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JEWELS from JAMES
(Choice devotional selections from the works of John Angell James)
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!
All the misery
Sin is, in itself, an evil of enormous magnitude.
As committed against a Being whom we are under infinite obligation to love, and serve, and glorify, it must partake of infinite degrees of demerit.
Sin introduces the reign of confusion and misery.
All the misery which either is or ever will be on earth, or in hell—is the result of sin.
Sin is the greatest evil—the only evil in the universe.
Sin is the opposite, and the enemy to God. Sin is the contrast of all that is pure and glorious in His divine attributes and ineffably beautiful perfections; and as such it is that which he cannot but hate with a perfect hatred.
Sin is the contrary of holiness, and thus the enemy of happiness.
The secret of happiness
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in need.” Php_4:11 - Php_4:12
We should labor to be content with such things as we have. Contentment is the secret of happiness, whether we have much or little. The man who makes up his mind to enjoy what he has, is quite as happy as he who is possessed of twice as much.
Our evil temper
If we are as angry and revengeful, as proud and envious, as selfish and unkind—as we were before our supposed conversion—we may be assured that it is but a supposed conversion.
It does not matter that we go regularly to worship. It does not matter that we strongly feel under sermons.
It does not matter that we have happy frames and feelings—for a heart under the predominant influence of petulant passions can no more have undergone the change of the new birth, than one that is filled with a prevailing lecherousness.
And where the heart is renewed, and the badness of the temper is not constant, but only occasional—is not prevailing, but only prominent—it is, in so far as it prevails, a sad blot on real piety.
We must bring our mind under the influence of redeeming grace—we must ascend the hill of Calvary, and gaze upon that scene of love, until our cold hearts melt, our hard hearts soften, and all the cruel selfishness of our nature relaxes into gentleness. The example of the meek and lowly Jesus must be contemplated, admired, and copied.
And especially after all, must we breathe forth internal longings for the influence of the Holy Spirit, who alone can subdue our evil temper.
A cold, heartless and uninfluential 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
Many conclude that they are true Christians, because of the clearness of their views, and their attainments in biblical knowledge. They have a singular zeal for the truth, and are great sticklers for the doctrines of grace.
They look upon all, besides a few of their own class, as mere babes in knowledge. They themselves are the eagles who soar to the sun, and bask in its beams!
While the rest of mankind are the moles that burrow, and the bats that flutter in the dark!
Doctrine is everything to them! Clear views of the gospel are their great desire. Puffed up with pride, selfish, unkind, irritable, censorious, malicious—they manifest a total lack of that humility and kindness which are the prominent features of true Christianity.
Let it be known, however, that clear views of Scripture are of themselves no evidence of true religion. A professor of religion be an enemy to God in his soul—with an evangelical creed upon his tongue!
Their religion begins and ends in...
adopting a form of sound words for their creed, approving an evangelical ministry, admiring the popular champions of the truth, and joining in the criticism of error.
As to any spirituality of mind; any heavenliness of affection; any Christian love; any vital, elevating influence of those very doctrines to which they profess to be attached—they are as destitute as the greatest worldling! And like him, they are perhaps as selfish, revengeful, implacable, and unkind!
This is the religion but too common in our churches—a cold, heartless and uninfluential religion—a sort of lunar light, which reflects the beams of the sun, but not its warmth!
“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
The most crowded avenue to the bottomless pit!
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! Depart from Me, you evildoers!” Mat_7:22 - Mat_7:23
Delusion on the nature of true piety prevails to a truly appalling extent! Millions are in error as to the real condition of their souls, and think that they are journeying to celestial bliss; when in reality they are traveling to perdition!
Oh fearful mistake!
Oh fatal delusion!
What terrible disappointment awaits them!
What horror, and anguish, and despair, will take eternal possession of their souls, in that moment of truth, when instead of awaking from the sleep of death amid the glories of the heavenly city—they shall lift up their eyes, “being in torment!”
No pen can describe the overwhelming anguish of such a disappointment! The imagination shrinks with amazement and horror, from the contemplation of her own faint sketch of the unendurable scene!
Millions of souls are irrecoverably lost by self-deception!
Delusion is the most crowded avenue to the bottomless pit!
Self-delusion is the 'common infatuation', the 'epidemic blindness', which has fallen upon multitudes!
