Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t28700

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28701
 June 1                                                   Evening

 \\"He will make her wilderness like Eden."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 51:3

    Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and
 terrible desert, like to the Sahara. I perceive nothing in it to
 relieve the eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot
 and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of
 wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way
 in the pitiless waste. What an appalling sight! How horrible! a
 sea of sand without a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless
 graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold and wonder! Upon a
 sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a plant of
 renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands--it is a rose,
 and at its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of
 miracles! as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the
 wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around
 it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it,
 the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Call it not Sahara, call it
 Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of
 deathshade, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun,
 behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead, a
 mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that plant of
 renown, and his presence makes all things new. Nor is the wonder
 less in each individual's salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear
 reader, cast out, an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with
 your own blood, left to be food for beasts of prey. But lo, a
 jewel has been thrown into your bosom by a divine hand, and for
 its sake you have been pitied and tended by divine providence,
 you are washed and cleansed from your defilement, you are
 adopted into heaven's family, the fair seal of love is upon your
 forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand--you are
 now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast away. O prize
 exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts
 into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.

28702
 June 2                                                   Evening

 \\"Good Master."\\
                                                  --Matthew 19:16

    If the young man in the gospel used this title in speaking to
 our Lord, how much more fitly may I thus address him! He is
 indeed my Master in both senses, a ruling Master and a teaching
 Master. I delight to run upon his errands, and to sit at his
 feet. I am both his servant and his disciple, and count it my
 highest honour to own the double character. If he should ask me
 why I call him "\\good\\," I should have a ready answer. It is
 true that "there is none good but one, that is, God," but then
 he is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines forth in him. In
 my experience, I have found him good, so good, indeed, that all
 the good I have has come to me through him. He was good to me
 when I was dead in sin, for he raised me by his Spirit's power;
 he has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and
 sorrows. Never could there be a better Master, for his service
 is freedom, his rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part
 as good a servant. When he teaches me as my Rabbi, he is
 unspeakably good, his doctrine is divine, his manner is
 condescending, his spirit is gentleness itself. No error mingles
 with his instruction--pure is the golden truth which he brings
 forth, and all his teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as
 well as edifying the disciple. Angels find him a good Master and
 delight to pay their homage at his footstool. The ancient saints
 proved him to be a good Master, and each of them rejoiced to
 sing, "I am thy servant, O Lord!" My own humble testimony must
 certainly be to the same effect. I will bear this witness before
 my friends and neighbours, for possibly they may be led by my
 testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Master. O that they
 would do so! They would never repent so wise a deed. If they
 would but take his easy yoke, they would find themselves in so
 royal a service that they would enlist in it for ever.

28703
 June 3                                                   Evening

 \\"He humbled himself."\\
                                                --Philippians 2:8

    Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart. We need
 daily to learn of him. See the Master taking a towel and washing
 his disciples' feet! Follower of Christ, wilt thou not humble
 thyself? See him as the Servant of servants, and surely thou
 canst not be proud! Is not this sentence the compendium of his
 biography, "He humbled himself"? Was he not on earth always
 stripping off first one robe of honour and then another, till,
 naked, he was fastened to the cross, and there did he not empty
 out his inmost self, pouring out his life-blood, giving up for
 all of us, till they laid him penniless in a borrowed grave? How
 low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud?
 Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by
 which you have been cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark his
 scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned rills; see
 hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and his whole self to
 mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the
 throes of inward grief, showing themselves in his outward frame;
 hear the thrilling shriek, "My God, my God, why hast thou
 forsaken me?" And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground
 before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not
 humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know him. You were
 so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's
 only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you, bow
 yourself in lowliness at his feet. A sense of Christ's amazing
 love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even a
 consciousness of our own guilt. May the Lord bring us in
 contemplation to Calvary, then our position will no longer be
 that of the pompous man of pride, but we shall take the humble
 place of one who loves much because much has been forgiven him.
 Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn
 our lesson, and then rise and carry it into practice.

