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- 29601
- November 1 Morning
-
- \\"The church in thy house."\\
- --Philemon 2
-
- Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children,
- friends, servants, all members of it? or are some still
- unconverted? Let us pause here and let the question go
- round--\\Am I a member of the Church in this house\\? How would
- father's heart leap for joy, and mother's eyes fill with holy
- tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved! Let us
- pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us.
- Probably it had been the dearest object of Philemon's desires to
- have all his household saved; but it was not at first granted
- him in its fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who,
- having wronged him, ran away from his service. His master's
- prayers followed him, and at last, as God would have it,
- Onesimus was led to hear Paul preach; his heart was touched, and
- he returned to Philemon, not only to be a faithful servant, but
- a brother beloved, adding another member to the Church in
- Philemon's house. Is there an unconverted servant or child
- absent this morning? Make special supplication that such may, on
- their return to their home, gladden all hearts with good news of
- what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in
- the same earnest entreaty.
-
- If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well,
- and let all act as in the sight of God. Let us move in the
- common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence,
- kindness, and integrity. More is expected of a Church than of an
- ordinary household; family worship must, in such a case, be more
- devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and unbroken,
- and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike. We
- need not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out
- of the list of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here enrolled a
- family-church in the inspired book of remembrance. As a Church
- let us now draw nigh to the great head of the one Church
- universal, and let us beseech him to give us grace to shine
- before men to the glory of his name.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29701
- # Joh 1:1 - 3:36 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29602
- November 2 Morning
-
- \\"I am the Lord, I change not."\\
- --Malachi 3:6
-
- It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of
- life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart
- can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no
- furrows. All things else have changed--all things are changing.
- The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the
- folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens
- and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax
- old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath
- immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person
- there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when,
- after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again
- upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when,
- amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot
- of his faith upon this truth--"\\I am the Lord, I change not\\."
-
- The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at
- last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian's
- hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth.
- With God "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." What
- ever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his
- wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever
- been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of
- trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in
- his love. He has loved his people with "an everlasting love";
- he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly
- things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love
- will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance
- that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its
- axle is eternal love.
-
- "Death and change are busy ever,
- Man decays, and ages move;
- But his mercy waneth never;
- God is wisdom, God is love."
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29702
- # Joh 4:1 - 5:47 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29603
- November 3 Morning
-
- \\"Behold, he prayeth."\\
- --Acts 9:11
-
- Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul
- began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the
- distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted
- one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the
- language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the
- harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by
- God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. "Thou puttest
- my tears into thy bottle," implies that they are caught as they
- flow. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be
- well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty
- eye; but "prayer is the falling of a tear." Tears are the
- diamonds of heaven; sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah's
- court, and are numbered with "the sublimest strains that reach
- the majesty on high." Think not that your prayer, however weak
- or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob's ladder is lofty, but
- our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so
- climb its starry rounds. Our God not only \\hears\\ prayer but
- also \\loves\\ to hear it. "He forgetteth not the cry of the
- humble." True, he regards not high looks and lofty words; he
- cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; he listens not to
- the swell of martial music; he regards not the triumph and pride
- of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip
- quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh,
- the heart of Jehovah is open; he marks it down in the registry
- of his memory; he puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between
- the pages of his book of remembrance, and when the volume is
- opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up
- therefrom.
-
- "Faith asks no signal from the skies,
- To show that prayers accepted rise,
- Our Priest is in his holy place,
- And answers from the throne of grace."
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29703
- # Joh 6:1 - 8:59 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29604
- November 4 Morning
-
- \\"For my strength is made perfect in weakness."\\
- --2 Corinthians 12:9
-
- A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of
- success, and for doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a
- sense of our own weakness. When God's warrior marches forth to
- battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, "I know that I
- shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall
- get unto me the victory," defeat is not far distant. God will
- not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength. He
- who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for "it is
- not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of
- hosts." They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess,
- shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and
- their armour stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must
- serve him in his own way, and in his strength, or he will never
- accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine
- strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth he
- casteth away; he will only reap that corn, the seed of which was
- sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of
- divine love. God will empty out all that thou hast before he
- will put his own into thee; he will first clean out thy
- granaries before he will fill them with the finest of the wheat.
