Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29900

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29901
 December 1                                               Evening

 \\"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for\\
 \\his wonderful works to the children of men."\\
                                                   -- Psalm 107:8

    If we complained less, and praised more, we should be
 happier, and God would be more glorified. Let us daily praise
 God for \\common mercies\\--common as we frequently call them,
 and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are ready to
 perish. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the
 sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread
 we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise him that we are
 not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty;
 let us thank him for liberty, for friends, for family
 associations and comforts; let us praise him, in fact, for
 everything which we receive from his bounteous hand, for we
 deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed. But,
 beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of
 praise should be of \\redeeming love\\. God's redeeming acts
 towards his chosen are for ever the favourite themes of their
 praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold
 our sonnets of thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the
 power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in
 which we were naturally plunged. We have been led to the cross
 of Christ--our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no
 longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate
 the period when we shall be presented before the throne without
 spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Even now by faith we wave the
 palm-branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair linen which
 is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not unceasingly
 give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst thou
 be silent? Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your
 captivity captive, as ye cry with David, "Bless the Lord, O my
 soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." Let the
 new month begin with new songs.

29902
 December 2                                               Evening

 \\"Behold, all is vanity."\\
                                              --Ecclesiastes 1:14

    Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and
 the Lord's own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other
 roadsteads, but they have been driven out of such fatal refuges.
 Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to make experiments
 for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for
 ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words: "So I was
 great, and increased more than all that were before me in
 Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine
 eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from
 any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my
 portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my
 hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do:
 and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there
 was no profit under the sun." "Vanity of vanities, all is
 vanity." What! the whole of it vanity? O favoured monarch, is
 there nothing in all thy wealth? Nothing in that wide dominion
 reaching from the river even to the sea? Nothing in Palmyra's
 glorious palaces? Nothing in the house of the forest of Lebanon?
 In all thy music and dancing, and wine and luxury, is there
 nothing? "Nothing," he says, "but weariness of spirit." This was
 his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure. To
 embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in his love, and be fully
 assured of union with him--this is all in all. Dear reader, you
 need not try other forms of life in order to see whether they
 are better than the Christian's: if you roam the world around,
 you will see no sights like a sight of the Saviour's face; if
 you could have all the comforts of life, if you lost your
 Saviour, you would be wretched; but if you win Christ, then
 should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise;
 should you live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet
 be satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.

29903
 December 3                                               Evening

 \\"The Lord mighty in battle."\\
                                                     --Psalm 24:8

    Well may our God be glorious in the eyes of his people,
 seeing that he has wrought such wonders for them, in them, and
 by them. \\For them\\, the Lord Jesus upon Calvary routed every
 foe, breaking all the weapons of the enemy in pieces by his
 finished work of satisfactory obedience; by his triumphant
 resurrection and ascension he completely overturned the hopes of
 hell, leading captivity captive, making a show of our enemies
 openly, triumphing over them by his cross. Every arrow of guilt
 which Satan might have shot at us is broken, for who can lay
 anything to the charge of God's elect? Vain are the sharp swords
 of infernal malice, and the perpetual battles of the serpent's
 seed, for in the midst of the church the lame take the prey, and
 the feeblest warriors are crowned.

    The saved may well adore their Lord for his conquests \\in\\
 \\them\\, since the arrows of their natural hatred are snapped,
 and the weapons of their rebellion broken. What victories has
 grace won in our evil hearts! How glorious is Jesus when the
 will is subdued, and sin dethroned! As for our remaining
 corruptions, they shall sustain an equally sure defeat, and
 every temptation, and doubt, and fear, shall be utterly
 destroyed. In the Salem of our peaceful hearts, the name of
 Jesus is great beyond compare: he has won our love, and he shall
 wear it. Even thus securely may we look for victories \\by us\\.
 We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We shall
 cast down the powers of darkness which are in the world, by our
 faith, and zeal, and holiness; we shall win sinners to Jesus, we
 shall overturn false systems, we shall convert nations, for God
 is with us, and none shall stand before us. This evening let the
 Christian warrior chant the war song, and prepare for
 to-morrow's fight. Greater is he that is in us than he that is
 in the world.

