Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t27750

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27751
 January 16                                               Evening

 \\"The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself."\\
                                                    --Daniel 9:26

    Blessed be his name, there was no cause of death in him.
 Neither original nor actual sin had defiled him, and therefore
 death had no claim upon him. No man could have taken his life
 from him justly, for he had done no man wrong, and no man could
 even have lain him by force unless he had been pleased to yield
 himself to die. But lo, one sins and another suffers. Justice
 was offended by us, but found its satisfaction in him. Rivers of
 tears, mountains of offerings, seas of the blood of bullocks,
 and hills of frankincense, could not have availed for the
 removal of sin; but Jesus was cut off for us, and the cause of
 wrath was cut off at once, for sin was put away for ever. Herein
 is wisdom, whereby substitution, the sure and speedy way of
 atonement, was devised! Herein is condescension, which brought
 Messiah, the Prince, to wear a crown of thorns, and die upon the
 cross! Herein is love, which led the Redeemer to lay down his
 life for his enemies!

    It is not enough, however, to admire the spectacle of the
 innocent bleeding for the guilty, we must make sure of our
 interest therein. The special object of the Messiah's death was
 the salvation of his church; have we a part and a lot among
 those for whom he gave his life a ransom? Did the Lord Jesus
 stand as our representative? Are we healed by his stripes? It
 will be a terrible thing indeed if we should come short of a
 portion in his sacrifice; it were better for us that we had
 never been born. Solemn as the question is, it is a joyful
 circumstance that it is one which may be answered clearly and
 without mistake. To all who believe on him the Lord Jesus is a
 present Saviour, and upon them all the blood of reconciliation
 has been sprinkled. Let all who trust in the merit of Messiah's
 death be joyful at every remembrance of him, and let their holy
 gratitude lead them to the fullest consecration to his cause.

27752
 January 17                                               Evening

 \\"And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from\\
 \\off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house."\\
                                                  --2 Samuel 11:2

    At that hour David saw Bathsheba. We are never out of the
 reach of temptation. Both at home and abroad we are liable to
 meet with allurements to evil; the morning opens with peril, and
 the shades of evening find us still in jeopardy. They are well
 kept whom God keeps, but woe unto those who go forth into the
 world, or even dare to walk their own house unarmed. Those who
 think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any
 others. The armour-bearer of Sin is Self-confidence.

    David should have been engaged in fighting the Lord's
 battles, instead of which he tarried at Jerusalem, and gave
 himself up to luxurious repose, for he arose from his bed at
 eventide. Idleness and luxury are the devil's jackals, and find
 him abundant prey. In stagnant waters noxious creatures swarm,
 and neglected soil soon yields a dense tangle of weeds and
 briars. Oh for the constraining love of Jesus to keep us active
 and useful! When I see the King of Israel sluggishly leaving his
 couch at the close of the day, and falling at once into
 temptation, let me take warning, and set holy watchfulness to
 guard the door.

    Is it possible that the king had mounted his housetop for
 retirement and devotion? If so, what a caution is given us to
 count no place, however secret, a sanctuary from sin! While our
 hearts are so like a tinder-box, and sparks so plentiful, we had
 need use all diligence in all places to prevent a blaze. Satan
 can climb housetops, and enter closets, and even if we could
 shut out that foul fiend, our own corruptions are enough to
 work our ruin unless grace prevent. Reader, beware of evening
 temptations. Be not secure. The sun is down but sin is up. We
 need a watchman for the night as well as a guardian for the day.
 O blessed Spirit, keep us from all evil this night. Amen.
27753
 January 18                                               Evening

 \\"He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things\\
 \\concerning himself."\\
                                                     --Luke 24:27

    The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a most profitable
 journey. Their companion and teacher was \\the best of tutors\\;
 the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus condescended
 to become a preacher of the gospel, and he was not ashamed to
 exercise his calling before an audience of two persons, neither
 does he now refuse to become the teacher of even one. Let us
 court the company of so excellent an Instructor, for till he is
 made unto us wisdom we shall never be wise unto salvation.