- The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows
- from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in his
- battles but the strength which he himself imparts. Are you
- mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be
- a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee
- victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being
- filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your
- lifting up.
-
- "When I am weak then am I strong,
- Grace is my shield and Christ my song."
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29704
- # Joh 9:1 - 10:42 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29605
- November 5 Morning
-
- \\"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."\\
- --Isaiah 54:17
-
- This day is notable in English history for two great
- deliverances wrought by God for us. On this day the plot of the
- Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered,
- 1605.
-
- "While for our princes they prepare
- In caverns deep a burning snare,
- He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
- And the dark treachery brought to day."
-
- And secondly--to-day is the anniversary of the landing of King
- William III, at Torbay, by which the hope of Popish ascendancy
- was quashed, and religious liberty was secured, 1688.
-
- This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of
- striplings, but by the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers
- most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. There is
- extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry
- on this day. Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty,
- should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude. Let
- our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have heard with our ears, and
- our fathers have told us the wondrous things which thou didst in
- their day, and in the old time before them." Thou hast made this
- nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen
- against her, thou hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated
- songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred
- of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her entire extinction.
- Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that is
- formed against thee shall prosper." Should it not be laid upon
- the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to
- plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension
- of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts,
- and turn out any of the Popish lumber of self-righteousness
- which may lie concealed therein?
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29705
- # Joh 11:1 - 12:50 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29606
- November 6 Morning
-
- \\"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty."\\
- --Isaiah 44:3
-
- When a believer has fallen into a low, sad state of feeling,
- he often tries to lift himself out of it by chastening himself
- with dark and doleful fears. Such is not the way to rise from
- the dust, but to continue in it. As well chain the eagle's wing
- to make it mount, as doubt in order to increase our grace. It is
- not the law, but the gospel which saves the seeking soul at
- first; and it is not a legal bondage, but gospel liberty which
- can restore the fainting believer afterwards. Slavish fear
- brings not back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of
- love allure him to Jesus' bosom. Are you this morning thirsting
- for the living God, and unhappy because you cannot find him to
- the delight of your heart? Have you lost the joy of religion,
- and is this your prayer, "Restore unto me the joy of thy
- salvation"? Are you conscious also that you are barren, like the
- dry ground; that you are not bringing forth the fruit unto God
- which he has a right to expect of you; that you are not so
- useful in the Church, or in the world, as your heart desires to
- be? Then here is exactly the promise which you need, "I will
- pour water upon him that is thirsty." You shall receive the
- grace you so much require, and you shall have it to the utmost
- reach of your needs. Water refreshes the thirsty: you shall be
- refreshed; your desires shall be gratified. Water quickens
- sleeping vegetable life: your life shall be quickened by fresh
- grace. Water swells the buds and makes the fruits ripen; you
- shall have fructifying grace: you shall be made fruitful in the
- ways of God. Whatever good quality there is in divine grace, you
- shall enjoy it to the full. All the riches of divine grace you
- shall receive in plenty; you shall be as it were drenched with
- it: and as sometimes the meadows become flooded by the bursting
- rivers, and the fields are turned into pools, so shall you
- be--the thirsty land shall be springs of water.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29706
- # Joh 13:1 - 16:33 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29607
- November 7 Morning
-
- \\"Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."\\
- --Isaiah 49:16
-
- No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the
- word "\\Behold\\," is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of
- the preceding sentence. Zion said, "The Lord hath forsaken me,
- and my God hath forgotten me." How amazed the divine mind seems
- to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than
- the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? The
- Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush; he cries,
- "How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven thee upon the
- palms of my hands? How darest thou doubt my constant
- remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?" O
- unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most
- to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of his
- people. He keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next
- trial makes us doubt him. He never faileth; he is never a dry
- well; he is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a
- melting vapour; and yet we are as continually vexed with
- anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears,
- as if our God were the mirage of the desert. "Behold," \\is a\\
- \\word intended to excite admiration\\. Here, indeed, we have a
- theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished
- that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of
- infinite love as to be written upon the palms of his hands. "I
- have graven \\thee\\."It does not say, "Thy name." The name is
- there, but that is not all: "I have graven \\thee\\." See the
- fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy
- case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy
- weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything
- about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether
- there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee
- when he has graven thee \\upon\\ his own palms?
