Grace Gems for JUNE 2005

Grace Gems for JUNE 2005 The pursuits of butterflies and grasshoppers, and canary birds! (J. A. James, "The Great End of Life" 1825) Pleasure is the supreme good, and chief object of pursuit of many. To pleasure, they have devoted their lives. Some are living for sports, others for the gratification of the appetites, and others for the enjoyment of the round of fashionable amusements. Pleasure, in one form or other, is the chief object of pursuit with myriads. As to the gratification of our animal appetites, it should not be difficult to persuade us, that to sink to the level of the brute creation, and hold communion with swine, and goats and rats, cannot be the chief end of a rational being. To many, fashionable amusements seem to be the purpose of life. Multitudes live for pleasures of this kind. Ball succeeds to concert; the private party to the public assembly; the card party to the dinner party. In this busy round of fashionable follies, many pass their lives away! Can it be, that the chief object of existence is to sing, and play, and dress and dance? Do not these things, when we reflect upon them, look more like the pursuits of butterflies and grasshoppers, and canary birds—than of rational creatures? Is it not melancholy to see beings with never-dying souls, sinking to the amusements of children; and employing time as if it were given them for nothing but mirth; and using the world as if it were created by God only to be a sort of playground for its inhabitants? Does this kind of life really satisfy those who pursue it? Far, very far, from it! Can any person, in reality, be farther from happiness than those who live for pleasure? "O Lord, save me from the men of this world—who have their portion in this life!" Psalm 17:14 A bubble that rises, and shines, and bursts! (John Angell James, "Redeeming Time" 1825) "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16 Paul implies that a man can give no greater proof of folly, nor more effectually act the part of a fool, than to waste his time. While on the other hand, a just appreciation and right improvement of time are among the brightest displays of true wisdom. We must value time correctly, and improve it diligently. Time is the most precious thing in the world. God distributes time miserly—by the moment—and He never promises us another moment! We are to highly value, and diligently to improve the present moment, by the consideration that for anything we know, it may be our last. Time, when once gone, never returns. Where is yesterday? A moment once lost, is lost forever! We should never forget that our time is among the talents for which we must give account at the judgment of God. We must be tried not only for what we have done—but for what we neglected to do. Not only for the hours spent in sin—but for those wasted in idleness. Let us beware of wasting time. It might stir us up to diligence in the improvement of our time, to think how much of it has been already misspent. What days, and weeks, and months, and years, have already been utterly wasted, or exhausted upon trifles totally unworthy of them. They are gone, and nothing remains of them but the guilt of having wasted them. We cannot call them back if we would. Let us learn to value more highly, and to use more kindly, those days which remain. How much of our time is already gone—and how little may be yet to come? The sands of our hour-glass may be almost out! Death may be at the door! When you begin a day, you don't know that you shall end it! When you lie down, you don't know that you shall rise up! When you leave your house, you don't know that you shall ever return! For what is your life? It is even as a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes! Life is a bubble that rises, and shines, and bursts! We know not in any one period of our existence—but that it may be the last. Surely, surely, we should then improve our time, when we may be holding, for anything we know, the last portion of it in our hands! You are immortal creatures, and must live forever in torment or in bliss! And certainly you cannot be forming a right estimate of the value of time, nor be rightly employing it, if the soul be forgotten, salvation neglected, and eternity left out of consideration! Our great concern! (John Angell James, "Christian Hope" 1859) "There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinth. 13:13 Real Christianity consists of these three apostolic graces. All else is but her earthly attire, which may vary in fashion and color, without affecting her substance and life, or destroying her symmetry. Had this been understood, believed, remembered, and practiced from the beginning . . . what monstrous systems of error; what iron yokes of spiritual tyranny; what bloody persecutions; what ecclesiastic arrogance and presumption; what disfigurements of the simple and spiritual religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, by pagan rites and external ceremonies; what foul blots upon the fair form of Christianity—would the world have been spared! Amid the controversies and decrees of church councils, how has the still small voice of the apostle been stifled, which says, "There are three things that will endure— faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." How forward have men been to admire this sacred trio, but how slow to imitate them! Poets have sung their charms! Painters have delineated their beauty! Music has chanted their praises! Eloquence has emblazoned their worth! What remains but for preachers to make them the prevailing themes of their ministry—and for professing Christians to exhibit them in the practice of their lives! When this shall everywhere be done, and they shall universally come in place of a heartless orthodoxy and an external ritualism—then the world will see Christianity as she is, and will covet to be like her. But, until then, multitudes will look upon Christianity with suspicion, and not a few turn from her with disgust! Our great concern should be to promote a healthful, spiritual, robust, and godly piety in our churches; for which no external improvements in our architecture, our music, or our services, can be a substitute! What we should seek to maintain in our churches, is the more powerful dominion of faith, hope, and love, compared with which, many of those matters which are now rife among us, are but of very small importance. Faith, hope, and love are the great themes of the Christian ministry, are something more than matters of theory—something more than mere theses for the theologian to discuss before an audience. They are matters of eternal life or death—and should be preached as if the preachers believed them to be so. He who counts the stars (Charles Spurgeon) "He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!" Psalm 147:3-5 He who counts the stars and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own children! He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved! The great idol! (John Angell James, "Christian Love" 1828) "People will be lovers of themselves." 