    This unrivalled tutor used as his class-book \\the best of\\
 \\books\\. Although able to reveal fresh truth, he preferred to
 expound the old. He knew by his omniscience what was the most
 instructive way of teaching, and by turning at once to Moses and
 the prophets, he showed us that the surest road to wisdom is not
 speculation, reasoning, or reading human books, but meditation
 upon the Word of God. The readiest way to be spiritually rich
 in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this mine of diamonds, to
 gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus himself sought
 to enrich others, he wrought in the quarry of Holy Scripture.

    The favoured pair were led to consider \\the best of\\
 \\subjects\\, for Jesus spake of Jesus, and expounded the things
 concerning himself. Here the diamond cut the diamond, and what
 could be more admirable? The Master of the House unlocked his
 own doors, conducted the guests to his table, and placed his own
 dainties upon it. He who hid the treasure in the field himself
 guided the searchers to it. Our Lord would naturally discourse
 upon the sweetest of topics, and he could find none sweeter than
 his own person and work: with an eye to these we should always
 search the Word. O for grace to study the Bible with Jesus as
 both our teacher and our lesson!

27754
 January 19                                               Evening

 \\"Then opened he their understanding, that they might\\
 \\understand the Scriptures."\\
                                                     --Luke 24:45

    He whom we viewed last evening as opening Scripture, we here
 perceive opening the understanding. In the first work he has
 many fellow-labourers, but in the second he stands alone; many
 can bring the Scriptures to the mind, but the Lord alone can
 prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus
 differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear, but he
 instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but he
 imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its
 savour and spirit. The most unlearned of men become ripe
 scholars in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by his Holy
 Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants
 the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the
 invisible. Happy are we if we have had our understandings
 cleared and strengthened by the Master! How many men of
 profound learning are ignorant of eternal things! They know the
 killing letter of revelation, but its killing spirit they cannot
 discern; they have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of
 carnal reason cannot penetrate. Such was our case a little time
 ago; we who now see were once utterly blind; truth was to us as
 beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not
 been for the love of Jesus we should have remained to this
 moment in utter ignorance, for without his gracious opening of
 our understanding, we could no more have attained to spiritual
 knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich
 fly up to the stars. Jesus' College is the only one in which
 God's truth can be really learned; other schools may teach us
 what is to be believed, but Christ's alone can show us how to
 believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and by earnest
 prayer call in his blessed aid that our dull wits may grow
 brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly
 things.

27755
 January 20                                               Evening

 \\"Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou\\
 \\me in thy way."\\
                                                   --Psalm 119:37

    There are divers kinds of vanity. The cap and bells of the
 fool, the mirth of the world, the dance, the lyre, and the cup
 of the dissolute, all these men know to be vanities; they wear
 upon their forefront their proper name and title. Far more
 treacherous are those equally vain things, the cares of this
 world and the deceitfulness of riches. A man may follow vanity
 as truly in the counting-house as in the theatre. If he be
 spending his life in amassing wealth, he passes his days in a
 vain show. Unless we follow Christ, and make our God the great
 object of life, we only differ in appearance from the most
 frivolous. It is clear that there is much need of the first
 prayer of our text. "Quicken thou me in thy way." The Psalmist
 confesses that he is dull, heavy, lumpy, all but dead. Perhaps,
 dear reader, you feel the same. We are so sluggish that the best
 motives cannot quicken us, apart from the Lord himself. What!
 will not hell quicken me? Shall I think of sinners perishing,
 and yet not be awakened? Will not heaven quicken me? Can I think
 of the reward that awaiteth the righteous, and yet be cold? Will
 not death quicken me? Can I think of dying, and standing before
 my God, and yet be slothful in my Master's service? Will not
 Christ's love constrain me? Can I think of his dear wounds, can
 I sit at the foot of his cross, and not be stirred with fervency
 and zeal? It seems so! No mere consideration can quicken us to
 zeal, but God himself must do it, hence the cry, "Quicken
 \\thou\\ me." The Psalmist breathes out his whole soul in
 vehement pleadings: his body and his soul unite in prayer. "Turn
 away mine eyes," says the body: "Quicken thou me," cries the
 soul. This is a fit prayer for every day. O Lord, hear it in my
 case this night.

