“Having a good conscience.” 1 Peter 3:16 We cannot often see our faith, but we can sometimes see our conscience. We cannot always rejoice in the Lord, but we can see whether we fear his great name. We cannot always triumph over our enemies, but we can sometimes observe whether there is a sentinel upon … Read more
“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:15 It is no evidence against you if you are subject to bondage; it is no mark against you if you cannot look death in the face without doubt or fear. Is it not “the children” who feel the … Read more
“He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19 Sin subdued is the next greatest blessing to sin pardoned; and wherever God does pardon sin he subdues sin; for the same grace which saves sanctifies; the same grace which casts sin behind God’s back, … Read more
“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18 If we are led of the Spirit by walking in him; if he be our Guide and Teacher; if he be continually operating upon our heart, and bringing near the influences of his grace; if he be in us … Read more
“In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.” Proverbs 16:15 What is religion without a living faith in, and a living love to the Lord Jesus Christ? How dull and dragging, how dry and heavy, what a burden to the mind, and a … Read more
“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