Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29150

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29151
 August 16                                                Evening

 \\"Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit."\\
                                                    --Romans 8:23

    Present possession is declared. At this present moment we
 have the first fruits of the Spirit. We have repentance, that
 gem of the first water; faith, that priceless pearl; hope, the
 heavenly emerald; and love, the glorious ruby. We are already
 made "new creatures in Christ Jesus," by the effectual working
 of God the Holy Ghost. This is called the firstfruit because
 \\it comes first\\. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the
 harvest, so the spiritual life, and all the graces which adorn
 that life, are the first operations of the Spirit of God in our
 souls. \\The firstfruits were the pledge of the harvest\\. As
 soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe
 ears, he looked forward with glad anticipation to the time when
 the wain should creak beneath the sheaves. So, brethren, when
 God gives us things which are pure, lovely, and of good report,
 as the work of the Holy Spirit, these are to us the prognostics
 of the coming glory. \\The firstfruits were always holy to the\\
 \\Lord\\, and our new nature, with all its powers, is a
 consecrated thing.  The new life is not ours that we should
 ascribe its excellence to our own merit; it is Christ's image
 and creation, and is ordained for his glory. But \\the\\
 \\firstfruits were not the harvest\\, and the works of the
 Spirit in us at this moment are not the consummation--the
 perfection is yet to come. We must not boast that we have
 attained, and so reckon the wave-sheaf to be all the produce of
 the year: we must hunger and thirst after righteousness, and
 pant for the day of full redemption. Dear reader, this evening
 open your mouth wide, and God will fill it.  Let the boon in
 present possession excite in you a sacred avarice for more
 grace. Groan within yourself for higher degrees of consecration,
 and your Lord will grant them to you, for he is able to do
 exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think.

29152
 August 17                                                Evening

 \\"This sickness is not unto death."\\
                                                      --John 11:4

    From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to
 sickness. Here is an "unto" within which its ultimate end is
 restrained, and beyond which it cannot go. Lazarus might pass
 through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of his
 sickness. In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain,
 "Hitherto shall ye go, but no further." His fixed purpose is not
 the destruction, but the instruction of his people. Wisdom hangs
 up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat.

    1. \\The limit is encouragingly comprehensive\\. The God of
 providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition,
 and effects of all our sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each
 sleepless hour predestinated, each relapse ordained, each
 depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result
 eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining
 hand of him who numbers the hairs of our head.

    2. \\This limit is wisely adjusted\\ to our strength, to the
 end designed, and to the grace apportioned. Affliction comes not
 at haphazard--the weight of every stroke of the rod is
 accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the
 clouds and meting out the heavens, commits no errors in
 measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of
 souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late.

    3. \\The limit is tenderly appointed\\. The knife of the
 heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary.
 "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."
 A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child"; but no mother is more
 compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how
 hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with
 a sharper bit. The thought is full of consolation, that he who
 has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the
 bounds of our tribulation.

29153
 August 18                                                Evening

 \\"And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he\\
 \\received it not."\\
                                                     --Mark 15:23

    A golden truth is couched in the fact that the Saviour put
 the myrrhed wine-cup from his lips. On the heights of heaven the
 Son of God stood of old, and as he looked down upon our globe he
 measured the long descent to the utmost depths of human misery;
 he cast up the sum total of all the agonies which expiation would
 require, and abated not a jot. He solemnly determined that to
 offer a sufficient atoning sacrifice he must go the whole way,
 from the highest to the lowest, from the throne of highest glory
 to the cross of deepest woe. This myrrhed cup, with its
 soporific influence, would have stayed him within a little of
 the utmost limit of misery, therefore he refused it. He would
 not stop short of all he had undertaken to suffer for his
 people. Ah, how many of us have pined after reliefs to our grief
 which would have been injurious to us! Reader, did you never
 pray for a discharge from hard service or suffering with a
 petulant and wilful eagerness? Providence has taken from you the
 desire of your eyes with a stroke. Say, Christian, if it had
 been said, "If you so desire it, that loved one of yours shall
 live, but God will be dishonoured," could you have put away the
 temptation, and said, "Thy will be done"? Oh, it is sweet to be
 able to say, "My Lord, if for other reasons I need not suffer,
 yet if I can honour thee more by suffering, and if the loss of
 my earthly all will bring thee glory, then so let it be. I
 refuse the comfort, if it comes in the way of thine honour." O
 that we thus walked more in the footsteps of our Lord,
 cheerfully enduring trial for his sake, promptly and willingly
 putting away the thought of self and comfort when it would
 interfere with our finishing the work which he has given us to
 do. Great grace is needed, but great grace is provided.

