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Dark God-dishonoring unbelief.

How edifying and encouraging is an artless faith.

Glorious results in the gospel-field.

Soulstirring words.

A mere lip-confession of sin which the heart does not feel.

A stereotyped acknowledgement of sin is the mere habit of hurrying through a formula of confession to God.

They are in marked contrast with.

This must bring down God's heavy judgement.

Page 102

He never had a thought or wish that was not in perfect consonance with the will of God.

The current of his peace was unruffled, from first to last.

There are three attitudes in which the soul may be found in reference to the dealings of God, namely subjection, acquiescence, and rejoicing. When the will is broken, there is subjection; when the understanding is enlightened as to the divine object, there is acquiescence; and when the affections are engaged with God himself, there is positive rejoicing.

The flood came and buried all beneath the billows and waves of God's righteous judgement.

In his very inmost soul.

Page 103

Can we comprehend God? [Job 37:5] Can we decide what is and what is not worthy of God to do? No, if we could do so we would have lost the true sense of God altogether. This is just what the devil is aiming at. If we could comprehend God we should ourselves be God.

It is absurd and impious for puny mortals to dare to question the counsels, enactments, and ways of the almighty Creator and all-wise Governor of the universe.

Paul says: "Nay but, o man, who art then that repliest against God." Thus God meets all the how's and why's of infidel reason.

[Romans 9:20]

How monstrous for a poor worm of the earth to attempt to sit in judgement upon the unsearchable judgements and ways of the Eternal God.

Page 104

If men will abide in the dark vaults and tunnels of a dreary infidelity, and there find fault with the sun, or deny that it shines at all, let it be ours to bask in the light, and help others to do the same.

God has given us His word, not to speculate upon it or discuss it, but that we may obey it. It is one thing to be a child, and quite another to be an obedient child; it is one thing to be saved, and another thing to love the Savior, and delight in all His most precious precepts.

Blinded by the murky atmosphere which enwrapped the guilty cities of the plain.

Thank God, there are still a few lights twinkling amid moral gloom of cold, nominal, heartless, worldly Christianity.

Page 105

In patient grace and changeless love.

If man speaks, if it be a mere question of human authority, then indeed we must judge, because man has no right to command. We must judge what he says, not by our own opinion, or by any human standard, creed or confession of faith, but by the Word of God. But when Scripture speaks all discussion is closed. This is an unspeakable consolation.

We are no longer tossed about with every wind of doctrine, every wave of human thought. God has spoken. This is quite enough. Here the heart finds its deep and settled repose. It has made its escape from the stormy ocean of theological, controversy, and cast anchor in the blessed haven of divine revelation.

Here, again, all is as clear as a sunbeam.

Page 106

Two fatal errors are: legality on the one side and carnal laxity on the other.

Gal. 2,19 contains the divine remedy for both these deadly evils. "I am dead to law." What can the law have to say to a dead man? Nothing. The law applies to a living man, to curse him and kill him because he has not kept it.

It is a very grave mistake indeed to teach that the law is dead or abolished. If a man is dead, the law no longer applies to him inasmuch as he has passed entirely out of its range. The apostle says: "I through law am dead to law."

[Galatians 2:19]

I am dead to law that I might live to God.

ignorant, narrow-minded, semi-lunatic man.

Everything is rejected which soars beyond man's feeble vision.

Page 107

We would no more think looking to human authority to confirm the Word of God than we should of bringing out the rush-light* to prove that the son was shining.

*{German Writing}

The professing church is rapidly sinking into gross worldliness and open infidelity.

Under the weight of a long-protracted affliction.

I know my loving Father has put me into this furnace to purge away my dross and bring out in me the expression of His own image.

"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." "In me is thy help." [Hosea 13:9]

There is a fearful amount of sham on every side, and in nothing is this sham so awfully apparent as in so-called religion.

Page 108

If man cannot come up to the height of God's thoughts, God can come down to the depths of man's needs.

There is noting too small for His love, as there is nothing too great for His power.

A humble self-emptied servant of Christ.

The pastor does not come to his people with self-assumed or a humanly conferred title.

The Abrahamic covenant.

A Christian is a man who should live Christ. He is neither a Jew "under law" [1 Corinthians 9:20] not a Gentile "without law," [Romans 2:12] but " a man in Christ" standing in grace, called to the same character of obedience as that which was rendered by the Lord Jesus himself.

Page 109

The Scriptures do not contain one iota of evidence to show that Peter was appointed by the Lord to govern the Church.

