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ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM MARCH 2004

By Grace Gems
ALL OF "GRACE GEMS" FROM MARCH 2004 IN ONE FILE What are all the gilded toys of time? (J. C. Philpot, "Letters and Memoirs" 1852) What are all the gilded toys of time compared with the solemn, weighty realities of eternity! But, alas! what wretches are we when left to . . . sin, self, and Satan! How unable to withstand the faintest breath of temptation! How bent upon backsliding! Who can fathom the depths of the human heart? Oh, what but grace, superabounding grace, can either suit or save such wretches? That dear, idolized creature (J. C. Philpot, "Crucifixion with Christ" 1860) "I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live." Galatians 2:20 The crucifixion of self is indispensable to following Christ. What is so dear to a man as himself? Yet this beloved self is to be crucified. Whether it be . . . proud self, or ambitious self, or selfish self, or covetous self, or, what is harder still, religious self; that dear, idolized creature, which has been the subject of so much . . . fondling, petting, pampering, nursing– this fondly loved self has to be taken out of our bosom by the hand of God, and nailed to Christ's cross! The same grace which pardons sin also subdues it! To be crucified with Christ! To have everything that the flesh loves and idolizes put to death! How can a man survive such a process? "Nevertheless I live!" As the world, sin, and self are crucified, subdued, and subjugated by the power of the cross, the life of God springs up with new vigor in the soul. Here, then, is the great secret of vital godliness: that the more that sin and self, and the world are mortified, the more do holiness and spirituality of mind, heavenly affections and gracious desires spring up and flourish in the soul. O! blessed death! O! still more blessed life! "I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live." Galatians 2:20 Who will shout the loudest in glory? (Mary Winslow) I wish only to live to show my love to Him, and to manifest the power of His grace in one who in herself is one lump of sin and defilement. How marvelous that the Lord should select out of the mass of the world's sinful beings such a one as myself to show forth the power of His redeeming love and grace! Every fresh manifestation of this love breaks the heart, and humbles the soul even to the dust! Time is hastening us on, and the moment will quickly come when our dearest Friend will claim us as His own and for Himself. Then we shall see Him face to face; and who will shout the loudest in glory? I think I shall. For, what has He not forgiven me? No tongue can tell how my heart goes out, at times, in wondering gratitude and adoring love towards Him. Such is the Lord Jesus that angels themselves know not half His worth. It is sinners, poor sinners like myself; helpless, lost, ruined in themselves; who alone can appreciate the glorious finished work of Jesus. My soul at this moment; weeping while I write; rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory in God my Savior. Let us live as candidates for a crown of glory. This will keep us above the trials and the trifles of time. Unquenched, unquenchable! (J. C. Philpot "Love in its Priceless Value and Unquenchable Strength", 1862) "Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:7 The bride uses a figure which shall express the insuperable strength of divine love against all opposition; and she therefore compares it to a fire which burns and burns unquenched and unquenchable, whatever be the amount of water poured upon it. Thus the figure expresses the flame of holy love which burned in the heart of the Redeemer as unquenchable by any opposition made to it. How soon is earthly love cooled by opposition! A little ingratitude, a few hard speeches, cold words or even cold looks, seem often almost sufficient to quench love that once shone warm and bright. And how often, too, even without these cold waters thrown upon it, does it appear as if ready to die out by itself. But the love of Christ was unquenchable by all those waters. Not all the ingratitude, unbelief, or coldness of His people could quench His eternal love to them! He knew what the Church was in herself, and ever would be . . . how cold and wandering her affections, how roving her desires, how backsliding her heart! But all these waters could not extinguish His love! It still burnt as a holy flame in His bosom, unquenched, unquenchable! "Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:7 He can crawl like a serpent, and he can roar like a lion! (J. C. Philpot, "The Thorn in the Flesh, or Strength Made Perfect in Weakness") "So that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes." 2 Cor. 2:11 Satan well knows both how to allure and how to attack; for he can crawl like a serpent, and he can roar like a lion! He has snares whereby he entangles, and fiery darts whereby he impales. Most men are easily led captive by him at his will, ensnared without the least difficulty in the traps that he lays for their feet; for they are as ready to be caught as he is to catch them! Why would Satan need to roar against them as a lion, if he can wind himself around them and bite them as a serpent? Hear the voice of love in the rod (Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts") "I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." Psalm 119:75. The mark of a vigorous love to God is when the soul justifies God in all His wise and gracious dealings with it—when it rebels not, murmurs not, repines not—but meekly and silently