29154
 August 19                                                Evening

 \\"Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me:\\
 \\for thou art my strength."\\
                                                     --Psalm 31:4

    Our spiritual foes are of the serpent's brood, and seek to
 ensnare us by subtlety. The prayer before us supposes the
 possibility of the believer being caught like a bird. So deftly
 does the fowler do his work, that simple ones are soon
 surrounded by the net. The text asks that even out of Satan's
 meshes the captive one may be delivered; this is a proper
 petition, and one which can be granted: from between the jaws of
 the lion, and out of the belly of hell, can eternal love rescue
 the saint. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the net
 of temptations, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the
 snares of malicious cunning, but the Lord is equal to every
 emergency, and the most skilfully placed nets of the hunter
 shall never be able to hold his chosen ones. Woe unto those who
 are so clever at net laying; they who tempt others shall be
 destroyed themselves.

    "\\For thou art my strength\\." What an inexpressible
 sweetness is to be found in these few words! How joyfully may we
 encounter toils, and how cheerfully may we endure sufferings,
 when we can lay hold upon celestial strength. Divine power will
 rend asunder all the toils of our enemies, confound their
 politics, and frustrate their knavish tricks; he is a happy man
 who has such matchless might engaged upon his side. Our own
 strength would be of little service when embarrassed in the nets
 of base cunning, but the Lord's strength is ever available; we
 have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by
 faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the mighty God
 of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in
 supplication.

            "Lord, evermore thy face we seek:
            Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;
            Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.
            Let us not fall. Let us not fall."
29155
 August 20                                                Evening

 \\"And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall."\\
                                                   --Nehemiah 3:8

    Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem
 in her glory. The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be
 surrounded and preserved by a broad wall of nonconformity to the
 world, and \\separation\\ from its customs and spirit. The
 tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the
 distinction between the church and the world merely nominal.
 Professors are no longer strict and Puritanical, questionable
 literature is read on all hands, frivolous pastimes are
 currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to deprive
 the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which
 separate them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church
 and the world when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete,
 and the sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one:
 then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in. Beloved
 reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to
 maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this
 world is enmity against God.

    The broad wall afforded a pleasant place of \\resort\\ for
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from which they could command
 prospects of the surrounding country. This reminds us of the
 Lord's exceeding broad commandments, in which we walk at liberty
 in communion with Jesus, overlooking the scenes of earth, and
 looking out towards the glories of heaven. Separated from the
 world, and denying ourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts,
 we are nevertheless not in prison, nor restricted within narrow
 bounds; nay, we walk at liberty, because we keep his precepts.
 Come, reader, this evening walk with God in his statutes. As
 friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy God in
 the way of holy prayer and meditation. The bulwarks of salvation
 thou hast a right to traverse, for thou art a freeman of the
 royal burgh, a citizen of the metropolis of the universe.