27756
 January 21                                               Evening

 \\"He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou\\
 \\hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy\\
 \\servant: and now shall I die for thirst?"\\
                                                   --Judges 15:18

    Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was
 totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely
 to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to
 be delivered from a thousand Philistines! but when the thirst
 was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more
 weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so
 specially been delivered. It is very usual for God's people,
 when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little
 trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines,
 and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water!
 Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence
 itself, and then goes "halting on his thigh!" Strange that there
 must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if
 the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order
 to keep us within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he
 said, "I have slain a thousand men." His boastful throat soon
 grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to prayer. God
 has many ways of humbling his people. Dear child of God, if
 after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an
 unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he
 said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You must
 expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest
 triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the
 past, your present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst, and
 the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the
 uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road of sorrow is the
 road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all
 along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with
 Samson's words, and rest assured that God will deliver you ere
 long.

27757
 January 22                                               Evening

 \\"Doth Job fear God for nought?"\\
                                                        --Job 1:9

    This was the wicked question of Satan concerning that upright
 man of old, but there are many in the present day concerning
 whom it might be asked with justice, for they love God after a
 fashion because he prospers them; but if things went ill with
 them, they would give up all their boasted faith in God. If
 they can clearly see that since the time of their supposed
 conversion the world has gone prosperously with them, then they
 will love God in their poor carnal way; but if they endure
 adversity, they rebel against the Lord. Their love is the love
 of the table, not of the host; a love to the cupboard, not to
 the master of the house. As for the true Christian, he expects
 to have his reward in the next life, and to endure hardness in
 this. The promise of the old covenant is adversity. Remember
 Christ's words--"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit"--
 What? "\\He purgeth it, that it may bring forth fruit\\." If you
 bring forth fruit, you will have to endure affliction. "Alas!"
 you say, "that is a terrible prospect." But this affliction
 works out such precious results, that the Christian who is the
 subject of it must learn to rejoice in tribulations, because as
 his tribulations abound, so his consolations abound by Christ
 Jesus. Rest assured, if you are a child of God, you will be no
 stranger to the rod. Sooner or later every bar of gold must pass
 through the fire. Fear not, but rather rejoice that such
 fruitful times are in store for you, for in them you will be
 weaned from earth and made meet for heaven; you will be
 delivered from clinging to the present, and made to long for
 those eternal things which are so soon to be revealed to you.
 When you feel that as regards the present you do serve God for
 nought, you will then rejoice in the infinite reward of the
 future.

27758
 January 23                                               Evening

 \\"We will remember thy love more than wine."\\
                                            --Song of Solomon 1:4

    Jesus will not let his people forget his love. If all the
 love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, he will visit them
 with fresh love. "Do you forget my cross?" says he, "I will
 cause you to remember it; for at my table I will manifest myself
 anew to you. Do you forget what I did for you in the
 council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you
 shall need a counsellor, and shall find me ready at your call."
 Mothers do not let their children forget them. If the boy has
 gone to Australia, and does not write home, his mother
 writes--"Has John forgotten his mother?" Then there comes back a
 sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in
 vain. So is it with Jesus, he says to us, "Remember me," and our
 response is, "We will remember thy love." \\We will\\ remember
 thy love and its matchless history. It is ancient as the glory
 which thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We
 remember, O Jesus, thine eternal love when thou didst become our
 Surety, and espouse us as thy betrothed. We remember the love
 which suggested the sacrifice of thyself, the love which, until
 the fulness of time, mused over that sacrifice, and long for the
 hour whereof in the volume of the book it was written of thee,
 "Lo, I come." We remember thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest
 to us in thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the
 garden of Gethsemane. We track thee from the cradle to the
 grave--for every word and deed of thine was love--and we rejoice
 in thy love, which death did not exhaust; thy love which shone
 resplendent in thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire
 of love which will never let thee hold thy peace until thy
 chosen ones be all safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and
 Jerusalem settled on her everlasting foundations of light and
 love in heaven.

