Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadAnthology of 3,000+ Classic Sermons: JEWELS from JAMES vol 4
Subjects in this Topic:
JEWELS from JAMES
(Choice devotional selections from the works of John Angell James)
The sin of killing time
“Only fools idle away their time.” Pro_12:11
Idleness is a complicated vice. Yes, I say VICE!
First it is a most wasteful vice. It wastes time, which is more precious than rubies; it wastes a man's mental faculties; it wastes property.
Idleness is a disgraceful vice. How reproachful is it in a being made to be active, to spend life in doing nothing, and to throw away his mental powers in sloth.
Idleness is a criminal vice. God has commanded us to be active, and will call us to account for the sin of killing time.
Idleness is a dangerous vice. Doing nothing is next to doing evil—and is sure to lead to it. From its very inaction it ultimately becomes the active cause of all evil. “The Devil tempts all men; but the idle man tempts the Devil.”
Idleness is a wretched vice. An idle man is the most miserable of all God's creatures. Woe be to the man who is doomed to bear the pain and penalties of a slothful disposition.
“And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle.” 1Th_5:14
Fortified by true piety
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Eph_6:4
Parents! How momentous a duty is it to give sound Christian instruction to your children at the earliest period in which they can receive it; and endeavor, by the most judicious, affectionate, and persevering methods, to form their character by true religion!
Train them up in the fear of God—that they may leave home fortified by true piety, to encounter the temptations of the world, and to endure the trials of life.
Next to God Himself, a pious child is a parent's best companion amid the infirmities of old age, and in the chamber of sickness and death.
Self-seeking, men-pleasing ministers
“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Gal_1:10
A fearless disregard of...
smiles or frowns, character or consequences, opposition or approbation, pay or popularity, will always distinguish the true servant of Christ from self-seeking, men-pleasing ministers.
“For we speak as messengers who have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. Our purpose is to please God, not men. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts.” 1Th_2:4
By its own powerful and holy instinct
“I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart.”
Eze_36:26
The new nature, by its own powerful and holy instinct, will turn away your feet from every forbidden place, and every unhallowed scene. Panting after God, and thirsting for the living God, taking pleasure in His ways, you will shudder at the idea of being found in the haunts of vice, or in the society of the vicious. It will be unnecessary to forbid your going to the tavern, the theater, the house of ill fame, the gambling-table, or horse-race. Your own renewed and sanctified nature will be a law against these things.
The shrine of Mammon
“You lack only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” At this, the man's face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions. Mar_10:21 - Mar_10:22
You see what was the defect in this young man. He did not possess the faith which overcomes the world. He wished to unite two things utterly irreconcilable—the love of God and the love of the world. He wanted to serve two masters, God and Mammon. It was not open vice and profligacy that kept him from true religion here, and from heaven hereafter.
It was the more decent and reputable sin of supreme attachment to worldly things. He could give up many sins, but he could not give up his besetting sin—supreme regard to wealth. He could do many things, but he could not give up all to follow Christ. He could give up open vice, but he could not deny himself and take up his cross.
He had many good qualities, but he lacked one thing.
If open vice has slain its thousands, worldliness has slain its tens of thousands!
Of all the false gods, the shrine of Mammon is most resorted to—it is from that idolatrous temple, the broadest and most beaten path to the bottomless pit will be found.
In the crowd which press along that path, are included, not only the knaves, the cheats, and men of dishonorable character; but men who follow things which are just, and honest, and true, and reputable; who yet rise to no higher than to be the worshipers of this sordid deity. Yes, even Mammon can boast of devotees who scorn all that is vile, dishonorable and unjust.
In the broad road which leads to destruction, there is a path for the lovers of the world—as well as for the lovers of vice!
Other Baals!
“How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If Jehovah is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” 1Ki_18:21
There are other Baals in this age, in all the various forms under which they are objects of human idolatry.
It is true you are not called, invited or disposed, to bow the knee to idols of wood, stone, or metal.
These, however, are not the only way in which idolatry may be practiced. Everyone has a god, and if man does not love and worship Jehovah, he will make a deity of his own image. Survey, young men, the idols which you are called upon to worship!
Among them, sustaining a high place, is the idol of SENSUALITY. This goddess is decked out with all that can pollute the imagination, inflame the passions, or excite the evil propensities of a youthful heart. Before this image, multitudes of devotees of both sexes bow the knee and offer the most costly sacrifices of property, health, principle, and reputation!
Near her is the bewitching and smiling image of WORLDLY PLEASURE, with the sound of music, the song, and the dance—alluring the giddy and thoughtless to its orgies; and throwing the spell of its fascinations over the imagination of multitudes who go merrily to their ruin!
MAMMON, the despicable deity of wealth, is there, glittering with gold, and offering riches to his eager followers as the reward of their diligent and faithful adherence. His liturgy is the cry of “Money! Money!
Money!” His sacrifices are the time, the bodies, the comfort, and the souls of his worshipers!
Near this is the shrine of HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.
This idol is only evil, when raised above the place of faith, piety, and virtue. When thus exalted above Scripture, it is a deceiving, corrupting idol—the false goddess of a Pantheon of Vices.