We are to pity them
The most perfect benevolence to men, is that which, instead of looking with complacency on their errors, warns them of their danger, and admonishes them to escape. It is no matter that they think they are right—this only makes their case the more alarming; and to act towards them as if we thought their mistaken views of no consequence, is only to confirm their delusion, and to aid their destruction!
It is true we are neither to despise them nor persecute them—we are neither to oppress nor ridicule them—we are neither to look upon them with haughty scorn, nor with callous indifference. But while we set ourselves against their errors, we are to pity them with sincere compassion, and to labor for their conversion with unselfish kindness. We are to bear with unruffled meekness all their provoking sarcasms; and to sustain, with deep humility, the consciousness of our clearer perceptions; and to convince them, that with the steadiest resistance of their principles, we unite the tenderest concern for their welfare.
Why is the life of the church so feeble?
Why are spirituality of mind, and heavenliness of affection so low? Why have we such a race of worldly-minded professors? Why?
The private reading and study of the Scriptures are sadly neglected! Men are strangers to their Bibles!
The Bible was never more widely circulated—but at the same time, never less devoutly read. Where are the men and the women to whom the Bible is a book of daily study and delight in the closet—to whom its words are “sweeter than honey or the honeycomb, and more desired than their necessary food?” The magazine, the review, and the newspaper, and the last new novel or tale, have so far pushed out the Bible!
Floating to perdition on the stream of delusion!
“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.
This is really one of the most alarming passages of Holy Writ, as showing how far people may go in self-deception, and how perseveringly they may continue in it—even to death, and through it, up to the very judgment seat of Christ!
I am truly alarmed and terrified at the thought of this state of things, when multitudes are going down to the pit with a lie in their right hand—floating to perdition on the stream of delusion!
There are many paths to perdition in the broad way, some of which are more cleanly and some more foul, yet they all lead to the same end. And they shall as certainly arrive at hell, who tread the cleanlier paths of a “refined hypocrisy”, as those who track through the mire and dirt of the grossest abominations.
Under the most searching ministry, and the most alarming sermons—a fatal delusion sends multitudes to perdition!
How dreadful will be the disappointment and remorse of the hypocrite, when death, which closes his eyes to all the scenes of earth, shall open them to those of the bottomless pit!
What horror, and surprise, and overwhelming disappointment seize him who, when he expects to arise from the bed of death, to the felicities of heaven—sinks from it to the miseries of hell!
Oh, the indescribable, overwhelming astonishment, consternation, and horror of the hypocrite, who wakes up amid the scenes of the bottomless pit! It is not for language to set forth nor imagination to conceive the torment that will in a moment come over the miserable soul, whose first words in eternity will be, “I am lost, lost, lost, forever! I am in hell.” The wretched spirit will look through the vista of millions of ages, and see no glimmering spark of this to relieve its present sense of unutterable woe!
“The hope of the hypocrite shall perish!” Job_8:13
Because He first loved us
“We love Him, because He first loved us.” 1Jn_4:19
The work of the Holy Spirit is not only to reveal God's love to us—but to produce in us love to God in return.
Wherever the Holy Spirit really gives a clear view and deep sense of God's love to us, He, by the same operation of His grace, subdues the enmity of the carnal mind, and produces a genuine and supreme love to God.
Heavenly!
“Nothing impure will ever enter it.” Rev_21:27
What is heaven?
Heaven is a state where we shall see Christ as He is, and be like Him. It is the region of moral purity.
Its inhabitants are holy—
the holy Father, the holy Savior, the holy Spirit, holy angels, holy men.
Its occupations are holy—the service of God—the song of cherubim and seraphim, crying “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!”—and all other things in harmony with this sacred employment and felicity.
Every contemplation of this holy heavenly state, tends to assimilate the soul to its likeness. While...
gazing upon it, delighting in it, longing for it, we grow in resemblance to it! The soul of the believer turned heavenwards, becomes heavenly!
“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.” 1Jn_3:3
The model of Christian holiness
The model of Christian holiness is Christ.
Christ...
as the man of sorrows, as exposed to temptation, as subject to affliction, as the servant of God, as the Son learning obedience by the things which He suffered, as separate from sin and sinners, though dwelling in the midst of them.
