautiful
path is traced in the one; what honorable conflicts and glorious




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victories; what nobleness of enterprise, what steadfastness
under difficulties, what beneficence, what usefulness! What a
sublime romance! What genuine heroism! What a utilization of the man's faculties! What wealth of influence poured
around! In comparison with this divine romance, behold the
actual life portrayed in the other book. How mean! how contemptible! how disordered! What fearful confusion  What
awful plunges into vanity! What wild pursuit of phantoms I
What Herculean strife with windmills! What a waste of
faculties! What blundering even in the matter of doing good!
What shipwreck of unpiloted affections! What torment of
unintelligible aspirations!
Suppose the book of your ideal biography should drop from
heaven upon your path. You, with your worldly and gross
heart, take it up and look into it; at first seeing a good deal
about tribulation, privation, persecution, bonds, defamation,
poverty, and tears, you are ready to throw it away. But stay,
my friend; it is from heaven; see if there be not something
precious coupled with these expressions. At one end of a
sentence you find, " they that mourn," "poor in spirit," "they
that are persecuted," "through much tribulation;" but what at
the other end? "Joy," "blessedness," "kingdom of heaven."
Remember the disordered steps of your past life. See how
much misery you have experienced, even in the path of your
own gratification. How unsatisfactory is the retrospect. Are
you not willing to live the life that God has sketched for you?
Take this book and live this life; and your biography will be
a valuable contribution to the libraries of heaven. Angels
will read it and find in it all the elements of beauty, nobleness,
sublimity.
This your ideal life is written in the Gospel  May God help
you to see it thera and to give it actuality in what remains of
your mortal term.




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DECEMBER 8. —"In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his
children shall have a place of refuge."-Proverbs xiv. 26.
The best thing that a man can do for his children, is to fear
the Lord. Piety is not hereditary; but there is a strong probability that the children of a truly God-fearing man, will be
converted and brought to make the Lord their refuge. Yet
how many there are who make the alleged interests of their
children a pretext for not giving themselves and all they have
unreservedly to the Lord. They would lay up treasure in
heaven, were it not that they must lay up for their children.
Their faith is sadly defective.  The very efforts they are making to secure a portion for their children in this life, tend to
hinder the transmission of an everlasting portion to them.
A parent cannot possibly do anything better for his child
than leave to him an example of simple and unworldly faith.
Like Noah, build for your children an ark of safety of gopher
wood, rather than a palace of brick and stone; haply the Lord
may incline them to enter it. You cannot do better for your
children than to show them that there is something in your
heart more sacred than even the love of children; and that is
the fear of the Lord. The example of faith is the best of
legacies. See to it that as far as your labors are concerned,
your children may have a place of refuge and the way to it be
unimpeded.
DECEMBER 9.-" My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith
the Lord."-Jeremiah xxxi. 14.
The Lord's people are satisfied with his goodness, even in
this life, in such a sense that they willingly forsake all and
follow him. In the privation of all other things they are still
so satisfied with the love of their divine Saviour, that they
cast no regretful looks behind. Ah, but there are some, esteemed the people of God, who seem not to be satisfied with
the simple goodnero of their heavenly Father: there is too




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manifest a grasping after the riches and dignities of the earth.
Would that they and all might understand that if they only
sought to know more of the love of God, they would see it to
be satisfying.
We see how much wisdom was given to Paul when he was
led to pray that he and others might know more of the length
and breadth of the love of God, when he was enabled to count
all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
Of course it is impossible to be satisfied with the goodness of
the Lord if we do not know that goodness. We must know
and believe the love that God hath towards us. When a certain man had found a treasure in a field, he went with joy and
sold all that he had and bought that field. The perception of
Christ's love to them individually, is vague and dim on the
part of many; and no wonder therefore that they are tormented
with so many vain desires and imaginations. But this word
"satisfied" points to something that eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor heart conceived. To be contented is a blessed and
beautiful condition of the soul; but do not suppose that it
implies the extinction of desire. Paul was a person of singular contentment, and of singular power of aspiration. But he
that has provided for our contentment will in due time crown
our highest aspirations. He has shown his power by overcoming the mighty craving of our soul for worldly good; and he
will show his power hereafter by transcending our highest conception of happiness. But let contentment have her perfect
work.
DECEMBER 10. —" Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death."2 Timothy i. 10.
When Adam sinned then was there the abolition of life.
The empire of death began. Death advanced by steps. There
was a process observed ii the establishment of his kingdom.




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lie needed subjects, and therefore he did not cause the bodies
of Adam and Eve to crumble to dust at once. Hle showed
what lie could do when Abel fell by the hand of his brother.
lie made havoc of everything heavenly in the spiritual nature
of man; brought out his instruments of torture to assail and
overthrow his physical glory; and went forth conquering and
to conquer. But Christ, who is the Life, in due time sets up
his kingdom of life, abolishing death. What a glorious word
for the confusion of the great abolisher!-he himself must be
abolished.
Death was once between me and God. The king of terrors
had pitched his throne in the very path, the only one, that led
to God. There was an eclipse of God unto my soul. But
Christ abolished death. The eclipse passed. The favor of
God, which is life, reached me throughl him who had died that
death might be crucified in him. Then contrition, hope, faith,
love, obedience, and other tokens of the new creation appeared
in me. The fear of death is abolished by him who hath prepared a place for me. And even this body will not die, no,
not a hair of my head perish, if Christ refuse consent. The
world to which we aspire is not an undiscovered country from
whose bourne no tidings have been wafted back to us. We
are conversant with it. There are continents on this globe
about which we do not know so much as we do about that
world. We are acquainted with many of its inhabitants and
with the life they lead. We know their manners and customs,
their laws and principles, their employments, their government;
their tastes and distastes; their desires, and their songs.
DECTEMBER 11.-" The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not
drink it?"-John xviii. 11.
Art thou unwilling, O believer, to drink the cup which thy
Father givetl' thee?  It i, t very different cup from that which




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the Saviour consented to drink for thee. It is wreathed around
with the declaration, " All things shall work together for good
to them that love God."  It comes to thee by the hand of
Jesus, the hand that was pierced for thee. In it you bellold
as in a transparency a crown of glory that fadeth not away,
purchased for you by the Saviour's righteousness. LHe tha
spared not his own Son for you, who was so tender of you as
to suffer his Son to hang in your place, can you suspect him
of offering you a cup of poison?  What an unpardonable insult were this to offer to your heavenly Father! Yet just such
insults are daily offered by those who reject the cup which their
Father presents them, and steal away to some other path that
they may not have to drink this cup.
To look upon an affliction as indicative of alienated feelings
on the part of God, is base indeed for those who profess to
believe the testimony of the cross. May not the Father and
the Saviour be trusted to govern us, to guide us, correct us,
bless us?  Shall we teach them what our interests demand?
Teach him who is Love, what is the way of love? Does the
mother not know what the child can bear? You have been
asking for precious things; for fruits of the Spirit; for love,
joy, and peace; for knowledge, strength, and patience; for
victory and glory; and the Lord presents you with a cup of
humiliation and sorrow. Instead of enriching you with new
hopes and joys he seems to come to you for the purpose of
crushing and annihilating the few that you have. Nevertheless, for the Father's sake, in Christ's name, take the cup.
Have you not agreed to surrender life's joys and treasures when
he that gave them demands them again? What is the meaning of the faith you profess, but just this, that as you have let
God choose for you a Saviour and a way of life, so you are to
let him choose for you all your circumstances, all your experiences. Take the cup and drink it. Lo! one by one, the
precious things you were demanding, are found to have been




