Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29950

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29951
 December 16                                              Evening

 \\"Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that\\
 \\time that thine ear was not opened."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 48:8

    It is painful to remember that, in a certain degree, this
 accusation may be laid at the door of \\believers\\, who too
 often are in a measure \\spiritually insensible\\. We may well
 bewail ourselves that \\we\\ do not hear the voice of God as we
 ought, "Yea, thou heardest not." There are gentle motions of the
 Holy Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are
 whisperings of divine command and of heavenly love which are
 alike unobserved by our leaden intellects. Alas! we have been
 \\carelessly ignorant\\--"Yea, thou knewest not." There are
 matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which
 have made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being
 blighted like flowers in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of
 the divine face which might be perceived if we did not wall up
 the windows of our soul. But we "have not known." As we think of
 it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement. How must we
 adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all
 this folly and ignorance, on our part, \\was foreknown by God\\,
 and, notwithstanding that foreknowledge, he yet has been pleased
 to deal with us in a way of mercy! Admire the marvellous
 sovereign grace which could have chosen us in the sight of all
 this! Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew
 what we should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as
 unbelieving, backsliding, cold of heart, indifferent, careless,
 lax in prayer, and yet he said, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
 One of Israel, thy Saviour ... Since thou wast precious in my
 sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee:
 therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life"! O
 redemption, how wondrously resplendent dost thou shine when we
 think how black we are! O Holy Spirit, give us henceforth the
 hearing ear, the understanding heart!

29952
 December 17                                              Evening

 \\"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,\\
 \\and shall go in and out, and find pasture."\\
                                                      --John 10:9

    Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church,
 and the way of access to God himself. He gives to the man who
 comes to God by him four choice privileges.

    1. \\He shall be saved\\. The fugitive manslayer passed the
 gate of the city of refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door
 of the ark, and was secure. None can be lost who take Jesus as
 the door of faith to their souls. Entrance through Jesus into
 peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into heaven.
 Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door;
 and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory
 upon the crucified Redeemer.

    2. \\He shall go in\\. He shall be privileged to go in among
 the divine family, sharing the children's bread, and
 participating in all their honours and enjoyments. He shall go
 in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets of love, to the
 treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the promises.
 He shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy
 Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him.

    3. \\He shall go out\\. This blessing is much forgotten. We
 go out into the world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to
 go in the name and power of Jesus! We are called to bear witness
 to the truth, to cheer the disconsolate, to warn the careless,
 to win souls, and to glorify God; and as the angel said to
 Gideon, "Go in this thy might," even thus the Lord would have us
 proceed as his messengers in his name and strength.

    4. \\He shall find pasture\\. He who knows Jesus shall never
 want. Going in and out shall be alike helpful to him: in
 fellowship with God he shall grow, and in watering others he
 shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all
 in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well
 of water whose waters fail not.

29953
 December 18                                              Evening

 \\"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look\\
 \\well to thy herds."\\
                                                 --Proverbs 27:23

    Every wise merchant will occasionally hold a stock-taking,
 when he will cast up his accounts, examine what he has on hand,
 and ascertain decisively whether his trade is prosperous or
 declining. Every man who is wise in the kingdom of heaven, will
 cry, "Search me, O God, and try me"; and he will frequently set
 apart special seasons for self-examination, to discover whether
 things are right between God and his soul. The God whom we
 worship is a great heart-searcher; and of old his servants knew
 him as "the Lord which searcheth the heart and trieth the reins
 of the children of men." Let me stir you up in his name to make
 diligent search and solemn trial of your state, lest you come
 short of the promised rest. That which every wise man does,
 that which God himself does with us all, I exhort you to do with
 yourself this evening. Let the oldest saint look well to the
 fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads may cover black
 hearts: and let not the young professor despise the word of
 warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the
 rottenness of hypocrisy. Every now and then a cedar falls into
 our midst. The enemy still continues to sow tares among the
 wheat. It is not my aim to introduce doubts and fears into your
 mind; nay, verily, but I shall hope the rather that the rough
 wind of self-examination may help to drive them away. It is not
 security, but carnal security, which we would kill; not
 confidence, but fleshly confidence, which we would overthrow;
 not peace, but false peace, which we would destroy. By the
 precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you a
 hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth his praise, I
 beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of
 you, "Mene, Mene, Tekel: thou art weighed in the balances, and
 art found wanting."