Here is our model—the infinite, eternal, almighty God, exhibited in the form of the perfect man, presented in dimensions the eye can comprehend.
Christ, the divine man, the model man, must be before us, and our eye must be ever upon our copy and our page.
The ultimate object of redeeming mercy
“All who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.” 1Jn_3:3.
Every view we can take of the work of redemption, shows its connection with holiness.
The Father has “chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy.”
The Son did not die merely to save us from hell, and bring us to heaven—but to “redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works.”
The Spirit is given to “create us anew unto good works.”
If we are called, it is “with a holy calling.”
If we are afflicted, it is that we might “be partakers of God's holiness.”
If we possess the Scriptures, it is “that we might be sanctified by the truth.”
Holiness is the image of God, stamped upon man's soul at his creation—which Satan marred, when his malignity could not reach the divine original.
And to restore us to holiness, is the ultimate object of redeeming mercy.
What would justification be without holiness—but like throwing a vestment of purple and gold over a leprous body?
What is heaven—but the region, the home, the very center of holiness?
Take away holiness from an angel, and he becomes a devil. Add holiness to the nature of a devil, and he becomes an angel.
Were a man without holiness to enter heaven, its blessed inhabitants would run from him with horror and alarm—as we would run from a person with the plague!
Without holiness, a soul in heaven would be like a nauseated man at a feast. He would desire nothing, taste nothing, relish nothing.
How insignificant, trivial, and paltry!
“This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.” 1Jn_2:17
How insignificant, trivial, and paltry, are the objects of worldly desire and expectation!
What are wealth, rank, fame, pleasure—compared with the glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life, which the believer looks for beyond the grave?
They are all of the earth, earthly—this is heavenly.
They are human—this divine.
They are transient—this everlasting.
They are unsatisfying, leaving the soul a void unfilled—this replenishing its vast capacity.
They are fleeting, shadowy, and precarious —this absolutely certain.
They are but the children's toys which leave the poor, craving soul, exclaiming, “Who will show us any good?”
Why are Christians so worldly?
This soft, extravagant, luxurious slothfulness—this ease-loving disposition—is the bane of the present generation of professing Christians!
The robustness of spiritual strength, the hardihood of Christian courage, the self-sacrificing disposition of ardent love, the cross-bearing temper of ever-enduring self-denial —where are they?
The church is reposing too much in the lap of the world—or drowsily reclining on her bosom!
Why are Christians so worldly? Why have the scenes and circumstances of earth, so powerful an influence over us?
Why? Just because our desires and expectations of the eternal realities and infinite possessions of heaven are so little thought of—and so little cherished! Were the mind kept in contemplation of these realities, and the soul more frequently regaled with foretastes of the heavenly food and feast—it could not be content to feed on the ashes and husks of this world!
Did we but consider what heaven is—and how near; did we but really let our contemplation more steadily fix upon it; did we but redeem a little more time from secular pursuits and domestic or social pleasures, to meditate upon it; did we really and firmly believe all that is told us of it; did we but inflame our desires after it, and enlarge our expectations of it; did we but get a foresight and foretaste of its vast, rich, and imperishable delights—how much would our regard to this present world be diminished! How would the 'lights of earth'
twinkle and pale, and all but go out—before the beams of the more excellent glory! What we have to do, then, is to get a more lively hope of our eternal home! “For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children! It is kept in heaven for you—pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay!” 1Pe_1:4
We can't even imagine!
“For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children! It is kept in heaven for you—
pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay!” 1Pe_1:4
There is in that one word “heaven,” a balm for every wound, a cordial for every fear!
To know that there is a heaven to come, and that it is mine, is a consolation to be felt—
though not capable of being fully described.
“Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when He comes we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is!” 1Jn_3:2
To lift the soul above the predominant influence of things seen and temporal, and bring it within the attraction of things unseen and eternal, is the work of Omnipotence alone!
With this hope
What privations may we not endure, what afflictions may we not bear, when we can say, “God is my Father, Christ is my Savior, salvation is my portion, heaven is my home!”
This Christian hope has carried consolation into the darkest recesses of human woe, the lowest depths of poverty and need.
