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ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM APRIL 2004

By Grace Gems
ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM APRIL 2004 IN ONE FILE My beloved (Octavius Winslow, "None Like Christ" 1866) "How is your beloved better than others?" Song of Solomon 5:9 Does the world challenge– "How is your beloved better than others?" Your answer is at hand– "My beloved bore my sins, and opened in His heart a fountain in which I am washed whiter than snow! My beloved . . . sustains my burdens, counsels my perplexities, heals my wounds, dries my tears, supplies my needs, bears with my infirmities, upholds my steps, and cheers my pathway to the tomb. My beloved will be with me in the valley of the shadow of death, and with His presence I shall fear no evil. My beloved has gone to prepare a place for me in the many-mansioned house of my Father, and will come again and receive me to Himself, that where He is, I may be also. My beloved will walk with me in the gold-paved streets of the new Jerusalem. He will lead me to fountains of living waters, and will wipe every tear from my eyes! He is altogether lovely! This is my beloved, and this is my Friend!" And how is it that I am made to differ? (John MacDuff, "The Prophet of Fire" 1877) Let us adore the freeness of God's mercy, and the sovereignty of His grace. God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. Man has generally some reason for conferring his favors; some claim arising from person or pedigree, from character or attainments. But God's sole motive in conferring favors is His own free and gracious purpose. "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." He takes a Manasseh filling Jerusalem with blood, and makes him a monument of forgiveness. He takes a Saul breathing out his blasphemies, and converts him into the great Apostle. He takes . . . a crude heathen jailer, or an unprincipled tax gatherer of Jericho, or a profligate woman of Capernaum, or a felon in his dying agonies, while many encircled with the halo of natural virtues or with the prestige of religious education and training, are left to perish in their ungodliness and unbelief and pride! And it is the same principle we recognize still in His dealings. He often passes by . . . the great, the powerful, the rich, the sophisticated, the educated; yes, even the virtuous and the amiable; and He crowds the marriage supper of the King from the highways and hedges; with the poor and the illiterate; the outcast and prodigal. He often leaves palace and castle and stately mansion and lettered hall; and enters the humble cottage and the poor man's hovel. He takes the children's bread and casts it to Gentile dogs! Many old companions; those at one time better and more promising than I; have been long ago scattered as wrecks on life's ocean, entangled in the swirling vortex, and hurried down into nameless depths of infamy. And how is it that I am made to differ? How is it that that tale of misery and ruin; that which, in the case of others, has broken a parent's heart, and sent him sobbing and halting to the grave; how is it that I have escaped these dread temptations; and that, while others have broken loose with a worse than maniac's madness, I am this day sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in my right mind? Not unto me, O God! not unto me! But unto Your name be all the glory! I read the reason, written in gleaming letters, in the heights and depths of Your own Infinite love. By Your grace, Your free, sovereign, unmerited grace alone, I am what I am! How can he travel through this waste howling wilderness? (J. C. Philpot, "Reconciliation and Salvation" 1858.) If you are alive to what you are as a poor, fallen sinner—you will see yourself surrounded by . . . enemies, temptations, sins, and snares. You will feel yourself utterly defenseless, as weak as water, without any strength to stand against them. You will see a mountain of difficulties before your eyes. If you know anything inwardly and experimentally of yourself of . . . the evils of your heart, the power of sin, the strength of temptation, the subtlety of your unwearied foe, and the daily conflict between nature and grace, the flesh and the Spirit, which are the peculiar marks of the true child of God—you will find and feel your need of salvation as a daily reality. How shall you escape the snares and temptations spread in your path? How shall you get the better of all your enemies . . . external, internal, infernal, and reach heaven's gates safe at last? There is present salvation, an . . . inward, experimental, continual salvation communicated out of the fullness of Christ as a risen Mediator. Don't you need to be daily and almost hourly saved? But from what? Why, from everything in you that fights against the will and word of God. Sin is not dead in you. If you have a saving interest in the precious blood of Christ—if your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and heaven is your eternal home—that does not deliver you from the indwelling of sin, nor from the power of sin—except as grace gives you present deliverance from it. Sin still works in your carnal mind, and will work in it until your dying hour. What then you need to be saved from is the . . . guilt, filth, power, love, and practice of that sin which ever dwells and ever works in you, and often brings your soul into hard and cruel bondage. Now Christ lives at the right hand of God for His dear people, that He may be ever saving them by His life. There He reigns and rules as their glorious covenant Head, ever watching over, feeling for and sympathizing with them, and communicating supplies of grace for the deliverance and consolation for all His suffering saints spread over the face of the earth. The glorious Head is in heaven, but the suffering members upon earth; and as He lives on