Nor must we leave out the idols of FALSE RELIGION, the chief of which is Popery—the anti-Christ of the Apocalypse, “the Man of Sin sitting in the temple of God, exalting itself above all that is called God.” This idol, taking the name of Christ as its designation, assuming the cross as its symbol, and boasting of an apostle as its first pope; enriched by wealth; venerable for antiquity; dignified by learning; decorated by sculpture, architecture, and painting; and adding the abysmal policies, and most serpentine craft to all these other dangerous qualities, has fascinated countless millions! And, notwithstanding the monstrous absurdity of its doctrines, the blood-stained page of its history, and its hostility to the liberties of mankind—is now putting forth the most arrogant claims, and making the most audacious attempts for the conquest of our country!
These idolaters have chosen their god, and are the determined and devoted worshipers of their Baals!
They have hardened their hearts, and seared their consciences, except it be an occasional qualm in the season of death or sickness.
They congratulate themselves upon their having thrown off all the weaknesses and fears of Christianity, and upon their being now enabled to pursue their downward course unchecked by the restraint of conscience. Unhappy men, blind, and glorying in their blindness; benumbed in all their moral faculties, and exulting in their stupidity!
With every tie cut, which held them to piety and truth, they account it a privilege that they are drifting unobstructed to destruction—determined to be lost, and rejoicing that nothing bars their path to the bottomless pit!
“These men have set up idols in their hearts!” Eze_14:3
“Their hearts were devoted to their idols!” Eze_20:16
Saving faith
Saving faith expresses itself not only in worship, in religious zeal, in charity to the poor—but in a systematic and strong restraint upon the passions, imagination, temper, and appetites.
Saving faith will ensure you...
the protection of omnipotence; the guidance of omniscience; the companionship of omnipresence; the supplies of all-sufficiency.
Saving faith will fill your intellect with the thoughts of God's own mind, and your soul with the joy of God's own heart—and thus furnish you at once with the supreme truth, and the chief good.
Saving faith will mingle its own heavenly pleasures with the pure delights of earth.
Saving faith will preserve you equally from the snares of prosperity, and the withering blasts of adversity.
Saving faith will be...
your nurse in sickness, your companion in solitude, and your preserver amid the corruptions of society.
Saving faith will be your shield against temptations to sin, and the insidious attacks of infidelity and false philosophy.
Saving faith will be...
the guide of your youth, the protector of your matured life, and the prop of your old age.
Saving faith will prepare you for early death, or for living until old age. It will smooth the pillow of death, by giving you immortal hopes amid the dissolution of nature. It will rise with you from the grave in that day when death shall be swallowed up in victory, and will put you in possession of glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life!
These are the fools of whom Solomon speaks!
“Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed!” Pro_13:20
Young men! There are evil companions to be avoided!
The workhouse, the lunatic asylum, the prison, the gallows, the bottomless pit, all, all, attest the truth of this, by the millions they have swallowed up in their jaws of destruction!
Evil companionship has ruined...
more characters, more fortunes, more bodies, and more souls, than almost anything else that could be named.
Young men! Evil companionship is one of your first and most pressing dangers. Character assimilates to that which surrounds it. You must take your character, to a certain extent, from your companions.
Do not have bad companions! Men...
who scoff at Christianity, who ridicule the godly, who make light of sin and laugh at conscience, who are lewd in their actions, or obscene in their talk, who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, who are extravagant in their habits, who are loose in their moral principles, these are the fools of whom Solomon speaks, —who will bring their own destruction upon you, if you do not avoid them!
With much the same emphasis do I warn you against bad BOOKS. There are books that inflame the imagination and corrupt the taste—that by their excitement unfit the mind for the sober realities of life—or by continuous light entertainment, indispose the mind for what is serious and holy. These are all to be avoided.
In some respects bad books are more mischievous than bad companions, since they are more accessible, and more constantly with us. They can be more secretly consulted, and lodge their poison more abidingly in...
the imagination, the intellect, and the heart!
A bad book is a bad companion of the worst kind, and prepares for bad companions of all other kinds!
“Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed!” Pro_13:20
A most dangerous propensity!
“Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” 2Ti_3:4
A pleasure-loving youth will become a pleasure-loving man.
A love of pleasure, a taste for amusement, is a most dangerous propensity!
Novels
As to novels, I join with every other moral and religious writer in condemning, as the vilest trash, the greater part of these productions, which have carried a turbid stream of vice over the morals of mankind.
Novels...
corrupt the taste, pollute the heart, debase the mind, demoralize the conduct.
Novels throw prostrate the understanding; sensualize the affections; enervate the will; and bring all the high faculties of the soul into subjection to a wild imagination.
Novels generate a morbid, sickly sentimentalism, instead of a just and lovely realism.
A wise man should despise novels, and a godly man should abhor them!
The theater!
I do not hesitate for a moment to pronounce the theater to be one of the broadest avenues which lead to destruction!
Fascinating, no doubt it is—but on that account the more delusive and the more dangerous! Let a young man once acquire a taste for this species of entertainment, and yield himself up to its gratification, and he is in imminent danger of becoming a lost character—rushing upon his ruin!
All the evils that can...
waste his property, corrupt his morals, blast his reputation, impair his health, embitter his life, and destroy his soul, lurk in the confines of the theater! Vice, in every form, lives, and moves, and has its being there!