With this hope, we may live in happiness and die in peace. It is a jewel worth infinitely more than all the gems which have ever blazed on beauty or royalty. The man who can rejoice in saying he is a Christian in reality, need not sigh over anything else that he is not.
A mighty power and impulse
“No, dear friends, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing—Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.”
Php_3:13 - Php_3:14
The Christian's mind must be made up to this. His thinking must be somewhat as the following—”My purpose is fixed, and nothing on earth shall shake it, to reach heaven at last.
My plan is laid, and nothing shall alter it. I see that all the richest possessions on earth—everything that can gratify taste, ambition, avarice, or appetite—is but the small dust of the balance to me. I am for heaven! God helping me, no sacrifice, no self-denial, no hardship, no suffering, shall hold me back. I am resolutely surrendered, irrevocably committed, indissolubly bound to that object. Ridicule shall not turn me aside; persecution shall not terrify me; wealth shall not seduce me; pleasure shall not allure me. I am for heaven, and none of these things attract or move me! I will forego everything, and sacrifice everything that stands in the way of everlasting glory!”
Ah! This is what is needed in the great bulk of Christian professors—this absolute determination to reach heaven at last! But how few of them have deliberately, determinedly brought their minds to this intelligent, ever-operative purpose! How comparatively rare, is the sight of a man, who seems to have heaven in his eye, his heart, his hope, as the great object of desire, pursuit, and expectation!
Look at the conduct of professing Christians, and see how different it is from this. They have resolutions—but these are of the earth, earthly! They have their fixed purposes —but how far below the skies do they reach! They have their plans—but they appertain to the present world!
Let no man deceive himself here! None will reach heaven —but as the result of fixed, deliberate, practical and persevering determination. It is the view of heaven's glories, the expectation of eternal life alone—which will lead to such a heroic resolution. It must, indeed, be a mighty power and impulse, which will induce a man to surrender his whole life, and all that it contains, for the possession of its object!
There is nothing so beautiful as a humble Christian!
How soon may we, from the highest pinnacle of earthly comfort, be plunged into the lowest extremity of woe and distress!
I did many things which I see now to be wrong—
and left undone many things I now see to be right.
Little events form our future destinies!
Reason will lead us to take care, that the objects of our hope are worth the pains we take to possess them.
It is for a lamentation to see on what worthless objects, multitudes are exhausting their energies. What miserable trifles inflame their desires and raise their expectations!
Money, money, money
“What is the great end of my existence? I find myself in a world where innumerable objects present themselves to my notice, each soliciting my heart, and each claiming to be most worthy of its supreme regard. I have faculties of mind capable of high pursuits. I perceive, by universal experience, that my stay in this world will be very short, for I am only a stranger and a sojourner here upon earth, as all my fathers were; and as I am anxious not to go out of the world without answering the end for which I came into it, I would wish to know the chief purpose for which I exist!”
Such a reflection is what every person should make—but which very few do make. Would they fritter away their lives as they do, on the most contemptible trifles—if they seriously inquired for what purpose their lives were given?
RICHES, with peculiar boldness, assert their claims to be “the one thing needful,” and multitudes practically confess the justice of the demand. Hence, there is no deity whose worshipers are more numerous than Mammon. We see many all round us who are obviously making this world the exclusive object of their solicitude. Wealth is with them the main chance.
For this they rise early, and sit up late, eat the bread of anxiety, and drink the water of affliction. This is their language, “I care for nothing if I may but succeed in business, and acquire property.
I will endure any fatigue, make any sacrifice, suffer any privation, so that I at last may realize a fortune!” It is perfectly evident that beyond this they have neither a wish nor an object. Money, money, money, is their chief good, and the highest end of their existence. God, the soul, salvation, heaven, hell, are as much forgotten as if they were mere fables, and all the energies and anxieties of their soul are concentrated in wealth.
Can riches then substantiate their claims to be the chief end of man? What, when it is so doubtful whether, after all our endeavors, we shall possess them? When the possession of them contributes so little to our real felicity? When their continuance is so uncertain? When their duration so short?
When their influence upon our eternal desting worse than nothing?
Will any reasonable creature have the folly to assert that the chief end for which God sent him into this world is...
to amass property, to build a splendid house, and to store it with furniture equally splendid, to wear costly clothes, to feed on rich food, to live in affluence, and to die rich?