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in the cup, and to have been communicated by means of it.
So that tile great and unendurable affliction froml which you
shrank, is ascertained at last to be the greatest of' all your
blessings, and to stand in the retrospect of your life a Inonument to the riches of divine grace, towering high above all
the other monuments of your path.
May we have wisdom to choose the very cup which the
Father chooseth for us. Balaam had not this; and entreated
God to choose rather for him the cup which he, Balaam, desired for himself. Seeing that Balaam had more confidence
in his own wisdom and discrimination than in God's, God at
length suffered Balaam to have the cup of his own choice;
and all know the melancholy results. And may there not be
around us Christians whose cup is of their own choice rather
than God's, who have taken the cup out of the left hand of
God, and are living lives of worldly ease and dignity and affluence, felicitating themselves that they are exempt from so many
bitternesses that once fell to the lot of Christians; and all
because they had not wisdom to see a cup, preferred of God,
in his right hand?   The words "much tribulation" written
over the gate of an avenue, almost of themselves carry conviction to the minds of many Christians that such an avenue
is not the one that they are called to pursue. Are we of their
number? Or of the number of those who have it profoundly
engraved in their conviction that the will of the Lord, whatever its aspect, is the one path of life, and that the greatest
of all calamities is when we get God to deal with us after our
own wisdom, and to lead us in the pathway of our own crude
desires?
DECEMBER 12.-" The Lord is thy keeper."-Psalm cxxi. 5.
Thou art willing to be kept by him. Thou knowest thine
own helplessness and ignorance; the power and malignity of




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the adversary; the sufficiency, love and faithiulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ; the reality of the Spirit; thou distinguishest his still, small voice; the word of God is a lamp to thy
feet; thou meditatest therein day and night; thou hast the
shield of faith. Thou knowest the voice of thy keeper, and
knowest not the voice of strangers. In prosperity, in adversity, and in the intervening lulls, thou dost equally seek the
guidance and help of the good Shepherd.    He is now thy
keeper; and therefore it is certain that in that day of unutterable wrath which is so fast hastening to break upon the earth,
he will keep thee in all serenity and security.
DECEMBER 13.-" For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call
upon him."-Romans x. 12.
There is a beautiful conception of the character of God involved in the use of the word "rich" in this connection.  For
he is said to be rich not in respect of what he has, but of what
he bestows. Used of men the word indicates one to whom
much has accrued; but it is used here of God to designate
one from whom infinite wealth of blessing accrues to the sons
of men. It is for us he is rich; his wealth is ours; we have
a marvellous and inexhaustible treasury in him. God, in fact,
proposes to take sinful men and make each of them a treasury
full of the wealth of God.
He is rich unto all that call upon him. They call, and he
answers by communications of his wealth. There is of course
an agreement between God and them, as to what constitutes
wealth. They have been taken into the divine laboratory, and
have seen the various things called wealth in earth and in
heaven, seen them subjected to powerful tests and their true
nature revealed. What is called wealth among men has lost
its value; for they have seen it tested by an infallible chemistry; and especially has the knowledge of heaven's wealth
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made them   look disparagingly upon it. They have seen and
appropriated the jasper of faith; the sapphire of love; the
chalcedony of joy; the emerald of hope; the sardonyx of
humility; the sardius of selfiknowledge; the chrysolite of
sincerity; the beryl of holiness; the topaz of contentment;
the chrysoprasus of long-suffering; the jacinth of patience;
the amethyst of self-denial. To the eye of an angel they have
a breast-plate radiant with surpassing riches; though to mal
they may seem clothed in a wretched garb.
The same God is rich unto all. Oh, let us entertain no
contracted view of the fulness of blessing that dwelleth in our
reconciled God! Let us neither exclude ourselves, nor others.
The God of Daniel, Paul, and John, that same God that was
found so rich by them is ours, is yours, is mine. And that
same God whom you approach, that same Saviour in whom you
delight, is your neighbor's. Oh, what a bond should this create between you and him! The same love that fills you with
such rapture is shed abroad in his heart; the same visions of
a beatific hour to come are yours and his; the same sacred
pierced hand that fills your cup each morning with the wine
and milk of divine grace, fills his cup. Consider this; and
beware how you look coldly on him on whose eye of faith the
smile of Christ is ever breaking.
DECEMBER 14.-" Blessed is he that considereth the poor."-Psalm
xli. 1.
In other words, blessed is he that blesseth. Happy is he
who makes it his chief concern to bestow happiness on others.
1Ich is he who seeks to enrich.  " Consider thyself," says tle
-world; "study the advancement of thy interests; for there is
none to do thee good if thou neglect thy own good. Will men
sell and buy for thee whilst thou art busied about the poor?
Will they supply thy wardrobe if thou empty it for the poor?




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Will they send medicines to thee and a physicians when thou
forgettest thy health in solacing the miseries of others? Consider the poor, of course; but take good care that consideration for them do not swallow up or even encroach upon a due
consideration of thyself, thy children, thy near of kin."
In opposition to all this, our text, like many others in the
word of God, teaches us-if we suffer ourselves to be taught
so strange a truth, so hard a lesson,-that he best considers
himself who considers the poor rather than himself, and makes
it his chief business in the world to communicate good unto
his fellow-men. For the poor have a friend; even God the
source of all good; and there is no more direct way to the
heart of God than to alleviate the sufferings of our fellow-men,
to deny ourselves for the good of others.
Consider the poor; give attention to them; study their necessities; wisely consult as to the best mode of alleviating
them. Think not that attention is wasted when given to the
poor, even if some important commercial speculation has to
wait. What the word of God says in general, the providence
of God says in particular. " Consider the poor," says the former;
"consider this poor man," says the latter. Indiscriminate charity
is not the thing here commended. The vocation of a Christian
is to be a benefactor; and this being his vocation he is not to
grudge any pains that may be required in order to ascertain
who are the really needy, and what the most effectual way of
relieving them.
There are some necessities which men do not mention because they do not feel. They know not their spiritual destitution; and they know not the bread of life which is profitable
for this world and for that which is to come. The Christian
is to consider the soul-penury of men, and tell them of the
banquet of life which Christ has spread for them. In this
view even the richest of our fellow-men are poor enough and
need that we should consider them. Blessed is he that takes