acquiesces in the dispensation, be it ever so trying. Divine love in the heart, deepening and expanding towards that God from where it springs, will, in the hour of trial, exclaim, "My God has smitten me, but He is my God still, faithful and loving. My Father has chastened me sorely, but He is my Father still, tender and kind. This trying dispensation . . . originated in love, speaks with the voice of love, bears with it the message of love, and is sent to draw my heart closer and yet closer to the God of love, from whom it came." Dear reader, are you one of the Lord's afflicted ones? Happy are you if this is the holy and blessed result of His dealings with you. Happy if you hear the voice of love in the rod, winning your lonely and sorrowful heart to the God from whom it came. All glory to the gospel of Free Grace! (Henry Law, "The Raven" 1869) Christ is the sum and substance of the Bible! Christ . . . chosen, sent, anointed, accepted of God. Christ wondrous in His person, the mighty God, therefore infinitely glorious to save. Christ loving from everlasting to everlasting, with love knowing . . . no origin, no end, no intermission, no degrees; with love always . . . unchangeably the same, perfect, pure, intense, enduring. Christ hanging on the accursed tree, laying down His life a sufficient ransom price. Christ by His death . . . closing the gates of hell, quenching God's fiery wrath, paying all demands, satisfying every claim, glorifying every attribute, washing out each crimson stain of all His ransomed flock. Christ gloriously fulfilling every iota of the glorious Law, saying to each command, 'I fully have obeyed'; and then transferring the vicarious obedience, as divine righteousness, to His bride the Church, as her robe for heaven; her luster in the courts above. Christ purchasing the Holy Spirit, and sending Him to bless the Church with all His powers . . . to teach, to sanctify, to comfort, to adorn, to beautify. Christ rising from the grave, a proof that God is satisfied, and all redemption fully earned; a pledge that the ransomed in their turn shall put on the beauties of a resurrection body, worthy of a resurrection state. Christ ascending . . . to the right hand of the Majesty on high; representing all His people in Himself; bearing their names upon His heart; receiving all gifts for them; pouring down all blessings on them. Christ coming . . . to institute a glorious reign, to change the living, to raise the dead, to execute eternal judgment, to fill all heaven with glory, to awaken the eternal song of never ending hallelujahs! O my soul, what a flood of tidings of great joy! All things are yours! The world! Things present! Things to come! All are yours! All glory to the gospel of Free Grace! This unravels the mystery! (Octavius Winslow, "Christ, the Counselor") The path of providence is often paved with difficulties, and beset with perplexities with which we can ill cope. Our way to heaven is through an intricate wilderness and across a circuitous desert. To many even of the Lord's people this is literally the case. Visit their abodes, and ponder the struggle passing within. All is . . . poverty and discomfort, penury of bread, scantiness of clothing, pining sickness, loathsome disease, excruciating suffering, with no human friends, no soothing alleviation, no earthly comforts. And yet not entirely unrelieved is this dark picture. Christ dwells in that obscure abode! God's eye is watching over it! There is . . . gnawing poverty, and yet boundless wealth; deep need, and yet a rich supply; acute suffering, and yet exquisite pleasure; keen sorrow, and yet unspeakable joy. And why these paradoxes? How are we to understand these strange contradictions? The apostle gives us a clue in a page of his own history. "As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things." This unravels the mystery! The possession of Christ explains it! He who has Christ in him, and Christ with him, and the hope of being forever with Christ in glory, is not a poor, nor a sorrowful, nor a suffering, nor a lonely man. He can say, "I am not alone, for my Father is with me! I am not poor, for all things are mine! My body is diseased, but my soul is in health! I have all and abound!" Can we for a moment doubt His perfect power . . . to undertake all the cares, to cope with all the difficulties, to solve all the doubts, and to disentangle all the perplexities brought to Him by His saints in all places and at all times! "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:1-3 If you want to see what sin really is (Philpot, "Sin Condemned and Righteousness Fulfilled") To cast the sinning angels out of heaven; to banish Adam from Paradise; to destroy the old world by a flood; to burn Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven– these examples of God's displeasure against sin were not sufficient to express His condemnation of it. He would therefore take another way of making it manifest. And what was this? By sending His own Son out of His bosom, and offering Him as a sacrifice for sin upon the tree at Calvary, He would make it manifest how He abhorred sin, and how His righteous character must forever condemn it. See here the love of God to poor guilty man in not sparing His own Son; and yet the hatred of God against sin, in condemning it in the death of Jesus. It is almost as if God said, "If you want to see what sin really is, you cannot see it in the depths of hell. I will show you sin in blacker colors still– you shall see it in the sufferings of My dear Son; in His agonies of body and soul; and in what He as a holy, innocent Lamb endured under My wrath, when He consented