Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29500

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29501
 October 1                                                Evening

 \\"He will give grace and glory."\\
                                                    --Psalm 84:11

    Bounteous is Jehovah in his nature; to give is his delight.
 His gifts are beyond measure precious, and are as freely given
 as the light of the sun. He gives grace to his elect because he
 wills it, to his redeemed because of his covenant, to the called
 because of his promise, to believers because they seek it, to
 sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly,
 seasonably, constantly, readily, sovereignly; doubly enhancing
 the value of the boon by the manner of its bestowal. Grace in
 all its forms he freely renders to his people: comforting,
 preserving, sanctifying, directing, instructing, assisting
 grace, he generously pours into their souls without ceasing, and
 he always will do so, whatever may occur. Sickness may befall,
 but the Lord will give grace; poverty may happen to us, but
 grace will surely be afforded; death must come but grace will
 light a candle at the darkest hour. Reader, how blessed it is as
 years roll round, and the leaves begin again to fall, to enjoy
 such an unfading promise as this, "The Lord will give grace."

    The little conjunction "\\and\\" in this verse is a diamond
 rivet binding the present with the future: grace and glory
 always go together. God has married them, and none can divorce
 them. The Lord will never deny a soul glory to whom he has
 freely given to live upon his grace; indeed, glory is nothing
 more than grace in its Sabbath dress, grace in full bloom, grace
 like autumn fruit, mellow and perfected. How soon we may have
 glory none can tell! It may be before this month of October has
 run out we shall see the Holy City; but be the interval longer
 or shorter, we shall be glorified ere long. Glory, the glory of
 heaven, the glory of eternity, the glory of Jesus, the glory of
 the Father, the Lord will surely give to his chosen. Oh, rare
 promise of a faithful God!

            Two golden links of one celestial chain:
            Who owneth grace shall surely glory gain.
29502
 October 2                                                Evening

 \\"A man greatly beloved."\\
                                                   --Daniel 10:11

    Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah!
 has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved
 too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought
 with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
 and without spot? When God smote his only begotten Son for you,
 what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and
 rioted in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to
 have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace and
 led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven.
 All this proves, does it not, a very great and superabounding
 love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with
 troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs
 that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened
 you, yet not in anger; if he has made you poor, yet in grace you
 have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the
 more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could
 have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more
 demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding
 love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and made you
 an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us
 let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the
 privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as
 though we were strangers, or as though he were unwilling to hear
 us--for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that
 spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
 shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Come
 boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the
 doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate
 on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this
 evening, and so go to thy bed in peace.

29503
 October 3                                                Evening


 \\"He himself hath suffered being tempted."\\
                                                   --Hebrews 2:18

    It is a common-place thought, and yet it tastes like nectar
 to the weary heart--Jesus was tempted as I am. You have heard
 that truth many times: have you grasped it? He was tempted to
 the very same sins into which we fall. Do not dissociate Jesus
 from our common manhood. It is a dark room which you are going
 through, but Jesus went through it before. It is a sharp fight
 which you are waging, but Jesus has stood foot to foot with the
 same enemy. Let us be of good cheer, Christ has borne the load
 before us, and the blood-stained footsteps of the King of glory
 may be seen along the road which we traverse at this hour. There
 is something sweeter yet--Jesus was tempted, but Jesus never
 sinned. Then, my soul, it is not needful for thee to sin, for
 Jesus was a man, and if one man endured these temptations and
 sinned not, then in his power his members may also cease from
 sin. Some beginners in the divine life think that they cannot be
 tempted without sinning, but they mistake; there is no sin in
 \\being tempted\\, but there \\is\\ sin in \\yielding to\\
 \\temptation\\. Herein is comfort for the sorely tempted ones.
 There is still more to encourage them if they reflect that the
 Lord Jesus, though tempted, gloriously triumphed, and as he
 overcame, so surely shall his followers also, for Jesus is the
 representative man for his people; the Head has triumphed, and
 the members share in the victory. Fears are needless, for Christ
 is with us, armed for our defence. Our place of safety is the
 bosom of the Saviour. Perhaps we are tempted just now, in order
 to drive us nearer to him. Blessed be any wind that blows us
 into the port of our Saviour's love! Happy wounds, which make us
 seek the beloved Physician. Ye tempted ones, come to your
 tempted Saviour, for he can be touched with a feeling of your
 infirmities, and will succour every tried and tempted one.