27759
 January 24                                              Evening

 \\"Martha was cumbered about much serving."\\
                                                    --Luke 10:40

    Her fault was not that she \\served\\: the condition of a
 servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the
 motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was
 it her fault that she had "\\much\\ serving." We cannot do too
 much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart,
 and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. It was no fault
 of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master.
 Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed
 a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole
 soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she
 grew "\\cumbered\\ with much serving," so that she forgot
 \\him\\, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to
 override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the
 blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we
 should do much service, and have much communion at the same
 time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than
 to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the
 Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer,
 needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the
 exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the
 hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult
 to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things,
 which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it
 that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it
 that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not neglected, even though
 it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first
 thing for our soul's health, the first thing for his glory, and
 the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in
 perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the
 vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above
 everything else in the world.

27760
 January 25                                              Evening

 \\"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea,\\
 \\we establish the law."\\
                                                   --Romans 3:31

    When the believer is adopted into the Lord's family, his
 relationship to old Adam and the law ceases at once; but then
 he is under a new rule, and a new covenant. Believer, you are
 God's child; it is your first duty to obey your heavenly
 Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with: you are
 not a slave, but a child; and now, inasmuch as you are a
 beloved child, you are bound to obey your Father's faintest
 wish, the least intimation of his will. Does he bid you fulfil
 a sacred ordinance? It is at your peril that you neglect it,
 for you will be disobeying your Father. Does he command you to
 seek the image of Jesus? Is it not your joy to do so? Does
 Jesus tell you, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in
 heaven is perfect"? Then not because the law commands, but
 because your Saviour enjoins, you will labour to be perfect in
 holiness. Does he bid his saints love one another? Do it, not
 because the law says, "Love thy neighbour," but because Jesus
 says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" and this is the
 commandment that he has given unto you, "that ye love one
 another." Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it, not
 because charity is a burden which you dare not shirk, but
 because Jesus teaches, "Give to him that asketh of thee." Does
 the Word say, "Love God with all your heart"? Look at the
 commandment and reply, "Ah! commandment, Christ hath fulfilled
 thee already--I have no need, therefore, to fulfil thee for my
 salvation, but I rejoice to yield obedience to thee because God
 is my Father now and he has a claim upon me, which I would not
 dispute." May the Holy Ghost make your heart obedient to the
 constraining power of Christ's love, that your prayer may be,
 "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do
 I delight." Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not
 the apologist of sin.
27761
 January 26                                              Evening

 \\"All they that heard it wondered at those things."\\
                                                     --Luke 2:18

    We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God.
 It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder
 and \\real worship\\; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the
 majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in
 song, or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer,
 yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as
 "the Wonderful." That God should consider his fallen creature,
 man, and instead of sweeping him away with the besom of
 destruction, should himself undertake to be man's Redeemer, and
 to pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous! But to each
 believer redemption is most marvellous as he views it in
 relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus
 should forsake the thrones and royalties above, to suffer
 ignominiously below \\for you\\. Let your soul lose itself in
 wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical emotion.
 Holy wonder will lead you to \\grateful worship\\ and
 \\heartfelt thanksgiving\\. It will cause within you \\godly\\
 \\watchfulness\\; you will be afraid to sin against such a love
 as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of
 his dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet,
 because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be
 moved at the same time to \\glorious hope\\. If Jesus has done
 such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven
 itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be
 astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the
 manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has
 seen the Saviour? Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness
 and solitariness of your life, you are scarcely able to imitate
 the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told what they had seen and
 heard, but you can, at least, fill up the circle of the
 worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God has
 done.