28704
 June 4                                                   Evening

 \\"Received up into glory."\\
                                                 --1 Timothy 3:16

    We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of his flesh,
 humiliated and sore vexed; for he was "despised and rejected of
 men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose
 brightness is as the morning, wore the sackcloth of sorrow as
 his daily dress: shame was his mantle, and reproach was his
 vesture. Yet now, inasmuch as he has triumphed over all the
 powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our faith beholds our
 King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in the
 splendour of victory. How glorious must he have been in the eyes
 of seraphs, when a cloud received him out of mortal sight, and
 he ascended up to heaven! Now he wears the glory which he had
 with God or ever the earth was, and yet another glory above
 all--that which he has well earned in the fight against sin,
 death, and hell. As victor he wears the illustrious crown. Hark
 how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song: "Worthy
 is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed us unto God by
 his blood!" He wears the glory of an Intercessor who can never
 fail, of a Prince who can never be defeated, of a Conqueror who
 has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's
 allegiance of every subject. Jesus wears all the glory which the
 pomp of heaven can bestow upon him, which ten thousand times ten
 thousand angels can minister to him. You cannot with your
 utmost stretch of imagination conceive his exceeding greatness;
 yet there will be a further revelation of it when he shall
 descend from heaven in great power, with all the holy
 angels--"Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Oh,
 the splendour of that glory! It will ravish his people's
 hearts. Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound his
 praise, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever!" Reader, if
 you would joy in Christ's glory hereafter, he must be glorious
 in your sight now. \\Is he so\\?

28705
 June 5                                                   Evening

 \\"He that loveth not knoweth not God."\\
                                                     --1 John 4:8

    The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in
 the love of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ
 in return. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling
 the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave
 himself for me." Then love gives the countersign, and stamps
 upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love
 him because he first loved us." In those grand old ages, which
 are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double
 mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus; they were
 men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man
 leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. The love
 which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which
 they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls,
 and which they only spake of in their private assemblies when
 they met on the first day of the week, and sang hymns in honour
 of Christ Jesus the crucified, but it was a passion with them of
 such a vehement and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in
 all their actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of
 their eyes even in their commonest glances. Love to Jesus was a
 flame which fed upon the core and heart of their being; and,
 therefore, from its own force burned its way into the outer man,
 and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal
 and mark of all genuine Christians. Because of their dependence
 upon Christ's love they \\dared\\ much, and because of their
 love to Christ they \\did\\ much, and it is the same now. The
 children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love--the
 love of Christ constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love
 is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by
 the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force of
 gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently. My
 reader, do \\you\\ love him? Ere you sleep give an honest answer
 to a weighty question!

28706
 June 6                                                   Evening

 \\"Are they Israelites? so am I."\\
                                            --2 Corinthians 11:22

    We have here A PERSONAL CLAIM, and one that \\needs proof\\.
 The apostle knew that \\his\\ claim was indisputable, but there
 are many persons who have no right to the title who yet claim to
 belong to the Israel of God. If we are with confidence
 declaring, "So am I also an Israelite," let us only say it after
 having searched our heart as in the presence of God. But if we
 can give proof that we are following Jesus, if we can from the
 heart say, "I trust him wholly, trust him only, trust him
 simply, trust him now, and trust him ever," then the position
 which the saints of God hold belongs to us--all their enjoyments
 are our possessions; we may be the very least in Israel, "less
 than the least of all saints," yet since the mercies of God
 belong to the saints AS SAINTS, and not as advanced saints, or
 well-taught saints, we may put in our plea, and say, "Are they
 Israelites? so am I; therefore the promises are mine, grace is
 mine, glory will be mine." The claim, rightfully made, is one
 which will yield untold comfort. When God's people are rejoicing
 that they are his, what a happiness if they can say, "SO AM I!"
 When they speak of being pardoned, and justified, and accepted
 in the Beloved, how joyful to respond, "Through the grace of
 God, SO AM I." But this claim not only has its enjoyments and
 privileges, but also its conditions and duties. We must share
 with God's people in cloud as well as in sunshine. When we hear
 them spoken of with contempt and ridicule for being Christians,
 we must come boldly forward and say, "So am I." When we see them
 working for Christ, giving their time, their talent, their whole
 heart to Jesus, we must be able to say, "So do I." O let us
 prove our gratitude by our devotion, and live as those who,
 having claimed a privilege, are willing to take the
 responsibility connected with it.
28707
 June 7                                                   Evening