29156
 August 21                                                Evening

 \\"I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 45:19

    We may gain much solace by considering what God has \\not\\
 said. What he has said is inexpressibly full of comfort and
 delight; what he has not said is scarcely less rich in
 consolation. It was one of these "\\said nots\\" which preserved
 the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash,
 for "the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel
 from under heaven." 2 Kings 14:27. In our text we have an
 assurance that God \\will\\ answer prayer, because he hath
 "\\not\\ said unto the seed of Israel, Seek ye me in vain." You
 who write bitter things against yourselves should remember that,
 let your doubts and fears say what they will, if \\God\\ has not
 cut you off from mercy, there is no room for despair: even the
 voice of conscience is of little weight if it be not seconded by
 the voice of God. What God \\has\\ said, tremble at! But suffer
 not your vain imaginings to overwhelm you with despondency and
 sinful despair. Many timid persons have been vexed by the
 suspicion that there may be something in God's decree which
 shuts \\them\\ out from hope, but here is a complete refutation
 to that troublesome fear, for no true seeker can be decreed to
 wrath. "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the
 earth; I have not said," even in the secret of my unsearchable
 decree, "Seek ye me in vain." God has clearly revealed that he
 \\will\\ hear the prayer of those who call upon him, and that
 declaration cannot be contravened. He has so firmly, so
 truthfully, so righteously spoken, that there can be no room for
 doubt. He does not reveal his mind in unintelligible words, but
 he speaks plainly and positively, "Ask, and ye shall receive."
 Believe, O trembler, this sure truth--that prayer must and shall
 be heard, and that never, even in the secrets of eternity, has
 the Lord said unto any living soul, "Seek ye me in vain."

29157
 August 22                                                Evening

 \\"The unsearchable riches of Christ."\\
                                                  --Ephesians 3:8

    My Master has riches beyond the count of arithmetic, the
 measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or the
 eloquence of words. They are \\unsearchable\\! You may look, and
 study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think
 him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is
 more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than
 you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your
 wants than you are to confess them. Never tolerate low thoughts
 of my Lord Jesus. When you put the crown on his head, you will
 only crown him with silver when he deserves gold. \\My Master\\
 \\has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now\\. He can make
 you to lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside still
 waters. There is no music like the music of his pipe, when he is
 the Shepherd and you are the sheep, and you lie down at his
 feet. There is no love like his, neither earth nor heaven can
 match it. To know Christ and to be found in him--oh! this is
 life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness, wine on the lees
 well refined. My Master does not treat his servants churlishly;
 he gives to them as a king giveth to a king; he gives them two
 heavens--a heaven below in serving him here, and a heaven above
 in delighting in him for ever. \\His unsearchable riches will be\\
 \\best known in eternity\\. He will give you on the way to
 heaven all you need; your place of defence shall be the
 munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your
 waters shall be sure; but it is there, \\THERE\\, where you shall
 hear the song of them that triumph, the shout of them that
 feast, and shall have a face-to-face view of the glorious and
 beloved One. The unsearchable riches of Christ! This is the tune
 for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of
 heaven.  Lord, teach us more and more of Jesus, and we will tell
 out the good news to others.

29158
 August 23                                                Evening

 \\"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."\\
                                                 --Ephesians 3:17

    Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should
 have the person of Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our
 love towards him, and to increase our knowledge of him. I would
 to God that my readers were all entered as diligent scholars in
 Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of
 Christ, resolved to attain unto a good degree in the learning of
 the cross. But to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full
 of him, welling up with his love, even to overrunning; hence the
 apostle prays "that Christ may \\dwell in your hearts\\." See
 how near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a subject
 closer to you than to have it in the heart itself. "\\That he\\
 \\may dwell\\"; not that he may call upon you sometimes, as a
 casual visitor enters into a house and tarries for a night, but
 that he may \\dwell\\; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant
 of your inmost being, never more to go out.

    Observe the words--that he may dwell \\in your heart\\, that
 best room of the house of manhood; not in your thoughts alone,
 but in your affections; not merely in the mind's meditations,
 but in the heart's emotions. We should pant after love to Christ
 of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up and then
 dies out into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant
 flame, fed by sacred fuel, like the fire upon the altar which
 never went out. This cannot be accomplished except by faith.
 Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of
 the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be
 sweet. Faith is the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom.
 Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in your heart's love except you
 have a firm hold of him by your heart's faith; and, therefore,
 pray that you may always trust Christ in order that you may
 always love him. If love be cold, be sure that faith is
 drooping.