to take the sinner's place." What wondrous wisdom, what depths of love, what treasures of mercy, what heights of grace were thus revealed and brought to light in God's unsparing condemnation of sin, and yet in His full and free pardon of the sinner! If you have ever had a view by faith of the suffering Son of God in the garden and upon the cross; if you have ever seen the wrath of God due to you, falling upon the head of the God-Man; and viewed a bleeding, agonizing Immanuel; then you have seen and felt in the depths of your conscience what a dreadful thing sin is. Then the broken-hearted child of God looks unto Him whom he has pierced, and mourns and grieves bitterly for Him, as for a firstborn son who has died. Under this sight he feels what a dreadful thing sin is. "Oh," he says, "did God afflict His dear Son? Did Jesus, the darling of God, endure all these sufferings and sorrows to save my soul from the bottomless pit? O, can I ever hate sin enough? Can I ever grieve and mourn over it enough? Can my stony heart ever be dissolved into contrition enough, when by faith I see the agonies, and hear the groans of the suffering, bleeding Lamb of God?" Christians hate their sins. They hate that sinful, that dreadfully sinful flesh of theirs which has so often, which has so continually, betrayed them into sin. And thus they join with God in passing condemnation upon the whole of their flesh; upon all its actings and workings; upon all its thoughts and words and deeds; and hate it as the prolific parent of that sin which crucified Christ, and torments and plagues them. Christ is never fully valued (J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Luke" 1858) Christ is never fully valued, until sin is clearly seen. We must know the depth and malignity of our disease, in order to appreciate the great Physician. The hard-hearted, cold-blooded, wise-headed professor (J. C. Philpot, "Deliverance from Death") We are surrounded with snares. Temptations lie spread every moment in our path. These snares and these temptations are so suitable to the lusts of our flesh, that we would certainly fall into them, and be overcome by them, but for the restraining providence or the preserving grace of God. The Christian sees this; the Christian feels this. The hard-hearted, cold-blooded, wise-headed professor sees no snares. He is entangled in them, he falls by them, and not repenting of his sins or forsaking them, he makes utter shipwreck concerning the faith. The child of God . . . sees the snare, feels the temptation, knows the evil of his heart, and is conscious that if God does not hold him up, he shall stumble and fall. As then a burnt child dreads the fire, so he dreads the consequence of being left for a moment to himself; and the more is he afraid that he shall fall. If his eyes are more widely opened to see . . . the purity of God, the blessedness of Christ, the efficacy of atoning blood, and the beauties of holiness, the more also does he see the evil of sin, the dreadful consequences of being entangled therein. And not only so, but his own helplessness and weakness and inability to stand against temptation in his own strength. And all these feelings combine to raise up a more earnest cry, "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Entwined with crosses? (Thomas Reade, "Christian Meditations") Our most endeared enjoyments are transitory, and mixed up with many cares. If we cultivate the rose and admire its blushing leaves and sweet perfume, the prickly thorn protects it. If we would possess the honeyed hive, it is guarded by a thousand stings. Truly our comforts are entwined with crosses. This world is not our rest. "How vain are all things here below, How false, and yet how fair. Each pleasure has its poison too, And every sweet a snare." Pictures of Jesus? "And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 (by Charles Spurgeon) A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read 'lives of Christ', beautifully and eloquently written; but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we would be pictures of Jesus; yes, such striking likenesses of Him, that the world would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of Him; he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and daily actions." A Christian should be like Christ in his boldness. Never blush to own your religion. Be like Jesus, very valiant for your God. Imitate Him in your loving spirit; think kindly, speak kindly, and do kindly, that men may say of you, "He has been with Jesus!" Imitate Jesus in His holiness. Was He zealous? So be ever going about doing good. Let not time be wasted; it is too precious. Was He self-denying, never looking to His own interest? Be the same. Was He devout? Be fervent in your prayers. Had He deference to His Father's will? So submit yourselves to Him. Was He patient? So learn to endure. And best of all, as the highest portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your enemies, as He did; and let those sublime words of your Master, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," always ring in your ears. Forgive, as you hope to be forgiven. Good for evil, recollect, is godlike. Be godlike, then; and in all ways and by all means, so live that all may say of you, "He has been with Jesus!" "And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 A stable, a hovel, a hedge, any unadorned corner (J. C. Philpot, "A Longing Soul in a Thirsty Land") This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they have gone." Ezekiel 11:16 Every place in which the Lord manifests Himself, is a sanctuary to a child of God. Jesus is