27762
 January 27                                              Evening

 \\"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her\\
 \\heart."\\
                                                     --Luke 2:19

    There  was an exercise, on the part of this blessed woman,
 of three powers of her being: her \\memory\\--she kept all these
 things; her \\affections\\--she kept them in her heart; her
 \\intellect\\--she pondered them; so that memory, affection, and
 understanding, were all exercised about the things which she
 had heard. Beloved, remember what you have heard of your Lord
 Jesus, and what he has done for you; make your heart the golden
 pot of manna to preserve the memorial of the heavenly bread
 whereon you have fed in days gone by. Let your memory treasure
 up everything about Christ which you have either felt, or
 known, or believed, and then let your fond affections hold
 \\him\\ fast for evermore. Love the person of your Lord! Bring
 forth the alabaster box of your heart, even though it be
 broken, and let all the precious ointment of your affection
 come streaming on his pierced feet. Let your intellect be
 exercised concerning the Lord Jesus. Meditate upon what you
 read: stop not at the surface; dive into the depths. Be not as
 the swallow which toucheth the brook with her wing, but as the
 fish which penetrates the lowest wave. Abide with your Lord:
 let him not be to you as a wayfaring man, that tarrieth for a
 night, but constrain him, saying, "Abide with us, for the day
 is far spent." Hold him, and do not let him go. The word
 "ponder," means to weigh. Make ready the balances of judgment.
 Oh, but where are the scales that can weigh the Lord Christ?
 "He taketh up the isles as a very little thing:"--who shall
 take \\him\\ up? "He weigheth the mountains in scales"--in what
 scales shall we weigh \\him\\? Be it so, if your understanding
 cannot comprehend, let your affections apprehend; and if your
 spirit cannot compass the Lord Jesus in the grasp of
 understanding, let it embrace him in the arms of affection.
27763
 January 28                                              Evening

 \\"And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for\\
 \\all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told\\
 \\unto them."\\
                                                     --Luke 2:20

    What was the subject of their praise? They \\praised God for\\
 \\what they had heard\\--for the good tidings of great joy that
 a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also
 raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and his
 salvation. They also \\praised God for what they had seen\\.
 There is the sweetest music--what we have experienced, what we
 have felt within, what we have made our own--"the things which
 we have made touching the King." It is not enough to \\hear\\
 about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of
 living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with
 the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among
 the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace,
 awake your psaltery and harp. One point for which they praised
 God was \\the agreement between what they had heard and what\\
 \\they had seen\\. Observe the last sentence--"As it was told
 unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves
 just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give
 you rest--have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He
 said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through
 believing in him--have you not received all these? Are not his
 ways ways of pleasantness, and his paths paths of peace? Surely
 you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told
 me." I have found Christ more sweet than his servants ever said
 he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted it, but it
 was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his
 beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have
 "\\seen\\" keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have
 "\\heard\\." Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Saviour
 so precious, and so satisfying.

27764
 January 29                                              Evening

 \\"The dove came in to him in the evening."\\
                                                  --Genesis 8:11

    Blessed be the Lord for another day of mercy, even though I
 am now weary with its toils. Unto the preserver of men lift I
 my song of gratitude. The dove found no rest out of the ark,
 and therefore returned to it; and my soul has learned yet more
 fully than ever, this day, that there is no satisfaction to be
 found in earthly things--God alone can give rest to my spirit.
 As to my business, my possessions, my family, my attainments,
 these are all well enough in their way, but they cannot fulfil
 the desires of my immortal nature. "Return unto thy rest, O my
 soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." It was at
 the still hour, when the gates of the day were closing, that
 with weary wing the dove came back to the master: O Lord,
 enable me this evening thus to return to Jesus. She could not
 endure to spend a night hovering over the restless waste, not
 can I bear to be even for another hour away from Jesus, the
 rest of my heart, the home of my spirit. She did not merely
 alight upon the roof of the ark, she "came in to him;" even so
 would my longing spirit look into the secret of the Lord,
 pierce to the interior of truth, enter into that which is
 within the veil, and reach to my Beloved in very deed. To Jesus
 must I come: short of the nearest and dearest intercourse with
 him my panting spirit cannot stay. Blessed Lord Jesus, be with
 me, reveal thyself, and abide with me all night, so that when I
 awake I may be still with thee. I note that the dove brought in
 her mouth an olive branch plucked off, the memorial of the past
 day, and a prophecy of the future. Have I no pleasing record to
 bring home? No pledge and earnest of lovingkindness yet to
 come? Yes, my Lord, I present thee my grateful acknowledgments
 for tender mercies which have been new every morning and fresh
 every evening; and now, I pray thee, put forth thy hand and
 take thy dove into thy bosom.