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knowledge of the necessities of his fellow-men, and devotes
himself to their alleviation.  God will take knowledge of his
necessities, and will see to it that I.e want no good thing.
DECEMBER 15.-" The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil." —Psalm
cxxi. 7.
This is an invitation to thee to give over the keeping of
thyself entirely into the Lord's hands. Let him be thy keeper
and he will keep thee from all evil. That no harm ever befals
the Christian, cannot be said. But while he follows that which
is good, no harm befals him. While he suffers the Lord to
guide him, he is preserved infallibly.
It is only by faith that we can appreciate the guidance of
the Lord as being everything that an enlightened love could
desire for us. When we have made ourselves over to the Lord
and to his guidance, often the very things are suffered to come
upon us which we would most certainly have characterized as
evil. We are prepared for trials; but they come in a form
that we should have thought to be impossible. We had formed
some particular conception of the goodness of God; settled it
in our minds that this goodness would prompt him to act in a
certain way towards us; when lo, we find him acting in a quite
contrary way; and it will go hard if the thought do not incontinently arise, that God is without the goodness we had imputed to him, and that our faith has overshot the limits of the
reality. Oh, what a dishonoring thought! As though we,
imbecile and infatuated worms, could invent a God superior to
the God that really exists. But God in due time, if we pursue
the way of faith, vindicates himself to us. Our minds are
disabused of their vain fancies. We get a loftier conception
of the goodness of God. A foundation is laid for experiences
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DECEMBER 16.-" Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search
tor me with all your heart."-Jeremiah xxix. 13.
A reference to the context will show that this declaration is
Intended for those who are smarting under che chastisements
of God; for those of his professing people who have brought
upon themselves by disobedience and worldliness, the rebuke
of the Most High. Out of the cloud there comes a voice
telling of the blue sky beyond and of the way in which it may
become visible. The blessings connected with the uplifted
light of God's countenance are not to be recovered by those
who have once enjoyed them, save by a whole-hearted, intense,
persevering, all-sacrificing search for them.
It has pleased God at various times in the history of his
Church, to bestow upon her some distinguishing tokens of his
regard. Legitimately these should have had no other effect
than to make her more humble, more self-mistrusting, more
zealous, more earnest in the pursuit of perfection. But often
a different result has been witnessed. She has plumed herself
upon these as constituting a glory of her own; or she has
rested satisfied with these, so as not to long for something better and more essential; or she made light of them as though
there were nothing special about them. Then God has revoked the blessings, and left the Church to her denuded and
inglorious state. Thenceforward, God is in no haste to bestow
anew what has been so deliberately forfeited.
He is wonderful in the inflexibility with which he has carried out this principle. The distinct understanding of it would
be of immense benefit to the Church and to each member of
the Church. Search the annals of the Church. Bring the
Church as she now is into contrast with the Church as she
once was, and see how much she is without. Impute it not to
the sovereignty of God, to an arbitrary and unexplained exercise of his royal will, that we languish now under many disabilities  The privileges that have been withdrawn were lost
35 *




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through the gross and culpable negligence of the Church
They are recoverable; for the promises relating to them have
not been torn out of the Bible; but they are only to be recovered by a whole-hearted, fervent, and indomitable travail
at the throne of grace, accompanied with a thorough consecration to his will.  "If the salt have lost its savor, wherewith
shall it be salted?" is a text that might utterly discourage us
but let us lay hold of this kind and loving assurance: "Ye
shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with
all your heart."
DECEMBER 17.-"As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden
causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God
will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."
-Isaiah Ixi. 11.
Isaiah had a vision of the Lord upon his throne surrounded
by the seraphim; and the seraphim seem to have had a vision
of the renewed earth, of what it shall be in the day when the
glory of Christ shall be everywhere perceived, and when there
shall be the manifestation of the sons of God. We are yet
but in the seed-time; but it is interesting to observe that the
seed is carried to all shores and scattered among all nations,
and that everything is fast hastening to the hour when, at the
new creating voice of God, the kingdoms of the world shall
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and when
righteousness and praise shall fill the face of the whole earth.
A nation shall be born in a day; the whole earth shall bring
forth at once.
Were it not that men are accustomed to behold just such a
transformation, nothing would seem more idle or preposterous
than the expectation that beautiful and odoriferous and fruitful
trees and shrubs, should spring from the earth as a result of
the scattering of sundry seeds therein.  How utterly unlikely
to the eye of sense, or to the imperfect vision of infantilt




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faith, does it appear that the preaching of the Gospel, the poor
and checkered attempts to make known God's despised word
of life, should ever eventuate in the imparadising of earth.
Of itself it will not. God gives it an opportunity to show
what it can itself do; and the hours of this protracted opportunity, how heavy, how almost insupportable to him who longs
to behold the glory of God in the land of the living! But
the coming of the Son of Man to inherit all nations, and extinguish all rule that is not of him, hath an absolute connection with the attempts of his people to preach the Gospel to
every creature.
DECEMBER 18.-" Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."
Hebrews vi. 20.
WVe have an anchor of the soul, even hope; and that hope
is within the veil, where Jesus is. With Jesus the hope of
the believer hath soared from earth and made its home in the
heaven of heavens; and the presence of our hope there is the
pledge of our own future presence there. How flattering, delusive, treacherous, is earthly hope. What horrid wounds it
inflicts upon the heart that it pretends to bless. How it spreads
its imitation heavens around, even where deadly miasmas exhale. But when we escape the wiles of this enemy, and beconme acquainted with the hope that beams upon us from the
loving eyes of him who is extended on the cross, then may we
be glad with exceeding joy. Here is a hope that nothing can
injure. It died in Christ only to live forever in a region where
there is no death. Our hope ascended up with him and met
with him a welcome from the angels. We are already anchored
at the throne of God.
DECEMBER 19.-" The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
thy God thy glory."-Isaiah Ix. 19.
There cometh a time v hen the hidden relations now existing




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between the Church and her God, shall be altogether manifest;
when the tabernacle of God shall be with men; when the
Church shall be clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible
as an army with banners. She will possess not solely an inward glory in her purity and moral resemblance to her Redeemer, but the glory of God, even the heavenly glory that
dazzles the seraphim, shall invest her with an inconceivable
splendor. No longer in his humiliation and in discredited divinity will Christ dwell in the midst of his little flock, as when
on the earth in his flesh. No longer discernible as now only
by the power of the Spirit and by the eye of faith, he will
then dwell among them in the glory which he had before the
world was; nay, with an enhanced glory. They shall see his
face and his name shall be in their foreheads. The sun himself shall have no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth,
when mortality shall have been swallowed up in life, when
Christ shall be glorified in his saints and admired in every one
that believeth, when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
DECEMBER 20.-" I have set the Lord always before me."-Psalm xvi. 8.
The habit of mind that is here indicated is very important,
very rare, and very hard to be attained. Every Christian no
doubt perceives, though more distinctly at certain times than
at others, how exceedingly desirable it is that he should have
a continual consciousness of the presence of the Lord, and
what a grievous loss he is sustaining all the time that his Spirit
forets to realize that presence. And if he could attain unto
this sublime habit of the soul by any single impulse and concentrated effort, he would put forth the needed violence and
take possession of this blessed kingdom. But habits are not
acquired in this way even when the Spirit of God is the
teacher. He is ir1 ~ed a wondrous teacher, and is able to give




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a rapid acceleration to all the movements of the soul; and to
accomplish in weeks what would be wonderful in threescore
years or a thousand years. Therefore there need be no despair:
but let us distinctly understand the way in which he works,
in order that there may be co-operation on our part and not
hindrance.
Let us have it fuilly impressed upon our minds that the life
to which the Lord is calling us, is not a life of occasional communion, of interspersed prayer, of pious seasons, but a life of
unbroken communication with God, of never-interrupted cooperation with Christ.  "Without me ye can do nothing"
" Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all to the glory of
God."   "Abide in me."    Lo, I am with you always."  Besides so many declarations of the word, there is the continual
testimony of our experience, the testimony of our many mistakes, and follies and embarrassments, assuring us that we can
of our own selves do nothing. For what we do without the
Lord we do disobediently; and this single fact stamps it with
a certain measure of opprobrium, no matter how commendable
it might seem from other points of view. On the other hand
whatever we do with the Lord, has an everlasting value; it
may be but the tying of a shoe-string, yet if it be done in
faith and in an enlightened dependence, as in the very presence of the Lord, it has a value that no vicissitudes of time
can ever destroy. The will of the Lord abideth forever; and
whatever is done with a right reference to that will, is celestial
in character, immortal in destiny.
Let us enthrone in our minds this great truth, that nothing
whatever is insignificant when a relation between it and God
is perceived. Life is profane because men choose that it shall
be so, by disconnecting it from God; not because God has
chosen that it be so. Christ lived a human life, and there
were every day thousands of trifling secularities in that life,
as you perhaps may C signate them; but all was exalted, all