now our sanctuary, for He is "the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands." We see the power and glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Every place is a sanctuary, where God manifests Himself in power and glory to the soul. Moses, doubtless, had often passed by the bush which grew in Horeb; it was but a common thorn bush, in no way distinguished from the other bushes of the thicket. But on one solemn occasion it was all "in a flame of fire," for "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire" out of the midst; and though it burned with fire, it was not consumed. God being in the bush, the ground round about was holy, and Moses was bidden to take off his shoes from his feet. Was not this a sanctuary to Moses? It was, for a holy God was there! Thus wherever God manifests Himself, that becomes a sanctuary to a believing soul. We don't need places made holy by the ceremonies of man; but places made holy by the presence of God! Then a stable, a hovel, a hedge, any unadorned corner may be, and is a sanctuary, when God fills your heart with His sacred presence, and causes every holy feeling and gracious affection to spring up in your soul. Poor, miserable, paltry works of a polluted worm! (Philpot, "The Loss of All Things for Christ's Sake") "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6 We once thought that we could gain heaven by our own righteousness. We strictly attended to our religious duties, and sought by these and various other means to recommend ourselves to the favor of God, and induce Him to reward us with heaven for our sincere attempts to obey His commandments. And by these religious performances we thought we would surely be able to make a ladder whereby we could climb up to heaven. This was our tower of Babel, whose top was to reach unto heaven, and by mounting which, we thought to scale the stars. But the same Lord who stopped the further building of the tower of Babel, by confounding their speech and scattering them abroad on the face of the earth; began to confound our speech, so that we could not pray, or talk, or boast as before; and to scatter all our religion like the chaff of the threshing floor. Our mouths were stopped; we became guilty before God; and our bricks and mortar became a pile of confusion! When, then, the Lord was pleased to discover to our souls by faith, His being, majesty, greatness, holiness, and purity; and thus gave us a corresponding sense of our filthiness and folly; then all our creature religion and natural piety which we once counted as gain, we began to see was but loss; that our very religious duties and observances, so far from being for us, were actually against us; and instead of pleading for us before God as so many deeds of righteousness, were so polluted and defiled by sin perpetually mixed with them, that our very prayers were enough to sink us into hell, had we no other iniquities to answer for in heart, lip or life. But when we had a view by faith of the Person, work, love, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we began more plainly and clearly to see, with what religious toys we had been so long amusing ourselves, and what is far worse, mocking God by them. We had been secretly despising . . . Jesus and His sufferings, Jesus and His death, Jesus and His righteousness, and setting up the poor, miserable, paltry works of a polluted worm in the place of the finished work of the Son of God. Mere toys and baubles (Philpot, "Deliverance from the Power of Darkness") True religion must be everything or nothing with us. In religion, indifference is ruin; neglect is destruction. Of all losses, the loss of the soul is the only one that is utterly irreparable and irremediable. You may lose property, but you may recover the whole or a portion of it; you may lose health, but you may be restored to a larger measure of bodily strength than before your illness; you may lose friends, but you may obtain new ones, and those more sincere and valuable than any whom you have lost. But if you lose your soul, what is to make up for that loss? Do you ever feel what a tremendous stake heaven or hell is? Have you ever felt that to gain heaven is to gain everything that can make the soul eternally happy; and to lose heaven is not only to lose eternal bliss, but to sink down into . . . unfathomable, everlasting, unutterable woe? It is this believing sight and pressing sense of eternal things; it is this weighty, at times overpowering, feeling that they carry in their bosom an immortal soul, which often makes the children of God view the things of time and sense as . . . mere toys and baubles, trifles lighter than vanity, and pursuits empty as air, and gives them to feel that the things of eternity are the only solid, enduring realities. Heavenly dew (J. C. Philpot, "The Doctrine which Drops as the Rain, and the Speech which Distills as the Dew") "My words descend like dew." Deuteronomy 32:2 The dew falls imperceptibly. No man can see it fall. Yet its effects are visible in the morning. So it is with the blessing of God upon His Word. It penetrates the heart without noise; it sinks deep into the conscience without anything visible going on. And as the dew opens the pores of the earth and refreshes the ground after the heat of a burning day, making vegetation lift up its drooping head, so it is with the blessing of God resting upon the soul. Heavenly dew comes imperceptibly, falls quietly, and is manifested chiefly by its effects, as softening, opening, penetrating, and secretly causing every grace of the Spirit to lift up its drooping head. Whenever the Lord may have been pleased