What a sad parting will that be!
Do riches bring all the pleasures which they promise?
It is a very true remark, that a man's happiness is not in proportion to his wealth.
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luk_12:15
Many act as if they denied the truth of the sentiment. Do you think that all rich men are happy, and that all poor men are miserable? As to mere animal enjoyment, does the affluent man receive a larger share than his poor neighbor?
Whose head aches less, for the costly plume that waves on the brow? Whose body enjoys the glow of health more for the rich velvet which enwraps it, or the lace which adorns it?
Whose sleep is sounder because it is enjoyed on a softer bed?
Whose palate is more pleased because it is fed with many dishes instead of one, and in silver settings? Whose heart is more free from pain because of the diamond which sparkles there? Do riches insure health, keep off disease? Nothing of the kind! Numerous servants, splendid clothes, rich furniture, luxurious living, add very little to a man's happiness! We may say of these things as Pling did of the pyramids of Egypt, “They are only proud proclamations of that wealth and abundance—which their possessor knew not how to use!”
Great wealth certainly gives a man many anxieties. 'What shall I do?' is a question often asked by affluence, as well as by poverty. There is nothing in earthly things suited as a portion to the desires of the human mind. The soul of man needs something better for its provision than wealth. It is on this account, partly, that our Lord brands the rich man in the gospel for a fool, who, when he surveyed his treasures, said to his soul, “You have goods laid up for many years in store; eat, drink, and be merry.”
When the rich man he leaves the present world, his riches do not go with him beyond the grave. What a sad parting will that be, when he leaves all his treasures behind in this world, and enter upon another state of existence, where he cannot take a penny, and where it would be useless if he could take all of his wealth. Then the miserable spirit, like a shipwrecked merchant, thrown on some strange coast after the loss of all his property, shall be cast on the shore of eternity, without one single comfort to relieve its pressing and everlasting necessities.
Vile thieves!
“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
Unprofitable reading is another consumer of time which must be avoided. Worldly amusements, and parties of pleasure, are also injurious. I do not by this mean to condemn the occasional communion of friends in the social circle, where the civilities of life are given and received, theties of friendship strengthened, and the mind recreated, without any injury being done to the spiritual or moral interests.
But the theater, the card-table, the billiard-room, are all to be avoided as vile thieves, which steal our time and hurt our souls!
Rivaling the butterfly and the peacock!
“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
Redeem time from the vain pursuits of personal adornment and dress! It is shocking to think how much precious time is wasted at the mirror, in the silly ambition of rivaling the butterfly and the peacock! What a reproach to a rational creature, is it to neglect the improvement of the soul—for the adornings of the body! This is like painting the outside of a house, while the interior is left to be dark, damp, disheveled, and filthy!
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 the 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.
Time will be required with a strictness proportionate to its value. Let us tremble at this idea, as well we may.
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!
How like an angel does she appear!
When a young lady, instead of frittering away her time in...
frivolous pursuits, parties of pleasure, personal decorations, or scenes of vanity, employs her hours in...
visiting the cottages of the poor, alleviating the sorrows of the wretched, reading Scripture to the sick, how like an angel does she appear!
Be frugal in your personal expenditure—that you may have the more to do good with. Waste not that upon unnecessary luxuries of dress or living —which thousands and millions need for necessities and pious instruction.
The noblest transformation of property is not into personal jewels, or splendid household furniture, or costly equipages—but into...
clothing for the naked, food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, knowledge for the ignorant, holiness for the wicked, salvation for the lost!
I exhort, therefore, that you do all the good you can, both to the souls and bodies of your fellow creatures—for this end you were born into the world!
Amusements
Amusements, in the usual acceptance of the word, are but the miserable expedients resorted to by the ignorant and unsanctified mind of man for happiness; the ineffectual efforts to restore that peace which man lost by the fall, and which nothing but true piety can bring back to the human bosom. In departing from God, the soul of man strayed from the pasture to the wilderness, and now is ever sorrowfully exclaiming, as she wanders on—'who will show us any good?' To relieve her sense of need, and satisfy her cravings, she is directed to amusements.
But they prove only to be like the flowers of the desert, which, with all their beauty, do not satisfy.