Myriads have cursed the hour when they first exposed themselves to the contamination of the theater. >From that fatal evening, they date their destruction!
Take warning then, and have nothing to do with the theater. Avoid it as one of the avenues to the broad road that leads to destruction. The danger is greater than I describe. The doors of the theater are as the jaws of the devouring lion!
“Do not follow the crowd in doing evil.” Exo_23:2
Our life is a bubble!
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes!” Jam_4:14
Our world is a valley of tears. Our life is a bubble, raised from those tears, inflated by sighs; which, after floating a little while, decked with a few gaudy colors —is touched by the hand of death, and dissolves!
Poverty, disease, misfortune, unkindness, instability, death, all assail the travelers as they journey onward to eternity through this gloomy valley.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2Co_4:18
When the honey is all sucked!
Love of worldly pleasure is a great impediment to true piety. It has been most wickedly said, “Youth is the time for pleasure, manhood is the time for business, old age is the time for religion.”
It is painful to observe, that if the two latter parts of human life are neglected, the first is not.
Young people too often answer the description given by the apostle, “Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.”
In youth, there are many temptations to this wicked propensity...
the senses are vigorous, the spirits lively, the imagination ardent, the passions warm, and the concerns of life but few and feeble.
Hence many give themselves up to the impulses of their corrupt nature, and are held in alienation from a life of piety—by a love of pleasure. Some are carried away by a vain and frivolous love of dress and show; others by a delight in mirth and parties; others by games, balls, and theatrical performances; others by the sports of the field; others by intemperance and debauchery.
It is admitted that all these gratifications are not equally degrading in themselves—nor equally destructive of reputation and health. But if indulged in as the chief good, they may all prevent the mind from attending to the concerns of true religion.
A predominant love of worldly pleasure, of any kind—is destructive in every point of view. It often leads on from gratifications which, in the opinion of the world, are decent and moral—to those which are wicked and immoral. It is incompatible with the duties and comforts of domestic life.
It hinders the improvement of the understanding, and keeps the mind barren and empty. It prevents from becoming the benefactors of society. But its greatest mischief is, that it totally indisposes the mind for true religion, and thus extends its mischief to eternity! In short, if a predominant love of worldly pleasure is cherished and persisted in, it ruins and damns the soul forever!
My children, beware of this most dangerous propensity for worldly pleasure! Consider where it leads—resist it to the uttermost—and ask grace from God to acquire a better taste.
Yes, if you live for worldly pleasure, and neglect true religion, you are giving up an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory—for light and frivolous gratifications, which are but for a moment! You are, for the sake of a few years' empty mirth, entailing everlasting ages of unmitigated torments!
Besides, though worldly pleasure may temporarily gratify —it does not really satisfy! When the honey is all sucked —it leaves a sting behind!
And what are the pleasures of the world, compared with those of true piety?
But the shadow to the substance; the stagnant pool to the fresh and running fountain; the smoking candle to the midday sun!
Shall worldly pleasure cheat you of eternal salvation?
He certainly acts as an atheist!
Fathers! Your children are immortal beings! The stamp of eternity is upon them! Everlasting ages are before them!
They are like the rest of the human race—depraved, guilty, and condemned creatures; and consequently in danger of eternal misery! Yet they are, through the mercy of God, creatures capable of attaining to glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life. Looking upon them in this light, what should be your chief concern for them—and what should be your conduct towards them?
Fathers! Your children are hastening to either eternal happiness—or eternal torment!
The man who does not make the eternal welfare of his children, the supreme end of all his conduct towards them, may profess to believe as a Christian —but he certainly acts as an Atheist!
Once more let it be stated, and stated with all possible emphasis—that the chief design of this work is to form the pious character of its readers, and to implant those virtues which shall live, and flourish, and dignify, and delight—infinite ages after every object that is dear...
to avarice or pride, to learning or science, to taste or ambition, shall have perished in the conflagration of the universe!
It is in the highest degree inconsistent, absurd, cruel, and wicked—for a Christian parent not to be supremely desirous of the everlasting welfare of his children! Let a supreme concern for their immortal interests be at the bottom of all your conduct, and be interwoven with all your parental habits!
Taste & distaste
True religion changes the moral nature, producing...
a dislike and dread of sin, and a love of holiness and virtue.
Piety is a spiritual taste; and, like every other taste, it is accompanied with a distaste for the opposites of those things or qualities which are the subjects of its delight. Sin is that bitter thing which the soul of a true Christian hates. It is the object of his antipathy—and therefore of his dread. He turns from it with aversion and loathing, as that which is offensive and disgusting. It is not merely that he is commanded by authority to abstain from sin—but he is led away from it by the expulsive power of a new attraction. He may have sinful propensities of his carnal nature—but he resists the indulgence of them, for it is sin against God.
When you have once tasted the sweetness of true religion—how insipid, how nauseous, will be those draughts of 'wicked pleasure' with which the sinner intoxicates and poisons his soul!
When you have acquired a relish for the pure, calm, satisfying joys of faith and holiness—how entirely will you disrelish the polluting, boisterous, and unsatisfying pleasures of sin!
