Christian Watch “And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Genesis 32:26 What a strange intermixture there is in a believing heart of everything to cast down and yet of everything to encourage! How there is everything on the one side to perplex, to confuse, and put the soul to its wits’ … Read more
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” 2 Corinthians 4:7 Gold and silver, those precious metals, take no injury, receive no spot of corruption from the vessel in which they are contained; let them be buried in the damp earth, no tarnish or rust forms upon them. So spiritually, the grace of God in … Read more
“My people hath been lost sheep.” Jeremiah 50:6 When God the Holy Ghost takes a soul in hand, just as the fingers of a man’s hand wrote a sentence of condemnation upon the wall of the palace of the king of Babylon, so does the blessed Spirit write the word “lost” upon the conscience of … Read more
“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41 Why is flesh so weak? Because it is fallen, because it is sinful, because it has an alliance with the temptation which is presented to it. It is weak against temptation for the same reason that a man who loves strong drink is … Read more
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh.” Ecclesiastes 3:4 Does a man only weep once in his life? Does not the time of weeping run, more or less, through a Christian’s life? Does not mourning run parallel with his existence in this tabernacle of clay? for “man is born to trouble as the … Read more
“Love is of God.” 1 John 4:7 Love is a gift which the risen Mediator has received that he may freely communicate it out of his fulness to his people. And we must be brought to feel that it is a gift. Could we produce or keep it alive in our own hearts, we should … Read more
“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:26 The Lord does not bring his poor and needy children to a throne of grace, and send them away immediately they have come. But his purpose is, to shew them deeply what they are, to … Read more
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11 Justification and sanctification are distinct blessings. The first springs out of, and is connected with, the finished work of the … Read more
“The entrance of thy words giveth light.” Psalm 119:130 The blessed Spirit is pleased sometimes to give some testimony concerning Jesus, to open up some passage of Scripture which speaks of Jesus, to cast a divine light before the astonished eyes, and to throw some of the blessed beams of gospel truth into our souls, … Read more
“By grace ye are saved.” Ephesians 2:5 Oh! the volumes of blessed truth that are couched in these few words; thrown in out of the Apostle’s full heart as if to give a moment’s vent to his love of salvation by grace! Mercy, love, and grace are all in the bosom of God toward his … Read more
“My people are bent to backsliding from me.” Hosea 6:7 What an awful error it is to deny backsliding! What ignorance it manifests of a man’s own heart! How it stamps a man as a perverter of truth, and one that trifles with sin and the displeasure of the Most High! Who that knows himself … Read more
“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” Matthew 9:12 A physician is useless without a case; and the deeper the case, the wiser and better physician we need. Thus a guilty conscience is a case for atoning blood, a wounded spirit for healing balm, a filthy garment for a … Read more