 \\"Be zealous."\\
                                                --Revelation 3:19

    If you would see souls converted, if you would hear the cry
 that "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our
 Lord;" if you would place crowns upon the head of the Saviour,
 and his throne lifted high, then be filled with zeal. For, under
 God, the way of the world's conversion must be by the zeal of
 the church. Every grace shall do exploits, but this shall be
 first; prudence, knowledge, patience, and courage will follow in
 their places, but zeal must lead the van. It is not the extent
 of your knowledge, though that is useful; it is not the extent
 of your talent, though that is not to be despised; it is your
 zeal that shall do great exploits. This zeal is the fruit of the
 Holy Spirit: it draws its vital force from \\the continued\\
 \\operations\\ of the Holy Ghost in the soul. If our inner life
 dwindles, if our heart beats slowly before God, we shall not
 know zeal; but if all be strong and vigorous within, then we
 cannot but feel a loving anxiety to see the kingdom of Christ
 come, and his will done on earth, even as it is in heaven. A
 deep \\sense of gratitude\\ will nourish Christian zeal. Looking
 to the hole of the pit whence we were digged, we find abundant
 reason why we should spend and be spent for God. And zeal is
 also stimulated by \\the thought of the eternal future\\. It
 looks with tearful eyes down to the flames of hell, and it
 cannot slumber: it looks up with anxious gaze to the glories of
 heaven, and it cannot but bestir itself. It feels that time is
 short compared with the work to be done, and therefore it
 devotes all that it has to the cause of its Lord. And it is ever
 strengthened by \\the remembrance of Christ's example\\. He was
 clothed with zeal as with a cloak. How swift the chariot-wheels
 of duty went with him! He knew no loitering by the way. Let us
 prove that we are his disciples by manifesting the same spirit
 of zeal.
28708
 June 8                                                   Evening

 \\"Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto\\
 \\thee or not."\\
                                                  --Numbers 11:23

    God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space
 of a whole month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness
 with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks
 to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise
 can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the
 Creator. But doth the Creator expect the creature to fulfil his
 promise for him? No; he who makes the promise ever fulfils it
 by his own unaided omnipotence. If he speaks, it is done--done
 by himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfilment
 upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at
 once perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly
 we do the same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we
 look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and
 then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we
 indulge in unbelief. Why look we to that quarter at all? Will
 you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun?
 Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did this than when
 you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the
 Creator's work. Let us, then, put the question on the right
 footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the
 visible means for the performance of the promise, but the
 all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will most surely do as
 he hath said. If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with
 the Lord and not with the creature, we dare to indulge in
 mistrust, the question of God comes home mightily to us: "Has
 the Lord's hand waxed short?" May it happen, too, in his mercy,
 that with the question there may flash upon our souls that
 blessed declaration, "Thou shalt see now whether my word shall
 come to pass unto thee or not."

28709
 June 9                                                   Evening

 \\"Search the Scriptures."\\
                                                      --John 5:39

    The Greek word here rendered \\search\\ signifies a strict,
 close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are
 seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We
 must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to
 a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must
 deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word. Holy
 Scripture \\requires searching\\--much of it can only be learned
 by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for
 strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter
 hangs upon every word, yea, upon every title of Scripture.
 Tertullian exclaims, "I adore the fulness of the Scriptures." No
 man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must
 dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the
 word only opens to the key of diligence. The Scriptures \\claim\\
 \\searching\\. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine
 stamp and imprimatur-- who shall dare to treat them with levity?
 He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid
 that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses
 against us in the great day of account. The word of God \\will\\
 \\repay searching\\. God does not bid us sift a mountain of
 chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible
 is winnowed corn--we have but to open the granary door and find
 it. Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises.
 Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it
 glows with splendour of revelation, like a vast temple paved
 with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all
 manner of gems. No merchandise like the merchandise of Scripture
 truth. Lastly, \\the Scriptures reveal Jesus\\: "They are they
 which testify of me." No more powerful motive can be urged upon
 Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven,
 all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his
 Saviour.