When you have once drunk of the waters of the river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb—how loathsome will be the filthy turbid streams of licentious gratification!
The pursuits of butterflies and grasshoppers, and canary birds!
Pleasure is the supreme good, and chief object of pursuit of many. To pleasure, they have devoted their lives. Some are living for sports, others for the gratification of the appetites, and others for the enjoyment of the round of fashionable amusements. Pleasure, in one form or other, is the chief object of pursuit with myriads.
As to the gratification of our animal appetites, it should not be difficult to persuade us, that to sink to the level of the brute creation, and hold communion with swine, and goats and rats, cannot be the chief end of a rational being.
To many, fashionable amusements seem to be the purpose of life. Multitudes live for pleasures of this kind. Ball succeeds to concert; the private party to the public assembly; the card party to the dinner party. In this busy round of fashionable follies, many pass their lives away!
Can it be, that the chief object of existence is to sing, and play, and dress and dance? Do not these things, when we reflect upon them, look more like the pursuits of butterflies and grasshoppers, and canary birds—than of rational creatures? Is it not melancholy to see beings with never-dying souls, sinking to the amusements of children; and employing time as if it were given them for nothing but mirth; and using the world as if it were created by God only to be a sort of playground for its inhabitants?
Does this kind of life really satisfy those who pursue it?
Far, very far, from it! Can any person, in reality, be farther from happiness than those who live for pleasure?
“O Lord, save me from the men of this world—who have their portion in this life!” Psa_17:14
A bubble that rises, and shines, and bursts!
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph_5:15 - Eph_5:16
Paul implies that a man can give no greater proof of folly, nor more effectually act the part of a fool, than to waste his time. While on the other hand, a just appreciation and right improvement of time are among the brightest displays of true wisdom.
We must value time correctly, and improve it diligently.
Time is the most precious thing in the world. God distributes time miserly—by the moment—and He never promises us another moment! We are to highly value, and diligently to improve the present moment, by the consideration that for anything we know, it may be our last.
Time, when once gone, never returns. Where is yesterday? A moment once lost, is lost forever!
We should never forget that our time is among the talents for which we must give account at the judgment of God.
We must be tried not only for what we have done—but for what we neglected to do. Not only for the hours spent in sin—but for those wasted in idleness. Let us beware of wasting time.
It might stir us up to diligence in the improvement of our time, to think how much of it has been already misspent.
What days, and weeks, and months, and years, have already been utterly wasted, or exhausted upon trifles totally unworthy of them. They are gone, and nothing remains of them but the guilt of having wasted them.
We cannot call them back if we would. Let us learn to value more highly, and to use more kindly, those days which remain.
How much of our time is already gone—and how little may be yet to come? The sands of our hour-glass may be almost out! Death may be at the door!
When you begin a day, you don't know that you shall end it!
When you lie down, you don't know that you shall rise up!
When you leave your house, you don't know that you shall ever return!
For what is your life? It is even as a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes! Life is a bubble that rises, and shines, and bursts! We know not in any one period of our existence—but that it may be the last. Surely, surely, we should then improve our time, when we may be holding, for anything we know, the last portion of it in our hands!
You are immortal creatures, and must live forever in torment or in bliss! And certainly you cannot be forming a right estimate of the value of time, nor be rightly employing it, if the soul be forgotten, salvation neglected, and eternity left out of consideration!
Our great concern!
“There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 1Co_13:13
Real Christianity consists of these three apostolic graces.
All else is but her earthly attire, which may vary in fashion and color, without affecting her substance and life, or destroying her symmetry. Had this been understood, believed, remembered, and practiced from the beginning...
what monstrous systems of error; what iron yokes of spiritual tyranny; what bloody persecutions; what ecclesiastic arrogance and presumption; what disfigurements of the simple and spiritual religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, by pagan rites and external ceremonies; what foul blots upon the fair form of Christianity—would the world have been spared!
Amid the controversies and decrees of church councils, how has the still small voice of the apostle been stifled, which says, “There are three things that will endure—
faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
How forward have men been to admire this sacred trio, but how slow to imitate them!
Poets have sung their charms!
Painters have delineated their beauty!
Music has chanted their praises!
Eloquence has emblazoned their worth!
What remains but for preachers to make them the prevailing themes of their ministry—and for professing Christians to exhibit them in the practice of their lives!
When this shall everywhere be done, and they shall universally come in place of a heartless orthodoxy and an external ritualism—then the world will see Christianity as she is, and will covet to be like her. But, until then, multitudes will look upon Christianity with suspicion, and not a few turn from her with disgust!
Our great concern should be to promote a healthful, spiritual, robust, and godly piety in our churches; for which no external improvements in our architecture, our music, or our services, can be a substitute!
What we should seek to maintain in our churches, is the more powerful dominion of faith, hope, and love, compared with which, many of those matters which are now rife among us, are but of very small importance.
Faith, hope, and love are the great themes of the Christian ministry, are something more than matters of theory—something more than mere theses for the theologian to discuss before an audience. They are matters of eternal life or death—and should be preached as if the preachers believed them to be so.
The great idol!
“People will be lovers of themselves.” 2Ti_3:2
Selfishness is the cause of all sin—the opposite of all holiness and virtue.