their behalf, He maintains by His Spirit and grace, His life in their soul. Each Christian has to walk through a great and terrible wilderness, wherein are fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought (Deut. 8:15); where he is surrounded with temptations and snares—his own evil heart being his worst foe. How can he travel through this waste howling wilderness unless he has a Friend at the right hand of God to send him continual supplies of grace—who can hear his prayers, answer his petitions, listen to his sighs, and put his tears into his bottle—who can help him to see the snares, and give him grace to avoid them—who observes from his heavenly watch tower the rising of evil in his heart, and can put a timely and seasonable check upon it before it bursts into word or action? He needs an all-wise and ever-living Friend who can . . . save him from pride by giving him true humility; save him from hardness of heart by bestowing repentance; save him from carelessness by making his conscience tender; save him from all his fears by whispering into his soul, "Fear not, I have redeemed you." The Christian has to be continually looking to the Lord Jesus Christ . . . to revive his soul when drooping, to manifest His love to his heart when cold and unfeeling, to sprinkle his conscience with His blood when guilty and sinking, to lead him into truth, to keep him from error and evil, to preserve him through and amid every storm, to guide every step that he takes in his onward journey, and eventually bring him safe to heaven. We need continual supplies of His grace, mercy, and love received into our hearts, so as to save us . . . from the love and spirit of the world, from error, from the power and strength of our own lusts, and the base inclinations of our fallen nature. These will often work at a fearful rate; but this will only make you feel more your need of the power and presence of the Lord Jesus to save you from them all. You are a poor, defenseless sheep, surrounded by wolves, and, as such, need all the care and defense of the good Shepherd. You are a ship in a stormy sea, where winds and waves are all contrary, and therefore need an all wise and able pilot to take you safe into harbor. There a single thing on earth or in hell which can harm you—if you are only looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, and deriving supplies of grace and strength from Him. What trifles, what toys, what empty vanities (J. C. Philpot, "The Things Which God has Prepared for Those Who Love Him" 1858) What trifles, what toys, what empty vanities do the great bulk of men pursue! Christian recreation (Theodore Cuyler, "Christian Recreation and Unchristian Amusement" 1858) All work makes a man a sorry slave. All play makes him a sorrier fool. The wise person avoids both extremes. Whatever makes . . . your body healthier, your mind happier, and your immortal soul purer, is Christian recreation. Many confound innocent recreation with sinful pleasures. One is right and the other is ruinous. Everything that . . . rests my body or mind, improves my health and elevates my soul, is commendable. Everything that stimulates my lustful propensities, until I become a walking maniac—everything that debauches my body, weakens my conscience, excites impure thoughts, and makes my soul a horrendous house of imagery—everything that makes me forget God and eternity—is dangerous, and in the last damnable. If God left us for a single hour (J. C. Philpot, "Prevailing Pleas" 1865) "Don't leave us!" Jeremiah 14:9 How much is summed up in those three words! What would it be for God to leave us? What and where would we be, if God left us for a single hour? What would become of us? We would fall at once into the hands . . . of sin, of Satan, and of the world. We would be abandoned to our own evil hearts—abandoned, utterly abandoned to the unbelief, the infidelity, to all the filth and sensuality of our wicked nature—to fill up the measure of our iniquities, until we sank under His wrath to rise no more! "Don't leave us!" Jeremiah 14:9 An idol is an idol (J. C. Philpot, "Prevailing Pleas" 1865) "Son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts! They have embraced things that lead them into sin." Ezekiel 14:3 An idol is an idol, whether worshiped inwardly in heart, or adorned outwardly by the knee. Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: "Repent and turn away from your idols, and stop all your loathsome practices. I, the Lord, will punish all those, both Israelites and foreigners, who reject Me and set up idols in their hearts, so that they fall into sin." Ezekiel 14:6-7 A worldly spirit will ever peep out (J. C. Philpot, "Trying the Spirits" 1865) "He gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age." Galatians 1:4 The first effect of sovereign grace in its divine operation upon the heart of a child of God, is to separate him from the world by infusing into him a new spirit. There is little evidence that grace ever touched our hearts if it did not separate us from this ungodly world. Where there is not this divine work upon a sinner's conscience—where there is no communication of this new heart and this new spirit, no infusion of this holy life, no animating, quickening influence of the Spirit of God upon the soul—whatever a man's outward profession may be, he will ever be of a worldly spirit. A set of doctrines, however sound, merely received into the natural understanding—cannot divorce a man from that innate love of the world which is so deeply rooted in his very being. No mighty power has come upon his soul to revolutionize his every thought, cast his soul as if into a new mold—and by stamping upon it the mind and likeness of Christ to change him altogether. This worldly spirit may be . . . checked by circumstances, controlled by natural conscience, or influenced by the example of others; but a worldly spirit