27765
 January 30                                              Evening

 \\"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance."\\
                                                --Ephesians 1:11

    When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and
 privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as
 eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may
 venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head
 of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All
 the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the
 joint riches of all who are in him, and on whose behalf he
 accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but not
 for himself alone, for it is written, "Whither the Forerunner is
 \\for us\\ entered." Heb. 6:20. Does he stand in the presence of
 God?--"He appears in the presence of God \\for us\\." Heb.
 9:24. Consider this, believer. You have no right to heaven in
 yourself: your right lies in Christ. If you are pardoned, it is
 through \\his\\ blood; if you are justified, it is through
 \\his\\ righteousness; if you are sanctified, it is because
 \\he\\ is made of God unto you sanctification; if you shall be
 kept from falling, it will be because you are preserved in
 Christ Jesus; and if you are perfected at the last, it will be
 because you are complete in \\him\\. Thus Jesus is magnified--
 for all is in him and by him; thus the inheritance is made
 certain to us--for it is obtained in him; thus each blessing is
 the sweeter, and even heaven itself the brighter, because it is
 Jesus our Beloved "in whom" we have obtained all. Where is the
 man who shall estimate our divine portion? Weigh the riches of
 Christ in scales, and his treasure in balances, and then think
 to count the treasures which belong to the saints. Reach the
 bottom of Christ's sea of joy, and then hope to understand the
 bliss which God hath prepared for them that love him. Overleap
 the boundaries of Christ's possessions, and then dream of a
 limit to the fair inheritance of the elect. "All things are
 yours, for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's."

27766
 January 31                                              Evening

 \\"Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran\\
 \\Cushi."\\
                                                --2 Samuel 18:23

    Running is not everything, there is much in the way which we
 select: a swift foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace
 with a slower traveller upon level ground. How is it with my
 spiritual journey, am I labouring up the hill of my own works
 and down into the ravines of my own humiliations and
 resolutions, or do I run by the plain way of "Believe and live"?
 How blessed is it to wait upon the Lord by faith! The soul runs
 without weariness, and walks without fainting, in the way of
 believing. Christ Jesus is the way of life, and he is a plain
 way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the tottering feet and
 feeble knees of trembling sinners: am I found in this way, or am
 I hunting after another track such as priestcraft or metaphysics
 may promise me? I read of the way of holiness, that the
 wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein: have I been
 delivered from proud reason and been brought as a little child
 to rest in Jesus' love and blood? If so, by God's grace I shall
 outrun the strongest runner who chooses any other path. This
 truth I may remember to my profit in my daily cares and needs.
 It will be my wisest course to go at once to my God, and not to
 wander in a roundabout manner to this friend and that. He knows
 my wants and can relieve them, to whom should I repair but to
 himself by the direct appeal of prayer, and the plain argument
 of the promise. "Straightforward makes the best runner." I will
 not parlay with the servants, but hasten to their master.

    In reading this passage, it strikes me that if men vie with
 each other in common matters, and one outruns the other, I ought
 to be in solemn earnestness so to run that I may obtain. Lord,
 help me to gird up the loins of my mind, and may I press forward
 towards the mark for the prize of my high calling of God in
 Christ Jesus.

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