ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS; OR, FLOWERS FROM A PURITAN’S GARDEN, DISTILLED AND DISPENSED

BY C. H. SPURGEON

NEW YORK
FUNK & WAGNALLS, PUBLISHERS
10 AND 12 DEY STREET

 

PREFACE

WHILE commenting upon the One Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm, I was brought into most intimate communion with THOMAS MANTON, who has discoursed upon that marvellous portion of Scripture with great fulness and power. I have come to know him so well that I could choose him out from among a thousand divines if he were again to put on his portly form, and display among modern men that countenance wherein was a “great mixture of majesty and meekness.” His works occupy twenty-two volumes in the modern reprint: a mighty mountain of sound theology. They mostly consist of sermons; but what sermons! They are not so sparkling as those of Henry Smith, nor so profound as those of Owen, nor so rhetorical as those of Howe, nor so pithy as those of Watson, nor so fascinating as those of Brooks; and yet they are second to none of these. For solid, sensible instruction forcibly delivered, they cannot be surpassed. Manton is not brilliant, but he is always clear; he is not oratorical, but he is powerful; he is not striking, but he is deep. There is not a poor discourse in the whole collection: he is evenly good, constantly excellent. Ministers who do not know Manton need not wonder if they are themselves unknown.

Inasmuch as Manton used but a few figures and illustrations, it came into my head to mark them all, for I felt sure that they would be very natural and forcible: I will give you the reasoning of which this volume is the result. I thought that here we should find a set of workable illustrations. It never occurred to this good man to introduce a metaphor by way of ornament; he was too intent upon telling his message to think about how his sentences might be adorned, and hence it fell out that if he did use a simile, it was because one was absolutely needful, or, at least, because it was the preferable mode of making himself understood.

Here, then, is a man whose figures will be sure to be usable by the earnest preacher who has forsworn the baubles of rhetoric, and aims at nothing but the benefit of his hearers. I thought it worth while to go through volume after volume, and mark the metaphors; and then I resolved to complete the task by culling all the best figures out of the whole of Manton’s works. Thus my communing with the great Puritan ends in my clearing his house of all his pictures, and hanging them up in new frames of my own. As I leave his right to them unquestioned and unconcealed, I do not rob him, but I bless him by giving him another opportunity of speaking.

One kind of work leads on to another, and labor is lightened by being diversified: had it not been for “The Treasury of David” I had not been found among the metaphors of Manton.

I see it is thirteen years ago since I issued a volume of illustrations; I may surely take the liberty to put forth another. The former was entitled, “Feathers for Arrows;” it has met with a large sale, and it may be presumed to be useful, seeing it has been appropriated, almost every scrap of it, by the compilers of Cyclopædias of Illustrations.

To make this little book more generally acceptable, I have thrown it into a somewhat devotional form, using Manton’s figures as texts for brief meditations: this I humbly hope may be found profitable for reading in the chamber of private worship. The latter half of the work was composed in the gardens and olive-groves of Mentone, where I found it a pleasure to muse, and compose. How I wish that I could have flooded my sentences with the sunlight of that charming region! As it is, I have done my best to avoid dulness, and to aim at edification. If a single practical truth is the more clearly seen through my endeavors, I shall be grateful; and doubly so if others are helped to make their teaching more striking.

It is my design to bring out a third volume, consisting of illustrations which I have long been collecting at home and abroad, and patiently jotting down in pocket-books till leisure should be found for their proper shaping and arranging. Time is short, and it behooves each one to be working for his Lord, that when he is called home he may leave behind him something for the generations following. Highly shall we be favored if the gracious Master shall accept our service now, and grant us the consciousness of that acceptance; happier still if we may hope to hear Mm say, “Well done.”

That all my readers may meet with so great a blessing is the earnest prayer of,
Their grateful Servant,

WESTWOOD, January, 1883.

BONES STRONGER FOR HAVING BEEN BROKEN

“Our reconciliation with God is like the soldering of a vessel, which is henceforth strongest in the crack; or as a leg broken, if well set, it is the stronger: so are we upon firmer terms than we were in innocency; there was before the fall a possibility of being at odds with God, which is now taken away.”

This is a gracious fact. Under the covenant of works it would have been always possible for obedience to fail, and then the reward would have been forfeited; but now, under the new covenant, our Lord Jesus has settled and fixed all that was contingent in it by perfecting his part of the agreement, and therefore all the rest stands sure, and all believers must receive covenanted mercies. Adam might have fallen, and we in him, even had he stood for a thousand years. The second Adam has ended his probation both for himself and all his seed, and now nothing can intervene to deprive his people of the earned and purchased inheritance. Innocence seemed sure, but perfection is surer. It is something not to has broken the law; it is far more to have fulfilled it and honored it, so as to be able to say as our Lord has said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Fitly and justly did Watts say:

“He raised me from the deeps of sin,
The gates of gaping hell,
And fix’d my standing more secure
Than ’twas before I fell.”

My soul, be thou doubly diligent to magnify thy Saviour’s name. If the bones which God has broken shall rejoice, much more the bones which he has set. If he rejoices more over the lost sheep which he has found than over that which never went astray, count thyself the happiest and most indebted of beings to be thus prized by thy gracious God.

DIRTY CORNERS

“Sluttish corners are not seen in the dark. Things are naught that cannot brook an open investigation.”

Lord, let me have a religion which will bear the light of day, the light of self-examination, the light of the throne of judgment. If I hide my sin, how can I prosper? If I cannot bear to be judged of men, how shall I endure to be judged at thy appearing?

THE CLUCKING HEN

“As a hen when she hath found a worm, or a barleycorn, clucks for her chickens, that they may come and partake of it with her; so a man acquainted with Christ, who hath tasted that the Lord is gracious, he cannot hold, he will be calling upon his friends and relations to come and share with him of the same grace.”

It is so much an instinct with real Christians to do this, that those who do not so may well question their own sincerity. Common humanity leads a man to inform his fellow of that which will benefit him, and how can he be a gracious man who is not even commonly humane? In certain crafts and trades there are selfish reasons for keeping their knowledge a secret, but nothing of this kind can appertain to the profession of godliness. Having found this honey, so abundant and so free to all comers, nature itself bids us call our brethren to see our treasure, and urge them to partake in its sweetness.

Hasten, reader, to call in thy friends and neighbors to rejoice with thee if thou hast indeed found the Lord Jesus.

THE ECHO

“We love him because he first loved us. Love is like an echo, it returneth what it receiveth: there is no echo till the sound is heard. Our love to God is a reflex, a reverberation, or a casting back of God’s beam and flame upon himself. The cold wall sendeth back no reflex of heat till the sun shines upon it, and warms it first; so neither do we love God till our soul is first filled with a sense of his love.”

Hence the impossibility of producing love while we are under a legal spirit; it will not come to order, it will only rise to the bidding of its like. Love alone begets love. Purchase price for it there is none; the bribe would be scorned.

Love is not the result of effort on our part. As the fountain rises freely in the valley, pouring forth its crystal flood with spontaneous eagerness, so doth love sparkle and flash forth in the soul. Secret reservoirs, far up in the mountains, supply the water-springs; and eternal deeps of boundless love in the everlasting hills supply the love-springs of the believer’s soul. Is it not written, “All my fresh springs are in thee?”

O my heart, take care that thou answer to the Lord like an echo! When he saith, “My love,” do thou answer with the selfsame title. Be as the rocks which glow beneath the heat of the sun, and give forth warmth themselves. Love as long as thou livest, for love is the cream of life, and all of it is due to thy Lord.

COURTIERS’ PRIVILEGES

“It would be a great favor if a king should give leave to one of his meanest subjects to have the key of his privy chamber, to come to him and visit him, and be familiar with him when he pleaseth. How would such a favor be talked of in the world!”

Yet this is but a faint image of what the believer is admitted to. He may come not merely to the palace of mercy, and the throne of grace, but to the very heart of God. Confidences such as ours surpass all the familiarities of friendship, and yet they are permitted, nay commanded, between the All-glorious Lord and our poor sinful selves. We may well copy the example of David when he went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house? And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?” The intimate intercourse between the glorious sovereign of the Canticles and his sunburnt bride is an inspired symbol of the near and dear communion between Christ and his people. What can be more honoring to the soul, and what can more wonderfully prove the boundless condescension of the Lord? He stoops like a God! There is as much of Deity in the favor which he displays to the undeserving as in the matchless splendors of his celestial courts. Happy are the people who have such a God; shall they not accept with rapture the goodness which he sets before them so benignly?

O my most tender God and Father, I can never fully estimate the stoop of thy majesty in deigning to love me, nor the greatness of thy generosity in inviting me to have fellowship with thee. Give me, I pray thee, grace to value such priceless goodness, and every day to live in habitual fellowship with thee. Since thou makest me free of thy courts, teach me how to be a resident courtier, going no more out forever.

WATER POURED INTO A PUMP

“Love must be paid in kind. As water is cast into a pump, when the springs lie low, to bring up more water, so God sheddeth abroad, his love into our hearts, that our love may rise up to him again by way of gratitude and recompense.”

How idle is it, then, to hope to chide ourselves into loving God! The price of love is love; the origin of it is not found in law or in a sense of duty, but in love, or a return of gratitude. When the sun of eternal love melts the glaciers of the soul, then the rivers of affection flow; but if the rocks of ice could all be broken to shivers with hammers, not a drop of affection would stream forth. Only a sense of divine love will ever create love to God in the heart.