will ever peep out from the thickest disguise, and manifest itself, as occasion draws it forth, in every unregenerate man. One drop of that potion (DeWitt Talmage, "The Ministry of Tears") I am a herb doctor. I put in the caldron the Root out of dry ground without form or loveliness. Then I put in the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. Then I put into the caldron some of the leaves from the Tree of Life, and the branch that was thrown into the wilderness Marah. Then I pour in the tears of Bethany and Golgotha—then I stir them up. Then I kindle under the caldron a fire made out of the wood of the Cross. One drop of that potion will cure the worst sickness that ever afflicted a human soul. Chasing of the shadow (John MacDuff, "The Shepherd and His Flock") "My soul finds rest in God alone." Psalm 62:1 The life of man is a constant striving after . . . rest, repose, and satisfaction. Many, indeed, are seeking it in base counterfeits; yet even in the counterfeit search we detect the aspiration after a nobler reality. In the very chasing of the shadow we discern the longing after the substance. The miser seeks it in his gold. The ambitious man seeks it as he climbs his giddy eminences. The pleasure hunter seeks it in artificial excitements. The student seeks it in the loftier aspirations and achievements of his intellectual nature. But true rest can be found in God alone. "My soul finds rest in God alone." Psalm 62:1 What a lesson is here for ministers! (J. C. Philpot, "The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God" Please forward this 'gem' to your pastors!) "And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" 1 Cor. 2:4 The word "enticing" is as we now say, "persuasive." It includes, therefore, every branch of skillful oratory, whether it be logical reasoning to convince our understanding—or appeals to our feelings to stir up our passions—or new and striking ideas to delight our intellect—or beautiful and eloquent language to please and captivate our imagination. All these "enticing words" of man's wisdom—the very things which our popular preachers most speak and aim at—this great apostle renounced, discarded, and rejected! He might have used them all if he liked. He possessed an almost unequalled share of natural ability and great learning—a singularly keen, penetrating intellect—a wonderful command of the Greek language—a flow of ideas most varied, striking, and original—and powers of oratory and eloquence such as have been given to few. He might therefore have used enticing words of man's wisdom, had he wished or thought it right to do so—but he would not. He saw what deceptiveness was in them, and at best they were mere arts of oratory. He saw that these enticing words—though they might . . . touch the natural feelings, work upon the passions, captivate the imagination, convince the understanding, persuade the judgment, and to a certain extent force their way into men's minds—yet when all was done that could thus be done, it was merely man's wisdom which had done it. Earthly wisdom cannot communicate heavenly faith. Paul would not therefore use enticing words of man's wisdom, whether it were force of logical argument, or appeal to natural passions, or the charms of vivid eloquence, or the beauty of poetical composition, or the subtle nicety of well arranged sentences. He would not use any of these enticing words of man's wisdom to draw people into a profession of religion—when their heart was not really touched by God's grace, or their consciences wrought upon by a divine power. He came to win souls for Jesus Christ, not converts to his own powers of oratorical persuasion—to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God—not to charm their ears by poetry and eloquence—but to bring them out of the vilest of sins that they might be washed, sanctified, and justified by the Spirit of God—and not entertain or amuse their minds while sin and Satan still maintained dominion in their hearts! All the labor spent in bringing together a church and congregation of professing people by the power of logical argument and appeals to their natural consciences would be utterly lost, as regards fruit for eternity—for a profession so induced by him and so made by them would leave them just as they were . . . in all the depths of unregeneracy, with their sins unpardoned, their persons unjustified, and their souls unsanctified. He therefore discarded all these ways of winning over converts—as deceitful to the souls of men, and as dishonoring to God. It required much grace to do this—to throw aside what he might have used, and renounce what most men, as gifted as he, would have gladly used. What a lesson is here for ministers! How anxious are some men to shine as great preachers! How they covet and often aim at some grand display of what they call eloquence to charm their hearers—and win praise and honor to self! How others try to argue men into religion, or by appealing to their natural feelings, sometimes to frighten them with pictures of hell, and sometimes to allure them by descriptions of heaven. But all such arts, for they are no better, must be discarded by a true servant of God. Only the Spirit can reveal Christ, taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto us, applying the word with power to our hearts, and bringing the sweetness, reality, and blessedness of divine things into our soul. "And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Unless we have a measure of the same demonstration of the Spirit, all that is said by us in the pulpit drops to the ground—it has no real effect—there is no true or abiding fruit—no fruit unto eternal life. If there be in it some enticing words of man's wisdom, it may please the mind of those who are gratified by such arts—it may stimulate and occupy the attention for the time—but there it ceases, and all that has been heard fades away like a dream of the night. A peculiar, indescribable, invincible power (Philpot, "The Word of Men and the Word of God") "Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction." 