The essence of man's sin, the sum of his moral depravity, is to love himself supremely; to seek himself finally and exclusively; to make self, in one shape or another, the center to which all his busy thoughts, anxious cares and diligent pursuits, constantly tend.
Self-love is the most active and reigning principle in fallen nature! SELF is the great idol which mankind are naturally disposed to worship; and selfishness the grand interest to which they are devotedly attached!
Selfishness is contrary to the habitual temper of our Lord Jesus Christ. “For even Christ did not please Himself.”
The perfection of all virtue lies in unselfish love. The nearer we approach to this state of mind, the nearer we come to sinless moral excellence. “Love is not self-seeking.”
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Php_2:3
The loathsome moral leprosy!
“Love does not boast—it is not proud.” 1Co_13:4
Pride has a high and overweening conceit of its own possessions and acquirements, and ostentatiously boasts of what it is, has done, can do, or intends to do.
Pride signifies such an exalted idea of ourselves, as leads to self-esteem—and to contempt of others.
Pride is self-admiration—self-doating.
Pride is the sin which laid the moral universe in ruins.
Pride is the original sin, the inherent corruption of our nature. Pride spreads over humanity with contagious violence. Pride is the loathsome moral leprosy, raging alike through the palace and the cottage, and infecting equally the prince and the peasant.
Love is no less opposed to VANITY than it is to pride!
Pride differs from vanity thus—
pride causes us to value ourselves; vanity makes us anxious for applause.
Pride renders a man odious; vanity makes him ridiculous.
Love does not boast of, or ostentatiously display, its possessions, abilities, or good deeds.
“Love does not boast—it is not proud.” 1Co_13:4
Although they should spend every penny!
“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing!” 1Co_13:3
This representation of the indispensable necessity of Christian love, is most striking. It supposes it possible that a man may distribute all his substance in acts of apparent beneficence—and yet after all be without true religion!
Actions derive their moral character from the motives under the influence of which they are performed.
Therefore, many actions which are beneficial to man, may still be sinful in the sight of God, because they are not done from a right motives!
The most diffusive generosity—if prompted by pride, vanity or self-righteousness—is of no value in the eyes of the omniscient Jehovah! On the contrary, it is very sinful!
It is too evident to be questioned, that many of the charities of which we are the witnesses, are done from any motives but the right ones. We readily see that multitudes are lavish in their monetary contributions, who are at the same time totally destitute of love to God. They are, as it respects real religion, less than nothing, although they should spend every penny of their property in relieving the needs of the poor!
If our munificence, however great or self-denying, be the operation of mere selfish regard to ourselves, to our own reputation, or to our own safety—and not of pure love—it may do good to others, but will do none to ourselves!
“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing!” 1Co_13:3
Seraph or demon?
Many conclude that they are true Christians, because of the intensity of their religious feelings. Possessed of much excitability and warmth of temperament, they are, of course, susceptible of deep and powerful impressions from true religion. They are not without joy—and they are not without their religious sorrows.
Their tears are plentiful—and their smiles in proportion.
See them in the house of God, and none appear to feel more under the preaching of the Word than they do. The sermon exerts an influential power over their affections, and the preacher seems to have their hearts at command.
They talk loudly of “happy frames and precious seasons”.
But follow them from the house of God to their own homes—and, O, how changed the scene! The least offense, perhaps an unintentional one—raises a storm of angry passion, and the man who looked like a seraph in the sanctuary—seems more like a demon at home!
Follow them from the Sabbath into the other days of the week, and you will see the man who appeared all for heaven on the Sunday—all for earth on the Monday!
Follow them from the assembly of the saints to the places of business—and you will see the man who looked so devout; now...
irritated and quarrelsome, selfish and unfair, crude and insulting, envious and malicious!
Yes! And perhaps in the evening of the same day, you will see him at a prayer meeting, enjoying, as he supposes, the holy season!
Such is the delusion under which many are living!
Their religion is, in great part, is a mere selfish religious voluptuousness!
The necessary fruits of our doctrines
Let us remember that HUMILITY and LOVE are the necessary fruits of our doctrines, and the highest beauty of our character!
True Christian love must be...
blended with all our habits, diffused through all our conduct, forming our character, breathing in our desires, speaking in our words, beaming in our eyes.
This is true religion—practical religion.
“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains—but have not love, I am nothing!” 1Co_13:2
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1Jn_4:8
I can conceive of no higher heaven
In the sublime visions of the Apocalypse, where heaven is opened to our view, it is Christ who is represented as the glory of that place...
lighting up all countenances with joy, filling all hearts with gladness, and making all tongues vocal with praise.
Jesus is the sun of that blessed world—the orb of that nightless, cloudless, and eternal day!
“I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!” This was the heaven Paul longed for. That one idea of 'being with Christ' filled his soul. To be absent from the body, and present with the Lord—was the prevailing wish of his truly Christian heart.
Jesus is the object of the Christian's supreme regard. Are there not moments when he has...
such views of Christ's glory, such conceptions of His amazing mercy, such a sense of His love, such feelings of gratitude and affection, that he is ready to say, “If I feel all this now, when I only believe, what must be the felicity...
of beholding His full-orbed glory, of gazing upon His face, and hearing His loving voice!