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was sacred, according to the judgment of heaven. And he
that is filled with the fulness of God, he in whose heart Christ
abideth by faith, is careful all the day long lest any little thing
divorce him from his Lord. He sets the Lord always before
him; he seeks to see ever the vision that Isaiah saw in the
temple.
DECEMBER 21.-" I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing
upon thine offspring.""-Isaiah xliv. 3.
"Let little children come unto me," said Christ, and says it
still.  God delighteth in mercy; and delights in the hearts of
little children because there is a greater readiness in them to
receive his mercy than in adults. There are fewer hindrances;
less to repel the Spirit of God; less of the world. The world
is indeed there, and it develops itself with an astonishing
rapidity; oh, then, how great the responsibility of those who
have the direction of the young. How knowest thou, O parent, but that the Lord has called thee to the knowledge of
the truth very specially for this end, that thou mightest lend
thyself to the Spirit of God in the matter of educating that
child for the courts of the New Jerusalem.
There is no need that any truth should be deposited in the
mind of the child before religious truth. In fact, truth is
mutilated when it is taken away from  religion.  The truths
of religion are difficult and mysterious to the man, because he
started in life and passed through infancy and childhood without them. It is easier for a child to learn the momentous truth
that " of Him, through him, and to him are all things," than
it is for a person of mature years. How much unfaithfulness
must there be in parents and guardians, even in those whom
we esteem believers, when their children exhibit so little of
the Spirit's influences. The blessing of the Lord, as we learn
from other passages of Scripture, allies itself with the teachings and efforts and prayers of parents




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Writh the influences of the parent there are soon commingled a multitude of other influences; wherefore it is of the
more urgency, that the tenderest years should be improved.
The enemy will quickly sow tares, if you do not pre-occupy
the soil with the seed of life.
DECEMBER 22.-"Let all flesh bless his holy name forever."-Psalm
cxlv. 21.
There is such a revelation of the holiness of God in all
places of his dominion, that it is the manifest duty of all men
to look to him alone and to give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. For he is righteous in all his ways and holy
in all his works, and not merely in the work of man's redemption. There is no idolater who is not compassed about by the
tokens of the unity and holiness of God. God does not lay
aside any of his perfections when he works his wondrous will
in heathen lands. He is what he is, in every act that he does.
And every one is responsible for failing to discern his true
nature.
But it was especially perhaps in view of the Gospel of God's
infinite grace, to be proclaimed by every creature, that the
Psalmist calls upon the whole human family to bless the holy
name of God. Let all flesh bless the holy name of him who
so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth might live. But even this sufficeth not. Men
hear of this love unmoved. The Gospel is proclaimed, yet
the empire of the God of this world continues. There is more
in God's scheme of mercy to mankind. The Spirit shall be
poured upon all flesh; then shall all bless his holy name forever.
"Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven;" these are the petitions that
break instinctively from the lips of the believer. We see that




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the men of God, the prophets that lived so long before the
days of Christ, had already a missionary spirit, and offered up
prayers in behalf of missions while yet the middle wall of
partition stood strong and consolidated.
DECEAMBER 23.-"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord." —Isaiah lv. 7.
The following reason is assigned, why he should forsake his
ways and thoughts:-" For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts."  Man will have it that his way,
his designs, his plans, his theory of life, are better than those
of God. God's scheme of human life is published everywhere
and brought before the notice of all; but all disdain it; they
do not consider it any improvement upon their own. The way
of righteousness, of self-denial, of faith, has no attraction for
them.
But really the way that God has marked out for man is in
every respect sublime and worthy of its author; and if man
had walked therein he would have been angelic in dignity,
wisdom, power and happiness. The intention of God regarding man includes his investiture with every grace and perfection. The thought of God is that man should set his affection
on things above; take up his cross and follow Christ with all
love and loyalty; and be, each one in his particular province,
a benefactor to mankind. Alongside of this most elevated yet
most suitable standard, how mean and grovelling appear the
actual ways of men, how base and earthly their thoughts. For
so many thousands of years they have gone floundering on in
the mad quest of happiness, obstinately seeking it where God
hAn told them they shall find nothing but misery. The wonder
i flhat God should invite them to return; that instead of leav



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421


ing them to the fruits of their own choice he should provide
for them a way whereby they may regain the highway of holiness
DECEMBER 24.-" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."-Acts vii. 59.
Christ, on the cross, out of the deep gulf of woe into which,
by the sins of the world, he found himself sinking, cried out
in anguish," 'My God, ny God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
and, receiving strength in his soul, he soon exclaimed with
expiring breath, "Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit."  Ile tasted death; tasted far more of it than the believer is called to do; and knew the blessedness of having one
to look to in his expiring hour. Well knows le therefore how
precious it is to have an almighty friend in the darkness of
such an hour. The believer may look with unwavering confidence, as always, so in his last eartlly moments, to him who
knows so well what death is.
Imagine a company of men pursuing another, reviling him,
stoning him, and driving him towards a frightful cavern.
Amidst their imprecations he enters it; and as a stone is rolled
upon the mouth of the cave, his enemies rejoice greatly in their
victory. You shudder as you think of the wretched lot of
that castaway. But know that in the very moment when that
stone was rolled upon the cavern's mouth, a marvellous transformation took place. The cavern became a palace; a multitude of happy and radiant beings flocked around your persecuted friend, and leading him up flights of noble stairways
conducted him to a throne and crowned him with a diadem.
The crowd without are congratulating themselves upon having
driven the object of their hatred into everlasting night and
solitude; how surprised will they be hereafter, should the stone
and the rock flee away and the hated one be seen upon a throne
surrounded by a troop of exalted friends.
God is constructing paradise out of the rejected elements of
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this world. Christ first; then they that believe in him and
suffer with him. They are in the estimation of men, the
refuise of humanity. Not only when Stephen died, but on a
thousand occasions since, the rejoicings of men in the death
of the saints have been heard on the one side, and on the
other side the glad acclamations of the angelic host welcoming
them to glory, honor, and immortality.
DECEMBER 25.-" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and
his name shall be called Wonderful."-Isaiah ix. 6.
At the very outset, the mother of mankind was informed
that she was also to be the mother of some wondrous being
who would snatch the race from the condition incurred by sin.
Prophet after prophet arose, spoke of this future personage,
sighed for his advent and passed away. Iow astonished must
the Hebrew readers of Isaiah have been at the description
given by him of the coming man. A child, a son of manj
given to us and of us; yet so wonderful in his nature that you
may ascribe to him all the perfections of the godhead. We
know that God will not give his glory to another; this child
of humanity is then no other than God himself, the mighty
God, the Father of Ages.
Here is something that never would have entered into the
conception of any man, even the wisest or the boldest. But
supposing that men, having been led to look for such an incredible event as the birth of God in the line of fallen man,
had undertaken to surmise what would be his manner of life
on the earth, how different would all their fantasies have been
from the reality. They would have made the deity overshadow
the humanity, so that there would be no proper manifestation
of this. But the humanity of Christ remains in its integrity,
and there is a perfect revelation of the two natures without
the least encroachment of the one upon the other. And in