1 Thes. 1:5 The gospel comes to some in word only. They hear the word of the gospel, the sound of truth; but it reaches the outward ear only—or if it touches the inward feelings, it is merely as the word of men. But where the Holy Spirit begins and carries on His divine and saving work, He attends the word with a peculiar, an indescribable, and yet an invincible power. It falls as from God upon the heart. He is heard to speak in it—and in it His glorious Majesty appears to open the eyes, unstop the ears, and convey a message from His own mouth to the soul. Some hear the gospel as the mere word of men, perhaps for years before God speaks in it with a divine power to their conscience. They thought they understood the gospel—they thought they felt it—they thought they loved it. But all this time they did not see any vital distinction between receiving it as the mere word of men, and as the word of God. The levity, the superficiality, the emptiness stamped upon all who merely receive the gospel as the word of men—is sufficient evidence that it never sank deep into the heart, and never took any powerful grasp upon their soul. It therefore never brought with it any real separation from the world—never gave strength to mortify the least sin—never communicated power to escape the least snare of Satan—was never attended with a spirit of grace and prayer—never brought honesty, sincerity, and uprightness into the heart before God—never bestowed any spirituality of mind, or any loving affection toward the Lord of life and glory. It was merely the reception of truth in the same way as we receive scientific principles, or learn a language, a business, or a trade. It was all . . . shallow, superficial, deceptive, hypocritical. But in some unexpected moment, when little looking for it, the word of God was brought into their conscience with a power never experienced before. A light shone in and through it which they never saw before . . . a majesty, a glory, an authority, an evidence accompanied it which they never knew before. And under this light, life, and power they fell down, with the word of God sent home to their heart. When then Christ speaks the gospel to the heart— when He reveals Himself to the soul—when His word, dropping as the rain and distilling as the dew, is received in faith and love—He is embraced as the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely one—He takes His seat upon the affections and becomes enthroned in the heart as its Lord and God. Is there life in your bosom? Has God's power attended the work? Is the grace of God really in your heart? Has God spoken to your soul? Have you heard His voice, felt its power, and fallen under its influence? "And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe." 1 Thes. 2:13 The A and the Z (by DeWitt Talmage) Christ is the A and the Z of the Christian ministry. A sermon that has no Christ is a dead failure. The minister who devotes his pulpit to anything but Christ is an impostor. Whatever great themes we may discuss, Christ must be the beginning and Christ the end. A sermon given up to sentimental and flowery speech is as a straw flung to a drowning sailor. What the world needs is to be told in the most direct way of Jesus Christ, who comes to save men from eternal damnation. Christ the Light, Christ the Sacrifice, Christ the Rock, Christ the Star, Christ the Balm, Christ the Guide. If a minister should live one thousand years, and preach ten sermons each day, these subjects would not be exhausted. Do you find men tempted? Tell them of Christ the Shield. Or troubled? Tell them of Christ the Comfort. Or guilty? Tell them of Christ the Pardon. Or dying? Tell them of Christ the Life. Scores of ministers, yielding to the demands of the age for elegant rhetoric, and soft speech, and flattering terms, have surrendered their pulpits to the devil. May Christ be the subject of our talk; Christ the inspiration of our prayers; Christ the theme of our songs; Christ now, and Christ forever! Philosophy is nothing; denominations nothing; conferences nothing; assemblies nothing; ourselves nothing, but CHRIST EVERYTHING! That love will eternally embrace you! (by Richard Baxter) Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved by God—to be . . . the child, the spouse, the love, the delight of the King of glory? Christian, believe this, and think about it—you will be eternally embraced in the arms of the love which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting—of the love which brought the Son of God's love . . . from heaven to earth; from earth to the cross; from the cross to the grave; from the grave to glory; that love which was . . . weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced; that love which . . . fasted, prayed, taught, healed, wept, sweat, bled, died. That love will eternally embrace you! A prayer from hell (Mortimer, "Devotional Commentary on the Gospels") In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. The rich man cried, "Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in these flames!" Luke 16:23-24 If prayers were heard in hell, how many would be offered up! But the 'abode of despair' is not the place for prayer. All the rich man's requests were refused. His was a very small petition. It was not a petition for 'release'. Lost spirits know that release is impossible. The gates have closed upon them forever. But the rich man hoped that the slightest possible relief might be granted. He did not ask that Lazarus might bring him a large glass, nor even a drop of water—he did not ask that he might dip his own hand or his finger in water—but he asked that Lazarus might dip the tip of his finger in water, and apply it to his burning