How vain also is the attempt to recompense the mercy of God by mechanical acts of religion or works of legal service! “Love must be paid in kind.” No other coin is current in love’s empire but that which bears her own image and superscription. Do what we will, even to martyrdom, if we have not love, it profiteth us nothing. In this case It is specially true, “If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”

Come, my heart, does thy love run dry? Then pray the Holy Ghost to shed abroad the love of God within thee. Pour this living water into thy dry pump, and thou wilt soon pour forth a plentiful stream.

THE FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN

“A man who is travelling in foreign lands is glad to meet with his own countrymen.”

This we know by experience. Sweet is the music of the English tongue when heard amid the clatter of foreign speech. We feel our heart warmed at the sight of a costume which we can recognize as covering a true Briton. Such are the feelings of a Christian when he falls in with a true believer, and by his speech and conduct knows him to be a citizen of heaven. He detects him at once as being, like himself, “a stranger in the land;” he seeks him out and cultivates his company, and in that company he finds a solace for his loneliness among the aliens around him. Those who dwell in warm-hearted churches, surrounded by Christian society, little know the value of a single godly friend to those who dwell among worldlings. To such, a man of God is more precious than the gold of Ophir. Think for a moment: if you had been condemned to dwell in a lions’ den, what a relief it would have been to find a Daniel sitting among the ferocious creatures! Such is the consolation which a single holy companion may yield to a lonely soul compelled to sojourn among those who know not God.

Lord, make me one whom thy saints may be glad to meet; and, on the other hand, when I pine because I am exiled from my heavenly home, permit me to hear the voice of a fellow-countryman, that I may be of good cheer.

WAITING FOR THE KEY OF THE HOUSE

“He that made the soul hath most right to dwell in it; it is a most curious house, of God’s own framing, and there ought he to well. But he will not enter by force and violence, but by consent; he expecteth love to give up the keys (Rev. 3:20)—‘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.’ Why should Christ stand at the door and knock, and ask leave to enter into his own house? He hath right enough to enter, only he waiteth till we open to him.”

Here our author admirably expresses the Lord’s respect to the nature and constitution which he has impressed upon man. Inanimate matter obeys the divine law by force, but a human being can only obey God with his will, since unwilling obedience would be no obedience at all. There can be no such thing as unwilling love, unwilling trust, or unwilling holiness. Voluntariness enters into the essence of a moral act. Having, therefore, so fashioned man, the Lord doth not forget this fact, but ever treats man as a free agent. The divine compulsions of his grace are only such as are congruous with a willing and nilling creature. Man is sweetly led to repentance and faith, and by mighty arguments drawn to trust and love the Lord Jesus. We do not surrender our hearts to Jesus otherwise than with our own full and free consent. We are right glad to become his disciples, and to be taught the way of service. He does not break in like a burglar, but he enters the castle of the soul like a conqueror to whom the governor in all lowliness hands the keys.

My heart, it is hard for a theologian to explain how grace overcomes the will, and yet never violates it, and yet thou dost understand it perfectly by experience. Christ’s love wooed thee and won thee, and led thee captive, and yet never was a will more free than thine when thou wast altogether bound to thy Beloved.

THE PRINCELY SUBSTITUTE

“If a prime, passing by an execution, should take the malefactor’s chains, and suffer in his stead, this would be a wonderful instance indeed.”

The deed would ring through all history, and be quoted as an amazing instance of heroic pity; and well deserved would be all the words of praise and sonnets of admiration which would record and eulogize it. Yet our Lord Jesus did this and infinitely more for those who were not merely malefactors, but enemies to his own throne and person. This is a wonder of wonders! But, alas, it meets with small praise. The most of men around us have heard of it and treated it as an idle tale, and multitudes more regard it as a pious legend, worthy to be repeated as a venerable fable, and then forgotten as an unpractical myth. Even those who know, believe, and admire, are yet cold in their emotions with regard to the story of the cross. Herein is love which ought to set our hearts on fire, and yet we scarcely maintain a smouldering spark of enthusiasm. Lord Jesus, be more real to our apprehensions, and so be more completely the Master of our affections.

TRYING THE KEYS

“As one that would gladly open a door, trieth key after key till he hath tried every key in the bunch, so doth God try one method after another to work upon man’s heart.”

His persevering grace will not be baffled. He frequently begins with the silver key of a mother’s tearful prayers and a father’s tender counsels. In turn, he uses the church-keys of his ordinances and his ministers, and these are often found to move the bolt; but if they fail, he thrusts in the iron key of trouble and affliction which has been known to succeed after all others have failed. He has, however, a golden master-key, which excels all others: it is the operation of his own most gracious Spirit by which entrance is effected into hearts which seemed shut up forever.

Wonderful is the patience and long-suffering of the Lord, or he would long since have left hardened and careless sinners to themselves. He is importunate, whether we are so or not. We take pains to resist his heavenly grace, but he abideth faithful to his own name of love.

O Lord, we bless thee that thou hast opened our hearts, and we pray thee now that thou hast entered, abide in our souls forever, as a king in his own palace-halls!

LIFE PROVED BY GROWTH

“Where there is life there will be growth, and if grace be true, it will surely increase. A painted flower keepeth always at the same pitch and stature; the artist may bestow beauty upon it, but he cannot bestow life. A painted child will be as little ten years hence as it is now.”

What need there is to observe the wide distinction between the picture and the living thing! Of painted likenesses of Christians we have more than enough; nor is the manufacture of portraits a difficult operation: what we want is the real thing and not the artistic imitation. Manton saith well that growth is the test. Many professors must be forever beginning again: they stick where they were, or thought they were. They were anxious about their souls, and are so still. They were trying and wishing, and with tries and wishes they are resting contented. If they were saved and knew it, they would find themselves making some measure of advance: not always advancing at the same rate, for all life is not equally rapid in its growth, but still progressing somewhat, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to that which is beyond.

Reader, how do you stand under this test? Come, search yourself, and see whether you are adding to your faith, courage; and to courage, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. If there be no growth, it may be, nay, surely it must be, that you are not a child born into the family of God, but a pretty picture, which may adorn a room, but which cannot perform any of the actions of life. It is a sad thing if such be your case, for heaven is not a portrait-gallery; it is the home of loving, living souls, whom grace has quickened with eternal life.

THE OPENED TREASURY AND THE BAGS

“If a mighty king should open his treasure, and bid men come and bring their bags, and take as much as they would; do you think they would neglect this occasion of gain? Surely no; they would run and fetch bag after bag, and never cease. Thus doth the Lord act toward us in the covenant of grace.”

He makes over all its fulness to his people, and saith, “All are yours.” We are not straitened in him. The bags will come to an end long before the treasure is exhausted. Let us come, then, to the throne of grace with enlarged desires and widened expectations: the Lord does not stint us, why should we put ourselves upon short commons? “He saith, eat and drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” Why, then, do we sit at the table and starve, or rise from it hungry? Let us by faith suck of the abundance of the sea of grace, and partake largely of the hid treasure which the Lord has laid up for us.

THE PHYSICIAN IN THE GARDEN

“Plutarch, in his treatise on growth in moral virtue, wherein are many things applicable to growth in grace, saith that a man that hath made some progress in virtue is like a physician, who, when he comes into a garden, doth not consider flowers for their beauty, as gallants do, but for their use and virtue in medicine. So the grown believer doth not consider speech for its fineness, but fitness and seasonableness for present use.”

The same holdeth good also concerning growth in grace; the more we grow the more we regard the spiritual part of the word, and such Scriptures and truths as are of practical use and personal concern. Hence it is that experienced believers cannot put up with the mere ornaments of speech which yield so much satisfaction to youthful minds. They want solid, practical, gospel doctrine, and they must have it. Their craving is for herbs for their healing, and not for bouquets for their button-hole. My heart, go thou with the wise men, and learn from them what is the way of wisdom.

BARKING DOGS CATCH NO GAME

“Hard speeches have an evil influence in controversy, and do exasperate rather than convince. The dog that followeth the game with barking and bawling loseth the prey; and there is not a more likely way to undermine the truth than an unseemly defence of it. Satan is mightily gratified, if men had eyes to see it, with the ill managing of God’s cause.”

This lesson is a needful one. Zealots are apt to mistake hard words for arguments. The more in earnest we are, the more are we tempted to speak bitterly, and to overlook the better side of our opponent’s cause. Many who think with us applaud us most for those very utterances which deserve the censure of the wise; and this foolish commendation is apt to egg us on in the same unprofitable direction. They would be more judicious if, while approving our zeal, they hinted that we might use a sweeter method and be none the less strong.

We hope as we grow older to be able to hunt more quietly, with surer scent but with less barking. Certainly as we grow in grace we shall more carefully distinguish between holy ardor which is kindled by the Spirit, and carnal heat, which is the wild-fire of unrenewed nature. God grant that as we grow prudent we may not also become lukewarm; else we may gain one way and lose another. We are poor creatures, for when we try to avoid an evil we generally swing like a pendulum to the opposite quarter, and commit another folly. The middle point, the golden mean of virtue, we do not readily reach.

TAKEN IN THE BRIERS

“Most that are acquainted with God are taken in the briers. Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh had never heard of many, if their necessities had not brought them to him.”

Free grace is a harbor into which few ships ever run except through stress of weather. “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble:” that is to stay, when they are well-nigh wrecked and are altogether at their wits’ end. Till the end of the creature is reached, men will not seek to their Creator, even as the prodigal never thought of home till he had spent all, and there was a mighty famine in the land. Our author refers to Manasseh who was taken among the thorns, and surely he was an instructive type of the great majority of those who are saved from sin.

Lord, be pleased of thy great mercy to overrule the vast amount of poverty and suffering which is now in this land, that men may be driven to thee thereby. Let thy black dogs fetch home thy wandering sheep. Let thy fierce, breaking tempests compel full many a wanton voyager to reef the sails of pleasurable sin, and steer for the haven of forgiving love.