29159
 August 24                                                Evening

 \\"If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of\\
 \\corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed\\
 \\therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make\\
 \\restitution."\\
                                                    --Exodus 22:6

    But what restitution can he make who casts abroad the
 fire-brands of error, or the coals of lasciviousness, and sets
 men's souls on a blaze with the fire of hell? The guilt is
 beyond estimate, and the result is irretrievable. If such an
 offender be forgiven, what grief it will cause him in the
 retrospect, since he cannot undo the mischief which he has done!
 An ill example may kindle a flame which years of amended
 character cannot quench. To burn the food of man is bad enough,
 but how much worse to destroy the soul! It may be useful to us
 to reflect how far we may have been guilty in the past, and to
 enquire whether, even in the present, there may not be evil in
 us which has a tendency to bring damage to the souls of our
 relatives, friends, or neighbours.

    The fire of strife is a terrible evil when it breaks out in a
 Christian church. Where converts were multiplied, and God was
 glorified, jealousy and envy do the devil's work most
 effectually. Where the golden grain was being housed, to reward
 the toil of the great Boaz, the fire of enmity comes in and
 leaves little else but smoke and a heap of blackness. Woe unto
 those by whom offences come. May they never come through us, for
 although we cannot make restitution, we shall certainly be the
 chief sufferers if we are the chief offenders. Those who feed
 the fire deserve just censure, but he who first kindles it is
 most to blame. Discord usually takes first hold upon the thorns;
 it is nurtured among the hypocrites and base professors in the
 church, and away it goes among the righteous, blown by the winds
 of hell, and no one knows where it may end. O thou Lord and
 giver of peace, make us peacemakers, and never let us aid and
 abet the men of strife, or even unintentionally cause the least
 division among thy people.

29160
 August 25                                                Evening

 \\"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."\\
                                                      --Acts 8:37

    These words may answer your scruples, devout reader,
 concerning \\the ordinances\\. Perhaps you say, "I should be
 afraid to be baptized; it is such a solemn thing to avow myself
 to be dead with Christ, and buried with him. I should not feel at
 liberty to come to the Master's table; I should be afraid of
 eating and drinking damnation unto myself, not discerning the
 Lord's body." Ah! poor trembler, Jesus has given you liberty, be
 not afraid. If a stranger came to your house, he would stand at
 the door, or wait in the hall; he would not dream of intruding
 unbidden into your parlour--he is not at home: but your child
 makes himself very free about the house; and so is it with the
 child of God. A stranger may not intrude where a child may
 venture. When the Holy Ghost has given you to feel the spirit of
 adoption, you may come to Christian ordinances without fear. The
 same rule holds good of the \\Christian's inward privileges\\.
 You think, poor seeker, that you are not allowed to rejoice with
 joy unspeakable and full of glory; if you are permitted to get
 inside Christ's door, or sit at the bottom of his table, you
 will be well content. Ah! but you shall not have less privileges
 than the very greatest. God makes no difference in his love to
 his children. A child is a child to him; he will not make him a
 hired servant; but he shall feast upon the fatted calf, and
 shall have the music and the dancing as much as if he had never
 gone astray. When Jesus comes into the heart, he issues a
 general licence to be glad in the Lord. No chains are worn in
 the court of King Jesus. Our admission into full privileges may
 be gradual, but it is sure. Perhaps our reader is saying, "I
 wish I could enjoy the promises, and walk at liberty in my
 Lord's commands." "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou
 mayest." Loose the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter, for
 Jesus makes thee free.