29954
 December 19                                              Evening

 \\"And there was no more sea."\\
                                                --Revelation 21:1

    Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the
 glorious old ocean: the new heavens and the new earth are none
 the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to
 be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly
 shores. Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with
 the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded
 the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea
 it is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring without the
 sapphire which made it precious. There must be a spiritual
 meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no
 \\division\\--the sea separates nations and sunders peoples from
 each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison
 walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work: there
 shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of
 rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom to-night
 we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go
 there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family.
 In this sense there shall be no more sea. The sea is the emblem
 of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and
 its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous
 roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds
 and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this
 mortal state we have too much of this; earth is constant only in
 her inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change
 shall be unknown, and with it all fear of \\storm\\ to wreck our
 hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory
 unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores
 of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings,
 and changes, and storms shall be ended! Jesus will waft us
 there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.

29955
 December 20                                              Evening

 \\"Call thy labourers, and give them their hire."\\
                                                   --Matthew 20:8

    God is a good paymaster; he pays his servants while at work
 as well as when they have done it; and one of his payments is
 this: \\an easy conscience\\. If you have spoken faithfully of
 Jesus to one person, when you go to bed at night you feel happy
 in thinking, "I have this day discharged my conscience of that
 man's blood." There is a great \\comfort in doing something for\\
 \\Jesus\\. Oh, what a happiness to place jewels in his crown,
 and give him to see of the travail of his soul! There is also
 very great reward in \\watching the first buddings of conviction\\
 \\in a soul\\! To say of that girl in the class, "She is tender
 of heart, I do hope that there is the Lord's work within." To go
 home and pray over that boy, who said something in the afternoon
 which made you think he must know more of divine truth than you
 had feared! Oh, the joy of hope! But as for \\the joy of\\
 \\success\\! it is unspeakable. This joy, overwhelming as it is,
 is a hungry thing--you pine for more of it. To be a soul-winner
 is the happiest thing in the world. With every soul you bring to
 Christ, you get a new heaven upon earth. But who can conceive
 the bliss which awaits us above! Oh, how sweet is that sentence,
 "Enter thou into \\the joy of thy Lord\\!" Do you know what the
 joy of Christ is over a saved sinner? This is the very joy which
 we are to possess in heaven. Yes, when he mounts the throne, you
 shall mount with him. When the heavens ring with "Well done,
 well done," you shall partake in the reward; you have toiled
 with him, you have suffered with him, you shall now reign with
 him; you have sown with him, you shall reap with him; your face
 was covered with sweat like his, and your soul was grieved for
 the sins of men as his soul was, now shall your face be bright
 with heaven's splendour as is his countenance, and now shall
 your soul be filled with beatific joys even as his soul is.

29956
 December 21                                              Evening

 \\"I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with\\
 \\badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I\\
 \\covered thee with silk."\\
                                                  --Ezekiel 16:10