I can conceive of no higher heaven, no more perfect paradise, than to be in the presence of Him who died for me upon the cross!”
There is something wonderfully impressive and delightful, in thus resolving the bliss of heaven into a one state of mind, consisting of an adoring and grateful love, for a being to whom we are indebted for redemption from an infinitude and eternity of torment, and to an infinitude and eternity of bliss; and who adds to all these claims upon our gratitude, additional claims upon our homage and admiration—for His own infinity and eternal glories!
Elegance, entertainment, and luxurious gratification
“For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.
These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.” 1Jn_2:16
The 'spirit of the world' has come into the church!
Elegance, entertainment, and luxurious gratification are occupying far more than they ought to do, the minds of professing Christians!
“Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.” 2Co_6:17
A decent, flowery, down-hill way to eternal destruction!
Christ is...
the supreme object of a true Christian's love, the chief source of his felicity, the highest end of his life.
The first object of a Christian's desire, pursuit and expectation—is the salvation of his soul.
Our great business on earth—is to fit for heaven.
Our main concern in time—is to prepare for eternity.
The world is, indeed, a very dangerous foe to the believer. To very, very many, it is the most destructive one. They are not so likely to be subdued by 'open vice'
as by worldly-mindedness.
Worldliness is the sin of the age, and has deeply infected the church of Christ.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1Jn_2:15
This verse ought to ring through all Christendom, and make the ears of millions tingle—and their hearts to palpitate with fear and alarm!
What is the world?
Not merely open sin and vice, profligacy, idolatry, infidelity or heresy. Oh no! The world contains many things besides the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life—things...
more decent, more innocent, more rational, more commendable, than these vile objects!
Everything on earth, however fair, laudable and excellent in itself—everything besides God, is the world.
Your business is the world, your family is the world, your comfortable home is the world, the wife of your bosom is the world, the children whom God has given you are the world.
“What! then,” you exclaim, “are we not to love these?”
Yes, in proper degrees—but not more than God. You are not to seek your highest happiness from them. You are not to be more solicitous to secure them, than heaven.
It is of a 'supreme love' which the apostle speaks.
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Mat_10:37
Christian professors, there is need to have these solemn, yet righteous demands, sent with a voice of thunder into your places of business and scenes of domestic comfort.
You have need to be told that...
all this engrossing solicitude about business; all this eager haste to be rich; all this ambition for larger houses; all this taste for elegance, show and fashion; all this competition for name and fame, which leads to a neglect of salvation, to departure from God, to indifference to heaven—is the love of the world, which is incompatible with the love of the Father!
And not less so...
that supreme concern about domestic enjoyment, that taste for fashionable amusements, or even that more refined and simple love of home-bred delights, which leaves out God, salvation, heaven and eternity!
Here, here, I repeat, is your peril.
Here the enemy with which you have to do battle!
It is not vice.
It is not profligacy.
It is worldly-mindedness!
Do we not see mere professors throwing themselves wholly—body, soul, and spirit...
into their trade, into the cherished objects of their ambition, into their entire devotedness to a worldly life.
In these things, and for them, they live!
These things...
bind round and overgrow their heart, stifle all serious thoughts, smother all heavenly desires.
The road that leads to destruction is broad enough to comprise many parallel paths. And there is one path crowded with professors of religion, walking in company, with cheerful appearance, and elegant attire, and elastic step—but still walking to perdition! Oh, yes, there is a way 'through the church'—a decent, flowery, down-hill way to eternal destruction, and there are many who take that road!
The sweetest ingredients in the cup of life
The purest happiness of an earthly nature, is that which springs up in a comfortable home, where there is a loving union of hearts between man and wife.
The tender sympathies, the delicate affections, the minute attentions, the watchful solicitudes, the ceaseless kindnesses of marital love, —are the sweetest ingredients in the cup of life, and contribute a thousand times more to earthly enjoyment, than all the possessions of wealth, and all the blandishments of rank, station, and fashion.
You are the one who has done this!
“They all know that the the hand of the Lord has done this. In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job_12:9 - Job_12:10
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Such is the admonition which comes to you—and which comes from heaven. It is God Himself who has bereaved you—through whatever second causes He has inflicted the blow. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge—much less a rational and immortal creature. He has the keys of death, and never for a moment entrusts them out of His hand—the door of the sepulcher is never unlocked, but by Himself!
Though men may drop and die as unheeded by many, as the fall of the autumnal leaf in the pathless desert—they die not by chance! Every incident which has reduced you to your present sorrowful condition, is an individual decision of infinite wisdom.
Whether therefore, the death of your husband was slow or sudden; at home or abroad; by accident or disease—it was appointed, and all its circumstances arranged, by God. Be still, therefore, and know that He is God, who does His will among the armies of heaven, and the inhabitants of earth, and allows no one to question His proceedings.
Bow down before Him with unqualified submission—and find relief in acquiescence to His wise and sovereign will.