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29707
- # Joh 17:1 - 18:40 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29608
- November 8 Morning
-
- \\"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord."\\
- --Colossians 2:6
-
- The life of faith is represented as \\receiving--an act which\\
- \\implies the very opposite of anything like merit\\. It is
- simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the
- rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light
- from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the
- grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams,
- they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they
- are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea
- of receiving implies \\a sense of realization\\, making the
- matter a \\reality\\. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we
- receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of
- faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith,
- Jesus is a mere name to us--a person who lived a long while ago,
- so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act
- of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our
- heart. But receiving also means \\grasping or getting\\
- \\possession of\\. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I
- appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus,
- he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall
- be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ--to take
- him as God's free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to
- appropriate him as mine.
-
- Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the
- deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not
- only received these blessings, we have received CHRIST JESUS
- himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave
- us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are
- all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have
- received \\Christ himself\\. The Son of God has been poured into
- us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a
- heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29708
- # Joh 19:1 - 21:25 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29609
- November 9 Morning
-
- \\"So walk ye in him."\\
- --Colossians 2:6
-
- If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our
- new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by \\a\\
- \\walk of faith in him\\. Walking implies \\action\\. Our
- religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out
- into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in
- Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in
- him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of
- the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, "He is like his
- Master; he lives like Jesus Christ." Walking signifies
- \\progress\\. "So walk ye in him"; proceed from grace to grace,
- run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge
- that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies
- \\continuance\\. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ.
- How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they
- ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their
- hearts to the world all the day: but this is poor living; we
- should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his
- will. Walking also implies \\habit\\. When we speak of a man's
- walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor
- of his life. Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget
- him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is
- not a habit; we do not \\walk\\ in him. We must keep to him,
- cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in
- him. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
- him"; persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as
- at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith, the
- source of your life, the principle of your action, and the joy
- of your spirit, so let him be the same till life's end; the same
- when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and
- enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of
- God. O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29709
- # Ac 1:1 - 3:26 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29610
- November 10 Morning
-
- \\"The eternal God is thy refuge."\\
- --Deuteronomy 33:27
-
- The word refuge may be translated "mansion," or "abiding-
- place," which gives the thought that \\God is our abode, our\\
- \\home\\. There is a fulness and sweetness in the metaphor, for
- dear to our hearts is our home, although it be the humblest
- cottage, or the scantiest garret; and dearer far is our blessed
- God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being. It is at
- home that we \\feel safe\\: we shut the world out and dwell in
- quiet security. So when we are with our God we "fear no evil."
- He is our shelter and retreat, our abiding refuge. At home, \\we\\
- \\take our rest\\; it is there we find repose after the fatigue
- and toil of the day. And so our hearts find rest in God, when,
- wearied with life's conflict, we turn to him, and our soul
- dwells at ease. At home, also, we \\let our hearts loose\\; we
- are not afraid of being misunderstood, nor of our words being
- misconstrued. So when we are with God we can commune freely with
- him, laying open all our hidden desires; for if the "secret of
- the Lord is with them that fear him," the secrets of them that
- fear him ought to be, and must be, with their Lord. Home, too,
- is the place of our \\truest and purest happiness\\: and it is
- in God that our hearts find their deepest delight. We have joy
- in him which far surpasses all other joy. \\It is also for home\\
- \\that we work and labour\\. The thought of it gives strength to
- bear the daily burden, and quickens the fingers to perform the
- task; and in this sense we may also say that God is our home.