29161
 August 26                                                Evening

 \\"The people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and\\
 \\running to him saluted him."\\
                                                      --Mark 9:15

    How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When the
 prophet of Horeb had been forty days upon the mountain, he
 underwent a kind of transfiguration, so that his countenance
 shone with exceeding brightness, and he put a veil over his
 face, for the people could not endure to look upon his glory.
 Not so our Saviour. He had been transfigured with a greater
 glory than that of Moses, and yet, it is not written that the
 people were blinded by the blaze of his countenance, but rather
 they were amazed, and running to him they saluted him. The glory
 of the law repels, but the greater glory of Jesus attracts.
 Though Jesus is holy and just, yet blended with his purity there
 is so much of truth and grace, that sinners run to him amazed at
 his goodness, fascinated by his love; they salute him, become
 his disciples, and take him to be their Lord and Master. Reader,
 it may be that just now you are blinded by the dazzling
 brightness of the law of God. You feel its claims on your
 conscience, but you cannot keep it in your life. Not that you
 find fault with the law, on the contrary, it commands your
 profoundest esteem, still you are in nowise drawn by it to God;
 you are rather hardened in heart, and are verging towards
 desperation. Ah, poor heart! turn thine eye from Moses, with all
 his repelling splendour, and look to Jesus, resplendent with
 milder glories. Behold his flowing wounds and thorn-crowned
 head! He is the Son of God, and therein he is greater than
 Moses, but he is the Lord of love, and therein more tender than
 the lawgiver. He bore the wrath of God, and in his death
 revealed more of God's justice than Sinai on a blaze, but that
 justice is now vindicated, and henceforth it is the guardian of
 believers in Jesus. Look, sinner, to the bleeding Saviour, and
 as thou feelest the attraction of his love, fly to his arms, and
 thou shalt be saved.

29162
 August 27                                                Evening

 \\"Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O\\
 \\Lord God of truth."\\
                                                     --Psalm 31:5

    These words have been frequently used by holy men in their
 hour of departure. We may profitably consider them this evening.
 The object of the faithful man's solicitude in life and death is
 not his body or his estate, but his spirit; this is his choice
 treasure--if this be safe, all is well. What is this mortal
 state compared with the soul? The believer commits his soul to
 the hand of his God; it came from him, it is his own, he has
 aforetime sustained it, he is able to keep it, and it is most
 fit that he should receive it. All things are safe in Jehovah's
 hands; what we entrust to the Lord will be secure, both now and
 in that day of days towards which we are hastening. It is
 peaceful living, and glorious dying, to repose in the care of
 heaven. At all times we should commit our all to Jesus' faithful
 hand; then, though life may hang on a thread, and adversities
 may multiply as the sands of the sea, our soul shall dwell at
 ease, and delight itself in quiet resting places.

    "\\Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth\\." Redemption
 is a solid basis for confidence. David had not known
 Calvary as we have done, but temporal redemption cheered
 him; and shall not eternal redemption yet more sweetly
 console us? Past deliverances are strong pleas for present
 assistance. What the Lord has done he will do again, for
 he changes not. He is faithful to his promises, and
 gracious to his saints; he will not turn away from his people.

                "Though thou slay me I will trust,
                Praise thee even from the dust,
                Prove, and tell it as I prove,
                Thine unutterable love.

                Thou mayst chasten and correct,
                But thou never canst neglect;
                Since the ransom price is paid,
                On thy love my hope is stay'd."