CHESSBOARD

“Be watchful; the world is the devil’s chessboard; you can hardly move backward or forward, but he is ready to attack you by some temptation.”

Those who play at the game of chess know that great circumspection is needed. Your opponent is working toward a design of which you know nothing, and while you imagine that you are doing exceedingly well he is entrapping you. The game of life, as against Satan, is one in which his age, his long practice, his superior skill, and his unscrupulousness give him an immense advantage over out poor self-conceited folly. Lord, help us, lest we lose our souls while we are dreaming of happiness. Thou knowest our adversary, be pleased to deliver us out of his hand.

THE DUMB BEGGAR

“A dumb beggar gets an alms at Christ’s gate if he can but make signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him.”

This is a cheering sentence for the many poor souls who feel that they cannot find words wherewith to pray. Sit down at mercy’s gate, and show your sores, and groan, and sigh. Let your rags ask for raiment, and your hunger plead for bread. Wounds are eloquent orators with a tender-hearted surgeon; expose your wounds to Jesus, and he will bind them up. Misery is mercy’s best constraint. When the psalmist could not pray a set prayer, he says, “I opened my mouth and panted.” He declares in another place that he panted like a thirsty hart: there is nothing articulate in panting, and yet no one ever misunderstood the meaning of the act. Come, then, ye dumb beggars, and learn the language of signs. Come and pant, come and spread your misery before the eyes of mercy, and doubt not that he who knows the thoughts of the heart will readily understand you and speedily grant your desires.

CALVIN AND HIS LORD

“ ‘What if my master should come and find me idle?’ said Calvin to his friends, who demanded of him why he wasted his body in such constant labors. Few art like-minded so as to put this question to their souls, ‘Am I as I would wish to be should Christ come?’ ”

This question may serve as a test as to our manner of life: Am I in such a state as I would wish to be in should my Lord appear? If we can answer this to our comfort, all is well; but if not, by all means let us mend matters, get out of our deshabille and stand ready to meet our coming Lord. Bravely did Calvin fight on under a heap of disorders, and if we would be approved at the last we must imitate him in a constant diligence, born of “seeing him who is invisible.”

Lord, make me to hear thy footfall evermore, and cause me so to live as though I heard thee at the door.

INVENTION OF FRESH WEAPONS

“As in war, as the arts of battery and methods of destruction do increase, so also doth skill in fortification; so in the Church, God still bestoweth gifts for the further explication of truth.”

We are glad to see our author writing so cheerily, for at this present it seems to us that our adversaries have been far more acute in assailing the gospel than the Church in defending it. Still on God’s side it is true that though his ministers may not be as faithful as they should be, yet he raises up one and another to stand as bulwarks for the truth, and so, after all, the grand old cause is not quite overborne. To the end of the campaign it will be so, and there is no real cause for despair, or even for despondency. The fortress of the gospel is still unconquered. Her motto is INVICTA. The gospel has survived the brutal ignorance of many ages, and if now the world has changed its fashions and professes itself to be wise, the same eternal system of truth will continue to baffle its designs. The assaults of sceptics are a gain to believers, for they produce a clearing and opening up of the truth. Opposition directs attention to neglected doctrines, and heresy calk for orthodox replies, and so our defences become stronger as our enemies become more furious. Happy citizens, to be thus shielded from the foe.

HOMEWARD BOUND

“A poor beast that is going homeward goeth cheerfully.”

See how the horse pricks up his ears and quickens his pace when you turn his head to his stable. The proverb saith that even the dull ass doth the same. Much more then should intelligent Christian men feel the attractions of their heavenly home. Courage, brothers and sisters; we, too, are homeward bound. Every hour brings us nearer to the many mansions. We are not going from home, or we might hang our heads: our way is toward the Father’s house on high, therefore let us rejoice at every step we take.

MARTHA COMPLAINING OF MARY

“St. Bernard hath a pretty note of Martha’s complaining of Mary, that she sat at Jesus’ feet, while herself was employed in all the business of the family. ‘Oh,’ saith St. Bernard, ‘that is a happy family where Martha complains of Mary!’ Oh, how few families do thus complain! The world eats up our time, our care, and our thoughts, and God hath but a little share, little worship, little reverence.”

For the most part in our households Mary might well complain of Martha, for family cares still cumber many and keep them away from Jesus’ feet. Very seldom are Christians nowadays too much in the closet, too much with their Bibles, too much at prayer-meetings. Alas, the most of them are all hack for the world, the shop, or the evening party. Martha, Martha, we may well complain to the Master of thee, for thou leavest him alone, and forsakest his teaching, and all for this poor, cumbering world!

Lord, help us to balance our duties, and thus may we serve thee after the best manner, through thy grace.

THE COMET AND THE SUN

“We gaze more on a comet than on the sun.”

This is the reason why erratic teachers are for a while popular, and attract pubic attention. It is given out that they are “some great one,” and all the town is staring with open mouth. The nine days’ wonder is every day’s talk. The new teaching is something marvellous, and the old creed is to be driven out of the land. New lights are to eclipse the old; at least, so we are told. Let us wait a while, however, and the comet will have vanished, and the half-forgotten fixed stars will be seen to be shining on with unfading splendor.

May the Lord give us such fixed and established judgments that no novelties of doctrine may ever dazzle us. Children are fond of new toys; let us be men and keep to the tried word of the Lord.

VIOLET AND NETTLE

“Laden boughs hang low. The nettle mounteth above its fellow weeds, but the violet lieth shrouded under its leaves, and is only found out by its own scent.”

Walking one day by a stream we were conscious of a delicious perfume, and only then did we perceive the little blue eyes which were looking up to us so meekly from the ground on which we stood. Virtue is always modest, and modesty is itself a virtue. He who is discovered by his real excellence, and not by his egotistical advertisement of his own perfections, is a man worth knowing: the other is a mere nettle who is sure to be forgotten, unless indeed his blustering pride should sting some tender spirit, and secure a wretched kind of remembrance.

O that I may ever be more gracious than I seem to be. Never may it be any concern of mine to be observed of men, and yet let me so live that I need not fear to be read and known of all.

THE SWOLLEN ARM

“Certainly a proud spirit is no great spirit, any more than a swollen arm can be accounted to be strong.”

Many mistakes are made on this matter both as to men and language. Boasters are by foolish persons reckoned at their declared value: no mistake can be greater; a proud spirit is of necessity small and mean in the judgment of truth. Language is thought to be forcible because it is hard, severe, and blustering; and yet there is little power in such speaking except to provoke opposition and furnish motives and weapons for the opposer. Judge, then, between swelling and strength: avoid the one and prudently aim at the other. True humility is beloved of God, and he ever comes to its aid.

I must be less and less in my own esteem if I would have power with God and prevalence with men. It seemeth not so, and yet so it is. Lord, write the lesson on my heart.

ONLY A LINK

“The first appearances of error are many times modest. There is a chain of truths; the devil taketh out a link here and a link there, that all may fall to pieces.”

The argument of “charity” is used to screen those who are robbing us of the gospel. We are bidden to be cautious how we condemn those who only differ on small points; whereas the truths which they would take away from us have important bearings upon other truths, and cannot be denied without a serious break-up of the whole doctrinal chain. Let us not give up a single link of the divine system, for if we did so, we should prove traitors to the whole plan of revealed truth.

In these times the illustration given above is exceedingly instructive. Satan knows that we would never consent to give up a wheel of the gospel chariot, and therefore in his craftiness he only asks for the linch-pins to be handed over to him. May God grant wisdom to his servants that none of them may be beguiled by the cunning of the adversary. Long ages may have to rue the defalcations of this day, if we sell the precious gospel to its foes. Until the Lord shall come we are put in trust with the gospel: will we be fraudulent trustees? Can we dare to play fast and loose with that which concerns God’s glory, and the destiny of immortal souls?

THE LUNGS

“Some graces, like the lungs, are always in use.”

“Pray without ceasing;” “be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long;” and such like exhortations appertain to continuous duties. Thus David says, “I have set the Lord always before me;” he was always living in the presence of God. Other parts of the human frame are exercised occasionally, but the lungs are always at work, and, even so, certain of the graces are in active motion in their appointed seasons, but faith never ceases to believe in the Lord Jesus, for it is essential to spiritual vitality. Hence we ought never to go where we shall be out of the atmosphere of heaven. Lungs must have air, and cannot endure a dense smoke or a poisonous gas; nor can faith bear error, false doctrine, and evil conversation. Since we always need the pure air of heaven, let us not go where it cannot be found. Who in his senses would desire to have been in the Black Hole of Calcutta? Who wishes to dwell where drunkenness and loose living abound? How can faith breathe in such a suffocating atmosphere?

Lord, keep thou my faith alive, that it may keep me alive, and that I may live to thee.

FRUIT WITHOUT THE SUN

“Fruit that hath but little sun can never be ripe.”

We have had practical proof of this, for during the year 1879, there being a scant measure of sunshine, the fruit was never properly ripened, and was therefore destitute of flavor and sweetness. Whatever might be its outward appearance, the berry was insipid and altogether unlike what the sun would have made it had he smiled upon the swelling fruit.

Thus, without communion with God, no soul can develop its graces, neither can those graces become what they should be. No measure of care or effort can make up for the light of the Father’s face; neither can attendance upon means of grace nor the use of religious exercises supply the lack. Fellowship with God we must have, or the essential honey of love will be deficient, the bloom of joy will be wanting, the aroma of zeal and earnestness will be missed. We may have the virtues by name, and we may exhibit some feeble, insipid imitation of them, but the secret savor and mystic richness of grace will not be in us unless we abide in the full light of divine love.