28710
 June 10                                                  Evening

 \\"They are they which testify of me."\\
                                                      --John 5:39

    Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the
 constant theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they
 testify of him. At the creation we at once discern him as one
 of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of him in the promise
 of the woman's seed; we see him typified in the ark of Noah; we
 walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day; we dwell in the
 tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we
 hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous
 types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed.
 Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one
 way--they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to
 look within, and to read the mystery of God's great
 propitiation. Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find
 our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and
 there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon
 a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New
 Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is
 bejewelled with the Redeemer's name. We should always read
 Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a
 mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we,
 looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass--darkly,
 it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed
 preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face.
 This volume contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by
 his love. These pages are the garments of our King, and they all
 smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal
 chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the
 daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands
 of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour.
 The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.

28711
 June 11                                                  Evening

 \\"There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the\\
 \\sword, and the battle."\\
                                                     --Psalm 76:3

    Our Redeemer's glorious cry of "It is finished," was the
 death-knell of all the adversaries of his people, the breaking
 of "the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword,
 and the battle." Behold the hero of Golgotha using his
 cross as an anvil, and his woes as a hammer, dashing to shivers
 bundle after bundle of our sins, those poisoned "arrows of the
 bow;" trampling on every indictment, and destroying every
 accusation. What glorious blows the mighty Breaker gives with a
 hammer far more ponderous than the fabled weapon of Thor! How
 the diabolical darts fly to fragments, and the infernal bucklers
 are broken like potters' vessels! Behold, he draws from its
 sheath of hellish workmanship the dread sword of Satanic power!
 He snaps it across his knee, as a man breaks the dry wood of a
 fagot, and casts it into the fire. Beloved, no sin of a believer
 can now be an arrow mortally to wound him, no condemnation can
 now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment of our sin was
 borne by Christ, a full atonement was made for all our
 iniquities by our blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now
 accuseth? Who now condemneth? Christ hath died, yea rather, hath
 risen again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has
 quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow
 of wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of
 the weapons of hell's warfare, which are only visible to us to
 remind us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance.
 Sin hath no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end of it,
 and put it away for ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to
 a perpetual end. Talk ye of all the wondrous works of the Lord,
 ye who make mention of his name, keep not silence, neither by
 day, nor when the sun goeth to his rest. Bless the Lord, O my
 soul.
28712
 June 12                                                  Evening

 \\"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling."\\
                                                  --2 Timothy 1:9

    The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who \\hath\\
 saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus \\are\\ saved. They are
 not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may
 ultimately be saved, but they \\are\\ already saved. Salvation
 is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be
 sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained,
 received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly
 saved \\in God's purpose\\; God has ordained him unto salvation,
 and that purpose is complete. He is saved also as to the \\price\\
 \\which has been paid for him\\: "It is finished" was the cry of
 the Saviour ere he died. The believer is also perfectly saved
 \\in his covenant head\\, for as he fell in Adam, so he lives in
 Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by \\a holy\\
 \\calling\\. Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in
 due time effectually called by the power of God the Holy Spirit
 unto holiness: they leave their sins; they endeavour to be like
 Christ; they choose holiness, not out of any compulsion, but
 from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in
 holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin.
 God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy,
 but he called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the
 beauty produced by his workmanship in them. The excellencies
 which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the
 atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness
 of the grace of God. Salvation must be of grace, because the
 Lord is the author of it: and what motive but grace could move
 him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace, because the
 Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness is for ever
 excluded. Such is the believer's privilege--\\a present\\
 \\salvation\\; such is the evidence that he is called to it--\\a\\
 \\holy life\\.
28713
 June 13                                                  Evening

 \\"Remove far from me vanity and lies."\\
                                                  --Proverbs 30:8
 \\"O my God, be not far from me."\\
                                                  -- Psalm 38:21.