29904
 December 4                                               Evening

 \\"Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the\\
 \\adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."\\
                                                    --Romans 8:23

    This groaning is universal among the saints: to a greater or
 less extent we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or
 complaint: it is rather the note of desire than of distress.
 Having received an earnest, we desire the whole of our portion;
 we are sighing that our entire manhood, in its trinity of
 spirit, soul, and body, may be set free from the last vestige of
 the fall; we long to put off corruption, weakness, and
 dishonour, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, in
 immortality, in glory, in the spiritual body which the Lord
 Jesus will bestow upon his people. We long for the manifestation
 of our adoption as the children of God. "We groan," but it is
 "\\within ourselves\\." It is not the hypocrite's groan, by
 which he would make men believe that he is a saint because he is
 wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too hallowed for us to
 tell abroad. We keep our longings to our Lord alone. Then the
 apostle says we are "\\waiting\\," by which we learn that we are
 not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, "Let
 me die"; nor are we to whimper and sigh for the end of life
 because we are tired of work, nor wish to escape from our
 present sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. We are to
 groan for glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it,
 knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies
 being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved
 to open it and take us away to himself. This "groaning" is a
 test. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men
 groan after wealth--they worship Mammon; some groan continually
 under the troubles of life--they are merely impatient; but the
 man who sighs after God, who is uneasy till he is made like
 Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for
 the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection which he will bring
 to us.

29905
 December 5                                               Evening

 \\"And the Lord shewed me four carpenters."\\
                                                 --Zechariah 1:20

    In the vision described in this chapter, the prophet saw four
 terrible horns. They were pushing this way and that way, dashing
 down the strongest and the mightiest; and the prophet asked,
 "What are these?" The answer was, "These are the horns which
 have scattered Israel." He saw before him a representation of
 those powers which had oppressed the church of God. There were
 four horns; for the church is attacked from all quarters. Well
 might the prophet have felt dismayed; but on a sudden there
 appeared before him \\four carpenters\\. He asked, "What shall
 these do?" These are the men whom God hath found to break those
 horns in pieces. \\God will always find men for his work\\, and
 he will find them at the right time. The prophet did not see the
 carpenters \\first\\, when there was nothing to do, but first
 the "horns," and then the "carpenters." Moreover, the Lord finds
 \\enough men\\. He did not find three carpenters, but \\four\\;
 there were four horns, and there must be four workmen. God finds
 \\the right men\\; not four men with pens to write; not four
 architects to draw plans; but four carpenters to do rough work.
 Rest assured, you who tremble for the ark of God, that when the
 "horns" grow troublesome, the "carpenters" will be found. You
 need not fret concerning the weakness of the church of God at
 any moment; there may be growing up in obscurity the valiant
 reformer who will shake the nations: Chrysostoms may come forth
 from our Ragged Schools, and Augustines from the thickest
 darkness of London's poverty. The Lord knows where to find his
 servants. He hath in ambush a multitude of mighty men, and at
 his word they shall start up to the battle; "for the battle is
 the Lord's," and he shall get to himself the victory. Let us
 abide faithful to Christ, and he, in the right time, will raise
 up for us a defence, whether it be in the day of our personal
 need, or in the season of peril to his Church.

29906
 December 6                                               Evening

 \\"Girt about the paps with a golden girdle."\\
                                                --Revelation 1:13

    One like unto the Son of Man" appeared to John in Patmos, and
 the beloved disciple marked that he wore a girdle of gold. \\A\\
 \\girdle\\, for Jesus never was ungirt while upon earth, but
 stood always ready for service, and now before the eternal
 throne he stays not is holy ministry, but as a priest is girt
 about with "the curious girdle of the ephod." Well it is for us
 that he has not ceased to fulfil his offices of love for us,
 since this is one of our choicest safeguards that he ever liveth
 to make intercession for us. Jesus is never an idler; his
 garments are never loose as though his offices were ended; he
 diligently carries on the cause of his people. \\A golden\\
 \\girdle\\, to manifest the superiority of his service, the
 royalty of his person, the dignity of his state, the glory of
 his reward. No longer does he cry out of the dust, but he pleads
 with authority, a King as well as a Priest. Safe enough is our
 cause in the hands of our enthroned Melchizedek.

    Our Lord presents all his people with an example. We must
 never unbind our girdles. This is not the time for lying down at
 ease, it is the season of service and warfare. We need to bind
 the girdle of truth more and more tightly around our loins. It
 is a golden girdle, and so will be our richest ornament, and we
 greatly need it, for a heart that is not well braced up with the
 truth as it is in Jesus, and with the fidelity which is wrought
 of the Spirit, will be easily entangled with the things of this
 life, and tripped up by the snares of temptation. It is in vain
 that we possess the Scriptures unless we bind them around us
 like a girdle, surrounding our entire nature, keeping each part
 of our character in order, and giving compactness to our whole
 man. If in heaven Jesus unbinds not the girdle, much less may we
 upon earth. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with
 truth.