Lord, evermore be as the sun unto our souls, that we may be as fruit fully ripe, attaining to all the perfection and maturity of which our nature is capable.

FIRE! FIRE!

“When a fire is kindled in a city we do not say coldly, ‘Yonder is a great fire, I pray God it do no harm.’ In times of public defection we are not to read tame lectures of contemplative divinity, or fight with ghosts and antiquated errors, but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world, whatever it may cost us.”

If men valued truth as they do their goods and their houses, they would not regard error with such cool contentment. The cant of the present day cries, “Charity, charity.” As if it were not the truest charity to grow indignant with that which ruins souls. It is not uncharitable to warn men against poisonous adulterations of their food, or invasions of their rights; and surely it cannot be more uncharitable to put them upon their guard against that which will poison or rob their souls Lukewarmness of love to truth is the real evil to be deprecated in these times. We have new doctrines among us, full of practical mischief, and against these there is need to raise an earnest outcry, lest they gain so great a head that both church and state should be set on fire.

Lord, arouse thy watchmen, and bid them arouse all thy saints, for the times are full of danger.

THE GLASS WITHOUT A FOOT

“We derive all our strength from Christ. We are like glasses without feet; they cannot stand of themselves; neither can we.”

Such glasses are not ordinarily used now, but they were common enough in former times. A man must hold the glass in his hand, or it would be of no use to him, for he could not set it down on the table, since it could not stand alone, but rolled over, and spilt its contents. We are something in the hand of Jesus, but nothing out of it; we cannot even hold the water of life unless our Lord holds us. What poor creatures men are, and yet they dare to boast!

THE STONE AND THE CHIP

“A great deal of fire falleth upon a stone and it burneth not, but a dry chip soon taketh fire.”

According to our condition we are affected by the fire of the gospel. Hearts of stone are not kindled by the most vehement preaching of the word, nor will they ever be till grace works a change in their nature. The same sermons which are powerless with them are, through divine grace, most potent with souls prepared of the Lord to feel the flame. The failures of ministers are often traceable to the sinful state of their hearers—what is a man to do who labors to kindle a fire with stones? Must he not labor in vain? He may blow as long as he pleases, and burn his heart out with fervor, and yet his hearers’ hearts will not catch the flame; and he may even die in very anguish; but so long as the natural mind remains what it is he cannot effect his purpose.

Lord, I thank thee not only for the heavenly fire, but for the power to be affected by it. It is thy grace which makes me capable of grace, and unto thee be all the praise.

THE ANT-HILL

“The world is a great theatre, and the spectators are God and angels. I confess we little think of it; there is a foolish levity in our minds. As to us, the world is like a hill of ants; you stand by, and they run up and down, and do not think of your being there; so the Lord stands by and observes all our motions, and we run up and down like busy ants, and do not think of God’s presence among us. We live in a great hurry and clatter of business, and have but few thoughts of God. The Psalmist gives a description of carnal men in these words (Ps. 86:14), ‘They have not set thee before them.’ ”

Lord, let me not be a mere ant on the world’s hill; but as thou hast given me an understanding, help me to use it upon thyself, that so I may rise to the true level of an intelligent and immortal being. How can I disregard my God, my Father, my all? How can I be taken up with these trifles whilst thou art so near me, asking my love, and proving thy right to it by daily loading me with benefits? What a mere insect I am! Why am I thus? Why should I live like an emmet when thou hast made me a little lower than an angel? I shall never rise to what I ought to be unless thou reveal thyself in me and to me by thy good Spirit. Deliver me from that foolish levity of which thy servant speaks, which makes me fill my mind with contemptible vanities, and let me seriously remember thee, and the day when I shall stand before thy judgment-seat.

WANDERING SHEEP NEED GENTLE HANDLING

“Though swine or dogs be driven with violence, yet poor stray lambs must be brought home, as the shepherd brought home his lost sheep ‘upon his shoulders rejoicing,’ Luke 15. Many well-meaning men may err; be not too severe with them, lest prejudice make them obstinate, and so from ‘erring brethren,’ they become heretical.”

Sound advice this. It is true that certain troublesome heretics need to be rebuked sharply that they may be sound in the faith, but discretion is needed, and a loving spirit to guide the discretion: the sheep must not be driven as if they were swine. The tendency of stern orthodoxy is to act toward an erring one as cruel fathers do when they whip their boys without mercy, for they drive ten devils in while they think they are whipping one out. A doubter may be worried into a heretic before we are aware of it. Certain minds will learn anything from those they love, and nothing from those who are masterful with them. The gentleness of Christ is a choice qualification for a pastor. Heresies are better kept out by a full gospel than driven out by fierce controversy. Sheep may be worried into worse strayings, but they can be held by their teeth most securely if they are led into plentiful pasture. O for the Holy Spirit’s direction in dealing with weak and unstable minds.

DRY STICKS KINDLING THE GREEN

“Two dry sticks will set a green one on fire. Can you blame the children of God, then, if they mourn and enter their protest against the iniquity of the times?”

They see how the prevalence of sin affects those who would fain be innocent, and how the fashion of evil sweeps along with it those who at first had better manners; and this frets them sorely. We tremble at the mischief which can be done by men who are hardened in iniquity; those dry sticks, so eager for the flame, are our terror; when such are laid together we know how fierce will be the burning. Companionship in evil leads to a high pitch of sin. Hands joined in hand draw on with great force those who seemed reluctant to go in the way of evil. O that our young people would be warned of the danger of bad example! If we could keep the green sticks out of the way of the dry we should have little to fear for our sons and daughters; but, alas, the wicked are often more attractive than the righteous, and fair speech and gay habits fascinate the inexperienced. The amiable but undecided of our youth are beguiled by the pleasant manners of worldly people, and before they are aware they become like their betrayers.

Lord, save us from evil men, and when we are called in the order of providence to be in their presence, let us remember that we are also in thy presence, and so let us escape the contagion of their company.

TUNING AN INSTRUMENT

“If we could learn to frame our minds to our estates, as the skilful musician letteth down the strings a peg lower when the tune requireth it, we should pass to heaven more comfortably.”

Yes, we are as a rule pitched too high. We look for more in this life than it will ever yield us. If we could be satisfied with less we should be less dissatisfied. It is a great pity when men try to live above their means, for it often ends in their hardly having the means to live at all. Probably there is as much happiness in one station of life as in another if it is suitable to us, and we are able to fill it: the misery of life must be when a man has a little less than he needs and a great deal less than he aspires to. Contentment is the crown jewel of a happy life. We shall have enough, for the promise guarantees us our portion; why need we fret after more? “Here little and hereafter much,” as Bunyan says, is best for us.

O Lord, grant me grace to live above this world; and wherein I must live upon it, and think about it, help me to have few desires and no cares. Tune my nature so that without fail my life may make music to thy praise.

PRINTERS’ PROOFS

“O ye ministers of the word, consider well that you are the first sheets from the King’s press; others are printed after your copy. If the first sheet be well set, a thousand more are stamped with ease. See, then, that the power of religion prevail over your own hearts, lest you not only lose your own souls, but cause the ruin of others.”

Correcting for the press is work which has to be done with great care, since thousands of copies will be faulty if the proof-sheet be not as it should be. So should the minister of a congregation be seriously earnest to be right, because his people will imitate him. Like priest, like people; the sheep will follow the shepherd. What need there is that the pastor should order his steps aright lest he lead a whole flock astray! If the town-clock be wrong half the watches in the place will be out of time.

We have all an influence over others. Even the least one among us has some individual beneath his power to whom he serves as an example, for whom, indeed, he is a sort of proof-sheet. O that the good Lord would make us correct in all points, lest we be propagators of sin through the influence of our faults. By self-examination let us labor to correct the proofs.

THE LAPWING

“Usually complainers do least. The crafty lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying, to draw the fowler from her own nest. We have some secret nest of our own, and we are loath it should be rifled and exposed to public view, and therefore we raise an alarm about other matters.”

This we may be doing without being aware of it, for self-deceit is easy. We may be amusing ourselves with zeal for political reforms when in truth our own personal habits need reforming, or we may be exclaiming against the errors of the church while our own private life far more needs our attention. It is a pity to be cheating our own selves.

Our author, however, is very shrewd in his judgment of complainers. Our own experience leads us to the conclusion that critics of others, and noisy talkers of all kinds, have usually some design of their own, and are working to their own hand. If we were to press them home we should probably discover that they are no better than they should be. Their pretence of being wounded and hurt by the sins of others is a crafty scheme for drawing away observation from their own failings. Lapwings are plentiful enough all around us, and not a few are still deceived by their practices.

O Lord, save me from all deceit, and, above all, prevent my deceiving myself.

THE CHANGED BED

“A sick man thinketh to have ease in another bed, in another room; carry him thither, his pain continueth. If a carnal man had lived in the prophets’ times or the apostles’ times, he would have been the same as now; see Matt. 23:29, 30. A brier is a brier wherever it groweth; change of times will not avail without a change of heart. Adam sinned in Paradise; the apostate angels in heaven; Lot was unchaste in the mountains, where were none but his own family; in a howling wilderness, where they had no outward enticements, the Israelites were given to fleshly lusts.”

This is a needful rebuke of a very common folly; let the reader see that he fall not into the error. We ought not blame our occupation, but our disposition. We may not saddle our poverty or our wealth with the sin which is purely of ourselves, for this is only an oblique way of blaming God for our faults. Change of place is not wanted, but change of heart. If, dear friend, you are unholy where you are, you would be the same in any other position in life. The fault is not in your stars, but in yourself, that you are still an impenitent sinner. Lay this to heart; abandon all idle excuses and seek your Saviour.