tongue. Yet the request was refused! Abraham reminded the tormented spirit that on earth he had received good things—and Lazarus bad things. Lazarus must not feel even for a moment the scorching flames of hell—nor must the rich man taste one drop of the cooling streams of heaven. There is a great gulf fixed. The inhabitants of each eternal world know that there can be no change of state. Hell knows that no celestial comforter will ever enter her gates—and Heaven that no malicious enemy will ever break through hers. This fills heaven with delight, and hell with despair! In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. The rich man cried, "Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in these flames!" Luke 16:23-24 Your life preaches all the week (Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1813—1843) Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two—your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating—he has ruined his ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be success. It is not great talents God blesses, so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awesome weapon in the hand of God. The deep things of God (J. C. Philpot, "The Things Which God has Prepared for Those Who Love Him" 1858) "But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." 1 Cor. 2:10 The Spirit of God in a man's bosom searches the deep things of God, so as to lead him into a spiritual and experimental knowledge of them. What depths do we sometimes see in a single text of Scripture as opened to the understanding, or applied to the heart? What a depth in the blood of Christ—how it "cleanses from all sin,"—even millions of millions of the foulest sins of the foulest sinners! What a depth in His bleeding, dying love, that could stoop so low to lift us so high! What a depth in His pity and compassion to extend itself to such guilty, vile transgressors as we are! What depth in His rich, free, and sovereign grace, that it should super-abound over all our aggravated iniquities, enormities, and vile abominations! What depth in His sufferings—that He should have voluntarily put Himself under such a load of guilt, such outbreakings of the wrath of God—as He felt in His holy soul when He stood in our place to redeem poor sinners from the bottomless pit—that those who deserved hell, should be lifted up into the enjoyment of heaven! A new creature (J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of John") In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3 The change which our Lord here declares needful to salvation is evidently no slight or superficial one. It is not merely . . . reformation, or amendment, or moral change, or outward alteration of life. It is a thorough change of . . . heart, will, and character. It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is a passing from death to life. It is the implanting in our dead hearts of a new principle from above. It is the calling into existence of a new creature, with . . . a new nature, new habits of life, new tastes, new desires, new appetites, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, and new fears. All this, and nothing less than this is implied, when our Lord declares that we all need a "new birth." Let us solemnly ask ourselves whether we know anything of this mighty change. Have we been born again? Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us? Is the image and superscription of the Spirit to be discerned in our lives? Happy is the man who can give satisfactory answers to these questions! A day will come when those who are not born again will wish that they had never been born at all. The most gorgeous cathedral service (J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of John") "God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:24 Note the utter uselessness of any religion which only consists of formality. The Samaritan woman, when awakened to spiritual concern, started questions about the comparative merits of the Samaritan and Jewish modes of worshiping God. Our Lord tells her that true and acceptable worship depends not on the place in which it is offered, but on the state of the worshiper's heart. The principle contained in these sentences can never be too strongly impressed on professing Christians. We are all naturally inclined to make religion a mere matter of outward forms and ceremonies, and to attach an excessive importance to our own particular manner of worshiping God. We must beware of this spirit, and especially when we first begin to think seriously about our souls. The heart is the principal thing in all our approaches to God. "The Lord looks on the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7) The most gorgeous 'cathedral service' is offensive in God's sight, if all is gone through coldly, heartlessly, and without grace. The feeblest gathering of three or four poor believers in a lowly cottage to read the Bible and pray, is a more acceptable sight to Him who searches the heart, than the fullest congregation which is ever gathered in St. Peter's at Rome. The religionists of the day (J. C. Philpot, "Faith's Standing-Ground" 1862) "And everyone will hate you because of your allegiance to Me." Luke 21:17 Professors of religion have always been the deadliest enemies of the children of God. Who were so opposed to the blessed Lord as the Scribes and Pharisees? It was the religious teachers and leaders who crucified the Lord of glory! And so in every age the religionists of the day have been the hottest and bitterest persecutors of the Church of Christ. Nor is the case altered now. The more the children of God are firm in the truth, the more they enjoy its power, the more they live under its influence, and the more tenderly and conscientiously they walk in godly fear, the more will the professing generation of the day hate them with a deadly hatred. Let us not