    See with what matchless generosity the Lord provides for his
 people's apparel. They are so arrayed that the divine skill is
 seen producing an unrivalled \\broidered work\\, in which every
 attribute takes its part and every divine beauty is revealed. No
 art like the art displayed in our salvation, no cunning
 workmanship like that beheld in the righteousness of the saints.
 Justification has engrossed learned pens in all ages of the
 church, and will be the theme of admiration in eternity. God has
 indeed "curiously wrought it." With all this elaboration there
 is mingled utility and durability, comparable to our being
 \\shod with badgers' skins\\. The animal here meant is unknown,
 but its skin covered the tabernacle, and formed one of the
 finest and strongest leathers known. The righteousness which is
 of God by faith endureth for ever, and he who is shod with this
 divine preparation will tread the desert safely, and may even
 set his foot upon the lion and the adder. Purity and dignity of
 our holy vesture are brought out in \\the fine linen\\. When the
 Lord sanctifies his people, they are clad as priests in pure
 white; not the snow itself excels them; they are in the eyes of
 men and angels fair to look upon, and even in the Lord's eyes
 they are without spot. Meanwhile the royal apparel is delicate
 and rich as \\silk\\. No expense is spared, no beauty withheld,
 no daintiness denied.

    What, then? Is there no inference from this? Surely there is
 gratitude to be felt and joy to be expressed. Come, my heart,
 refuse not thy evening hallelujah! Tune thy pipes! Touch thy
 chords!

               "Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed
               By the Great Sacred Three!
               In sweetest harmony of praise
               Let all thy powers agree."

29957
 December 22                                              Evening

 \\"The spot of his children."\\
                                               --Deuteronomy 32:5

    What is the secret spot which infallibly betokens the child
 of God? It were vain presumption to decide this upon our own
 judgment; but God's word reveals it to us, and we may tread
 surely where we have revelation to be our guide. Now, we are
 told concerning our Lord, "to as many as \\received him\\, to
 them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as
 believed on his name." Then, if I have received Christ Jesus
 into my heart, I am a child of God. That reception is described
 in the same verse as \\believing on the name of Jesus Christ\\.
 If, then, I believe on Jesus Christ's name--that is, simply from
 my heart trust myself with the crucified, but now exalted,
 Redeemer, I am a member of the family of the Most High. Whatever
 else I may not have, if I have this, I have the privilege to
 become a child of God. Our Lord Jesus puts it in another shape.
 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
 Here is the matter in a nutshell. Christ appears as a shepherd
 to his own sheep, not to others. As soon as he appears, his own
 sheep perceive him--they trust him, they are prepared to follow
 him; he knows them, and they know him--there is a mutual
 knowledge--there is a constant connection between them. Thus the
 one mark, the sure mark, the infallible mark of regeneration and
 adoption is a hearty faith in the appointed Redeemer. Reader,
 are you in doubt, are you uncertain whether you bear the secret
 mark of God's children? Then let not an hour pass over your head
 till you have said, "Search me, O God, and know my heart."
 Trifle not here, I adjure you! If you must trifle anywhere, let
 it be about some secondary matter: your health, if you will, or
 the title deeds of your estate; but about your soul, your
 never-dying soul and its eternal destinies, I beseech you to be
 in earnest. Make sure work for eternity.

29958
 December 23                                              Evening

 \\"The night also is thine."\\
                                                    --Psalm 74:16

    Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy throne when the sun
 goeth down, nor dost thou leave the world all through these long
 wintry nights to be the prey of evil; thine eyes watch us as the
 stars, and thine arms surround us as the zodiac belts the sky.
 The dews of kindly sleep and all the influences of the moon are
 in thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities of night are equally
 with thee. This is very sweet to me when watching through the
 midnight hours, or tossing to and fro in anguish. There are
 precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun: may
 my Lord make me to be a favoured partaker in them.

    The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and
 control of the Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all
 is bliss. Jesus is in the tempest. His love wraps the night
 about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of faith the sable robe
 is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night even
 unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes his saints,
 and overrules the shades and dews of midnight for his people's
 highest good. We believe in no rival deities of good and evil
 contending for the mastery, but we hear the voice of Jehovah
 saying, "I create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do
 all these things."

    Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are
 not exempted from the divine purpose. When the altars of truth
 are defiled, and the ways of God forsaken, the Lord's servants
 weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not despair, for the
 darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall come to their
 end at his bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be victory to
 him.

               "Though enwrapt in gloomy night,
               We perceive no ray of light;
               Since the Lord himself is here,
               'Tis not meet that we should fear."