DEEP FOUNDATIONS

“The Lord diggeth deep when he meaneth to raise the building high; and when he would give men to know much of Christ, he first bringeth them out of themselves by godly sorrow.”

We see many to be but low and mean in point of grace, not rising like towers toward heaven, but lying low upon the earth: these have never been digged out by a deep sense of sin, nor excavated by profound soul-trouble, and hence it would not be safe to build high with so shallow a foundation. If we could read the secret history of dwarfed Christians we should find that they never had much humbling of heart. They tell us there is as much of a tree under as above ground, and certainly it is so with a believer; his visible life would soon wither were it not for his secret life, and his high enjoyments would fall over to his ruin were they not balanced by his inward humiliations. There must be deep foundations if we are to have high walls; we must be emptied of self, and everything of human strength, or we shall never be filled with the love of God.

O my heart, be ready to be trenched deep if this be the necessary preparation for being built up aloft. Welcome pain and down-casting if edification is to follow.

GOOD DIET IN UNHEALTHY PLACES

“When the air is infectious we are the more careful of our diet.”

In sickly times and places men endeavor to keep up the strength of their bodies by nourishing food, and they strive to avoid sickness by wholesome meat. In this they act wisely, and according to the rules of prudence. An equal care should be exercised over our souls. When the very air seems to be laden with error and vice, believers should set a double watch as to what they hear, and where they go. Sin is as subtle and as deadly as the foul gas which bears within it the seeds of plague, and therefore the utmost caution must be used that we keep as far from its occasions and temptations as we possibly can. We must also live nearer to God than ever, and feed more upon Christ, and seek more of his Spirit than at any former time, that we may be fortified against the unusual dangers of the age. So shall we be error-proof and vice-proof, and, though a thousand fall at our side, the spiritual death shall not come nigh unto us. Errors, like diseases, prey upon, the feebler sort, and though they bring no good even to the strong, yet these are able to cast off their deleterious influences, even as a man in armor shakes off the arrows which else would wound him grievously. To be strong in the Lord is the best preservative against the ills of our age, and the perils of our surroundings.

O Lord, we would dwell in thy secret place, that abiding under thy shadow we may live unharmed even where Satan’s seat is, should thy providence there pitch our tent.

HEAVEN’S CEMENT

“Love is a grace that will make us industrious for the good of others, and therefore we read of the ‘labor of love’ (1 Thess. 1:3). It is gluten animarum, the glue of souls, the cement and solder of the church; the jointing that runneth throughout all the living and squared stones (Col. 3:14). By this souls are mingled, and all mutual offices are cheerfully performed.”

O for more of this sacred cement. The walls of many churches gape with huge cracks for lack of it. Building with untempered mortar is an ancient fault, but nowadays some build with no mortar at all. Professors seem to be piled together like a load of bricks, without life, love, or living truth to unite them; and the promise is forgotten, “I will lay thy stones with fair colors.” Will not our reader, if he be a believer, endeavor to furnish his portion of the sacred cement of love, which is the perfect bond? This will be far more useful than complaining of the lack of unity, for this complaint often creates the evil which it deplores. Critics pick out from between the stones the mortar, of which there is little enough already; but loving hearts fill up the cracks, and do their best to keep the structure whole. “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

How am I acting? Am I a bond in the building, or do I, like the foolish woman in the Proverbs, pluck down the house with my hands? O Lord of peace, make me more and more a lover of peace.

LAY-FIGURES

“You would all judge it to be an affront to the majesty of God if a man should send his clothes stuffed with straw, or a puppet dressed up instead of himself, into the assemblies of God’s people, and think that this would do instead of his personal presence. Yet our clothes stuffed with straw would be less offensive to God than our bodies without our souls. The absence of the spirit is the absence of the more noble part.”

Think of this, ye whose hearts are with your flocks and herds, and shops, and ships, when you are in your churches and chapels. Will ye longer insult the Lord who will have only those to worship him who worship him in spirit and in truth? A mind stuffed with vanity and unbelief must be worse than clothes stuffed with straw. Reader, have you never set up this abomination before the very eyes of the Eternal?

CLOWNS AND PRINCES

“It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been, acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father’s table for such base feeding, that were strange. I do not wonder at carnal men, that they are delighted with carnal objects: they never knew better; but for a child of God, that hath tasted how gracious and sweet God in Christ is, to find sap and savor in coarser fare, this is wonderful.”

Yet were our author now alive he might weep his eyes out as he saw professing Christians craving for the ball-room and the theatre. The carrion which professors can now feed upon is disgusting to the very thought of a real Christian. Entertainments are got up among religious people which are unworthy even of decent worldlings. Many true hearts are deeply wounded by this terrible degeneracy. Were it not for a small remnant we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.

PAINT FOR PAINT

“A ministry that stayeth in the paint of words will beget but painted grace.”

If it is not a real, hearty ministry of grace, inspired, by the Holy Spirit, it will end in nothing. Fine words neither wound nor heal. Oratory may amuse, but it cannot convert; and rhetoric may astonish, but it will never save. We must have more than mere words, however striking—paint will not do; we want living preaching, by men in downright earnest, attended by the living Spirit, or else life will never be created or sustained by it. What is the use of coloring the cheek of the dead? The hue of life is a mockery while death reigns within. That is evil preaching which creates the semblance of piety, but never imparts the substance.

Lord, save me from being the imitation of a Christian, the produce of a mimic gospel. Give me thoroughness and sincerity, and let not my religion be a painted pageantry for me to go to hell in. Create in me a clean heart, O God!

SLUGGARDS HATE LIGHT

“The lazy world would fain lie upon the bed of ease, draw the curtains and rest; and therefore light is troublesome to it. In these days men begin to tire of gospel music, and thirst and pant for the old unsavory moral strains, which deal with sin in general, and do not irritate men by close personal applications.”

Faithful preachers are like those men whose business it is to arouse slumbering workmen and call them to their labors. The sound is not welcome to those who desire a little more slumber; they wish no blessings upon the head of the noisy watchman. Yet if they be aroused and reach their work betimes they have a good word in the end for him who caused them to be up and doing. The watchman should not take notice of a hasty word from one half awake; he may rest content that he will have their good word by and by.

Manton was right in his suspicion that mere moral preaching would continue to have its admirers. Many nowadays reckon it a crime for the preacher to be rousing and personal; they prefer a good sound moralist who will tell servants their duty, and let their masters and mistresses sleep. O that men were wise, for then they would count him to he the best preacher who the most earnestly calls them out of their beds of sinful ease to seek and find salvation. None do this but spiritual, gospel preachers. Your “moral” teacher pretends to be very practical, and yet if you watch for the results of his efforts, what will you see? When you have looked through a microscope you will only say, “There is nothing,” for truly there are no results worth mentioning. Sin is a serpent which these moralists cannot tame, charm they never so wisely.

Lord, help us to cry aloud, and spare not till the slumberers arise; and let us use thy truth as the best awakener. Let thy light shine on sluggards and awaken them. If these things suffice not, O Lord, thunder at them, and by some means break their death-sleep.

THE LONG GARMENT

“A garment which is too long trails in the mire and soon becomes a dirty rag; and it is easy for large estates to become much the same. It is a hard lesson to ‘learn to abound’ (Phil. 4:12), We say such a one would do well to be a lord or a lady; but it is a harder thing than we think it to be.”

It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand. High places are dizzy places, and full many have fallen to their eternal ruin through climbing aloft without having grace to look up. The simile of the trailing garment used by Manton is simple, but instructive. Such robes raise a dust, and gather upon themselves all sorts of filthiness, besides being subjected to needless wear and tear. A man may have so much of this world that he misses the next. His long robe may trip him up in the race for the heavenly prize, and he may fall a victim to the wealth he idolized. Alas, for the poor rich! Faring sumptuously every day, and yet full often strangers to that deep and peerless joy which belongs to those who, in the deep waters of poverty, find a boundless bliss in trusting God. When the rich are saved they should count it a miracle of grace, and feel great gratitude to him who enables a camel to go through the eye of a needle, notwithstanding his hump.

Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches; or, rather, be thou my riches, and give thyself to me. As for all else, I would leave myself without reserve in thy hands.

CRIPPLES MOCKING

“If cripples mock us for going upright, we pity them.”

If worldlings rail at us for endeavoring to lead godly and sober lives, we should not be angry, but rather sorrow over their infatuation. No wise man will swerve an inch from his path to please those who are mad with sin, nor will he break his heart because idiotic sinners make a jest of his uprightness.

BIRD CATCHING BY NIGHT

“This is the Devil’s device, first to maze people, as birds are with a light and a bell in the night, and then to drive them into the net. If you would keep to wholesome doctrine, keep to a form of whole-some words, and do not place religion in conceited speaking.”

Would to God that this advice would be heeded! We have those about us who are forever inventing some new thing, and using the old orthodox terms in an altogether novel sense. Their hearers are first dazzled with the clever candle-light, and cannot make out what the novel brilliance means; and when they are thoroughly bewildered, a great noise and tinkling is made of pretended wisdom and deep thought, so that the poor souls are ready to fly anywhere and anyhow. Thus the fowler’s business is effectually done, and by this means, if it were possible, they would ensnare the very elect. The safest way for simple souls is to keep to a definite and decided gospel ministry. If you do not know the voice of the shepherd, do not follow him. Of course you will avoid a wolf, for his howl is your warning; but be doubly careful to keep dear of the false shepherd, and, to make quite sure of your man, count him to be false who is not evidently true.

Lord, preserve my poor silly mind from being dazed and dazzled, and let me follow thy truth step by step even to the end.