We must not give way when testing-time comes.

St. Paul, the man who shed more tears and heaved more sighs over the ruins of the church than any other man.

The abominable evil of idolatry was the national sin, the terrible besetment of Israel.

Love and legality have nothing in common; they are as far removed as the poles.

{German Writing}

unutterable folly

Page 110

{German Writing}

Praying will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying. Prayer in the heart proves the reality of conversion. Home piety is the best piety.

If anyone should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say it is in that one word - "prayer."

Man's heart is an aching void the world can never fill.

When little man's history is boiled down to hard, cold facts, it's but…

Page 111

… a sad tale.

Various of our euphonious hymns were sung by the audience.

At least one secular editor has refused to make of his paper an open sewer.

The world changes its dress, but not its true character, spirit and principles.

Only think of any one being a hater of such a One as God; and we know that all who are not lovers must be haters.

There is no neutral ground in this question. It often happens that the hearts deep-seated enmity to God comes out in hatred to His people, to His Word, His worship, His service. There lies deep down in every unconverted heart the most…

Page 112 The stepping stone to the alter is a diamond.

… positive enmity to God. Every man in his natural state hates God.

God in His wondrous love provides righteousness for the poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinner who knows and feels and knows that he has no righteousness of his own and never could have it.

Every poor broken-hearted, bankrupt sinner who simply believes in Jesus is justified.

The cross is the measure of God's hatred of sin, as it is the measure of His love to the sinner.

He hath delivered [Psalm 54:7], and He doth deliver [2 Corinthians 1:10], and He will deliver [2 Kings 18:32]. Blessed chain! Its every link is divine deliverance.

Wilderness-life and desert-wanderings of Israel.

Page 113 How can you respect gray hairs if they are dyed black?

Our grand primary business is to praise the Lord. Our every breath should be a hallelujah. It is this which shall employ our ransomed power throughout the golden ages of eternity.

God knows the sad proneness of the human heart to forget all this.

He addresses these admonitory words to them.

They had been on the very brink of an awful precipice.

How utterly astray they had been in all their thoughts!

How marvelously did God bear with the dark unbelief and daring rebellion of Israel.

A loud-mouthed advocate of civic righteousness.

Page 114

This poor sin-stricken, Satan-enslaved, sorrowful world of ours.

Jehovah, the covenant-God of Israel.

It should quicken our steps in treading the path of loving obedience to Him.

Blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

His mighty hand and His stretched-out arm.

In one hour all was plunged into hopeless ruin and destruction.

The valor and might of that ancient and far-famed nation.

Pharaoh attempted to countervail the divine actings.

Page 115

The terrible consequence of self-will.

"Keep all the commandments that ye may be strong." [Deuteronomy 11:8] There is great strength gained by unreserved obedience to the word of God. It will not do to pick and choose.

A willing-hearted, loving obedience.

An ever-deepening interest in searching the Scriptures.

A much-misunderstood passage of Scripture.

Not by getting but by giving is love assured.

Twas not His fault

His blood was spilled

I caused His death

My sin, my guilt.

Page 116

To set sail on a tempestuous sea without a star and without a shove.

If men are wicked with religion, what would they be without it?

The entry of Israel into Canaan was a triumphal march into the promised inheritance.

It is reason that makes all the infidels.

Congress may be an asset, it also represents a great "lie ability."

They put an indelible stain upon our country's flag.

He unraveled the mesh of falsehood woven about his name.

He shamelessly played into the hands of our enemies.

Page 117

In things human and earthly, reason may go for what it is worth; but in things divine and heavenly, it is not only worthless, but positively mischievous.

Luke 14,26. Deuteronomy 13,8-10.

These passages apply only to cases in which our natural relationships and affections interfere with the claims of God and of Christ. When they operate in this way, they must be denied and mortified. If they intrude upon a domain which is wholly divine, the sentence of death must be written upon them.

The great characteristic principle of the Jewish economy was righteousness. the characteristic principle of Christianity is grace - pure, unqualified grace.

This is strikingly apparent.

We were redeemed at a frightful cost.

Page 118

We sometimes hear the expression, "Christian world." What does that mean? It is simply an attempt to combine two things which in their source, nature, and character are as diverse as light and darkness. It is an effort to tack a new piece upon an old garment, which as our Lord tells us, only makes the rent worse.