29504
 October 4                                                Evening

 \\"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus\\
 \\Christ the righteous."\\
                                                     --1 John 2:1

    "If any man sin, we \\have\\ an advocate." Yes, though we
 sin, we have him still. John does not say, "If any man sin he
 has forfeited his advocate," but "we \\have\\ an advocate,"
 sinners though we are. All the sin that a believer ever did, or
 can be allowed to commit, cannot destroy his interest in the
 Lord Jesus Christ, as his advocate. The name here given to our
 Lord is suggestive. "\\Jesus\\." Ah! then he is an advocate such
 as we need, for Jesus is the name of one whose business and
 delight it is to save. "They shall call his name Jesus, for \\he\\
 \\shall save\\ his people from their sins." His sweetest name
 implies his success. Next, it is "Jesus \\Christ\\"--Christos,
 the anointed. This shows \\his authority\\ to plead. The Christ
 has a right to plead, for he is the Father's own appointed
 advocate and elected priest. If he were of our choosing he might
 fail, but if God hath laid help upon one that is mighty, we may
 safely lay our trouble where God has laid his help. He is
 Christ, and therefore authorized; he is Christ, and therefore
 \\qualified\\, for the anointing has fully fitted him for his
 work. He can plead so as to move the heart of God and prevail.
 What words of tenderness, what sentences of persuasion will the
 anointed use when he stands up to plead for me! One more letter
 of his name remains, "Jesus Christ \\the righteous\\." This is
 not only his character BUT his plea. It is his character, and if
 the Righteous One be my advocate, then my cause is good, or he
 would not have espoused it. It is his plea, for he meets the
 charge of unrighteousness against me by the plea that \\he\\ is
 righteous. He declares himself my substitute and puts his
 obedience to my account. My soul, thou hast a friend well fitted
 to be thine advocate, he cannot but succeed; leave thyself
 entirely in his hands.

29505
 October 5                                                Evening

 \\"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."\\
                                                     --Mark 16:16

    Mr. MacDonald asked the inhabitants of the island of St.
 Kilda how a man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be
 saved if we repent, and forsake our sins, and turn to God."
 "Yes," said a middle-aged female, "and with a true heart too."
 "Aye," rejoined a third, "and with prayer"; and, added a fourth,
 "It must be the prayer of the heart." "And we must be diligent
 too," said a fifth, "in keeping the commandments." Thus, each
 having contributed his mite, feeling that a very decent creed
 had been made up, they all looked and listened for the
 preacher's approbation, but they had aroused his deepest pity.
 The carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self
 can work and become great, but the Lord's way is quite the
 reverse. Believing and being baptized are no matters of merit to
 be gloried in--they are so simple that boasting is excluded, and
 free grace bears the palm. It may be that the reader is
 unsaved--what is the reason? Do you think the way of salvation
 as laid down in the text to be dubious? How can that be when God
 has pledged his own word for its certainty? Do you think it too
 easy? Why, then, do you not attend to it? Its ease leaves those
 without excuse who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to
 depend, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit
 to the ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which
 the converted ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer
 yielded obedience the very night of his conversion. The outward
 sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and
 resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to
 be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear
 friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are you still an
 unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if you will
 not enter by it you will perish in your sins.

29506
 October 6                                                Evening

 \\"He had married an Ethiopian woman."\\
                                                   --Numbers 12:1

    Strange choice of Moses, but how much more strange the choice
 of him who is a prophet like unto Moses, and greater than he!
 Our Lord, who is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage
 union with one who confesses herself to be black, because the
 sun has looked upon her. It is the wonder of angels that the
 love of Jesus should be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. Each
 believer must, when filled with a sense of Jesus' love, be also
 overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should be lavished
 on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our
 secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we are
 dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and
 sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of his
 love in his own heart, he could not have found it in us, for it
 is not there. Even since our conversion we have been black,
 though grace has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself
 what we must each subscribe to--"His relation to me is, that I
 am sick, and he is the Physician of whom I stand in need. Alas!
 how often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I
 loose; he buildeth, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ, and he
 agreeth with me twenty times a day!" Most tender and faithful
 Husband of our souls, pursue thy gracious work of conforming us
 to thine image, till thou shalt present even us poor Ethiopians
 unto thyself, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Moses
 met with opposition because of his marriage, and both himself
 and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can we wonder
 if this vain world opposes Jesus and his spouse, and especially
 when great sinners are converted? for this is ever the
 Pharisee's ground of objection, "This man receiveth sinners."
 Still is the old cause of quarrel revived, "Because he had
 married an Ethiopian woman."