29959
 December 24                                              Evening

 \\"The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall\\
 \\see it together."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 40:5

    We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be
 converted to Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast
 to the moles and the bats; when Romanism shall be exploded, and
 the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never again to cast its
 baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down before
 the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer
 blessed. Some despair of this. They look upon the world as a
 vessel breaking up and going to pieces, never to float again. We
 know that the world and all that is therein is one day to be
 burnt up, and afterwards we look for new heavens and for a new
 earth; but we cannot read our Bibles without the conviction
 that--

                  "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
                  Does his successive journeys run."

 We are not discouraged by the length of his delays; we are not
 disheartened by the long period which he allots to the church in
 which to struggle with little success and much defeat. We
 believe that God will never suffer this world, which has once
 seen Christ's blood shed upon it, to be always the devil's
 stronghold. Christ came hither to deliver this world from the
 detested sway of the powers of darkness. What a shout shall that
 be when men and angels shall unite to cry "Hallelujah,
 hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!" What a
 satisfaction will it be in that day to have had a share in the
 fight, to have helped to break the arrows of the bow, and to
 have aided in winning the victory for our Lord! Happy are they
 who trust themselves with this conquering Lord, and who fight
 side by side with him, doing their little in his name and by his
 strength! How unhappy are those on the side of evil! It is a
 losing side, and it is a matter wherein to lose is to lose and
 to be lost for ever. On whose side are you?

29960
 December 25                                              Evening

 \\"And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone\\
 \\about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in\\
 \\the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the\\
 \\number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have\\
 \\sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job\\
 \\continually."\\
                                                        --Job 1:5

    What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family
 festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself
 ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household
 gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to
 forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be
 so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days
 of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into
 unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifying
 as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy gratitude
 should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our
 poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is
 better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have
 you sinned to-day? Have you been forgetful of your high calling?
 Have you been even as others in idle words and loose speeches?
 Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice
 sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the
 guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance
 and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day--to
 wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this
 sacrifice continually; if it be so good to-night, it is good
 every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal
 priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no
 cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the
 sin-atoning victim, and their conscience is purged from dead
 works.

               Gladly I close this festive day,
               Grasping the altar's hallow'd horn;
               My slips and faults are washed away,
               The Lamb has all my trespass borne.

29961
 December 26                                              Evening

 \\"Lo, I am with you alway."\\
                                                  --Matthew 28:20

    The Lord Jesus is in the midst of his church; he walketh
 among the golden candlesticks; his promise is, "Lo, I am with
 you alway." He is as surely with us now as he was with the
 disciples at the lake, when they saw coals of fire, and fish
 laid thereon and bread. Not carnally, but still in real truth,
 Jesus is with us. And a blessed truth it is, for where Jesus is,
 \\love becomes inflamed\\. Of all the things in the world that
 can set the heart burning, there is nothing like the presence of
 Jesus! A glimpse of him so overcomes us, that we are ready to
 say, "Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me."
 Even the smell of the aloes, and the myrrh, and the cassia,
 which drop from his perfumed garments, causes the sick and the
 faint to grow strong. Let there be but a moment's leaning of the
 head upon that gracious bosom, and a reception of his divine
 love into our poor cold hearts, and we are cold no longer, but
 glow like seraphs, equal to every labour, and capable of every
 suffering. If we know that Jesus is with us, \\every power will\\
 \\be developed\\, and every grace will be strengthened, and we
 shall cast ourselves into the Lord's service with heart, and
 soul, and strength; therefore is the presence of Christ to be
 desired above all things. \\His presence will be most realized\\
 \\by those who are most like him\\. If you desire to see Christ,
 you must grow in conformity to him. Bring yourself, by the power
 of the Spirit, into union with Christ's desires, and motives,
 and plans of action, and you are likely to be favoured with his
 company. Remember \\his presence may be had\\. His promise is as
 true as ever. He delights to be with us. If he doth not come, it
 is because we hinder him by our indifference. He will reveal
 himself to our earnest prayers, and graciously suffer himself to
 be detained by our entreaties, and by our tears, for these are
 the golden chains which bind Jesus to his people.
29962
 December 27                                              Evening