    Here we have two great lessons--what to deprecate and what
 to supplicate. The happiest state of a Christian is the holiest
 state. As there is the most heat nearest to the sun, so there
 is the most happiness nearest to Christ. No Christian enjoys
 comfort when his eyes are fixed on vanity--he finds no
 satisfaction unless his soul is quickened in the ways of God.
 The world may win happiness elsewhere, but he cannot. I do not
 blame ungodly men for rushing to their pleasures. Why should I?
 Let them have their fill. That is all they have to enjoy. A
 converted wife who despaired of her husband was always very
 kind to him, for she said, "I fear that this is the only world
 in which he will be happy, and therefore I have made up my mind
 to make him as happy as I can in it." Christians must seek
 their delights in a higher sphere than the insipid frivolities
 or sinful enjoyments of the world. Vain pursuits are dangerous
 to renewed souls. We have heard of a philosopher who, while he
 looked \\up\\ to the stars, fell into a pit; but how deeply do
 they fall who look \\down\\. Their fall is fatal. No Christian
 is safe when his soul is slothful, and his God is far from him.
 Every Christian is always safe as to the great matter of his
 standing in Christ, but he is not safe as regards his
 experience in holiness, and communion with Jesus in this life.
 Satan does not often attack a Christian who is living near to
 God. It is when the Christian departs from his God, becomes
 spiritually starved, and endeavours to feed on vanities, that
 the devil discovers his vantage hour. He may sometimes stand
 foot to foot with the child of God who is active in his
 Master's service, but the battle is generally short: he who
 slips as he goes down into the Valley of Humiliation, every
 time he takes a false step invites Apollyon to assail him. O
 for grace to walk humbly with our God!
28714
 June 14                                                  Evening

 \\"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face ... because we\\
 \\have sinned against thee."\\
                                                     --Daniel 9:8

    A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the
 punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the
 throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be
 so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful:
 privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in
 proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged
 in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back
 upon the past? As for our days before we were regenerated, may
 they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have
 not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and
 against love--light which has really penetrated our minds, and
 love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a
 pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with
 the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had communion
 with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom. Look at
 David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his
 repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans
 out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon
 the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the
 softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore,
 seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak
 much of Peter's denying his Master. Remember, it is written, "He
 wept bitterly." Have \\we\\ no denials of our Lord to be lamented
 with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after
 conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable
 fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to
 differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow
 down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy
 God. Admire the grace which saves thee--the mercy which spares
 thee--the love which pardons thee!

28715
 June 15                                                  Evening

 \\"He openeth, and no man shutteth."\\
                                                 --Revelation 3:7

    Jesus is the keeper of the gates of paradise and before every
 believing soul he setteth an open door, which no man or devil
 shall be able to close against it. What joy it will be to find
 that faith in him is the golden key to the everlasting doors. My
 soul, dost thou carry this key in thy bosom, or art thou
 trusting to some deceitful pick-lock, which will fail thee at
 last? Hear this parable of the preacher, and remember it. The
 great King has made a banquet, and he has proclaimed to all the
 world that none shall enter but those who bring with them the
 fairest flower that blooms. The spirits of men advance to the
 gate by thousands, and they bring each one the flower which he
 esteems the queen of the garden; but in crowds they are driven
 from the royal presence, and enter not into the festive halls.
 Some bear in their hand the deadly nightshade of superstition,
 or the flaunting poppies of Rome, or the hemlock of self-
 righteousness, but these are not dear to the King, the bearers
 are shut out of the pearly gates. My soul, hast thou gathered
 the rose of Sharon? Dost thou wear the lily of the valley in thy
 bosom constantly? If so, when thou comest up to the gates of
 heaven thou wilt know its value, for thou hast only to show this
 choicest of flowers, and the Porter will open: not for a moment
 will he deny thee admission, for to that rose the Porter openeth
 ever. Thou shalt find thy way with the rose of Sharon in thy
 hand up to the throne of God himself, for heaven itself
 possesses nothing that excels its radiant beauty, and of all the
 flowers that bloom in paradise there is none that can rival the
 lily of the valley. My soul, get Calvary's blood-red rose into
 thy hand by faith, by love wear it, by communion preserve it, by
 daily watchfulness make it thine all in all, and thou shalt be
 blessed beyond all bliss, happy beyond a dream. Jesus, be mine
 for ever, my God, my heaven, my all.

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