29507
 October 7                                                Evening

 \\"Now on whom dost thou trust?"\\
                                                    --Isaiah 36:5

    Reader, this is an important question. Listen to the
 Christian's answer, and see if it is yours. "On whom dost thou
 trust?" "I trust," says the Christian, "in a triune God. I trust
 \\the Father\\, believing that he has chosen me from before the
 foundations of the world; I trust him to provide for me in
 providence, to teach me, to guide me, to correct me if need be,
 and to bring me home to his own house where the many mansions
 are. I trust \\the Son\\. Very God of very God is he--the man
 Christ Jesus. I trust in him to take away all my sins by his own
 sacrifice, and to adorn me with his perfect righteousness. I
 trust him to be my Intercessor, to present my prayers and
 desires before his Father's throne, and I trust him to be my
 Advocate at the last great day, to plead my cause, and to
 justify me. I trust him for what he is, for what he has done,
 and for what he has promised yet to do. And I trust \\the Holy\\
 \\Spirit\\--he has begun to save me from my inbred sins; I trust
 him to drive them all out; I trust him to curb my temper, to
 subdue my will, to enlighten my understanding, to check my
 passions, to comfort my despondency, to help my weakness, to
 illuminate my darkness; I trust him to dwell in me as my life,
 to reign in me as my King, to sanctify me wholly, spirit, soul,
 and body, and then to take me up to dwell with the saints in
 light for ever."

    Oh, blessed trust! To trust him whose power will never be
 exhausted, whose love will never wane, whose kindness will never
 change, whose faithfulness will never fail, whose wisdom will
 never be nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness can never know a
 diminution! Happy art thou, reader, if this trust is thine! So
 trusting, thou shalt enjoy sweet peace now, and glory hereafter,
 and the foundation of thy trust shall never be removed.

29508
 October 8                                                Evening

 \\"Praying in the Holy Ghost."\\
                                                        --Jude 20

    Mark the grand characteristic of true prayer--"\\In the Holy\\
 \\Ghost\\." The seed of acceptable devotion must come from
 heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which comes from God can go
 to God. We must shoot the Lord's arrows back to him. That
 desire which he writes upon our heart will move his heart and
 bring down a blessing, but the desires of the flesh have no
 power with him.

    Praying in the Holy Ghost is praying in \\fervency\\. Cold
 prayers ask the Lord not to hear them. Those who do not plead
 with fervency, plead not at all. As well speak of lukewarm fire
 as of lukewarm prayer--it is essential that it be red hot. It is
 praying \\perseveringly\\. The true suppliant gathers force as
 he proceeds, and grows more fervent when God delays to answer.
 The longer the gate is closed, the more vehemently does he use
 the knocker, and the longer the angel lingers the more resolved
 is he that he will never let him go without the blessing.
 Beautiful in God's sight is tearful, agonizing, unconquerable
 importunity. It means praying \\humbly\\, for the Holy Spirit
 never puffs us up with pride. It is his office to convince of
 sin, and so to bow us down in contrition and brokenness of
 spirit. We shall never sing \\Gloria in excelsis\\ except we
 pray to God \\De profundis\\: out of the depths must we cry, or
 we shall never behold glory in the highest. It is \\loving\\
 prayer. Prayer should be perfumed with love, saturated with
 love--love to our fellow saints, and love to Christ. Moreover,
 it must be a prayer full of \\faith\\. A man prevails only as he
 believes. The Holy Spirit is the author of faith, and
 strengthens it, so that we pray believing God's promise. O that
 this blessed combination of excellent graces, priceless and
 sweet as the spices of the merchant, might be fragrant within us
 because the Holy Ghost is in our hearts! Most blessed Comforter,
 exert thy mighty power within us, helping our infirmities in
 prayer.

29509
 October 9                                                Evening

 \\"But he answered her not a word."\\
                                                  --Matthew 15:23