[Matthew 9:16]

[Mark 2:21]

God is now dealing in grace with the world. He is not going to law with the world; He is not enforcing His rights with the strong hand of power. By and by He will; but just now, in this day of grace, He showers His blessings and benefits in high profusion upon those whose life is one of enmity and rebellion against Him.

Christians are called pharisaic because they separate themselves from others.

[Verses against the idea of a "Christian world"]

[Matthew 10:22, 24:9] [ Mark 13:13]

[Luke 6:22] [James 4:4]

[John 15:18-21] [1 John 3:1,13]

Page 119

The Spirit of God may, and often does, lead us beyond and above nature but never against it.

Our ever-gracious God.

The illimitable expanse of unmeasured space.

Leap into existence.

Our words fail, we can not utter the tithe of Christ's glories.

David was the last one we would have chosen to fight the giant, but he was chosen of God.

[1 Samuel 17:23-51]

What reason have I for doubting God's own word?

Grace means undeserved kindness.

If God put Adam out of His earthly Eden on account of one sin, do you…

Page 120

… think He will let us into the Paradise above with our tens of thousands sins upon us?

The only charge they could bring against Christ down here was, that He was receiving bad men. They are the very kind of men He is willing to receive.

God has no poor children. Rev. 2,9.

God and His child are linked together by a divine and everlasting bond. God has so ordained that His full glory and the creatures full blessing should be indissolubly bout up together.

The human heart is but ill-prepared for being the vessel and channel of that royal grace which shines so brightly in all the ways of God.

Man must be renewed in the very…

Page 121

… deepest springs of His moral being ere He can be the vehicle of divine love. Nothing but grace can keep the heart wide open to every form of human need. We must abide hard by the fountain of heavenly love if we would be channels of blessing in the middle of a scene of misery and desolation like that in which our lot is cast.

We are not only saved by grace [Ephesians 2:8-9], but we stand in grace, live under the blessed reign of grace, breathe the very atmosphere of grace, and are called to be the living exponents of grace, not only to our brethren, but to the whole human family.

Genuine, heart-felt sympathy.

What an unsightly object is a selfish Christian! He is a standing contradiction, a living, moving lie.

Page 122

We must so carry ourselves, in daily life, as to be an unblotted epistle of Christ, know and read of all men. In this way, infidelity will, at least, be deprived of one of its weightiest arguments, its gravest objections. Nothing affords a stronger plea to the infidel than the inconsistent lives of professing Christians.

Christians are solemnly responsible to let their light shine before men [Matthew 5:16]. We are solemnly bound to exhibit and illustrate in daily life the heavenly principles unfolded in the word of God. We should leave the infidel without a shred of a plea or an argument, we are responsible to do so.

He has opened the exhaustless treasury of heaven for us; yes, He has given the sons of His love,…

Page 123

… the son of His bosom for us and to us - for us, to save [Hebrews 7:25]; to us, to satisfy. He has given us all that pertains to the life that now is, and to which is to come.

He has endowed us with a princely fortune. The inexhaustible resources of heaven are at our disposal. "All things are ours," [1 Corinthians 3:21] through His infinite grace. Oh, that we may more fully realize our privileges, and thus more faithfully discharge our holy responsibilities!

Ever-abiding and all-powerful motive-spring.

The marvelous grace of God displayed toward us.

It is only in the living God himself we can find perennial springs.

"Live and let live," is a low-level principle.

Page 124

We remember once asking the head of a very large establishment, "How many hearts do you employ?" He shook his head, and owned, with real sorrow, how little heart there is in the relation of master and servant. Hence the common, heartless phrase of "employing hands."

The servant as well as this master, has to study the great example of Christ set before him. The Lord is the only true servant that ever trod this earth.

The divine way is: "When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both."

[Luke 7:42]

The Lamb of God, offered upon the cross for us, the imperishable foundation of our peace.

Eternal and universal homage to His most precious and glorious name!

Page 125

We are not saved by personal holiness, but, thank God, we are saved to it. It is not the ground of our salvation, but it is an essential element in our communion.

While living in known sin we can not speak of communion and worship.

There is so much levity, so much unsubdueness, so much self-indulgence, so much carnal ease, so much that is merely frothy and superficial.

Being filled ourselves, we become channels of blessing to others. He fits, fills, and uses us as His vessels in ministering to poor, thirsty, needy souls around us. The spirit is the spring of power and joy in the heart of the believer. He enables us to be, in our feeble measure, the expression of what He is.

He will come in crushing judgement upon the world.