think that we can disarm it by a godly life; for the more that we walk in the sweet enjoyment of heavenly truth and let our light shine before men as having been with Jesus, the more will this draw down their hatred and contempt. "And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not." John 17:14 My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! (Philpot, "Confiding Trust and Patient Submission") "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" Isaiah 24:16 There is no more continual source of lamentation and mourning to a child of God than a sense of his own barrenness. He would be fruitful in every good word and work. But when he contrasts . . . his own miserable unprofitableness, his coldness and deadness, his proneness to evil, his backwardness to good, his daily wanderings and departings from God, his depraved affections, his stupid frames, his sensual desires, his carnal projects, and his earthy grovelings, with what he sees and knows should be the fruit that should grow upon a fruitful branch in the only true Vine, he sinks down under a sense of his own wretched barrenness and unfruitfulness. Yet what was the effect produced by all this upon his own soul? To wean him from the creature; to divert him from looking to any for help or hope, but the Lord Himself. It is in this painful way that the Lord often, if not usually, cuts us off from all human props, even the nearest and dearest, that we may lean wholly and solely on Himself. The sunniest and sweetest home on earth (Octavius Winslow) One unhappy temper, one unbending will, one unloving unsympathetic heart, may becloud and embitter the sunniest and sweetest home on earth. What kind of bodies will they have? (Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts") "How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?" 1 Cor. 15:35 The identical body that was sown, yet . . . so changed, so spiritualized, so glorified, so immortalized, as to rival in beauty the highest form of spirit, while it shall resemble, in its fashion, the glorious body of Christ Himself! We can form but a faint conception, even from the glowing representations of the apostle, of the glory of the raised body of the just. But this we know, it will be in every respect a structure worthy of the perfected soul which will inhabit it. Presently, 'the body' is the antagonist, and not the assistant of 'the soul'—its clog, its prison, its foe. The moment that Jesus condescends to "grace this lowly abode" with His indwelling presence, there commences that fierce and harassing conflict between holiness and sin, which so often wrings the bitter cry from the believer, "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Oh, what a encumbrance is this body of sin! Its corruptions, its infirmities, its weaknesses, its ailments, its diseases, all conspire to render it the tyrant of the soul, if grace does not subdue it, and bring it into subjection as its slave. How often, when the mind would pursue its favorite study, the wearied and over-tasked body enfeebles it! How often, when the spirit would expatiate and soar in its contemplations of, and in its communings with God—the inferior nature detains it by its weight, or occupies it with its needs! How often, when the soul thirsts for divine knowledge, and the heart pants for holiness—its highest aspirations and its strongest efforts are discouraged and thwarted by the clinging infirmities of a corrupt and suffering body! Not so will it be in the morning of the resurrection! Then shall "the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality!" Mysterious and glorious change! "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet," the dead in Christ shall awake from their long sleep, and spring from their tombs into a blissful immortality! Oh, how altered! Oh, how transformed! Oh, how changed! "Sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." "A spiritual body!" Who can imagine, who describe it? What anatomy can explain its mysteries? What brush can paint its beauties! "A spiritual body!" All the remains, all the vestiges of corrupt matter—passed away! "A spiritual body!" So regenerated, so sanctified, so invested with the high and glorious attributes of spirit, that now sympathizing and blending with the soul in its high employment of obeying the will and chanting the praises of God—it shall rise with it in its lofty soarings, and accompany and aid it in its deep researches in the hidden and sublime mysteries of eternity! Those poor stupid people! (J. C. Philpot, "The Sons of God— Their Blessings and Their Privileges") "The world knows us not." 1 John 3:1 Both the openly profane world, and the professing world, are grossly ignorant of the children of God. Their . . . real character and condition, state and standing, joys and sorrows, mercies and miseries, trials and deliverances, hopes and fears, afflictions and consolations, are entirely hidden from their eyes. The world knows nothing of the motives and feelings which guide and actuate the children of God. It views them as a set of gloomy, morose, melancholy beings, whose tempers are soured by false and exaggerated views of religion—who have pored over the thoughts of hell and heaven until some have frightened themselves into despair, and others have puffed up their vain minds with an imaginary conceit of their being especial favorites of the Almighty. "They are really," it says, "no better than other folks, if so good. But they have such contracted minds—are so obstinate and bigoted with their poor, narrow, prejudiced views—that wherever they come they bring disturbance and confusion." But why this harsh judgment? Because the world knows nothing of the spiritual feelings which actuate the child of grace, making him act so differently from the world which thus condemns him. It cannot understand our sight and sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin—and