29907
 December 7                                               Evening

 \\"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means\\
 \\save some."\\
                                             --1 Corinthians 9:22

    Paul's great object was not merely to instruct and to
 improve, but to save. Anything short of this would have
 disappointed him; he would have men renewed in heart, forgiven,
 sanctified, in fact, saved. Have our Christian labours been
 aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend our
 ways, for of what avail will it be at the last great day to have
 taught and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved?
 Blood-red will our skirts be if through life we have sought
 inferior objects, and forgotten that men needed to be saved.
 Paul knew the ruin of man's natural state, and did not try to
 educate him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and
 did not talk of refining them, but of saving from the wrath to
 come. To compass their salvation, he gave himself up with
 untiring zeal to telling abroad the gospel, to warning and
 beseeching men to be reconciled to God. His prayers were
 importunate and his labours incessant. To save souls was his
 consuming passion, his ambition, his calling. He became a
 servant to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a woe within
 him if he preached not the gospel. He laid aside his
 preferences to prevent prejudice; he submitted his will in
 things indifferent, and if men would but receive the gospel, he
 raised no questions about forms or ceremonies: the gospel was
 the one all-important business with him. If he might save some
 he would be content. This was the crown for which he strove, the
 sole and sufficient reward of all his labours and self-denials.
 Dear reader, have you and I lived to win souls at this noble
 rate? Are we possessed with the same all-absorbing desire? If
 not, why not? Jesus died for sinners, cannot we live for them?
 Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if we seek
 not his honour in the salvation of men? O that the Lord would
 saturate us through and through with an undying zeal for the
 souls of men.
29908
 December 8                                               Evening

 \\"Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor."\\
                                                    --Psalm 68:10

    All God's gifts are prepared gifts laid up in store for wants
 foreseen. He anticipates our needs; and out of the fulness which
 he has treasured up in Christ Jesus, he provides of his goodness
 for the poor. You may trust him for all the necessities that can
 occur, for he has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can
 say of us in all conditions, "I knew that thou wouldst be this
 and that." A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he
 has made a day's advance, and pitched his tent, he discovers
 that he wants many comforts and necessaries which he has not
 brought in his baggage. "Ah!" says he, "I did not foresee this:
 if I had this journey to go again, I should bring these things
 with me, so necessary to my comfort." But God has marked with
 prescient eye all the requirements of his poor wandering
 children, and when those needs occur, supplies are ready. It is
 goodness which he has prepared for the poor in heart, goodness
 and goodness only. "My grace is sufficient for thee." "As thy
 days, so shall thy strength be."

    Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? God knew it would
 be; the comfort which your heart wants is treasured in the sweet
 assurance of the text. You are poor and needy, but he has
 thought upon you, and has the exact blessing which you require
 in store for you. Plead the promise, believe it and obtain its
 fulfilment. Do you feel that you never were so consciously vile
 as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still, with
 all its former efficacy, to wash your sin away. Never shall you
 come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you. No pinch
 shall ever arrive in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus
 Christ shall not be equal to the emergency, for your history has
 all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus.

29909
 December 9                                               Evening

 \\"My people shall dwell in quiet resting places."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 32:18

    Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the
 peculiar possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The
 God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are
 stayed upon him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the
 flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how
 soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of
 universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the
 chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the
 ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the
 new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying
 Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath
 the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying
 angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of
 the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary
 pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of
 our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and
 power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are
 consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which
 is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David
 in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or
 destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet
 resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the
 breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching
 of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of
 approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits.

    "I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
    I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
    'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,
    'Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
    The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
    This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever
       nigh."

29910
 December 10                                              Evening

 \\"Whose heart the Lord opened."\\
                                                     --Acts 16:14

    In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. It
 was brought about by \\providential circumstances\\. She was a
 seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right
 time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which
 is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again,
 \\grace was preparing her soul for the blessing\\--grace
 preparing for grace. She did not know the Saviour, but as a
 Jewess, she knew many truths which were excellent
 stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took
 place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went when
 prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. Never
 neglect the means of grace; God \\may\\ bless us when we are not
 in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope that he
 \\will\\ when we are in communion with his saints. Observe the
 words, "Whose heart \\the Lord\\ opened." She did not open her
 own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. The
 Lord himself must open the heart, to receive the things which
 make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the hole of
 the door and open it, and get admittance for himself. He is the
 heart's master as he is the heart's maker. The first outward
 evidence of the opened heart was \\obedience\\. As soon as Lydia
 had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a
 humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to
 obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is
 not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a
 simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. The
 next evidence was \\love\\, manifesting itself in acts of
 grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever
 been a mark of the true convert. Those who do nothing for
 Christ or his church, give but sorry evidence of an "opened"
 heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.