    Genuine seekers who as yet have not obtained the blessing,
 may take comfort from the story before us. The Saviour did not
 at once bestow the blessing, even though the woman had great
 faith in him. He intended to give it, but he waited awhile. "He
 answered her not a word." Were not her prayers good? Never
 better in the world. Was not her case needy? Sorrowfully needy.
 Did she not \\feel\\ her need sufficiently? She felt it
 overwhelmingly. Was she not earnest enough? She was intensely
 so. Had she no faith? She had such a high degree of it that even
 Jesus wondered, and said, "O woman, great is thy faith." See
 then, although it is true that faith brings peace, yet it does
 not always bring it instantaneously. There may be certain
 reasons calling for the trial of faith, rather than the reward
 of faith. Genuine faith may be in the soul like a hidden seed,
 but as yet it may not have budded and blossomed into joy and
 peace. A painful silence from the Saviour is the grievous trial
 of many a seeking soul, but heavier still is the affliction of a
 harsh cutting reply such as this, "It is not meet to take the
 children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Many in waiting upon
 the Lord find immediate delight, but this is not the case with
 all. Some, like the jailer, are in a moment turned from darkness
 to light, but others are plants of slower growth. A deeper sense
 of sin may be given to you instead of a sense of pardon, and in
 such a case you will have need of patience to bear the heavy
 blow. Ah! poor heart, though Christ beat and bruise thee, or
 even slay thee, trust him; though he should give thee an angry
 word, believe in the love of his heart. Do not, I beseech thee,
 give up seeking or trusting my Master, because thou hast not yet
 obtained the conscious joy which thou longest for. Cast thyself
 on him, and perseveringly depend even where thou canst not
 rejoicingly hope.

29510
 October 10                                               Evening

 \\"And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I\\
 \\will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible."\\
                                                 --Jeremiah 15:21

    Note the glorious personality of the promise. \\I\\ will,
 \\I\\ will. The Lord Jehovah himself interposes to deliver and
 redeem his people. He pledges himself personally to rescue them.
 His own arm shall do it, that he may have the glory. Here is not
 a word said of any effort of our own which may be needed to
 assist the Lord. Neither our strength nor our weakness is taken
 into the account, but the lone \\I\\, like the sun in the
 heavens, shines out resplendent in all-sufficience. Why then do
 we calculate our forces, and consult with flesh and blood to our
 grievous wounding? Jehovah has power enough without borrowing
 from our puny arm. Peace, ye unbelieving thoughts, be still, and
 know that the Lord reigneth. Nor is there a hint concerning
 secondary means and causes. The Lord says nothing of friends and
 helpers: he undertakes the work alone, and feels no need of
 human arms to aid him. Vain are all our lookings around to
 companions and relatives; they are broken reeds if we lean upon
 them--often unwilling when able, and unable when they are
 willing. Since the promise comes alone from God, it would be
 well to wait only upon him; and when we do so, our expectation
 never fails us. Who are the wicked that we should fear them? The
 Lord will utterly consume them; they are to be pitied rather
 than feared. As for terrible ones, they are only terrors to
 those who have no God to fly to, for when the Lord is on our
 side, whom shall we fear? If we run into sin to please the
 wicked, we have cause to be alarmed, but if we hold fast our
 integrity, the rage of tyrants shall be overruled for our good.
 When the fish swallowed Jonah, he found him a morsel which he
 could not digest; and when the world devours the church, it is
 glad to be rid of it again. In all times of fiery trial, in
 patience let us possess our souls.

29511
 October 11                                               Evening

 \\"Whom he did predestinate, them he also called."\\
                                                    --Romans 8:30

    In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth
 verse, are these words--"Who hath saved us, and called us with
 an \\holy\\ calling." Now, here is a touchstone by which we may
 try our calling. It is "an holy calling, not according to our
 works, but according to his own purpose and grace." This calling
 forbids all trust in our own doings, and conducts us to Christ
 alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works
 to serve the living and true God. As he that hath called you is
 holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not
 called, but if you are truly Christ's, you can say, "Nothing
 pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me
 to be holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor
 of thy life towards God, and his divine will? Again, in
 Philippians, 3:13, 14, we are told of "The \\high\\ calling of
 God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling? Has
 it ennobled your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it
 elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires? Has it upraised
 the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it with God
 and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1--"Partakers of
 the \\heavenly\\ calling." Heavenly calling means a call
 \\from\\ heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is
 thy calling of God? Is it a call \\to\\ heaven as well as from
 heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven thy home,
 thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling; for those who
 have been so called, declare that they look for a city which
 hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they
 themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy
 calling thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been
 called of God, for such is the calling wherewith God doth call
 his people.