DWELLERS IN MARSHES

“In marshy countries we do not expect a clear air; so sensual persons have seldom any clear and elevated thoughts of God. Men given to pleasures can taste meats and drinks, but not doctrines.”

Hence the folly of being swayed by their censures. Learned men are to be respected when they express opinions upon subjects which they understand; but when they are known to be without grace and spiritual light their opinions upon divine truth are not to be regarded. They have not the capacity to appreciate such things, and they had better let them alone. A blind man may be a first-rate musician, and in his own department he may be a master, but if he ventures to dogmatize upon color and artistic portraiture he is more worthy of ridicule than of reverence. Carnal men have not the needful taste by which divine doctrine is discerned. Their minds are as to religion a mere marsh land, breeding fog and mist, and to hope for clear and expansive views of the gospel from them is in vain. May God of his great mercy uplift the great, sunken intellects of our day, and give a holy taste and discernment to those who now know nothing of the bread of heaven or the new wine of the gospel. Meanwhile it will be as well to take as little notice as possible of their opinions upon religion, which must of necessity be valueless.

THE UNFINISHED HOUSE

“We shall not keep what we have received if we do not labor to increase it, as a house begun to be built goeth to decay, and droppeth down more and more, if we do not go on to finish it.”

Have we not all seen what are commonly called house-carcasses standing in desolation, a blot upon the street, and a dead loss to the builder? To-day the slates are falling, to-morrow the windows are broken, and anon timber after timber falls. Just such are they who having begun to build in the matter of religion have failed to count the cost, and so come to a stand-still, and speedily arrive at a ruin. We believe—not in the continuance of unprogressive grace, but in the perseverance and progress of saints even to the end. Blessed are they who have this persevering progress, for these are habitations builded of God. Others, who abide in their immovable self-content, are ruined by degrees, and prove themselves to be mere carcasses, within which the living graces have never taken up their residence.

Remember this, O my soul, and pray the Lord to build thee up by his Spirit, and complete in thee the work of grace with power.

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

“If because you are Christians you promise yourselves a long lease of temporal happiness, free from troubles and afflictions, it is as if a soldier going to the wars should promise himself peace and continual truce with the enemy; or as if a mariner committing himself to the sea for a long voyage, should promise himself nothing but fair and calm weather, without waves and storms;—so irrational it is for a Christian to promise himself rest here upon earth.”

Experience abundantly confirms this, and yet who would not be a soldier of the cross? And, being so, who would wish to be a feather-bed soldier, never flushing one’s sword, or smelling powder. If there be no war there can be no victory; case is therefore our loss and hindrance. What we need is not freedom from conflict, but abundance of faith. Trials would little try us if we had more confidence in God, and afflictions would have small power to afflict us if we laid up our heart’s joy and confidence in the Lord alone. Nearness to God is the one desideratum.

O Lord, draw us very near thee, and then we shall dwell in peace though the whole world should battle with us.

BURNING A HOUSE TO KILL MICE

“If a man should fire a house to destroy the mice in it, we should think him to be fairly mad.”

Yet those who consider themselves to be reasonable men will set a church in a blaze about the merest trifle. Meeting after meeting will be called, and angry discussions provoked, and holy work overturned about the smallest mistake of the preacher, or the minutest fault of a deacon. One would think that heaven itself was endangered, and yet it turns out to be a question of infinitesimal importance. Societies which were doing great service have even been broken up by the crazy whimsies of good brethren, who mad much ado about nothing, and did great harm in trying to do a little good.

But the mice are a nuisance! Of course they are, and we must buy a cat or set a trap, but we certainly shall not burn the house down when a simple means will accomplish our purpose. We aim at reformation, not at desolation. We see no wisdom in so perpetually improving a church or a good society that in the end it is improved from off the face of the earth. Religion has been thought to be sick, and fools have doctored it till they brought it to death’s door by their poisons. Prudence is to be used, even when our object is worthiest of zeal; and never ought we to endanger a really good thing for the sake of making it a little better.

Lord, make me wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, and if I am called to protest against error or sin, help me to do it in the spirit of my Lord.

CLOSING THE FLOOD-GATES

“Any fool can open the flood-gates, but when the waters have once broken out, who can recall them?”

A question well worthy to be weighed by those who create strife. They can with a few hasty words set loose a torrent of anger and uncharitableness, and cause the sweeping away of much good service and sweet fellowship, but who shall rule, restrain, or call back the raging flood. O meddler, pause ere thy sad work be actually commenced, for woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh!

So, too, a stream of dangerous doctrine may easily enough be set flowing among a people. Doubtful words and curious questions may soon let out a ruinous deluge of infidelity and false teaching, and he who at the first drew up the flood-gate may never have dreamed what would come of it; he may even wring his hands at horror of his own deed, and yet may be utterly powerless to stay the mischief. Be cautious, therefore, O speculating teacher. Carry thine inventive faculties into a less dangerous region. Let the old barriers stand, and be not thou Satan’s tool to do a mischief which an age may rue.

THE SPIDER

“The blind hope that is found in men ignorant and presumptuous will certainly fail them; it is compared to ‘a spider’s web,’ Job 8:14. The spider spinneth a web out of her own bowels, which is swept away as soon as the besom cometh; so do carnal men conceive a few rash and ungrounded hopes; but when death cometh, or a little trouble of conscience, these vain conceits are swept away.”

Let us not spin a hope of heaven out of ourselves, or our own works, feelings, or professions. Such a web of confidence may be very ingeniously contrived, but it must be very frail and will inevitably be swept away. What is a man full of self-righteousness but a dark room full of cobwebs? Good housekeepers do not care for the clever works of this poor insect, but are eager to destroy them, for they are a detriment, and not an ornament. Neither spiders nor their webs are acceptable to us; and even so we may depend upon it that when we have finished the web of our legal hopes and worked hard at our will worship, God will have no more respect to us and our proud doings than we have to spiders and their constructions. Let proud Pharisees think of this and be humbled. The bee is our example, for she builds a house, but fetches all the material from abroad, and it is from the flowers of the garden, and not from herself, that she procures the honey with which she stores her cells. Spiders suck no flowers as bees do, their productions are from their own bowels. True believers get all the substance and sweetness of their hopes from the flowers of the promises, and dare not live upon themselves, or anything that they can do or be.

BIRDS ON THE WING

“Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of heavenly thoughts, the more we escape snares.”

O that we would remember this, and never tarry long on the ground lest the fowler ensnare us. We need to be much taken up with divine things, rising in thought above these temporal matters, or else the world will entangle us, and we shall be like birds held with limed twigs, or encompassed in a net. Holy meditation can scarely be overdone; in this age we fear it never is. We are too worldly, and think too much of the fleeting trifles of time, and so the enemy gets an advantage of us, and takes a shot at us. O for more wing and more use of the flight we have! Communion with Jesus is not only sweet in itself, but it has a preserving power by bearing us aloft, above gun-shot of the enemy. Thoughts of heaven prevent discontent with our present lot, delight in God drives away love to the world, and joy in our Lord Jesus expels pride and carnal pleasure: thus we escape from many evils by rising above them.

Up, then, my heart. Up from the weedy ditches and briery hedges of the world into the clear atmosphere of heaven. There where the dews of grace are born, and the sun of righteousness is Lord paramount, and the blessed wind of the Spirit blows from the everlasting hills, thou wilt find rest on the wing, and sing for joy where thine enemies cannot even see thee.

VALENTINIAN AND THE SPOTTED GARMENT

“There is a story of Valentinian in Theodoret, that when he accompanied Julian the Apostate to the temple of Fortune, those that had charge of the house sprinkled their holy water upon the emperor, and a drop fell upon Valentinian’s garment. He beat the officer, saying that he was polluted, not purged, and tore off the piece of his garment upon which the drop lighted, ‘hating,’ saith the historian, ‘the garment spotted by the flesh.’ ”

The man was decided and outspoken, and this may well make us lenient toward his rough way of showing it. The story is narrated, not that we may imitate Valentinian in his violence, but that we may regard it as a figure of the holy horror which ought to inspire us when so much as a spot of sin defiles us. We are to keep ourselves unspotted from world; not only free from great smears and daubs, but even from spots. O for a deep hatred of sin, and a determination to part with anything and everything which bears its stain. Let us rend off a polluting habit and utterly abstain from it, however pleasing it may have been. Sins of the flesh especially are so apt to grow that the least approach to impurity must be regarded as a plague-spot; here there must be no dallying with evil, or winking at the appearance of it. The same is true of all other forms of evil, the smallest seed will bring forth a terrible harvest. From the least error, the least wrong, the least falsehood we must be purged if we would walk with Christ and be accepted of him as his “disciples indeed.”

Lord, cleanse thou me, that I may be without fault before thy throne.

COURTIERS’ COURTESY

“Courtiers are more polite in their manners than ordinary subjects, because they are more in their prince’s eye and company. The oftener we are in God’s a court the more holy shall we become.”

The company of the Lord’s holy servants raises the tone of our thought and makes us aspire after a sanctity beyond what we possess, and therefore we may be sure that communion with their Lord will be still more beneficial to us. If we learn good manners from the man, what may we expect from being with the Master! From Jesus we shall learn gentleness and love, purity and self-sacrifice, and so acquire the courtly manners of the Prince of Peace, shaking off at the same time the boorish ways which ding to us from having dwelt in Mesech and tabernacled in the tents of Kedar. There is no preparation for heaven like abiding with heaven’s Lord

Come, my heart, art thou now walking with God? How long since thou hast spoken with thy sovereign? Arise and get thee to his royal courts, and, one there, go no more out forever. Thy heaven and thy preparation for heaven both lie in thy Lord.