 \\"And the LORD shall guide thee continually."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 58:11

    "The \\Lord\\ shall guide thee." Not an angel, but JEHOVAH
 shall guide thee. He said he would not go through the wilderness
 before his people, an angel should go before them to lead them
 in the way; but Moses said, "If \\thy\\ presence go not with me,
 carry us not up hence." Christian, God has not left you in your
 earthly pilgrimage to an angel's guidance: he himself leads the
 van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but Jehovah will
 never forsake you. Notice the word \\shall\\--"The Lord shall
 guide thee." How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God
 will not forsake us! His precious "shalls" and "wills" are
 better than men's oaths. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake
 thee." Then observe the adverb \\continually\\. We are not
 merely to be guided sometimes, but we are to have a perpetual
 monitor; not occasionally to be left to our own understanding,
 and so to wander, but we are continually to hear the guiding
 voice of the Great Shepherd; and if we follow close at his
 heels, we shall not err, but be led by a right way to a city to
 dwell in. If you have to change your position in life; if you
 have to emigrate to distant shores; if it should happen that you
 are cast into poverty, or uplifted suddenly into a more
 responsible position than the one you now occupy; if you are
 thrown among strangers, or cast among foes, yet tremble not, for
 "the Lord shall guide thee continually." There are no dilemmas
 out of which you shall not be delivered if you live near to God,
 and your heart be kept warm with holy love. He goes not amiss
 who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God, and
 you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to
 direct you, immutable love to comfort you, and eternal power to
 defend you. "Jehovah"--mark the word--"Jehovah shall guide thee
 continually."

29963
 December 28                                              Evening

 \\"I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword."\\
                                                  --Matthew 10:34

    The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of
 his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe
 the true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he
 will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven
 will be yet more friendly, and reveal himself to him more
 graciously than ever. O ye who have taken up his cross, know ye
 not what your Master said? "I am come to set a man at variance
 against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a
 man's foes shall be they of his own household." Christ is the
 great Peacemaker; but before peace, he brings war. Where the
 light cometh, the darkness must retire. Where truth is, the lie
 must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict,
 for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the
 lie must be trodden under foot. If you follow Christ, you shall
 have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels. If you
 would live so as to stand the test of the last tribunal, depend
 upon it the world will not speak well of you. He who has the
 friendship of the world is an enemy to God; but if you are true
 and faithful to the Most High, men will resent your unflinching
 fidelity, since it is a testimony against their iniquities.
 Fearless of all consequences, you must do the right. You will
 need the courage of a lion unhesitatingly to pursue a course
 which shall turn your best friend into your fiercest foe; but
 for the love of Jesus you must thus be courageous. For the
 truth's sake to hazard reputation and affection, is such a deed
 that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral
 principle which only the Spirit of God can work in you; yet turn
 not your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow right
 manfully in your Master's steps, for he has traversed this rough
 way before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than
 false peace and everlasting torment.
29964
 December 29                                              Evening

 \\"What think ye of Christ?"\\
                                                  --Matthew 22:42