Amusements are but expedients to make men happy without piety. The mere husks, which those who are destitute of the bread which comes down from heaven, crave after, and feed upon—and which are rejected by those who have their appetite satisfied with this celestial manna.
Do no go to the polluting sources of worldly amusement for consolation.
It is the return of the soul to God through faith in Jesus Christ which can alone give true and satisfying delight.
But there are some who will reply, “I have no taste for true piety—what amusements do you recommend to me?”
None at all. What! that man talk of amusement, who, by his own confession, is under the curse of heaven's eternal law, and the wrath of heaven's incensed King?
AMUSEMENT! What! for the poor wretch who is on the brink of perdition, the verge of hell, and may the next hour be lifting up his eyes in torment, and calling for a drop of water to cool his parched tongue!
Diversion! What! for him who is every moment exposed to that sentence, “Depart from me, accursed one, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!”
What! going on to that place where the worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched; where there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth—and calling for amusements! Oh monstrous absurdity!
We have heard of prisoners dancing in their chains. But who ever heard of a poor creature asking for amusements on his way to the place of execution? This is your case.
While you have no taste for true piety, you are certainly under sentence of eternal wrath. You are every day traveling to execution. Yet you are asking for amusements!
And what will be your reflections in the world of despair, to recollect that the season of hope was employed by you, not in seeking the salvation of the soul, and everlasting happiness—but in mere idle diversions, which were destroying you at the very time they amused you!
Then will you learn that you voluntarily relinquished the fullness of joy which God's presence affords, and the eternal pleasures which are to be found at his right hand—for the joy of fools, which as Solomon truly says, is but as “the crackling of thorns beneath the pot.”
Before you think of amusement—seek for true piety!
Nothing is more bewitching than the love of gambling.
The winner having tasted the sweets of gain, is led forward by the hope of still greater gain. While the loser plunges deeper and deeper into ruin, with the delusive expectation of retrieving his lost fortune.
How many have ruined themselves and their families forever by this mad passion! How many have thrown down the cards or dice, only to take up the pistol or the poison—and have rushed, with all their crimes about them, from the gambling-table to the fiery lake of hell!
Time is precious. Its fragments, like those of diamonds, are too valuable to be lost.
How many parents are accessory to the murder of their children's souls! Blood-guiltiness rests upon their conscience, and the curses of their own offspring will be upon them through eternity!
A spring of comfort whose waters never fail
Genuine piety comforts the mind, with the assurance of an all-wise, all-pervading Providence—so minute in its superintendence and control, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of our heavenly Father; a superintendence which is excluded from no point of space, no moment of time, and overlooks not the lowest creature in existence.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” Rom_8:28
Nothing that imagination could conceive is more truly consolatory than this—to be assured that all things, however painful at the time, not excepting...
the failure of our favorite plans, the disappointment of our fondest hopes, the loss of our dearest comforts, shall be overruled by infinite wisdom, for the promotion of our ultimate good. This is a spring of comfort whose waters never fail.
A balm for every wound, a cordial for every care
Some of the benefits of affliction, are that it...
crucifies the world, mortifies sin, quickens prayer, extracts the balmy sweets of the promises, endears the Savior.
And to crown all, affliction directs the mind to that glorious state where the days of our mourning shall be ended—that happy country where God shall wipe every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no more sorrow or crying.
Nothing so composes the mind, and helps it to bear the load of trouble which God may lay upon it—as the near prospect of its termination.
In that one word, HEAVEN, genuine piety provides a balm for every wound, a cordial for every care.
In the prospect of eternity, with heaven spreading out its ineffable glories, and hell uncovering its dreadful horrors—the only question which a rational creature should allow himself to ask is, “What is necessary to avoid the torments of the one—and secure the felicities of the other?”
Splendid baubles!
A desire after happiness is inseparable from the human mind.
It is the natural and healthy craving of our spirit; an appetite which we have neither the will nor the power to destroy, and for which all mankind are busily employed in making provision.
This is as natural, as for birds to fly, or fish to swim.
For this the scholar and the philosopher, who think happiness consists in knowledge, pore over their books—light the midnight lamp, and keep frequent vigils, when the world around them is asleep. The worldling, with whom happiness and wealth are kindred terms—worships daily at the shrine of Mammon, and offers earnest prayers for the golden shower. The voluptuary gratifies every craving sense, rejoices in the midnight revel, renders himself vile—and yet tells you he is in the chase of happiness. The ambitious man, conceiving that the 'great essential' hangs in rich clusters from the throne, consumes one half of his life, and embitters the other half—in climbing the giddy elevation of royalty.