FINE SPUN THREAD

“When the thread of the gospel is too fine spun, it will not clothe a naked soul.”

Nice distinctions and technical phrases may hide the fulness of the word of God, and the simple truth may be treated in such a philosophical manner that its strength and substance may he taken away. Some men preach the gospel, but there is very little of it. It is the right wool, but it is spun too fine. They give milk, it is true, but the water of their own notions so dilutes it that a man might sooner be drowned in it than nourished by it. O to preach a full gospel fully!—to give it out with the richness and freeness which poor sinners need. This is one of the great demands of the day. Men are very liberal in their views, but they are not liberal in dealing out the precious things of the gospel of Christ. Cold is this world and bitter are the blasts of conscience, and while they are shivering in their sins, poor awakened souls need all the gospel of grace, and all the grace of the gospel. O that our brethren would give up their fine spinning and wire-drawing of the doctrines of grace, and give us something substantial from the storehouse of the everlasting covenant, and plenty of it. Alas, too many despise the old-fashioned word, and in their heart of hearts hate the very doctrine which they pretend to uphold. We know some who have no more right in the Christian ministry than Mahometans, and yet they say they are followers of Jesus. We have not so learned Christ.

THE FRIGHTENED WOLF

“A wolf may be scared from his prey, but yet he keepeth his preying and devouring nature.”

He has not lost his taste for lambs, though he was obliged to drop the one which he had seized. So a sinner may forego his beloved lust, and yet remain as truly a sinner as before. He gives up the drink for fear of losing his situation, or dying of disease, but he would be at his liquor again if he dared. The fear of hell whips him off some favorite vice, and yet his heart pines for it, and in imagination he gloats over it. While this is the case the man in the sight of God is as his heart is; the muzzled wolf is still a wolf, the silenced swearer is still profane in heart, the lewd thinker is still an adulterer.

Something is done when a wolf is scared, or a transgressor driven out of his evil ways, yet nothing is done which will effectually change the wolf or renew the ungodly heart. A frightened sinner is a sinner still. Like the frightened dog, he will return to his vomit; and like the sow that was washed, he will wallow in the mire again as soon as opportunity offers. “Ye must be born again:”—this is the only effectual cure for sin. While the nature is unchanged it is but the outside of the cup and platter which is washed. “Truth in the inward parts” is that which God desireth, and till that is given we remain under wrath. Any thief will turn honest under the gallows, and yet if he were set free he would rob the first house he came to. A scare is not a conversion. A sinner may be frightened into hypocrisy, but he must be wooed to repentance and faith. Love tames and grace transforms; may the God of all grace deal thus with each of us.

THE FALLEN SOT

“A sottish drunkard, that is overpoised with his own excess, lieth where he falleth, and except some friendly hand lift him up, there he perisheth; and just so it is with sinners, they are pleased with their condition, and if they be not soundly roused up and awakened, they lie and die, and fry in their sins. Oh! then, pluck them out of the fire, warn them to flee from the wrath to come.”

Be in earnest with them! Exhort, rebuke, entreat. Do not leave them to perish in their sins. Use a holy violence with them, and pull them out of the mire. Common humanity would lead us to help a sheep which had fallen into a ditch, and shall we come to the rescue of an immortal soul! The sottishness and folly of the ungodly must not dispirit us; we must take that into the account, and we shall not wonder at their uncouth and ungrateful treatment of us. As a drunken man does not want to be helped, and curses those who would serve him, so is it often with those ungodly ones who most of all require our aid. Let us not be put off by them, but labor to save them even though they are resolved to destroy themselves. Whatever evil expressions they use toward us now, they will think and speak very differently if they are saved by our means. We will appeal from the verdict of their present drunkenness to the thankfulness of their future sobriety.

Blessed Master, make us more concerned to win souls, and let us never give over, however bad men may be. How can we let them perish when we remember that thou wouldst not leave its to die in our sins, though we were we were as far gone as any of those around us?

THE CLOCK OF PROVIDENCE

“There is a clock with which Providence keepeth, time and pace, and God himself setteth it.”

So that everything happens with divine punctuality. Israel came out of Egypt on the selfsame night in which the redemption was appointed, and afterward wandered in the wilderness till the hour had come when the iniquity of the Amorites was full. Our time is always come, for we are in selfish haste; but our Lord when on earth had his set times and knew how to wait for them. The great God is never before his time, and never too late. We may well admire the punctuality of heaven.

Our trials come in due season, and go at the appointed moment. Our fretfulness will neither hasten nor delay the purpose of our God. We are in hot haste to set the world right, and to order all affairs: the Lord hath the leisure of conscious power and unerring wisdom, and it will be well for us to learn to wait. The clock will not strike till the hour; but when the instant cometh we shall hear the bell. My soul, trust thou in God, and wait patiently when he says, “My time is not yet come.”

THE HOUSE ON FIRE

“If a man set his house on fire, he is liable to the law; if it be fired by others, or by an ill accident, he is pitied and relieved.”

We are to take up our cross when laid upon our shoulders by God’s providence; but we are not to make trouble for ourselves. We are not to fill our own cup with gall and wormwood, but to drink it off when God puts a bitter draught into our hand. We are to meet temptation and overcome it; but we may not venture into temptation on our own account, or we may have to rue our foolhardiness.

The figure of the burning house is a very apt one, and capable of many illustrations. A man who partakes of wine or strong liquors wilfully fires his own house, and, whatever may be the result of his Intemperance, he can only blame himself. He who reads sceptical works, or frequents infidel society, cannot be pitied if he loses faith and comfort, for he runs a wanton and useless risk.

To be taken at unawares by a fierce temptation, is to be like a building fired by a malicious hand, and this is a grievous calamity; but to go wilfully into temptation is another matter, and is comparable to the crime of arson, in which a man collects combustible materials and secretly kindles them, that his house may be burned down.

Lord, evermore keep me from being my own destroyer. Let me not, like Absalom, grow my hair for my own hanging. “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

A KNOCK BORNE FOR THE SAKE OF A CROWN

“A man will venture a knock that is in reach of a crown.”

The ambitious will run all risks of cruel wounds, and death itself, to reach a throne; the prize hardens them against all hazards. Even so will every wise man encounter all difficulties for the crown of life; and when, by faith, he sees it within reach, he will count all afflictions light through which he wades to glory. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”

PROVISION FOR A JOURNEY

“He that is in a journey to heaven must be provided for all weathers: for though it be sunshine when he first sets forth, a storm will overtake him before he cometh to his journey’s end.”

Very small must be the number who have had fair weather all the way to glory: it is questionable if ever one has been so favored. Hence we ought, every one of us, to be prepared for tempest and hurricane, or we may be found in an evil plight in the day of our calamity. The presence of God is the only universal preservative. When he is with us the sun shall not hurt us by day, nor the moon by night. God, all-sufficient, meets every contingency, seen or unseen. Faith must take her God to herself, and then prudently look forward to occasions for making test and proof of the endless uses to which the Divine presence can be turned. A man who has made ample provision for all weathers is rather glad than sorry to be driven to use what he has provided, and, even so, trials are well-nigh welcomed by the man who is fully armed against them. He feels that it would be a kind of waste to be well stored and then never have to draw upon the supply—a sort of superfluity to be fully armed and yet never to meet an enemy.

Have faith in Christ and you are ready for anything, thankful for everything, afraid of nothing. “Ye are complete in him.”

MAKING A NOISE BY CRYING “SILENCE”

“A crier in the court, that is often commanding silence, disturbeth the court more than they that make the noise; so, disputing with our distractions increaseth them. They are better avoided by a severe contempt.”

That is to say, when Satan would disturb us at our devotions by injecting blasphemous thoughts or trifling ideas, we had better keep right on, and as much as possible disregard his interruptions. As blind Bartimeus cried all the more because officious persons sought to silence him, so should we be the more vehement in our supplications when the devil seeks to take us off from them. When he knocks let us fasten another bolt, and let him knock till he grows weary. Our business is with the Lord, and let us give our whole heart to seeking his face, for if we turn away to answer the enemy he will at once have gained his point. When he paints images on our fancy, if we steadfastly refuse to look at them he will cease from the unprofitable work, and betake himself to work upon some more foolish folk, who will turn aside from prayer to answer his vile insinuations. Let him howl as he pleases; if we do not regard him his pride will be hurt more severely than by any blow that we can aim at him.

“Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.”

Therefore, let us keep to our praying, and let him keep to his tempting till he has had enough of it. “Get thee behind me, Satan” is as much attention as he deserves. Herein is wisdom, and he that hath understanding will learn from it.

RIPENING CORN

“Before corn be ripened it needeth all kinds of weather. The husbandman is glad of showers as well as sunshine; rainy weather is troublesome, but sometimes the season requireth it.”

Even so the various conditions of man’s life are needful to ripen him for the life to come. Sorrows and joys, depressions and exhilarations, have all their part to play in the completion of Christian character. Were one grief of a believer’s career omitted, it may be he would never be prepared for heaven: the slightest change might mar the ultimate result. God, who knows best how to ripen both corn and men, ordereth all things according to the counsel of his will, and it is our wisdom to believe in the infallible prudence which arranges all the details of a believing life. “All things work together for good.”

LOOKING FOR AN EXPECTED GUEST

“When we expect any one, we turn our eyes that way, as the wife looks toward the sea, when she expects her husband’s return.”

Surely, then, if we look for Christ to come we shall keep our eyes heavenward, and our minds occupied with the country from which he cometh. If we mind earthly things, it will be evidence that the coming of the Lord has no power over us.