Submission forbids all passionate invective; all rebellious language; all bitter reflections on second causes; and all questionings about the wisdom, goodness, or equity of the God of Providence. You should not only suppress all murmuring and complaining language—but all thoughts and feelings of this kind. Submission is that state of the soul under afflictive dispensations of Providence, which produces an acquiescence in the will of God—as just, and wise, and good. It expresses itself in some such manner as the following. “I deeply feel the heavy loss I have sustained, and my nature mourns and weeps. But as I am persuaded it is the Lord's doing, who has a right to do as He pleases, and who is at the same time too wise to mistake, and too benevolent to put me to unnecessary pain—I endeavor to bow down to His holy will.”
Did we really believe in the doctrine of Providence, and that He who superintends its administration, unites to an arm of omnipotence—a mind of infinite knowledge, and a heart of boundless love—submission would be easy!
Christian mourner, consider God as the author of all your trials—as well as of all your comforts! View Him as your Father! Be assured that He loves you too well to do you any harm! Be confident that He is making all things work together for your good!
“I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for You are the one who has done this!” Psa_39:9
Continually churning up mire and dirt!
“The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waves are continually churning up mire and dirt.” Isa_57:20
Until the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, is regenerated and brought to love God supremely, there can be no true happiness or peace. As long as the heart is under the dominion of selfishness, and all those lusts and passions to which it gives rise, it must be miserable!
In the absence of Christian love, the human bosom must be the seat of uneasiness and distress.
Happiness does not arise from possessions, so much as from dispositions. Happiness is not what a man has, or where he dwells—but what he IS. The great source and springs of felicity, are rooted in our nature. There are certain dispositions, the absence of which would render heaven a place of torment to us; and others, which would raise for us an Eden in the midst of the dreariest wilderness on earth.
It is true that many, in the absence of Christian love, pretend to some kind of enjoyment, and have it too; for there are 'pleasures of sin', such as they are. But as to solid happiness—that which befits and satisfies a rational, moral, and immortal creature—it may with the greatest truth be affirmed, that the wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot rest—but is continually churning up mire and dirt!
As well may we expect quietude and comfort in a den of wild beasts, or in a field of battle—as in a heart where the vile passions of anger, wrath, malice, envy, pride, and revenge—have taken up their abode and predominate. How demon-like is the feeling when these turbulent evil passions gain the ascendancy!
What agitation and what torment are the result!
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Gal_5:19 - Gal_5:21
The pastor
“We were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.” 1Th_2:7
Oh! what churches we would have, if Christian love had its full scope!
The pastor would labor with the most earnest, indefatigable, and unselfish zeal for the eternal welfare of the flock; and make it evident that compassion for souls, and not filthy lucre—was the impulse of all his conduct. Affection would beam in his eyes, and breathe in his spirit, while “the law of kindness” would dwell on his lips.
He would preside over the people in the meekness of wisdom; and, instead of proudly lording it over God's heritage, he would rule them in love.
Over all his talents, however brilliant, he would put the 'garment of humility'. And, with respect to all his success, however great, he would speak in the language of modesty. He would neither envy his more gifted or successful brethren, nor proudly vaunt over his inferiors.
To all under his pastoral care, even the most illiterate and poor, he would conduct himself with the humility and love of true benevolence. He would labor to correct their errors, whether doctrinal or practical; and have no greater joy than to see them walking in the truth!
“Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”
1Ti_4:12
The meek and gentle and passive virtues
The meek and gentle and passive virtues of the gospel, are generally looked upon with disesteem, and treated with contempt by the world. Is...
poverty of spirit, humility, self-abasement, the forgiveness of insults, patience under provocation, —admired, applauded, imitated? Quite the contrary!
The men who would practice these Christian graces, must make up their minds to endure the world's scorn, and to be treated as poor weak-spirited creatures.
And yet this is the spirit of true piety—for this is the disposition of Jesus!
When Jesus Christ came into the world, He found it full of the notion that human glory consisted in ambition, pride, and revenge. Hence He took particular pains to correct this notion, giving, in His sermon on the mount, a delineation the very opposite of this. Indeed, the design of that sermon was to rectify the mistakes then universally prevalent on the subject of true piety and of happiness; and to teach the world that His disciples were to be pre-eminently distinguished by...
humility, penitence, meekness, purity, peaceableness, forgiveness, thirsting after righteousness.
These are the qualities of a true Christian, and everyone who bears the character, must sedulously cultivate its appropriate dispositions, and be willing to bear the ridicule to which they will expose him. Bearing their scorn, he will wait with patience for that world where humility and meekness will be honored and rewarded—and love, their parent disposition, be crowned with glory!
The flaming scimitar of the Sultan
MOHAMMEDANISM
This system of imposture, abounding as it does with minute and ridiculous ceremonies, and a slavish regard to absurd ritual observances; enforces, by the authority of its founder, the most ferocious and blood-thirsty hatred to all who do not receive it with implicit faith.
Wars against all other religions are not only enjoined in many passages of the Koran—but are declared to be in a high degree 'meritorious' in the sight of Allah.
How completely Islamism has filled its votaries with the most ferocious bigotry and the most merciless intolerance, is known by universal testimony. They everywhere pour insulting contempt upon all who are not Muslims, and feel a savage delight in adding cruelty to insult.
The spirit of the system is everywhere visible in the absolute despotism of the governments of those countries in which it prevails. Where Islam is found, the arts and the sciences do not flourish, and liberty withers in its shade. The flaming scimitar of the Sultan is its patron and defense. It was propagated by the sword, and it is essentially and unalterably cruel.