to bless our souls, either in hearing, in reading, or in private meditation, have not these been some of the effects? Silent, quiet, imperceptible, yet producing an evident impression . . . softening the heart when hard, refreshing it when dry, melting it when obdurate, secretly keeping the soul alive, so that it is neither withers up by the burning sun of temptation, nor dies for lack of grace. "May God give you the dew of heaven." Genesis 27:28 All is well. (Henry Law, "Deuteronomy" 1858) How varied are the stations of man's calling! How diverse are their positions in life! Some reign in palaces; some toil in cottages. Some feast at plenty's table; some pine in poverty's contracted cells. Purple and splendor deck the rich man; Lazarus lies a beggar at the gate. Some work at looms; others in fields. Some climb the mast; others handle the spade. Some exercise the mental powers; others strain the muscles of the body. Some soar in literature's highest flights; some crawl illiterate to the grave. But perfect Wisdom rules these varieties on life's stage. No being enters or recedes, but in accordance with God's will. He speaks; they live. He speaks; they die. Entrance and exit are in His hand. At His decree all kings, all beggars, breathe and expire. Both times and stations are allotted by His mind. He raises to the pinnacles of earth; or veils in seclusion. He leads to walks known and observed by all; or hides in garrets of obscurity. Let then the child of God live, rejoicing in his day and lot. No change would be improvement. He best can serve his generation, and advance his soul concerns, by working cheerfully in his assigned position. Believer . . . banish your fears; cast out all doubts; lift up the happy head; clap the exulting hands; rejoice; give thanks. Your heavenly Father cannot set you in wrong place. Your loving Savior cannot lead you in wrong paths. All is well. Coming up from the wilderness (J. C. Philpot, "Coming up from the Wilderness" 1857) "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" Song of Solomon 8:5 To come up from the wilderness, is to come up out of OURSELVES; for we are ourselves the wilderness. It is our wilderness heart that makes the world what it is to us . . . our own barren frames; our own bewildered minds; our own worthlessness and inability; our own lack of spiritual fruitfulness; our own trials, temptations, and exercises; our own hungering and thirsting after righteousness. In a word, it is what passes in our own bosom that makes the world to us a dreary desert. Carnal people find the world no wilderness. It is an Eden to them! Or at least they try hard to make it so. They seek all their pleasure from, and build all their happiness upon it. Nor do they dream of any other harvest of joy and delight, but what may be repaid in this 'happy valley', where youth, health, and good spirits are ever imagining new scenes of gratification. But the child of grace, exercised with a thousand difficulties, passing through many temporal and spiritual sorrows, and inwardly grieved with his own lack of heavenly fruitfulness, finds the wilderness within. But he still comes up out of it, and this he does by looking upward with believing eyes to Him who alone can bring him out. He comes up out of his own righteousness, and shelters himself under Christ's righteousness. He comes up out of his own strength, and trusts to Christ's strength. He comes up out of his own wisdom, and hangs upon Jesus' wisdom. He comes up out of his own tempted, tried, bewildered, and perplexed condition, to find rest and peace in the finished work of the Son of God. And thus he comes up out of the wilderness of self, not actually, but experimentally. Every desire of his soul to be delivered from his 'wilderness sickening sight' that he has of sin and of himself as a sinner. Every aspiration after Jesus, every longing look, earnest sigh, piteous cry, or laboring groan, all are a coming up from the wilderness. His turning his back upon an ungodly world; renouncing its pleasures, its honors, its pride, and its ambition; seeking communion with Jesus as his chief delight; and accounting all things but loss and rubbish for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus his Lord as revealed to his soul by the power of God; this, also, is coming up from the wilderness. When we gaze upon the lifeless corpse (J. C. Philpot, "Light Affliction and Eternal Glory" 1857) From the cradle to the coffin, affliction and sorrow are the appointed lot of man. He comes into the world with a wailing cry, and he often leaves it with an agonizing groan! Rightly is this earth called "a valley of tears," for it is wet with them in infancy, youth, manhood, and old age. In every land, in every climate, scenes of misery and wretchedness everywhere meet the eye, besides those deeper griefs and heart-rending sorrows which lie concealed from all observation. So that we may well say of the life of man that, like Ezekiel's scroll, it is "written with lamentations, and mourning and woe." But this is not all. The scene does not end here! We see up to death, but we do not see beyond death. To see a man die without Christ is like standing at a distance, and seeing a man fall from a lofty cliff—we see him fall, but we do not see the crash on the rocks below. So we see an unsaved man die, but when we gaze upon the lifeless corpse, we do not see how his soul falls with a mighty crash upon the rock of God's eternal justice! When his temporal trials come to a close, his eternal sorrows only begin! After weeks or months of sickness and pain, the pale, cold face may lie in calm repose under the coffin