29911
 December 11                                              Evening

 \\"Ye serve the Lord Christ."\\
                                                --Colossians 3:24

   To what choice order of officials was this word spoken? To
 kings who proudly boast a right divine? Ah, no! too often do
 they serve themselves or Satan, and forget the God whose
 sufferance permits them to wear their mimic majesty for their
 little hour. Speaks then the apostle to those so-called "right
 reverend fathers in God," the bishops, or "the venerable the
 archdeacons"? No, indeed, Paul knew nothing of these mere
 inventions of man. Not even to pastors and teachers, or to the
 wealthy and esteemed among believers, was this word spoken, but
 to servants, aye, and to slaves. Among the toiling multitudes,
 the journeymen, the day labourers, the domestic servants, the
 drudges of the kitchen, the apostle found, as we find still,
 some of the Lord's chosen, and to them he says, "Whatsoever ye
 do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing
 that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:
 for ye serve the Lord Christ." This saying ennobles the weary
 routine of earthly employments, and sheds a halo around the most
 humble occupations. To wash feet may be servile, but to wash \\his\\
 feet is royal work. To unloose the shoe-latchet is poor employ,
 but to unloose the great Master's shoe is a princely privilege.
 The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples
 when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then "divine
 service" is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all
 life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing,
 as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.

   "Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see;
   And what I do in anything to do it as to thee.
   All may of thee partake, nothing can be so mean,
   Which with this tincture, \\for thy sake\\, will not grow bright
      and clean.
   A servant with this clause makes drudgery divine;
   Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, makes that and the
      action fine."
29912
 December 12                                              Evening

 \\"They have dealt treacherously against the Lord."\\
                                                      --Hosea 5:7

    Believer, here is a sorrowful truth! Thou art the beloved of
 the Lord, redeemed by blood, called by grace, preserved in
 Christ Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, on thy way to heaven, and
 yet, "thou hast dealt treacherously" with God, thy best friend;
 treacherously with Jesus, whose thou art; treacherously with the
 Holy Spirit, by whom thou hast been quickened unto life eternal!
 How treacherous you have been in the matter of vows and
 promises. Do you remember the love of your espousals, that happy
 time--the springtime of your spiritual life? Oh, how closely did
 you cling to your Master then! saying, "He shall never charge me
 with indifference; my feet shall never grow slow in the way of
 his service; I will not suffer my heart to wander after other
 loves; in him is every store of sweetness ineffable. I give all
 up for my Lord Jesus' sake." Has it been so? Alas! if conscience
 speak, it will say, "He who promised so well has performed most
 ill. Prayer has oftentimes been slurred--it has been short, but
 not sweet; brief, but not fervent. Communion with Christ has
 been forgotten. Instead of a heavenly mind, there have been
 carnal cares, worldly vanities and thoughts of evil. Instead of
 service, there has been disobedience; instead of fervency,
 lukewarmness; instead of patience, petulance; instead of faith,
 confidence in an arm of flesh; and as a soldier of the cross
 there has been cowardice, disobedience, and desertion, to a very
 shameful degree." "Thou hast dealt treacherously." Treachery to
 Jesus! what words shall be used in denouncing it? Words little
 avail: let our penitent thoughts execrate the sin which is so
 surely in us. Treacherous to thy wounds, O Jesus! Forgive us,
 and let us not sin again! How shameful to be treacherous to him
 who never forgets us, but who this day stands with our names
 engraven on his breastplate before the eternal throne.

29913
 December 13                                              Evening

 \\"I will make thy windows of agates."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 54:12

    The church is most instructively symbolized by a building
 erected by heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a
 spiritual house must not be dark, for the Israelites had light
 in their dwellings; there must therefore be windows to let the
 light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These
 windows are \\precious\\ as agates: the ways in which the church
 beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are
 to be had in the highest esteem. Agates are \\not the most\\
 \\transparent\\ of gems, they are but semi-pellucid at the best:

              "Our knowledge of that life is small,
              Our eye of faith is dim."