Yet a good wife does not sit idly by the sea watching for a sail, but she sets the house in order for her husband’s return. She who should sit looking out of window, or studying almanacs, and have no provision made for the home-coming, would show but scant love for her lord. We should watch, but we should also stand with our loins girt, and do the duty of the hour, that when our Lord comes he may not blame our negligence in his service. If we know little of the prophecies, we can show our expectancy by keeping the precepts.

PAYMENT IN GOLD INSTEAD OF COPPER

“Though Christ paid the same debt as that which is due from lost souls, yet, through the excellency of his person, it was done in a shorter time. A payment in gold is the same sum as a payment in silver or brass; only, through the excellency of the metal, it taketh up less room.”

Thus do we clearly see how the on death of Jesus was a fit and full substitute for the eternal woe of many. How precious does it appear in that light! We are redeemed with a price inconceivable! Gold and silver are corruptible things in comparison therewith. How we ought to prize the adorable person of our Lord! What high thoughts we ought to entertain of him, seeing that it is “by himself” that he purged our sins! His own intrinsic excellence was the essential value of the great price which he had paid. Had he been less illustrious his sufferings had been insufficient. Precious blood! yea, more precious Lord Jesus, from whose preciousness the finished work derives its infinite efficacy.

SLOW SHOWERS ARE BEST

“We would have speedy riddance of trouble, but God thinketh not fit to grant our request. Showers that come by drops soak into the earth better than those that come in a tempest and hurricane.”

The gradualness and long continuance of a trial, which are its sharpness and bitterness, are also, to a large extent, the causes of its usefulness. If the affliction came and departed with a rush, we should be rather swept away by it than softened and saturated by its influence. To push a crucible among the glowing coals and snatch it forth again would answer no purpose in refining: the metal must tarry in the furnace till the fire has done its work.

Perhaps the reader has long lived in a perpetual drip of trouble, and now feels himself to be quite weary of the endless torture. Let him not faint under the lengthened process: the highest degree of benefit is accruing to him from the continuance of his adversity. In the later part of a trial every stroke tells with tenfold result, and operates with a greatly increased efficacy. It would be a pity for the Lord to stay his hand when it is working with such special and marked result. All the preceding affliction has only worked the heart into a fit condition to receive the master-strokes of the Divine Artist. The ground colors have hitherto been laid on, but the second and finishing touch is now being given; therefore, ask not the hand to cease, but rather pray that its work may be carried on with power, and the Lord’s glory be seen in it all. It will not cease raining yet; and why should it so long as the soil is being softened, saturated, and fertilized by the falling drops? Let patience have her perfect work; and how can that be useless the tribulation runs its full time?

Lord, make me ready to tarry for the vision, however long it may be delayed. Thy way of trying me is the best, I would not hurry thy hand if I could.

GERMAN CHILDREN DIPPED IN THE RHINE

“God seeth it fitting sometimes, at our first setting forth, as the old Germans were wont to dip their children in the Rhine to harden them, so to season us for our whole course by plunging us in trouble. Saints must bear the yoke from their youth, or first acquaintance with God (Heb.10:32), for this is good for them.”

Some of us can indorse this opinion from our own experience. Sharp trials in our early days hardened us for our life’s warfare. Abused and misrepresented both by good and bad, we learned to set small store by the judgment of men, so that when praise and flattery followed, we had an antidote for the poisons. Pain and depression of spirit, endured in early life, have prepared many to sympathize with the unhappy, and to live a life of benevolence. A baptism into fire is, for young converts, a terrible ordeal, and yet an incalculable blessing. The whole Church endured this baptism for ages, and thereby gathered a strength much needed in these last days.

Let us never despise the chastening of the Lord. Should he seem to dip us in the Styx itself, let us believe that it is for our good, and stand to Job’s resolve, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

THE TRADESMAN MISSING HIS CUSTOMER

“You that are tradesmen are troubled if you happen to be abroad when a good customer cometh to deal with you: the ordinances of God are the market for your souls; if you had not been abroad with Esau you might have received the blessing, and gone away richly laden from a prayer-meeting, from the word, and the Lord’s Supper; but you lose your advantages for want of attention.”

With what diligence should we use the means of grace, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is;” and when we are there, we should be like the shopkeeper—on the lookout for business; not half asleep, or wandering in our minds. If we were more lively at sermons, we should find them more lively. Nothing profits a man which is done carelessly; when our minds are not in our business we cannot prosper in it, and we may be even more sure that we cannot profit by sacred exercises if we are not intensely earnest in them. If customers call, and find the tradesman away, he loses all hope of gain; and when grace and blessing come, and our hearts are not on the watch, we miss heavenly treasure, and remain in a poor and miserable condition. My soul, bestir thyself. Lord, quicken thou me in thy ways.

READY TO SAIL

“A Christian should be always as a ship that hath taken in its lading, and is prepared and furnished with all manner of tackling, ready to set sail, only expecting the good wind to carry him out of the haven.”

Would to God it were always so with us. We are fully stored and equipped in Christ Jesus, and yet we do not always enjoy the holy quiet which ought to spring out of so divine a fact. All is well. Why do we not feel that it is so? Why do we fear to depart? There remains nothing for us but to obey the call, let loose the cable, and float into the heavenly haven; but we act as if it were not so, and often dread the time for commencing the last voyage. It is more important to be prepared to live aright than to be in an ecstasy at the thought of death; but, still, while we are ready for service, it is sweet also to be ready for glory. The thought of death should never put us in a flurry. It should be every-day work to die: indeed, we should be always dead with Christ. Where this is realized death is dead, and as children are not afraid of a dead lion, so we also are not disturbed at the prospect of departing out of this world unto the Father.

“All that remains for me
Is but to love and sing,
And wait until the angels come
To bear me to my king.”

THAT WHICH WILL FILL A SEA WILL FILL A BUCKET

“God is satisfied with himself, and sufficient to his own happiness. Therefore, surely, there is enough in him to fill the creature. That which fills an ocean will fill a bucket; that which will fill a gallon will fill a pint; those revenues which will defray an emperor’s expenses are enough for a beggar or poor man.”

Good reasoning. GOD ALL SUFFICIENT is assuredly more than sufficient for me. What said Paul? “My God shall fill up all your needs, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

CONTRARY TO BIAS

“A man may act from a violent impression contrary to nature, as a stone moveth upward, or a bowl thrown with great strength will so run that it is clear that the bias is overruled; so a wicked man may do a good action or two, as Saul forced himself; but the bent and natural inclination is another thing.”

A fish now and then leaps out of the water, but it is not a bird; and a swallow touches the brook with its wing, but it is not a fish. Occasional actions and deeds done under pressure are no evidences of a man’s condition one way or another. Even a life of pure morality may not be a sure proof of a gracious heart; for circumstances and surroundings may have restrained the natural tendency of the mind, and it may be secretly as impure as that of the man who riots in open crime. A young leopard seemed to be perfectly tame for years, but it once had an opportunity of tasting blood, and straightway its innate ferocity was aroused. Some men only need to be assailed by a fitting temptation, and we should soon see that Satan’s power within them is in full force. The ball must be cured of its bias, or else the next throw may reveal its inability to move in a straight line; and so we must be renewed in heart, or our next action or thought may manifest our depravity.

Lord, make me to do good freely and naturally because I delight to do it; for nothing less than this will prove that thou hast renewed me by thy Spirit.

THE HOLDER OF THE KEYS KNOCKING AT THE DOOR

“What strange condescension, that he who hath the key of David should knock at the Father’s gate, and receive his own heaven by gift and entreaty!”

These are Manton’s words of surprise at the first sentences of our Lord’s prayer in John 17: “Father, glorify thy Son.” Even to Jesus it is said, “Ask of me.” God had one Son without sin, but never a son who did not pray. The cry of “Abba, Father!” is the mark of sonship. True prayer is the sign of a true-born child of God: “Behold, he prayeth” is the token by which each heir of glory is known.

What, then, must be the condition of such as never pray? How dwelleth sonship in them? All who call upon the Lord in spirit and in truth may say, “Our Father:” it is as “the Father” that God seeketh such to worship him.

O my heart, dread above all things a prayerless spirit! Thou hast not the key of David; how, then, canst thou enter into glory without knocking? He who had power to enter of himself yet asked that he might receive. Rouse thee, my soul, to renewed supplication, and may the Father hear thee at this hour, for Jesus’ sake.

CHILD’S PLAY

“To rule a kingdom is a nobler design than to play with children for pins or nuts.”

What, then, is the folly of the worldling’s choice when he prefers to be contending among men for earthly toys, instead of seeking those things which are above! How great the degradation of professing Christians when their minds are taken up with fashionable trivialities instead of living alone to glorify their God, and acting as those whom Jesus has made to be kings and priests! Who cares for pebbles when jewels glitter before him? Who would choose toys and rattles when the wealth of the Indies is offered him? Let us be no longer children or fools, but act as men who have put away childish things.

THE PRICELESS PRICE

“The satisfaction must carry proportion with the merit of the offence. A debt of a thousand pounds is not discharged by two or three brass farthings. Creatures are finite their acts of obedience are already due to God, and their sufferings for one another, if they had been allowed, would have been of limited influence.”

Jesus alone, as the Son of God, could present a substitution sufficient to meet the case of men condemned for their iniquities. The majesty of his nature, his freedom from personal obligation to the law, and the intensity of his griefs, all give to his atonement a virtue which elsewhere can never be discovered. None of the sons of men “can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” Jesus only could stand in our soul’s stead, and pay the dreadful price.

What sinners we are! What a sacrfice has been presented for us! No brass farthings were our price; nay, gold and silver are called “corruptible things” when compared with the precious blood which has paid our ransom.