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423


himn we see how this 1hunmality of ours may become wedded to
divinity so tllat the latter may be exhibited through the medium of' the former, and in ten thousand acts and words there
be an uncolmmingled operation both of God and of the creature.  "That they also may be one in us, as thou Father art
in me, and I in thee."
DrCEMBER.n 26.-" Ile bath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted."Isaiah lxi. 1.
Iappy is he whose heart is broken in such a sense that he
will no longer expect froml earth what earth cannot give, and
who is in despair of all below the sky. Yes; though he may
esteem hinself the most wretched of beings, and though he
indeed have sorrows tar more poignant than those of other
men. Other men do not discover their true misery, their true
bankruptcy, and do not so intensely feel their need of a special
provision sent from the throne of God. They are reconciled
to the sterilities of the world. But this one is broken-hearted
because he found as he imagined some heaven, in contrast with
which the wilderness condition of the world came out very
distinctly; and when his oasis vanished he found himself un
utterably and hopelessly ruined. So he thought: until he
heard a voice saying, " If any man thirst let him come unto
me and drink. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavyladen, and I will give you rest."  Why will ye die? Is there
no balm in Gilead? No physician of the soul? No fountain
opened? Christ's heart was broken, that yours might he bound
up.
DECErMER 27. —"lie was numbered with the transgressors."-Isaiak
liii. 12.
That glorious being whom Isaiah saw upon a throne, high
and lifted up, surrounded by the enraptured seraphim, left his
throne at a time appointed and taking the form of man came




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into this cvery-day world of ours and dwelt among us. What
was his reception? Did not every knee bow and every tongue
confess that he was Lord?  If he had come in power and in
majesty, with undeniable and irresistible glory, such a reception
perhaps would have awaited him. Men would have fallen beore him and given him at least external homage.  But this
was not what he sought. His moral attributes are his true
glory. It is in his truth, wisdom, goodness, purity, and condescension that he is distinguished from the gods of the heathen, rather than in omnipotence and omniscience. These are
not so much attributes of his character as of his position. IIe
would be served not because he is all-mighty, but because he
is good, holy, and condescending. Therefore he came into the
world in a manner that permitted the ftllest manifestation of
his character; and if his power and majesty were in some
measure veiled, it was in order that there might be a more
perfect revelation of his moral perfections. There was then
seen in the family of man one being in whom dwelt all the
fulness of the Godhead.
Tell us now, what was his reception? Ile was numbered
among the transgressors. Instead of saying, "Here is a being
of wondrous excellence, angelic in purity, heavenly in nature;"
instead of saying even, "Here is a good man;" men said unhesitatingly and unblushingly, " This is a bad man; one with
whom we cannot associate; an impious being, violating the
most sacred laws; blaspheming the most holy things; profaning the Sabbath; consorting with the vile; overthrowing the
faith of many; a dangerous man, a transgressor of the deepest
dye, one that must be hunted from the bosom of society, one
that must be as soon as possible sent out of this world." Yes,
they decided that any other man, though he were a Barabbas,
might live; on any other man the sun might shine, the wind
might blow, the ordinary bounties of heaven descend; but
upon this one, never; the earth cannot bear the burden of




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425


him. However contemptible an opinion a man may have had
of himself, yet could he loudly and passionately cry, " Away
with this Jesus, crucify him, it is not fit that he should live
where I live!"
Thus the world was tried; thus its bitter and inveterate
hostility to God was detected, thus did it become manifest
that Satar was the god of this world. And are things altered?
No! Those who rejected Christ had no special venom in their
hearts. They were average specimens of humanity. In whatever generation Christ's lowly advent might have taken place,
he would have been numbered among the transgressors.  Those
that make the nearest approach to him in character, those that
live godly in Christ Jesus, they suffer persecution, they are
reckoned as flagrant transgressors. In fact every generation
has had the opportunity given, and has had it not in vain. to
show what it thought of Christ. Oh, what a fearful exhibition
of the corruption and blindness of man is given in the stabe
ment that God came into the world, and was numbered witl
the transgressors and put to a shameful death!
DFCEMnrrPt 28.-" So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth;
it shall not return unto me void."-Isaiah Iv. 11.
A vast deal of rain falls upon the sea; a great deal upon
the desert; upon immense tracts of earth where there is no
cultivation; it is in fact but a comparatively small part of the
snow and rain that yearly descend from the skies, that is made
instrumental in the fertilization of the earth. Yet who will
say that the rain and snow descend in vain?  In many regions
yet unvisited, the rain that periodically falls is an invitation to
man to go forth and fulfil his mission, to subdue the earth, to
co-operate with the providential processes of God in making
the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and to plant groves of
myrtle trees where briars and thorns now abound. If men
36 e




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DAILY MEDITATIONS.


choose to congregate in immense numbers in the narrow, mn
fines of cities, leaving the earth unsubdued and unreplenished,
at least God will show that he is not wanting to the earth.
The responsibility of most of the desolations of earth, is with
man.
It is not to be denied that God's word is abundantly proclaimed without saving results. Out of a thousand hearers
one is affected; and he that hears it once with the heart's
response, hears it with insensibility a thousand times. But
imagine an army sent forth with an assurance of victory; it
may be that thousands of javelins are hurled without result;
that there are many repulses from this and that fortification;
many unsuccessful skirmishes; but the expedition is at length
crowned with success, and when it returns, returns victorious.
The multitude of unsuccessful endeavors preceding the final
triumph only served to display the prowess of the enemy and
the severity of the strife; and thus to enhance the value of
the victory.
God's word shall not return to him void. It shall accomplish that-whereto he has sent it. For it is to be borne in
mind that there are mighty resources in the word of God, and
that it can at any time summon to its aid twelve legions of
angels.  For instance among the words of God are these:Ask of me and I will show thee great and mighty things which
thou hast not known. Omnipotence is with it. Let the faith
of those who have the word be only adequate, and it will clothe
itself with all the strength of God. Christ, who has all power
in heaven and earth, holds that power in behalf of his word
militant. The works that I do, shall the believer do; and
greater works: whatever he shall ask, I will do it.
In the mean time, we see how terrible is the power of the
adversary; how strongly fortified in its sin'is the world; how
absolute the need of omnipotence to bring the kingdoms of
this world into subjection to Christ. We know not the word