lid; when the soul is only just entering upon an eternity of woe! But is it all thus dark and gloomy both in life and death? Is heaven always hung with a canopy of black? Are there no beams of light, no rays of gladness, that shine through these dark clouds of affliction, misery, and woe that are spread over the human race? Yes! there is one point in this dark scene out of which beams of light and rays of glory shine! "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:9 There, on the other side, is my solitary soul (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Addresses") "For what is a man profited, if he shall gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mt. 16:26 Here is my scale of profit and loss. I have a soul to be saved or lost. What then shall I give in exchange for my soul? What am I profited if I gain the whole world and lose my soul? This deep conviction of a soul to be saved or lost lies at the root of all our religion. Here, on one side, is the WORLD and all . . . its profits its pleasures, its charms, its smiles, its winning ways, its comforts, its luxuries, its honors, to gain which is the grand struggle of human life. There, on the other side, is my solitary SOUL, to live after death, forever and ever, when the world and all its pleasures and profits will sink under the wrath of the Almighty. And this dear soul of mine, my very self, my only self, my all, must be lost or saved. Even your own relatives think you are almost insane (J. C. Philpot, "The Abiding Comforter" 1858) "The Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him." John 14:17 The world—that is, the world dead in sin, and the world dead in profession—men destitute of the life and power of God—must have something that it can see. And, as heavenly things can only be seen by heavenly eyes, they cannot receive the things which are invisible. Now this explains why a religion that presents itself with a degree of beauty and grandeur to the natural eye will always be received by the world; while a . . . spiritual, internal, heartfelt and experimental religion will always be rejected. The world can receive a religion that consists of . . . forms, rites, and ceremonies. These are things seen. Beautiful buildings, painted windows, pealing organs, melodious choirs, the pomp and parade of an earthly priesthood, and a whole apparatus of 'religious ceremony', carry with them something that the natural eye can see and admire. The world receives all this 'external religion' because it is suitable to the natural mind and intelligible to the reasoning faculties. But the . . . quiet, inward, experimental, divine religion, which presents no attractions to the outward eye, but is wrought in the heart by a divine operation—the world cannot receive this—because it presents nothing that the natural eye can rest upon with pleasure, or is adapted to gratify their general idea of what religion is or should be. Do not marvel, then, that worldly professors despise a religion wrought in the soul by the power of God. Do not be surprised if even your own relatives think you are almost insane, when you speak of the consolations of the Spirit, or of the teachings of God in your soul. They cannot receive these things, for they have no experience of them; and being such as are altogether opposed to the carnal mind, they reject them with enmity and scorn. Make straight paths for your feet. (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Addresses") "Make straight paths for your feet." Hebrews 12:13 Surrounded as we are with a crooked generation, professing and profane, whose ways we are but too apt to learn; beset on every hand by temptations . . . to turn aside into some crooked path, to feed our pride, to indulge our lusts, to gratify our covetousness; blinded and seduced sometimes by the god of this world; hardened at other times by the deceitfulness of sin; here misled by the example, and there bewitched by the flattery of some friend or companion; at one time confused and bewildered in our judgment of right and wrong; at another time entangled, half resisting, half complying, in some snare of the wicked one; what a struggle have some of us had to make straight paths for our feet; and what pain and grief that we should ever have made crooked ones. "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold." Psalm 73:2 When I said, "My foot is slipping," Your love, O Lord, supported me. Psalm 94:18 "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." Psalm 40:2 "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117 "I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths." Proverbs 4:11 Have nothing to do with them. (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Addresses") "They mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs. They worshiped their idols, and this led to their downfall." Ps. 106:35-36 The 'carnal professors' of the day see nothing wrong, nothing amiss, nothing inconsistent in their conduct or spirit, though they are sunk in . . . worldliness, carnality, or covetousness. But where there is divine life, where the blessed Spirit moves upon the heart with His sacred operations and secret influences, there will be light to see, and a conscience to feel, what is . . . wrong, sinful, inconsistent, and improper. It its but too evident that we cannot be mixed up with the professors of the day without drinking, in some measure, into their spirit and being more or less influenced by their example. We can scarcely escape the influence of those with whom we come much and frequently into contact. If they are dead, they will often benumb us with their corpse-like coldness. If they are light and trifling, they will often entangle us in their carnal levity. If they are worldly and covetous, they may afford us a shelter and an excuse for our own worldliness and covetousness. Abhor that loose profession, that ready compliance with everything which feeds the . . . pride, worldliness, covetousness, and lusts of our depraved nature, which so stamps the present day with some of its most perilous and dreadful characters. "Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." 