- Love to him strengthens us. We think of him in the person of his
- dear Son; and a glimpse of the suffering face of the Redeemer
- constrains us to labour in his cause. We feel that we must work,
- for we have brethren yet to be saved, and we have our Father's
- heart to make glad by bringing home his wandering sons; we would
- fill with holy mirth the sacred family among whom we dwell.
- Happy are those who have thus the God of Jacob for their refuge!
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29710
- # Ac 4:1 - 6:15 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29611
- November 11 Morning
-
- \\"Underneath are the everlasting arms."\\
- --Deuteronomy 33:27
-
- God--the eternal God--is himself our support at all times,
- and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble. There are
- seasons when the Christian \\sinks very low in humiliation\\.
- Under a deep sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before
- God till he scarcely knows how to pray, because he appears, in
- his own sight, so worthless. Well, child of God, remember that
- when thou art at thy worst and lowest, yet "underneath" thee
- "are everlasting arms." Sin may drag thee ever so low, but
- Christ's great atonement is still under all. You may have
- descended into the deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as
- "the uttermost"; and to the uttermost he saves. Again, the
- Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in \\sore trial from\\
- \\without\\. Every earthly prop is cut away. What then? Still
- underneath him are "the everlasting arms." He cannot fall so
- deep in distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of
- an ever-faithful God will still encircle him. The Christian may
- be sinking under \\trouble from within through\\ fierce
- conflict, but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be
- beyond the reach of the "everlasting arms"--they are underneath
- him; and, while thus sustained, all Satan's efforts to harm him
- avail nothing.
-
- This assurance of support is a comfort to any \\weary but\\
- \\earnest worker\\ in the service of God. It implies a promise
- of strength for each day, grace for each need, and power for
- each duty. And, further, \\when death comes\\, the promise shall
- still hold good. When we stand in the midst of Jordan, we shall
- be able to say with David, "I will fear no evil, for thou art
- with me." We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no
- lower, for the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All
- through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the
- "everlasting arms"--arms that neither flag nor lose their
- strength, for "the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is
- weary."
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29711
- # Ac 7:1 - 8:40 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29612
- November 12 Morning
-
- \\"The trial of your faith."\\
- --1 Peter 1:7
-
- Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little
- faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is
- without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things
- are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are
- her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the
- sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour; for on a
- slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling
- forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the
- vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her
- mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail,
- it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven. No
- flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of
- the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which
- glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which
- springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as
- that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings
- experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had
- you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would
- never have known God's strength had you not been supported amid
- the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and
- intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is
- precious, and its trial is precious too.
-
- Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in
- faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the
- full portion will be measured out to you in due season.
- Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long
- experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise him for
- that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have attained: walk
- according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of
- the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and
- conquer impossibilities.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29712
- # Ac 9:1 - 10:48 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29613
- November 13 Morning
-
- \\"The branch cannot bear fruit of itself."\\
- --John 15:4
-
- How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to
- Jesus and cast yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on
- his finished righteousness. Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you
- remember those early days? Then indeed the vine flourished, the
- tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and the
- beds of spices gave forth their smell. Have you declined since
- then? If you have, we charge you to remember that time of love,
- and repent, and do thy first works. \\Be most in those\\
- \\engagements which you have experimentally proved to draw you\\
- \\nearest to Christ\\, because it is from him that all your
- fruits proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him
- will help you to bear fruit. The sun is, no doubt, a great
- worker in fruit-creating among the trees of the orchard: and
- Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of grace.