29163
 August 28                                                Evening

 \\"Sing, O barren."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 54:1

    Though we have brought forth some fruit unto Christ, and have
 a joyful hope that we are "plants of his own right hand
 planting," yet there are times when we feel very barren. Prayer
 is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the
 garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers
 in the hot sun, requiring the refreshing shower. In such a
 condition what are we to do? The text is addressed to us in just
 such a state. "\\Sing, O barren, break forth and cry aloud\\."
 But what can I sing about? I cannot talk about the present, and
 even the past looks full of barrenness. Ah! I can sing of Jesus
 Christ. I can talk of visits which the Redeemer has aforetimes
 paid to me; or if not of these, I can magnify the great love
 wherewith he loved his people when he came from the heights of
 heaven for their redemption. I will go to the cross again. Come,
 my soul, heavy laden thou wast once, and thou didst lose thy
 burden there. Go to Calvary again. Perhaps that very cross which
 gave thee life may give thee fruitfulness. What is my
 barrenness? It is the platform for his fruit-creating power.
 What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire
 of his everlasting love. I will go in poverty, I will go in
 helplessness, I will go in all my shame and backsliding, I will
 tell him that I am still his child, and in confidence in his
 faithful heart, even I, the barren one, will sing and cry aloud.

    Sing, believer, for it will cheer thine own heart, and the
 hearts of other desolate ones. Sing on, for now that thou art
 really ashamed of being barren, thou wilt be fruitful soon; now
 that God makes thee \\loath\\ to be without fruit he will soon
 cover thee with clusters. The experience of our barrenness is
 painful, but the Lord's visitations are delightful. A sense of
 our own poverty drives us to Christ, and that is where we need
 to be, for in him is our fruit found.

29164
 August 29                                                Evening

 \\"All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is\\
 \\made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk."\\
                                                    --Numbers 6:4

    Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which debarred
 them from the use of wine. In order that they might not violate
 the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine
 or strong liquors, and to make the rule still more clear, they
 were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to
 eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order, altogether, to
 secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed
 anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to
 avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this is a lesson to the
 Lord's separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in
 every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its
 spirit and similitude. Strict walking is much despised in these
 days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and
 the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in
 fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink
 the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in
 Holland lets in the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a
 province is drowned. Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a
 snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to
 presumptuous sins. Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape
 juice could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured
 a degree of fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in
 heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing
 Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offence, but must
 feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things doubtful
 we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things tempting
 we must not dally with, but flee from them with speed. Better be
 sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful
 walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of
 its own which are more than a sufficient recompence.
29165
 August 30                                                Evening

 \\"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed."\\
                                                 --Jeremiah 17:14
 \\"I have seen his ways, and will heal him."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 57:18

    It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual
 disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men,
 but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue
 unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast
 off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the
 great Physician alone; he claims it as his prerogative, "I kill
 and I make alive, I wound and I heal;" and one of the Lord's
 choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. "I
 will heal thee of thy wounds," is a promise which could not come
 from the lip of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God.
 On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, "O Lord, heal
 me, for my bones are sore vexed," and again, "Heal my soul, for
 I have sinned against thee." For this, also, the godly praise
 the name of the Lord, saying, "He healeth all our diseases." He
 who made man can restore man; he who was at first the creator of
 our nature can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is
 that in the person of Jesus "dwelleth all the fulness of the
 Godhead bodily!" My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this
 great Physician can heal thee. If he be God, there can be no
 limit to his power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened
 understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come
 with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry
 temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou
 art, for he who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague.
 None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus
 our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of
 the beloved Physician, and never once has he been baffled. All
 his patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the
 future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou
 wilt but rest thyself in him this night.
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 August 31                                                Evening

 \\"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light."\\
                                                       --John 1:7

    As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we
 ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we
 call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light, and in
 him is no darkness at all?" Certainly, this is the model which
 it set before us, for the Saviour himself said, "Be ye perfect,
 even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;" and although
 we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet
 we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we
 attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early
 pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but
 still, if he did not have a noble \\beau ideal\\ before his
 mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary.
 But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to
 walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import
 \\likeness\\, but not \\degree\\. We are as truly in the light,
 we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the
 light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in
 the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a
 place for my residence, but I can \\walk\\ in the light of the
 sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity
 and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the
 infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and
 strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity
 to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, "We
 may be in the light as God is in the light for \\quality\\, but
 not for \\equality\\." We are to have the same light, and are as
 truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for
 equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left
 until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the
 Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and
 perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
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