2 Timothy 3:5 We find that they are empty bubbles (J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Luke" 1858) "And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?" Luke 9:25 The possession of the whole world, and all that it contains, would never make a man happy. Its pleasures are false and deceptive! Its riches, rank, and honors, have no power to satisfy the heart. So long as we have not got them they glitter, and sparkle, and seem desirable. The moment we have them we find that they are empty bubbles, and cannot make us feel content. And, worst of all, when we possess this world's good things to the utmost bound of our desire, we cannot keep them! Death comes in and separates us from all our property forever. Naked we came upon earth, and naked we go forth, and of all our possessions we can carry nothing with us. Such is the world, which occupies the whole attention of thousands! Such is the world, for the sake of which, millions every year are destroying their souls! "And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?" Luke 9:25 The foulest filth under the cleanest cloak (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Address, 1858") "Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28 There are few Christians who have not ever found SELF to be their greatest enemy. The pride, unbelief, hardness, and impenitence of a man's own heart; the deceitfulness, hypocrisy, and wickedness of his own fallen nature; the lusts and passions, filth and folly of his own carnal mind; will not only ever be his greatest burden, but will ever prove his most dreaded foe! Enemies we shall have from outside, and we may at times keenly feel their bitter speeches and cruel words and actions. But no enemy can injure us like ourselves! In five minutes a man may do himself more real harm, than all his enemies united could do to injure him in fifty years! To yourself you can be the most insidious enemy and the greatest foe! In all its forms, SELF in its inmost spirit is still a . . . deceitful, subtle, restless, proud, and impatient creature; masking its real character in a thousand ways, and concealing its destructive designs by countless devices. We have but to look on the professing church to find . . . the highest pride under the lowest humility, the greatest ignorance under the vainest self-conceit, the basest treachery under the warmest profession, the vilest sensuality under the most heavenly piety, and the foulest filth under the cleanest cloak. "Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28 Familiarity with sacred things (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Address, 1858") "Take heed unto yourselves!" Acts 20:28 This was Paul's public warning to the elders of the church at Ephesus. It was Paul's private warning to his friend and disciple, his beloved son, Timothy. And do not all who write or speak in the name of the Lord need the same warning? Familiarity with sacred things has a natural tendency to harden the conscience, where grace does not soften and make it tender. Men may preach and pray until both become a mere mechanical habit; and they may talk about Christ and His sufferings until they feel as little touched by them as a 'tragic actor' on the stage, of the sorrows which he impersonates. Well, then, may the Holy Spirit sound this note of warning, as with trumpet voice, in the ears of the servants of Christ. "Take heed unto yourselves!" Pride, self-conceit, and self-exaltation (J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Address, 1857") Pride, self-conceit, and self-exaltation, are both the chief temptations, and the main besetting sins, of those who occupy any public position in the church. Therefore, where these sins are not mortified by the Spirit, and subdued by His grace; instead of being, as they should be, the humblest of men; they are, with rare exceptions, the proudest. Did we bear in constant remembrance our slips, falls, and grievous backslidings; and had we, with all this, a believing sight of the holiness and purity of God, of the sufferings and sorrows of His dear Son, and what it cost Him to redeem us from the lowest hell; we would be, we must be clothed with humility; and would, under feelings of the deepest self-abasement, take the lowest place among the family of God, as the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all the saints. This should be the feeling of every child of God. Until this pride is in some measure crucified, until we hate it, and hate ourselves for it, the glory of God will not be our main object. I am black, but lovely! (Henry Law, "The Song of Solomon" 1879) "I am black, but lovely!" Song of Solomon 1:5 The believer pictures her state. It is a seeming paradox. The extremes of lowliness and greatness are combined. She presents two aspects. Deformity and loveliness compose the portrait. "I am black, but lovely!" Blackness is frightful and repulsive. No eye can rest on it complacently. But blackness is the emblem of our state by nature. We are conceived and born in sin; and sin is most hideous wherever it appears. The Spirit has revealed this truth to each