- When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you
- have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have
- slackened in prayer, when you have departed from the simplicity
- of your faith, when your graces have engrossed your attention
- instead of your Lord, when you have said, "My mountain standeth
- firm, I shall never be moved"; and have forgotten where your
- strength dwells--has not it been \\then\\ that your fruit has
- ceased? Some of us have been taught that we have nothing out of
- Christ, by terrible abasements of heart before the Lord; and
- when we have seen the utter barrenness and death of all creature
- power, we have cried in anguish, "From him all my fruit must be
- found, for no fruit can ever come from me." We are taught, by
- past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace
- of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we
- shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to trust Jesus for fruit
- as well as for life.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29713
- # Ac 11:1 - 13:52 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29614
- November 14 Morning
-
- \\"I will cut off them that worship and that swear by the Lord,\\
- \\and that swear by Malcham."\\
- --Zephaniah 1:5
-
- Such persons thought themselves safe because they were with
- both parties: they went with the followers of Jehovah, and bowed
- at the same time to Malcham. But duplicity is abominable with
- God, and hypocrisy his soul hateth. The idolater who distinctly
- gives himself to his false god, has one sin less than he who
- brings his polluted and detestable sacrifice unto the temple of
- the Lord, while his heart is with the world and the sins
- thereof. To hold with the hare and run with the hounds, is a
- dastard's policy. In the common matters of daily life, a double-
- minded man is despised, but in religion he is loathsome to the
- last degree. The penalty pronounced in the verse before us is
- terrible, but it is well deserved; for how should divine justice
- spare the sinner, who knows the right, approves it, and
- professes to follow it, and all the while loves the evil, and
- gives it dominion in his heart?
-
- My soul, search thyself this morning, and see whether thou
- art guilty of double-dealing. Thou professest to be a follower
- of Jesus--dost thou truly love him? Is thy heart right with God?
- Art thou of the family of old Father Honest, or art thou a
- relative of Mr. By-ends? A name to live is of little value if I
- be indeed dead in trespasses and sins. To have one foot on the
- land of truth, and another on the sea of falsehood, will involve
- a terrible fall and a total ruin. Christ will be all or
- nothing. God fills the whole universe, and hence there is no
- room for another god; if, then, he reigns in my heart, there
- will be no space for another reigning power. Do I rest alone on
- Jesus crucified, and live alone for him? Is it my desire to do
- so? Is my heart set upon so doing? If so, blessed be the mighty
- grace which has led me to salvation; and if not so, O Lord,
- pardon my sad offence, and unite my heart to fear thy name.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29714
- # Ac 14:1 - 16:40 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29615
- November 15 Morning
-
- \\"The Lord's portion is his people."\\
- --Deuteronomy 32:9
-
- How are they his? By his own sovereign \\choice\\. He chose
- them, and set his love upon them. This he did altogether apart
- from any goodness in them at the time, or any goodness which he
- foresaw in them. He had mercy on whom he would have mercy, and
- ordained a chosen company unto eternal life; thus, therefore,
- are they his by his unconstrained election.
-
- They are not only his by choice, but by \\purchase\\. He has
- bought and paid for them to the utmost farthing, hence about his
- title there can be no dispute. Not with corruptible things, as
- with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord
- Jesus Christ, the Lord's portion has been fully redeemed. There
- is no mortgage on his estate; no suits can be raised by opposing
- claimants, the price was paid in open court, and the Church is
- the Lord's freehold for ever. See the blood-mark upon all the
- chosen, invisible to human eye, but known to Christ, for "the
- Lord knoweth them that are his"; he forgetteth none of those
- whom he has redeemed from among men; he counts the sheep for
- whom he laid down his life, and remembers well the Church for
- which he gave himself.
-
- They are also his by \\conquest\\. What a battle he had in us
- before we would be won! How long he laid siege to our hearts!
- How often he sent us terms of capitulation! but we barred our
- gates, and fenced our walls against him. Do we not remember
- that glorious hour when he carried our hearts by storm? When he
- placed his cross against the wall, and scaled our ramparts,
- planting on our strongholds the blood-red flag of his omnipotent
- mercy? Yes, we are, indeed, the conquered captives of his
- omnipotent love. Thus chosen, purchased, and subdued, the rights
- of our divine possessor are inalienable: we rejoice that we
- never can be our own; and we desire, day by day, to do \\his\\
- will, and to show forth \\his\\ glory.
-
- Evening Reading .......................................... 29715
- # Ac 17:1 - 19:41 * Daily Bible Reading
- 29616
- next 29651
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