2 Timothy 3:2 Selfishness is the cause of all sin—the opposite of all holiness and virtue. The essence of man's sin, the sum of his moral depravity, is to love himself supremely; to seek himself finally and exclusively; to make self, in one shape or another, the center to which all his busy thoughts, anxious cares and diligent pursuits, constantly tend. Self-love is the most active and reigning principle in fallen nature! SELF is the great idol which mankind are naturally disposed to worship; and selfishness the grand interest to which they are devotedly attached! Selfishness is contrary to the habitual temper of our Lord Jesus Christ. "For even Christ did not please Himself." The perfection of all virtue lies in unselfish love. The nearer we approach to this state of mind, the nearer we come to sinless moral excellence. "Love is not self-seeking." "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Phil. 2:3 The loathsome moral leprosy! (John Angell James, "Christian Love" 1828) "Love does not boast—it is not proud." 1 Corin. 13:4 Pride has a high and overweening conceit of its own possessions and acquirements, and ostentatiously boasts of what it is, has done, can do, or intends to do. Pride signifies such an exalted idea of ourselves, as leads to self-esteem—and to contempt of others. Pride is self-admiration—self-doating. Pride is the sin which laid the moral universe in ruins. Pride is the original sin, the inherent corruption of our nature. Pride spreads over humanity with contagious violence. Pride is the loathsome moral leprosy, raging alike through the palace and the cottage, and infecting equally the prince and the peasant. Love is no less opposed to VANITY than it is to pride! Pride differs from vanity thus— pride causes us to value ourselves; vanity makes us anxious for applause. Pride renders a man odious; vanity makes him ridiculous. Love does not boast of, or ostentatiously display, its possessions, abilities, or good deeds. "Love does not boast—it is not proud." 1 Corin. 13:4 Although they should spend every penny! (John Angell James, "Christian Love" 1828) "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing!" 1 Corinthians 13:3 This representation of the indispensable necessity of Christian love, is most striking. It supposes it possible that a man may distribute all his substance in acts of apparent beneficence—and yet after all be without true religion! Actions derive their moral character from the motives under the influence of which they are performed. Therefore, many actions which are beneficial to man, may still be sinful in the sight of God, because they are not done from a right motives! The most diffusive generosity—if prompted by pride, vanity or self-righteousness—is of no value in the eyes of the omniscient Jehovah! On the contrary, it is very sinful! It is too evident to be questioned, that many of the charities of which we are the witnesses, are done from any motives but the right ones. We readily see that multitudes are lavish in their monetary contributions, who are at the same time totally destitute of love to God. They are, as it respects real religion, less than nothing, although they should spend every penny of their property in relieving the needs of the poor! If our munificence, however great or self-denying, be the operation of mere selfish regard to ourselves, to our own reputation, or to our own safety—and not of pure love—it may do good to others, but will do none to ourselves! "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing!" 1 Corinthians 13:3 Seraph or demon? (John Angell James, "Christian Love" 1828) Many conclude that they are true Christians, because of the intensity of their religious feelings. Possessed of much excitability and warmth of temperament, they are, of course, susceptible of deep and powerful impressions from true religion. They are not without joy—and they are not without their religious sorrows. Their tears are plentiful—and their smiles in proportion. See them in the house of God, and none appear to feel more under the preaching of the Word than they do. The sermon exerts an influential power over their affections, and the preacher seems to have their hearts at command. They talk loudly of "happy frames and precious seasons". But follow them from the house of God to their own homes—and, O, how changed the scene! The least offense, perhaps an unintentional one—raises a storm of angry passion, and the man who looked like a seraph in the sanctuary—seems more like a demon at home! Follow them from the Sabbath into the other days of the week, and you will see the man who appeared all for heaven on the Sunday—all for earth on the Monday! Follow them from the assembly of the saints to the places of business—and you will see the man who looked so devout; now . . . irritated and quarrelsome, selfish and unfair, crude and insulting, envious and malicious! Yes! And perhaps in the evening of the same day, you will see him at a prayer meeting, enjoying, as he supposes, the holy season! Such is the delusion under which many are living! Their religion is, in great part, is a mere selfish religious voluptuousness! The necessary fruits of our doctrines (John Angell James, "Christian Love", 1828) Let us remember that HUMILITY and LOVE are the necessary fruits of our doctrines, and the highest beauty of our character! True Christian love must be . . . blended with all our habits, diffused through all our conduct, forming our character, breathing in our desires, speaking in our words, beaming in our eyes. This is true religion—practical religion. "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains—but have not love, I am nothing!" 1 Corinthians 13:2 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8 I can conceive of no higher heaven (John Angell James, "Christian Hope" 1859) In the sublime visions of the Apocalypse, where heaven is opened to our view, it is Christ who is represented as the glory of that place . . . lighting up all countenances with joy,

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Grace Gems for JUNE 2005

Grace Gems

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