 \\Faith\\ is one of these precious agate windows, but alas! it
 is often so misty and beclouded, that we see but darkly, and
 mistake much that we do see. Yet if we cannot gaze through
 windows of diamonds and know even as we are known, it is a
 glorious thing to behold the altogether lovely One, even though
 the glass be hazy as the agate. \\Experience\\ is another of
 these dim but precious windows, yielding to us a subdued
 religious light, in which we see the sufferings of the Man of
 Sorrows, through our own afflictions. Our weak eyes could not
 endure windows of transparent glass to let in the Master's
 glory, but when they are dimmed with weeping, the beams of the
 Sun of Righteousness are tempered, and shine through the windows
 of agate with a soft radiance inexpressibly soothing to tempted
 souls. \\Sanctification\\, as it conforms us to our Lord, is
 another agate window. Only as we become heavenly can we
 comprehend heavenly things. The pure in heart see a pure God.
 Those who are like Jesus see him as he is. Because we are so
 little like him, the window is but agate; because we are
 somewhat like him, it is agate. We thank God for what we have,
 and long for more. When shall we see God and Jesus, and heaven
 and truth, face to face?

29914
 December 14                                              Evening

 \\"I am crucified with Christ."\\
                                                 --Galatians 2:20

    The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what he did as a great public
 representative person, and his dying upon the cross was the
 virtual dying of all his people. Then all his saints rendered
 unto justice what was due, and made an expiation to divine
 vengeance for all their sins. The apostle of the Gentiles
 delighted to think that as one of Christ's chosen people, he
 died upon the cross in Christ. He did more than believe this
 doctrinally, he accepted it confidently, resting his hope upon
 it. He believed that by virtue of Christ's death, he had
 satisfied divine justice, and found reconciliation with God.
 Beloved, what a blessed thing it is when the soul can, as it
 were, stretch itself upon the cross of Christ, and feel, "I am
 dead; the law has slain me, and I am therefore free from its
 power, because in my Surety I have borne the curse, and in the
 person of my Substitute the whole that the law could do, by way
 of condemnation, has been executed upon me, for I am crucified
 with Christ."

    But Paul meant even more than this. He not only believed in
 Christ's death, and trusted in it, but he actually felt its
 power in himself in causing the crucifixion of his old corrupt
 nature. When he saw the pleasures of sin, he said, "I cannot
 enjoy these: I am dead to them." Such is the experience of every
 true Christian. Having received Christ, he is to this world as
 one who is utterly dead. Yet, while conscious of death to the
 world, he can, at the same time, exclaim with the apostle,
 "Nevertheless I live." He is fully alive unto God. The
 Christian's life is a matchless riddle. No worldling can
 comprehend it; even the believer himself cannot understand it.
 Dead, yet alive! crucified with Christ, and yet at the same time
 risen with Christ in newness of life! Union with the suffering,
 bleeding Saviour, and death to the world and sin, are
 soul-cheering things. O for more enjoyment of them!

29915
 December 15                                              Evening

 \\"And lay thy foundations with sapphires."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 54:11

    Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that
 which is unseen, is fair and precious. Foundations are out of
 sight, and so long as they are firm it is not expected that they
 should be valuable; but in Jehovah's work everything is of a
 piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean. The deep foundations of
 the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human
 mind is able to measure their glory. We build upon the
 \\covenant of grace\\, which is firmer than adamant, and as
 enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain.
 Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides
 throughout the lifetime of the Almighty. Another foundation is
 \\the person of the Lord Jesus\\, which is clear and spotless,
 everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire; blending in one the
 deep blue of earth's ever rolling ocean and the azure of its all
 embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby
 as he stood covered with his own blood, but now we see him
 radiant with the soft blue of love, love abounding, deep,
 eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon \\the justice and the\\
 \\faithfulness of God\\, which are clear and cloudless as the
 sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating
 justice, or law suspending its operations; no, we defy the
 eagle's eye to detect a flaw in the groundwork of our
 confidence--our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure the
 fire.

    The Lord himself has laid the foundation of his people's
 hopes. It is matter for grave enquiry whether \\our\\ hopes are
 built upon such a basis. Good works and ceremonies are not a
 foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and stubble; neither
 are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations will
 all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come
 down with a crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built
 on sapphires may await storm or fire with equanimity, for he
 shall abide the test.

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