that is the reason why we will not run riot with them in the same course of ungodliness. It does not know with what a solemn weight eternal things rest upon our minds—and that that is the cause why we cannot join with them in pursuing so eagerly the things of the world, and living for time as they do—instead of living for eternity. Being unable to enter into the spiritual motives and gracious feelings which actuate a living soul, and the movements of divine life continually stirring in a Christian breast, they naturally judge us from their own point of view, and condemn what they cannot understand. You may place a horse and a man upon the same hill—while the man would be looking at the woods and fields and streams—the horse would be feeding upon the grass at his feet. The horse, if it could reason, would say, "What a fool my master is! How he is staring and gaping about! Why does he not sit down and open his basket of provisions—for I know he has it with him, for I carried it—and feed as I do?" So the worldling says, "Those poor stupid people, how they are spending their time in going to chapel, and reading the Bible in their gloomy, melancholy way. Religion is all very well—and we ought all to be religious before we die—but they make so much of it. Why don't they enjoy more of life? Why don't they amuse themselves more with its innocent, harmless pleasures—be more gay, cheerful, and sociable, and take more interest in those things which so interest us?" The reason why the world thus wonders at us is because it knows us not, and therefore cannot understand that we have . . . sublimer feelings, nobler pleasures, and more substantial delights, than ever entered the soul of a worldling! Christian! the more you are conformed to the image of Christ—the more separated you are from the world, the less will it understand you. If we kept closer to the Lord and walked more in holy obedience to the precepts of the gospel, we would be more misunderstood than even we now are! It is our worldly conformity that makes the world understand many of our movements and actions so well. But if our movements were more according to the mind of Christ—if we walked more as the Lord walked when here below—we would leave the world in greater ignorance of us than we leave it now—for the hidden springs of our life would be more out of its sight, our testimony against it more decided, and our separation from it more complete. Who can be against us? (Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts") "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31. With such a Father, such a Friend, and such a Comforter, who can wage a successful hostility against the children of God? God Himself cannot be against us, even when the clouds of His providence appear the most lowering, and His strokes are felt to be the most severe. "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him." The law cannot be against us; for the Law-fulfiller has, by His obedience, magnified and made it honorable. Divine justice cannot be against us; for Jesus has, in our stead, met its demands, and His resurrection is a full discharge of all its claims. Nor sin, nor Satan, nor the ungodly, nor suffering, nor death, can be really or successfully against us, since . . . the condemnation of sin is removed, and Satan is vanquished, and the ungodly are restrained, and suffering works for good, and the sting of death is taken away. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" With such a Being on our side, whom shall we fear? Has He ever been a wilderness to you, a land of darkness? Has He, in any instance, been unkind, unfriendly, unfaithful? Never! All His love, all His grace, all His perfections, all His heaven of glory is for you! Trembling Christian! God is on your side! "If God is for us, who can be against us?" We were not always a set of poor mopes (Philpot, "Spiritual Convictions & Heavenly Affections") "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Col. 3:1-3 Men's pursuits and pleasures differ as widely as their station or disposition—but a life of selfish gratification reigns and rules in all. Now it is by this death that we die unto . . . the things of time and sense; to all that charms the natural mind of man; to the pleasures and pursuits of life; to that busy, restless world which once held us so fast and firm in its embrace—and whirled us round and round within its giddy dance. Let us look back. We were not always a set of poor mopes—as the world calls us. We were once as merry and as gay as the merriest and gayest of them. But what were we really and truly with all our mirth? Dead to God—alive to sin. Dead to everything holy and divine—alive to everything vain and foolish, light and trifling, carnal and sensual—if not exactly vile and abominable. Our natural life was with all of us a life of gratifying our senses—with some of us, perhaps, chiefly of pleasure and worldly happiness—with others a life of covetousness, or ambition, or self-righteousness. Sin once put forth its intense power and allured us—and we followed like the fool to the stocks. Sin charmed—and we listened to its seductive wiles. Sin held out its bait—and we too greedily, too heedlessly swallowed the hook. "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14 To walk after the flesh (J. C. Philpot, "No Condemnation" 1862) "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:1 To walk after the flesh carries with it the idea of the flesh going before us—as our leader, guide, and example—and our following close in its footsteps, so that wherever it drags or draws we move after it, as the needle after the magnet. To walk after the flesh, then, is to move step by step in implicit obedience to . . . the commands of the flesh, the lusts of the flesh, the inclinations of the flesh, and the desires of the flesh, whatever shape they assume, whatever garb they