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427


we fight with; we are ignorant of the resources placed at our
command; and our battling is languid and lifeless, like that
of soldiers who are waiting for their lord.
DECEMBER 29.-" The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with
singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head."-Isaiah
li. ]1.
Time and again the Lord brought back his ancient people
frcm captivity, even those that valued the liberty of returning;
and each time perhaps they thought it was the final redemption
of which the prophets had spoken such glorious things, and
were looking for crowns of everlasting joy. But in the times
preceding the first advent of the Messiah they discovered by
bitter experience that it was possible for them to be enslaved
even in their own land, in the midst of Jerusalem, in the courts
of the temple; to be enslaved by Jews, by high-priests; and
to be as wretched in Zion as ever they had been in Babylon.
In the days of Christ how sadly were they oppressed. Not
by the Romans; Christ scarcely made any allusion to them,
knowing that the Jews were suffering from a far severer bondace. He made known to them the true Zion of refuge and
the true redemption, when he said " Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
The redeemed of the Lord shall return, effectually redeemed
from all iniquity, triumphant over sin and misery, crowned with
glory, honor, and immortality. If you ask, when? I reply
that it shall be in the day when the New Jerusalem cometh
down from God out of heaven, and in the day when the mani.
festation of the sons of God taketh place. " Ye are not in dark.
ness that that day should overtake you as a thief."
DECEMBER 30.-" Prepare to meet thy God."-Amos iv. 12.
For thou must meet him. The only uncertainty relates to




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the time; and even that uncertainty does not exist in the mind
of God. It is not more true that God is, than that thou shalt
stand before him. Thou art flurried and agitated at the thought
of going into the presence of some fellow-man clothed with
authority; and wilt thou make no preparation to meet thy
God? The companion with whom thou wert feasting yesterday, i eceived his summons in the night. Inquiring for another
this morning thou wert informed of his recent departure. Almost every hour some one is called from thy neighborhood into
the presence of God, and thy turn will surely come.
Life is given that thou mayest prepare to meet thy God.
Thy path is crowded with monitors that seek to arouse thee to
a sense of the awful future so fast hastening. The winds whisper it; the skies proclaim it; the earth mutters it; the mountains repeat it; all life, all change, all beauty, all joy, and all
sorrow breathe this admonition, "Prepare to meet thy God."
He is thy God. He made thee, gave thee all thy powers,
all thine opportunities, gave thee a work to do, and the means
of doing it. He will have a multitude of questions to ask
thee; alas! that I should say it, he will have a multitude of
charges to bring against thee. Thou hast heard his thunder in
the skies; thinkest thou he is not able to clothe himself with
unendurable terrors, or thinkest thou he will forbear to do it?
Thinkest thou that God will never make so much of thee, an
insignificant, ephemeral, helpless being, as to set thee up on
high before him, and deal with thee as an object for his wrath,
his vengeance, his fiery indignation? The thought is utterly
delusive. Since God has made so much of thee as to fashion
and endow thee wonderfully, to create a world of beauty and
splendor for thy habitation, a sun to light thee by day, and
stars to shine for thee by night; since he has treated thee as
a being of great consequence by giving his word to be thy
guide, and above all by giving his Son to die for thee, think
not that thou shalt escape his notice in the great day of ace




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count. Thou hast made war upon the universe of God, thou
hast soughlt to make him contemptible in the eyes of his creatures by despising his commands and discarding his authority.
The interests of the entire universe demand that there be a
meeting between thee and God, and that it be distinctly settled, who is in the right, God thy Creator and Governor, or
thou his rebellious creature.
DECEUMBER 31.-" Even so, come, Lord Jesus."-Revelation xxii. 20.
This prayer of the beloved disciple is his legacy to the
church. Being permitted to write the closing words of Scripture, he finds three little words which seem to him expressive
of more love to man, and to comprehend more of blessing and
advantage to the world than any number of other words. The
prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus," is the epitome of all the prayers
that the believer is called upon to offer. It is a prayer for the
overthrow of Satan's kingdom; for the extinction of sorrows,
the cessation of pain, the wiping away of tears; for the descent of the New Jerusalem; for the sanctification and perfection of saints; for the creating anew of all things; in a word,
for the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
To be indifferent about the coming of Christ, is to be indifferent about the most sacred interests of humanity. If the
apostles looked upon the advent of Christ as the hope of the
world, and knew of no greater benefit that they could bestow
upon mankind than to offer up this prayer in faith, we may
well adopt their sentiment and follow their example. Let this
prayer never die on our lips while we have breath: "Even so,
come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"




INDEX TO TEXTS.
G ENYESI-S.
CHAPTER                                                       TIMM
XXXII. 26. I will not let thee go, except thou bless me..........3 75
-DEUTERONOMY.
XXXII. 9. The Lord's portion is his peop~le.................39
XXXIII. 12. The beloved of the Lord....................29, 129
it 35. As thy days so shall thy strength be.............   7
1 SAMUEL.
II. 9. l~e will keep the feet of his saints................41
1 CHRONICL-ES.
XVI. 35. Save us, 0 God of our salvation................149
XXVIII. 9. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee..........42
JOB.
I. 21. The Lord gave, and the Lord bath taken away......357
V. 17. Happy is the man whom God correcteth...........66
XIII. 15. Though hie slay me, yet will I trust in him.........60
XXII. 21. Acquaint now thyself with him, and ho at peace......44
XLII. 6. I abhior myself, and repent in dust and ashes.......355
PSALM71S.
III. 3. Thou, 0 Lori], art a shield for me................343
IV. 3. The Lordl hath set apairt bins that is godly..........393
IV. 6. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 137
V. 8. Make thy way straight before my face.............311
V. 11. Let all those that. p~ut their trust in thee rejoice.......313
"12. Thou, Lcrd, wilt bless the righteous...............365
430




INDEX TO     TEXTS.                   4c1
CHAPTER                                                       PAGB
IX. 10 They that kno-v thy name will put their trust in thee.. 22
"  10. Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee...... 72
XVAI.  S. I have  set  the Lord always before me....................... 416
"  11.  In  thy presence is fulness  of joy..............................  158
XVII. 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness..... 328
XXII. 24. I-Ie lath not despised nor abhorred the affliction......... 165
XXIII. 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me................ 368
XXV.   9.  The meek  will he guide..........................................  73
XXV. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him....... 379
XXVII. 5. In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his............ 16
"     9. Hide  not thy  face  far from  me..................................  226
"    ]1.  Teach  Imc  thy  way, 0  Lord...................................... 212
"    14. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage..................... 16
XXX. 5. Ills anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life. 211
XXXI. 15. My   times are  in  thy  hand.......................................  71
"    24. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your...... 211
XXXII. 7. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of............... 221
"     1. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked,but he that......... 228
XXXIII. 18. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear...... 34
XXXIV. 6. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him............ 158
" 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them... 377
"     18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken....... 229
19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the...... 231
"     22. The Lord redeeneth the soul of his servants, and........ 232
XXXVI. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness..... 235
" 9. With thee is the fountain of life, in thy light shall..... 236
XXXVII. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good; and verily thou shalt. 284
"     4. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee.... 279
"     5. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him...... 281
23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; 287, 402
28. The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his........ 400
"    37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright;......... 383
XLI. 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor..................... 410
XLVI. 2. Therefore will we not fear though the earth be........... 255
XLVIII. 14. lIe will be our guide, even unto death....................... 226
L. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver....... 286
"  23. To him that ordereth his conversation aright............ 285
LV. 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall............... 36
"   22. Ile shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.......... 133
LVI. 3. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee................. 38
LX. 1. Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help............ 55
LXII. 1. From him comneth my salvatin............................... 138




432
CHAPTER
LXIIL
LXTIII
LXVIL
LX VII
LXXXIV.
LXXX V.
LXXX VI.
LXXXIX.
XCI
XCIN
CIl
CIII
CXl.
CXI.
CXII.
CXIX.
CXXI.
CXXVI.
CXXX.
CXXXVIIIT.
CXLV.
CXLVII.
CXLIX.
82'




INDEX TO TEXTS.