29512
 October 12                                               Evening

 \\"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost."\\
                                                     --John 14:26

    This age is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit,
 in which Jesus cheers us, not by his personal presence, as he
 shall do by-and-by, but by the indwelling and constant abiding
 of the Holy Ghost, who is evermore the Comforter of the church.
 It is his office to console the hearts of God's people. He
 convinces of sin; he illuminates and instructs; but still the
 main part of his work lies in making glad the hearts of the
 renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that
 be bowed down. He does this by revealing Jesus to them. The Holy
 Spirit consoles, but Christ \\is the consolation\\. If we may
 use the figure, the Holy Spirit is the Physician, but Jesus is
 the medicine. \\He\\ heals the wound, but it is by applying the
 holy ointment of Christ's name and grace. He takes not of his
 own things, but of the things of Christ. So if we give to the
 Holy Spirit the Greek name of \\Paraclete\\, as we sometimes do,
 then our heart confers on our blessed Lord Jesus the title of
 \\Paraclesis\\. If the one be the Comforter, the other is the
 Comfort. Now, with such rich provision for his need, why should
 the Christian be sad and desponding? The Holy Spirit has
 graciously engaged to be thy Comforter: dost thou imagine, O
 thou weak and trembling believer, that he will be negligent of
 his sacred trust? Canst thou suppose that he has undertaken what
 he cannot or will not perform? If it be his especial work to
 strengthen thee, and to comfort thee, dost thou suppose he has
 forgotten his business, or that he will fail in the loving
 office which he sustains towards thee? Nay, think not so hardly
 of the tender and blessed Spirit whose name is "the Comforter."
 He delights to give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment
 of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Trust thou in him, and he
 will surely comfort thee till the house of mourning is closed
 for ever, and the marriage feast has begun.

29513
 October 13                                               Evening

 \\"Love is strong as death."\\
                                            --Song of Solomon 8:6

    Whose love can this be which is as mighty as the conqueror of
 monarchs, the destroyer of the human race? Would it not sound
 like satire if it were applied to my poor, weak, and scarcely
 living love to Jesus my Lord? I do love him, and perhaps by his
 grace, I could even die for him, but as for my love in itself,
 it can scarcely endure a scoffing jest, much less a cruel death.
 Surely it is my Beloved's love which is here spoken of--the love
 of Jesus, the matchless lover of souls. His love was indeed
 stronger than the most terrible death, for it endured the trial
 of the cross triumphantly. It was a lingering death, but love
 survived the torment; a shameful death, but love despised the
 shame; a penal death, but love bore our iniquities; a forsaken,
 lonely death, from which the eternal Father hid his face, but
 love endured the curse, and gloried over all. Never such love,
 never such death. It was a desperate duel, but love bore the
 palm. What then, my heart? Hast thou no emotions excited within
 thee at the contemplation of such heavenly affection? Yes, my
 Lord, I long, I pant to feel thy love flaming like a furnace
 within me. Come thou thyself and excite the ardour of my
 spirit.

                "For every drop of crimson blood
                Thus shed to make me live,
                O wherefore, wherefore have not I
                A thousand lives to give?"

 Why should I despair of loving Jesus with a love as strong as
 death? He deserves it: I desire it. The martyrs felt such love,
 and they were but flesh and blood, then why not I? They mourned
 their weakness, and yet out of weakness were made strong. Grace
 gave them all their unflinching constancy--there is the same
 grace for me. Jesus, lover of my soul, shed abroad such love,
 even thy love in my heart, this evening.

29514
 October 14                                               Evening

 \\"And be not conformed to this world."\\
                                                    --Romans 12:2

    If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms
 to this world, at any rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare
 salvation is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader,
 would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a
 desponding death bed, and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner
 climbs the rocks of his native country? then be worldly; be
 mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse to go without the camp
 bearing Christ's reproach. But would you have a heaven below as
 well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints
 what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ
 which passeth knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance
 into the joy of your Lord? Then come ye out from among them,
 and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Would you
 attain the full assurance of faith? you cannot gain it while you
 commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love? Your
 love will be damped by the drenchings of godless society. You
 cannot become a great Christian--you may be a babe in grace, but
 you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you yield
 yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of
 the world. It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend
 with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a courtier is too
 intimate with his king's enemies. Even small inconsistencies
 are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths
 destroy fine garments, and little frivolities and little
 rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys. O professor, too
 little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by
 your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your
 strength, and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for
 your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in
 grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked
 and distinct one.
29515
 October 15                                               Evening

 \\"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb:\\
 \\and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck."\\
                                                   --Exodus 34:20

    Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the
 ass was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What
 then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By
 no means. God admits of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but
 he will not accept it; he will not abate the claim, but yet he
 cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but
 redemption--the creature must be saved by the substitution of a
 lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul,
 here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou
 art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and preserves
 thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept
 thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy
 stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy
 gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee,
 and so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it
 not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which
 should die, the ass or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to
 estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between
 the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and
 yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My soul, admire
 the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race.
 Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust
 and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What
 a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been found!
 The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty,
 but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be
 imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed
 us from such a doom.

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