wear, whatever name they may bear. To walk after the flesh is to be ever pursuing, desiring, and doing the things that please the flesh, whatever aspect that flesh may wear or whatever dress it may assume—whether molded and fashioned after the grosser and more flagrant ways of the profane world—or the more refined and deceptive religion of the professing church. But are the grosser and more manifest sinners the only people who may be said to walk after the flesh? Does not all human religion, in all its varied forms and shapes, come under the sweep of this all-devouring sword? Yes! Every one who is entangled in and led by a fleshly religion, walks as much after the flesh as those who are abandoned to its grosser indulgences. Sad it is, yet not more sad than true, that false religion has slain its thousands, if open sin has slain its ten thousands. To walk after the flesh, whether it be in the grosser or more refined sense of the term, is the same in the sight of God. Thousands imagine that they are humble (J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Luke" 1858) "A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest." Luke 22:24 See how firmly pride and love of preeminence can stick to the hearts of Christian men. The sin before us is a very old one . . . ambition, self esteem, and self conceit lie deep at the bottom of all men's hearts, and often in the hearts where they are least suspected. Thousands imagine that they are humble, who cannot bear to see an equal more honored and favored than themselves! The quantity of envy and jealousy in the world is a glaring proof of the prevalence of pride. Let us live on our guard against this sore disease, if we make any profession of serving Christ. The harm that it has done to the Church of Christ is far beyond calculation. Let us learn to take pleasure in the prosperity of others, and to be content with the lowest place for ourselves. The very thought is appalling! (J. C. Philpot, "Alienation and Reconciliation") "Once you were alienated from God and were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions." Colossians 1:21 All man's sins, comparatively speaking, are but 'motes in the sunbeam' compared with this giant sin of enmity against God. A man may be given up to fleshly indulgences; he may sin against his fellow creature—may rob, plunder, oppress, even kill his fellow man. But viewed in a spiritual light, what are they compared with the dreadful, the damnable sin of enmity against the great and glorious Majesty of heaven? This is a sin that lives beyond the grave! Many sins, though not their consequences, die with man's body, because they are bodily sins. But this is a sin that goes into eternity with him, and flares up like a mighty volcano from the very depths of the bottomless pit! Yes, it is the very sin of devils, which therefore binds guilty man down with them in the same eternal chains, and consigns him to the same place of torment! O the unutterable enmity of the heart against the living God! The very thought is appalling! How utterly ruined, then, how wholly lost must that man's state and case be, who lives and dies as he comes into the world . . . unchanged, unrenewed, unregenerated! I will not dwell longer upon this gloomy subject, on this sad exhibition of human wickedness and misery, though it is needful we should know it for ourselves, that we should have a taste of this bitter cup in our own most painful experience, that we may know the sweetness of the cup of salvation when presented to our lips by free and sovereign grace. Nothing but the mighty power of God Himself can ever turn this enemy into a friend! "Once you were alienated from God and were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now He has brought you back as His friends. He has done this through His death on the cross in His own human body. As a result, He has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault." Colossians 1:21-22 WWJD? (C. H. Spurgeon, "The Fair Portrait of a Saint" 1880) "My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside." Job 23:11 A very beautiful motto is hung up in our infant classroom at the Stockwell Orphanage, "What would Jesus do?" Not only may children take it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age. "What would Jesus do?" If you desire to know what you ought to do under any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position and then think, "What would Jesus do? for what Jesus would do, that ought I to do." That unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way, and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed. "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." John 13:15 "Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21 "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6 I will give you rest (Philpot, "An Anxious Inquiry and a Gracious Response") Are you ever weary . . . of the world, of sin, of self, of everything below the skies? If so, you want something to give you rest. You look to SELF—it is but shifting sand, tossed here and there with the restless tide, and ever casting up mire and dirt. No holding ground; no anchorage; no rest there. You look to OTHERS—you see what man is, even the very best of men in their best state—how fickle, how unstable, how changing and changeable; how weak even when willing to help; how more likely to add to, than relieve your distress; if desirous to sympathize with and comfort you in trouble and sorrow, how short his arm to help, how unsatisfactory his aid to relieve! You find no rest there. You lean upon the WORLD—it is but a broken reed which runs into your hand and pierces you. You find no rest there. So look where you will, there is no rest for the sole of your foot. But there is a rest. Our blessed Lord says, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

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