2. Ilie only is roy rock......................
7. God is my salvation and roy glory............2 57
1. 0 God, thou arit roy God.................. 181
20. Blessed he God, who bath not turiied away my.... 2 (S
11. Light is sown for the righteous..............
11. The Lord God is a sun...................JS 2
8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak.......34 5
*5. Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive......293
*2. Mercy shall he built up forever..............146
15. Blessed are the people that know the joyful......112
28. My mercy will I keep for him. forevermore......393
r. 4. Hlis troth shall he thy shield and buckler....... 3S9
I. 1. When I said my foot sliypotlh, lkho nicrey, 0 Lord, 105
2. Serve the Lord wit~h gladuo~Ps....~...............86
[. 17. Ile will regard tire prayier -eP th'e de:;'tute.......87
1. Bless the Lord, 0 my s~..................88
2. Forgret not all his bcnefi~te...................140
9. Ilie will notri-ag-vi chide, neither will h~e keep....320
11. As high as the heaven is above the earth, so great 37tt
12. As far as the east, is from  the west, so far....... 371
22. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul..................59
5. Be thou exalted, 0 God above the heavens.......289
3. Thy people shall he willing in tlbJ.ir-y of thy..... 38 8
10. The fear of the Lord is the brrtnnning of wisdom... 89
4. Unto the upright there arisetlr liglrt in the.......399
32. I will run in the way of thy commandments..... 3t2
71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.......3'49
1.03. How sweet are thy words unto my taste.........77
5. The Lord is thy keeper....................408
7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil........412
5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.........291
4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest.... 69
8. lie shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.....53
7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thorn wilt... 295
8. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me....2 67
9. The Lord is good to all.................... 359
18. The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him......335
19. Ilie will fulfil the desire of them that fear him......314
21. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever.........419
3. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up....347
6. The Lord lifteth up the weak................1.32
4. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people..........380




INDEX    TO   TEXTS.                      433
CHAPTER                                                             PAQI
PR OVERBS.
III. 6. In all tly ways acknowledge him.............................. 13
"    17.  All her paths are  peace............................................  147
IV. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence.............................. 371
XIV. 26. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence................ 404
XXVII. 1. Boast not thyself of to-morrow.................................. 160
"     13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper................. 252
XXVIII. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.................. 52
ECCLESIASTES.
VIII. 12. Surely I know that it shall be well with them.............. 49
ISAIA I.
I. 18. Come now and let us reason together,....................... 130
III. 10. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well............... 90
IX. 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given........... 422
X II.  2.  I  will  trust............................................................  92
XXVI. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose............... 27
XL. 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your.............. 368
"    8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the............ 150
"   11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd....................... 111
"   29. He giveth power to the faint.................................. 110
"   31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their.......... 113
XLI. 10. Be not dismayed for I am thy God............................ 151
"   10. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.............. 363
X LIII.   1.  Thou  art  m ine......................................................   154
"    25. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions..... 152
XLIV. 3. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing.... 418
XLV. 19. I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things......... 341
"    22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the...... 262
XLVIII. 17. I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit...    8
XLIX. 13. The Lord hath comforted his people and will............... 310
i    26. I, the Lord, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer............ 314
L. 7. The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be..... 311
LI. 10. All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation.......... 317
"   11. The redeemed bf the Lord shall return and come......... 427
"   12. I, even I, am he that comforteth you......................... 315
LIII.  5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him............... 348
"   12. He was numbered with the transgressors..................... 423
LIV. 8. In a little wrath, I hid my face from thee................... 306
"   13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord............... 324
LV. 3. Hear, and your soul shall live................................... 307




434                    INDEX    TO TEXTS.
CHAPTER                                                         PAGX
LV. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous.. 420
"   11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth 425
LVII. 17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth........... 330
"   ]8. I have seen his ways, and will heal him..................... 328
"   21. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked............ 331
LIX. 19. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the............ 116
LX. 19. The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light......... 415
"   20. The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the....... 333
LXI. 1. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted........... 423
"   11. As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the............ 414
LXIII. 8. In all their affliction, he was afflicted........................ 340
LXIV. 8. We are the clay, and thou our potter......................... 68
LXVI. 2. To this man will I look, even to him that is poor........ 260
JEREM]fIAlH.
III. 22. Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal........... 279
IX. 24. Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he................ 356
XVII. 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord............... 118
"   14. Heal me, 0 Lord, and I shall be healed...................... 120
XXIX. 13. Ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search...... 413
XXXI. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love.................. 378
" 14. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness............ 404
"    20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child?......... 316
"    33. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write........ 379
XXXIII. 3. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee.... 302
LAM-ENTATIONS.
III. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul....................... 123
"   25. The Lord is good to them that wait for him................ 122
V. 19. Thou, 0 Lord, remainest forever, thy throne............... 304
EIZEKIEL.
XXVI. 26. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh....... 305
XXXVI. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause........... 303
DANIEL.
IX. 8. To us belongeth confusion of face, because we have...... 326
XII. 8. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness........... 400
IIOSEA.
VI. 2. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the........ 124
XIII. 9. Thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help..... 121




INDEX    TO   TEXTS.                     435
CHAPTER                                                            PAGB
XIV.   4. I will heal their backsliding.......................................  27
AMOS.
IV. 12. Prepare to  meet thy  God............................................ 427
MICA     ',
VII. 8. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto..... 126
"   18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity...... 165
"   19. He will subdue our iniquities....................................... 170
NAHUM.
I. 3. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power................ 171
HABAKK UK.
II. 14. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the...... 174
III. 17, 18. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither........ 162
ZEPHAN.IA.    I.
III. 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty........... 175
ZECHARIAH.
XII. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.......... 176
XIII. 1. There shall be a fountain opened to the house of David... 178
MALACHI.
IV. 2. Unto you that fear my name shall the sun of................. 184
MATTHEW.
III. 8. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance............ 138
V. 4. Blessed are they that mourn.................................... 75
"   8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God....... 79
"   9. Blessed are the peacemakers...................................... 81
VI. 13. Lead us not into temptation....................................... 299
VIII. 25. Lord, save us; we perish............................................ 160
X. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I......... 95
XI.  28.  Come  unto  me..........................................................  94
"  29. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart............. 142
XII. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break............................... 93
XIV. 30. And beginning to sink, he cried, Lord, save me............. 155
XVI. 24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself...... 245
"   27. The Son of man shall come, in the glory of his Father.... 186
XVIII. 3. Except ye be converted and become as little children.... 76