enlightened convert. He sees it; he feels it; he owns it; he bewails it. It is his constant misery. When he would do good, evil is present with him. He hates and loathes and abhors himself in dust and ashes. Surveying the innate corruption, which is his, he mournfully confesses, "I am black; I am vile." But he looks off to Christ. He sees the precious blood washing out every stain and obliterating the crimson dye. The blackness disappears. In Christ he is whiter than the whitest snow. He puts on Christ, and adores Him as made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He sees His pure and perfect obedience wrought out as a robe to hide his every defect, so bright, so lovely, and so glorious, that it exceeds all admiration. He feels that this righteousness is through grace imputed to him. He knows that he is lovely through divine loveliness. Thus clothed and decked, he triumphantly tells his friends, "I am black, but lovely!" Leaning upon her Beloved. (Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts") "Leaning upon her Beloved." Solomon's Song 8:5 What more appropriate, what more soothing truth could we bring before you, suffering Christian, than this? You are sick—lean upon Jesus. His sick ones are peculiarly dear to His heart. You are dear to Him. In all your pains and languishings, faintings and lassitude, Jesus is with you; for He created that frame, He remembers that it is but dust, and He bids you lean upon Him, and leave your sickness and its outcome entirely in His hands. You are lonely—lean upon Jesus. Sweet will be the communion and close the fellowship which you may thus hold with Him, your heart burning within you while He talks with you by the way. Is the ascent steep and difficult? Lean upon your Beloved. Is the path strait and narrow? Lean upon your Beloved. Do intricacies and perplexities and trials weave their network around your feet? Lean upon your Beloved. Has death smitten down the strong arm and chilled the tender heart upon which you were used to recline? Lean upon your Beloved. Oh! lean upon Jesus . . . in every difficulty, in every need, in every sorrow, in every temptation. Nothing is too insignificant, nothing too lowly, to take to Christ. He loves to have you quite near to Him, to hear your voice, and to feel the confidence of your faith and the pressure of your love. Always remember that there is a place in the heart of Christ sacred to you, and which no one can fill but yourself, and from which none may dare exclude you. On that bosom you, beloved, may repose, soothed, supported, and sheltered by your Savior and your Lord. What? Will He forgive us all sins? (J. C. Philpot, "Faithful and Just to Forgive") "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 What? Will He forgive us all sins? Every sin that we have committed? Do we not sin with every breath that we draw? Is not every lustful desire sin? And is not every proud thought sin? And is not every wicked imagination sin? And is not every unkind suspicion sin? Every act of unbelief sin? And every working of a depraved nature sin? We committed sin when we sucked our mother's breast! We committed sin as soon as we were able to stammer out a word. And as we grew in body, we grew in sinfulness. Will He forgive . . . sins of thought, sins of look, sins of action, sins of omission, sins of commission, sins in infancy, sins in childhood, sins in youth, sins in old age? Will He forgive . . . all the base lusts, all the filthy workings, all the vile actions, all the pride, all the hypocrisy, all the covetousness, all the envy, hatred, and malice, all the aboundings of inward iniquity? "The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:7 This sacred anointing (J. C. Philpot, "The Unction of the Holy One") "But you have an anointing from the Holy One." 1 John 2:20 Wherever the anointing of the Holy One touches a man's heart it spreads itself, widening and extending its operations. It thus communicates divine gifts and graces wherever it comes. It . . . bestows and draws out faith, gives repentance and godly sorrow, causes secret self-loathing, and separation from the world, draws the affections upwards, makes sin hated, and Jesus and His salvation loved. Wherever the anointing of the Holy Spirit touches a man's heart it diffuses itself through his whole soul, and makes him wholly a new creature. It . . . gives new motives, communicates new feelings, enlarges and melts the heart, and spiritualizes and draws the affections upwards. Without this sacred anointing . . . all our religion is a bubble, all our profession a lie, and all our hopes will end in despair. O what a mercy to have one drop of this heavenly anointing! To enjoy one heavenly feeling! To taste the least measure of Christ's love shed abroad in the heart! What an unspeakable mercy to have one touch, one glimpse, one glance, one communication out of the fullness of Him who fills all in all! By this anointing from the Holy One, the children of God are supported under . . . afflictions, perplexities, and sorrows. By this anointing from the Holy One, they see the hand of God . . . in every chastisement, in every providence, in every trial, in every grief, and in every burden. By this anointing from the Holy One they can bear chastisement with meekness; and put their mouth in the dust, humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God. Every good word, every good work, every gracious thought, every holy desire, every spiritual feeling do we owe to this one thing: the anointing of the Holy One. "But you have an anointing from the Holy One." 1 John 2:20

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