    The great test of your soul's health is, \\What think you of\\
 \\Christ\\? Is he to you "fairer than the children of men"--"the
 chief among ten thousand"--the "altogether lovely"? Wherever
 Christ is thus esteemed, all the faculties of the spiritual man
 exercise themselves with energy. I will judge of your piety by
 this barometer: does Christ stand high or low with you? If you
 have thought little of Christ, if you have been content to live
 without his presence, if you have cared little for his honour,
 if you have been neglectful of his laws, then I know that your
 soul is sick--God grant that it may not be sick unto death! But
 if the first thought of your spirit has been, how can I honour
 Jesus? If the daily desire of your soul has been, "O that I knew
 where I might find him!" I tell you that you may have a thousand
 infirmities, and even scarcely know whether you are a child of
 God at all, and yet I am persuaded, beyond a doubt, that you are
 safe, since Jesus is great in your esteem. I care not for thy
 rags, what thinkest thou of \\his\\ royal apparel? I care not
 for thy wounds, though they bleed in torrents, what thinkest
 thou of \\his\\ wounds? are they like glittering rubies in thine
 esteem? I think none the less of thee, though thou liest like
 Lazarus on the dunghill, and the dogs do lick thee--I judge thee
 not by thy poverty: what thinkest thou of the King in his
 beauty? Has he a glorious high throne in thy heart? Wouldest thou
 set him higher if thou couldest? Wouldest thou be willing to die
 if thou couldest but add another trumpet to the strain which
 proclaims his praise? Ah! then it is well with thee. Whatever
 thou mayest think of thyself, if Christ be great to thee, thou
 shalt be with him ere long.

             "Though all the world my choice deride,
             Yet Jesus shall my portion be;
             For I am pleased with none beside,
             The fairest of the fair is he"

29965
 December 30                                              Evening

 \\"Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter\\
 \\end?"\\
                                                  --2 Samuel 2:26

    If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a
 possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following
 lines are a true ketch of thine end.

    You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go
 because others go, not because your heart is right with God.
 This is your beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty
 or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now,
 professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of
 grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I
 must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself. Let us
 gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he
 wakes up crying, "O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my
 minister?" "Yes, he is coming." The minister comes. "Sir, I fear
 that I am dying!" "Have you any hope?" "I cannot say that I
 have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me." The
 prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way
 of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but
 before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my
 finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything
 here again. But where is the man, and where are the man's true
 eyes? It is written, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in
 torment." Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he
 was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under
 it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will
 be your wailings. Let the Saviour's own words reveal the woe:
 "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his
 finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this
 flame." There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you
 never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah's wrath!

29966
 December 31                                              Evening

 \\"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not\\
 \\saved."\\
                                                  --Jeremiah 8:20

    Not \\saved\\! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight?
 Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for your life,
 and yet at this moment \\not saved\\! You know the way of
 salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear it from the
 pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you neglect
 it, and therefore you are \\not saved\\. You will be without
 excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and dead. The Holy
 Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which
 has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing have
 come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ.
 All these hopeful seasons have come and gone--your summer and
 your harvest have past--and yet you are \\not saved\\. Years
 have followed one another into eternity, and your last year will
 soon be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are
 \\not saved\\. Let me ask you--\\will you ever be saved\\? Is
 there any likelihood of it? Already the most propitious seasons
 have left you unsaved; will other occasions alter your
 condition? Means have failed with you--the best of means, used
 perseveringly and with the utmost affection--what more can be
 done for you? Affliction and prosperity have alike failed to
 impress you; tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on
 your barren heart. Are not the probabilities dead against your
 ever being saved? Is it not more than likely that you will abide
 as you are till death for ever bars the door of hope? Do you
 recoil from the supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he
 who is not washed in so many waters will in all probability go
 filthy to his end. The convenient time never has come, why
 should it ever come? It is logical to fear that it never will
 arrive, and that Felix like, you will find no convenient season
 till you are in hell. O bethink you of what that hell is, and of
 the dread probability that you will soon be cast into it!

    Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words
 can picture. Write out your dread estate in tears and blood,
 talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: you will be
 punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the
 Lord, and from the glory of his power. A brother's voice would
 fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise in time,
 and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to
 save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely
 thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well;
 and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of
 all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an
 unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year's midnight peals sound
 upon a joyless spirit! Now, NOW, NOW believe, and live.

         \\"Escape for thy life;\\
             \\Look not behind thee,\\
                \\Neither stay thou in all the plain;\\
                    \\Escape to the mountain,\\
                       \\Lest thou be consumed."\\
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