136                     INDEX     TO  TEXTS.
CHAPTER                                                             PAGE
XVIII. 19. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything.. 180
"    20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name..... 191
XXIV. 13. He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall........... 17
"    35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words........... 397
MARK.
IX. 23. If thou canst believe, all things are possible.................. 10
L U'KE.
I. 50. His mercy is on them that fear him.............................. 178
XI.   9. Ask, and  it shall be  given  you....................................  24
XII. 15. Take heed, and beware of covetousness....................... 224
"   32. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good........... 246
"   37. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when............ 194
XIII. 7. Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit............... 70
XVII.    5. Lord, increase  our faith.............................................  10
XVIII. 1. Men ought always to pray, and not to faint................... 127
JOIlVN.
III. 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the.............. 74
"   18. He that believeth not is condemned already.................. 398
"   36. Hle that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life......... 246
IV. 14. The water that I shall give him, shall be in him............ 372
VI.  35. I am   the  bread  of  life................................................  188
"  37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me.............. 15
VII. 37. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink........ 323
VIII. 12. I am the light of the world......................................... 163
X. 14. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep................. 173
"  28. I give unto  them  eternal life.......................................  13
XI. 25. I am the resurrection and the life................................ 48
XIV. 1. Let not your heart be troubled.................................... 134
"    2. If it were not so, I would have told you........................ 53
"     3. That where I am, there ye may be also......................... 361
"   13. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do........ 19
"    18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you...... 196
"   23. If a man love me, he will keep my words.................... 198
"   27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.......... 199
XV. 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.... 200
"    9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.......... 201
"   10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my........ 202
XVI. 23. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask... 203
37 *




INDEX    TO TEXTS.                      437
CHAPTER                                                         PAGI
XVI. 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation....................... 204
XVIII. 11. The cup which my Father hath given me, sh.al I not...... 406
ACTS.
VII. 57. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit...................................... 421
XVI. 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt......... 208
RO ANS.
I. 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..................... 364
II. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing......... 207
IV. 25. Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again...... 341
V. 1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God........... 206
"   2. And rejoice in hope of the glory of God....................... 363
"   5. Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God...... 339
"   8. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us................ 209
"10. Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his.... 216
" 17. Much more, they which receive abundance of grace........ 219
" 21. Sin has reigned unto death................................ 96
VI. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you........................... 28
VIII. 1. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them.......... 20
"    14.  Led  by  the  Spirit of  God............................................  97
"    17. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ..................................... 98
18. The glory which shall be revealed in us........................ 99
31. If God be for us, who can be against us?...................... 216
IX. 33. Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be ashamed...... 214
X. 12. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call......... 409
XII. 1. That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice................. 278
1 CORINTHIANS.
I. 9. God is faithful, by whom we were called unto the........... 234
III. 2. All are yours, and ye are Christ's................................. 223
VI. 20. Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God........... 254
X. 12. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he........ 32
" 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do... 294
XV. 55. 0 grave, where is thy victory?.................................... 390
"   57. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory............. 292
2 CORINTH.IANS.
I.  3. The  God  of  all comfort..............................................  385
V. 7. We walk by faith, not by sight............. 283
" 15. He died for all, that they who live should not................ 237
"  19. God  was in  Christ.................................................... 189




438                       INDEX TO TEXTS.
CHAPTER                                                                 PAGU
VI. 18. Ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord.......... 35
VIII.   9. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became po r...... 156
IX.   6. He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly......... 268
XII.   9. My strength is made perfect in weakness.........................  9
"     9.  I  glory  in  my  infirmities.............................................  55
GALATIANS.
V.  16.  W alk  in  the Spirit......................................................  195
VI.   9. In due season we shall reap if we faint not..................... 274
"   14. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross............... 248
BPHESIANS.
I.  7.  The riches  of  his  grace...............................................  141
II. 10. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus........... 270
IV. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God................................. 25
"   32. Be ye kind to one another............................................. 78
V. 2. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us...................... 250
PBIILIPPIANS.
I.  6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath......  31
III.  8. I count all things but loss for the excellency.................... 107
IV.   7. The peace of God which passeth all understanding........... 395
"   19. My God shall supply all your need................................. 14
COLOSSIANS.
I. 10. Fruitful in every good word..........................................  51
III. 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear....................... 33
1 THESSALONIANS.
IV. 14. Them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him... 391
"   17. So shall we ever be with the Lord...............................  64
V.  19.  Quench  not the  Spirit.................................................. 218
"  16.  Rejoice  everm ore.........................................................  67
"17. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks............ 195
2 THESSALONIANS.
III. 13. Be not weary in well doing........................................... 243
1 TIMOTHY.
I. 15. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners............... 193
III. 12. Fight the good fight of faith.................................   114
IV. 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise...... 376




INDEX    TO TEXTS.                        439
2 TlErMOTHY.
CHAPTMR                                                            PAGI
I. 10. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death......... 405
II. 3. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ............ 83
"  12. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him........................ 238
"  13. If webelieve not, yet he abideth f;ithful........................ 240
"  19. The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal......... 241
IIEBB E IS.
IV. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God....... 21
"  15. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched........... 21
VI. 12. Be not slothful, but followers of them............................. 277
"  20. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus......... 415
VII. 25. He is able also to save them to the uttermost................... 242
X. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart.................................. 33
" 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without........... 348
" 37. Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come.......... 298
" 38. If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure...... 300
XI. 6. A rewarder of them that diligently seek him.................... 373
XIII.   5. Be content with such things as ye have........................... 335
"  6. We may boldly say, the Lord is my helper.................... 338
8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day and forever......... 264
JAMES.
I.  5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God............... 337
" 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.................... 350
" 12. When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life........... 352
"17. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above........ 167
IV.   8.  Draw   nigh  to  God......................................................  144
"   19. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall... 258
V. 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the...... 61
"  11. The Lord is very pitiful......................6..................... 62
"  13. Is any among you afflicted?  Let him pray..................... 229
"  16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man.............  65
1 PETER.
II. 7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious............... 366
"  25. Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned......... 322
III. 12. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.............. 396
" ]8. That he might bring  us to  God...................................... 109
IV. 13. Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's............. 327
V.  5. God  resisteth  the  proud................................................  47
V. 8. Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion..................... 382




440                    INDEX    TO  TEXTS.
2 PETER.
CHAPTER                                                         PAGl
I. 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence................ 309
III. 9. He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing.................. 353
1 JOTHN.
I. 7. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us............... 63
"   9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just.................. 101
II. 1. If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father...... 23
" 25. This is the promise that he hath promised us.................. 386
III. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed.... 358
"   23. This is his commandment, that we should believe............ 251
IV. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love............ 102
"   16. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love........................ 104
V. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness...... 185
" 12. IIe that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not...... 272
" 13. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know... 271
REVELATIOiN.
I. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead................................ 392
II. 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience........... 220
"   7. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree........' 107
" 10. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give.................... 270
" 26. And he that overcometh and keepeth my words............... 29
III. 1. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write............. 261
"    2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain...... 40
t    2. Be  watchful, and  strengthen........................................ 273
"    4. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis........................... 57
"   11. Behold I come quickly; hold that fast............................ 182
"   11. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy...... 106
"   17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased................. 319
"   19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten........................ 168
"   20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock........................... 266
IV. 4. And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats... 45
V. 9. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy........ 80
VII. 14 They have washed their robes and made them white......... 254
XIV. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.................... 275
XVI. 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth... 263
XlI. 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things.................. 384.X.II. 7. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him...... 296
"   20. Even  so, come, Lord  Jesus......................................... 429




I












242B3786d
Daily meditations
3 1144 00023546 4




2(- 42
B786d


99 Q7 1 0


Bowen, George.
Daily meditations.
DREW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MADISON, NEW JERSEY 07940




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