Such is Islamism—a curse to the world, and the reverse of all that is holy and beneficent.
A very common supposition
It is a very common supposition that it is an easy thing to be a Christian. And if to be a Christian were nothing more than...
going to a place of worship, indulging in pious emotions, subscribing to religious institutions, and professing certain religious opinions, —the supposition would be correct—for nothing is more easy than all this!
But if the spirit of true piety is...
poverty of spirit, humility, self-abasement, forgiveness of insults, patience under provocation, penitence, meekness, purity, peaceableness, thirsting after righteousness, —then must it be obvious to everyone who knows his own heart, that to be a true Christian is the most difficult thing in the world!
One gracious purpose of mercy!
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose for them.” Rom_8:28
Providence is God's government of the universe.
Providence is that mighty scheme...
which commenced before time was born; which embraces the annals of other worlds besides ours; which includes the history of angels, men, and devils.
Providence comprises the whole range of events which have taken place from the formation of the first creature, to the last moment of time—with all the tendencies, reasons, connections, and results of things.
Providence encompasses the separate existence of each individual, with the continuation and influence of the whole, in one harmonious scheme.
We are puzzled at almost every step, at the deep, unfathomable mysteries of Providence!
How often is Jehovah, in His dealings with us, a God who hides Himself! How often does He wrap Himself in clouds, and pursue His path upon the waters, where we can neither see His goings, nor trace His footsteps!
How many of His dispensations are inexplicable, and of His judgments how many are unfathomable by the short line of our reason!
But whatever we don't know now, we shall know hereafter.
The crooked will be made straight, the clouds of darkness will be scattered, and all His conduct towards us placed in the broad day-light of eternity.
We shall see how all the varying, and numerous, and seemingly opposite events of our history, were combined into one gracious purpose of mercy, which was most perfectly wise in all its combinations.
Delightful, most delightful, will it be to retrace our winding and often gloomy course, and discern at each change and turning, the reason of the occurrence and the wisdom of God.
Delightful will it be to discern the influence which all our temporal circumstances—all our disappointments, losses, and perplexities—had upon our permanent and celestial happiness. How much of divine wisdom, power, goodness, and faithfulness, will our short and simple history present, and what rapturous fervor will the discovery give to the song of praise which we shall utter before the throne of God and the Lamb!
The whole Bible, condensed into a single term!
I heard the sound of a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation is from our God!” Rev_19:1
Salvation! What a word! And what a blessing!
One word—but containing millions of ideas!
It is the whole Bible, condensed into a single term!
God's eternal councils; Christ's redeeming work; the Spirit's sanctifying power; all the riches of divine grace; all the blessings of eternal glory, are in substance comprehended in those few syllables!
That one word is a boundless, fathomless ocean of blessedness—it passes knowledge!
All that preachers have ever said; all that authors have ever written; all that Christians have ever felt, imagined, hoped for, leave its full meaning yet to be explained.
It can be comprehended only in heaven!
It can be developed only in eternity!
I heard the sound of a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation is from our God!” Rev_19:1
Satan's Vicar
The three great works of the devil are...
Idolatry, Mohammedanism, and Popery.
The Mohammedan power, symbolized in the book of the Apocalypse by the “false Prophet,” is, with the Papal Beast, to be cast into the lake which burns with brimstone and fire.
We are aware of the dreadful nature of Popery. We regard Popery as the masterpiece of Satanic deceit and malice —his richest trophy, and his proudest triumph. The Pope is more Satan's Vicar, than that of Christ, upon earth. And the Vatican his chosen seat of dominion among men.
Idolatry was a prominent Satanic invention. Mohammedanism was a mighty stretch of diabolical craft. But Popery transcends both! The other two were devices outside the pale of Christianity —Popery is within it. They opposed Christianity—Popery corrupts it.
They try to destroy it—Popery goes far to make it destroy itself!
The rotten plank!
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!' Mat_7:21 - Mat_7:23.
These dreadful words should sound through the whole church with the solemnity and impressiveness of an alarm bell. What a salutary fear and trembling they should awaken! To what a close and anxious examination they should lead!
Mistaken professors are going by myriads to the bottomless pit! Myriads and myriads are walking to eternity over the rotten plank of a 'formal and insincere profession', which will break beneath their feet and let them fall into the burning gulf below!
I will never cease to sound the note of warning to these deluded professors. For not only is it a dreadful thing to go down to the pit with a lying profession, but a possible thing! Not only is it a possible case, but a common one! “MANY will say to Me on that day!”
Distress in heaven?
Will it cause distress in heaven, to know that our unsaved beloved friends and relatives are forever lost?
The only way of solving this difficulty, is to realize that a perfect knowledge of God, and of the wisdom and justice of all His designs and operations, will constitute a chief part of the happiness of heaven. We shall be...
so convinced of the equity of His dealings towards the wicked, so divested of all the weakness of 'human sentimentalism', so absorbed in the love of what is right and just, that the absence of our loved ones from the world of glory, will cause no interruption of our heavenly bliss!
This, I acknowledge, is now hard to conceive. The day shall reveal it. “Now we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” 1Co_13:9 - 1Co_13:10