All these, however, have confessed their disappointment; and have retired from the stage exclaiming, in reference to happiness, as Brutus, just before he stabbed himself, did in reference to virtue, “I have pursued you everywhere, and found you nothing but a name.”
This, however, is a mistake; for both virtue and happiness are glorious realities—and if they are not found, it is merely because they are not sought from the right sources.
Crowns are splendid baubles, gold is sordid dust, and all the gratifications of sense but vanity and vexation of spirit, when weighed against the splendid blessings of true piety!
The greatest deceiver in the world!
The detection of deceit, if not a pleasant employment, is certainly a profitable one. My object is to expose the greatest deceiver in the world, whose design is to cheat you, my dear children, not of your property, nor of your liberty, nor of your life—but of what is infinitely dearer than all these—the salvation of your immortal soul!
His success has been frightful, beyond description! Earth is full of his wiles! Hell is full of his spoils. Millions of lost souls bewail his success in the bottomless pit, as the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever!
Who is this impostor, and what is his name?
Is it the false prophet of Mecca? No!
Is it the spirit of paganism? No!
Is it the ploys of infidelity? No!
It is the human heart—in its deep devices and endless machinations!
“The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked! Who really knows how bad it is?”
Jer_17:9
This self-deception prevails to a most alarming extent in the business of personal piety. The 'road to destruction'
is crowded with travelers, who vainly suppose that they are walking in the path of life, and whose 'dreams of happiness' nothing will disturb—but the dreadful reality of eternal misery!
The narrow gate
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mat_7:13 - Mat_7:14
Our Lord has most explicitly taught us, that the entrance to the path of life is attended with difficulty—and is not to be accomplished without effort. Into that road, we are not borne by the pressure of the thronging multitude, nor the force of natural inclination. No broad and flowery avenue attracts the eye; no siren songs of worldly pleasure allure the ear.
“Strive to enter in at the narrow gate—for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” This implies that there are obstructions to be removed, and difficulties to be surmounted.
The fundamental and universal obstruction with which everyone has to contend, is the darkness and depravity brought upon human nature by the fall; and the indulged sensuality, prejudice and enmity of the carnal mind.
He will strive to be like Him
The true believer has a willingness to obey God in all things. There must be...
a distinct acknowledgment of God's right to govern us; an unreserved surrender of our heart and life to His authority; a habitual desire to do what He has enjoined, a habitual desire to avoid what He has forbidden.
Where there is this desire to please God, this reluctance to offend God—he will read with constancy and attention the sacred volume, which is written for the express purpose of teaching us how to obey and please the Lord. Finding there innumerable injunctions against all kinds of immorality and sin, and as many commands to practice every personal, relative, and social duty—the true Christian will be zealous for all good works.
Remembering that Jesus Christ his example, he will strive to be like Him...
in purity, in spirituality, in submission to the will of God, in devotedness to the divine glory.
Nor will he forget to imitate the beautiful meekness, humility, and kindness of Jesus.
Saving faith never fails to produce love to Jesus, which transforms the believer into His image.
The moral condition of the world is too bad for description.
If it is ever to be improved—it must be done by Christians.
Genuine piety is the only real reformer of mankind.
Alas! alas!
“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1Ti_4:8
My children, true godliness will save you from much present danger and trouble, promote your temporal interests, prepare you for the darkest scenes of adversity, comfort you on a dying bed, and finally conduct you to everlasting glory!
The lack of true piety will ensure misery on earth, and be followed with eternal torments in hell!
What then, my children, are all worldly acquirements and possessions, without true piety? What are the accomplishments of taste, the elegancies of wealth, the wreaths of fame? Authentic genius, a vigorous understanding, a well-stored mind, and all this adorned by the most amiable temper and most pleasing demeanor, will neither comfort under the trials of life, nor save their lovely possessor from the worm which never dies and the fire which is never quenched! Alas! alas! that such estimable qualities should all perish for lack of that piety which alone can give immortality and perfection to the excellences of the human character!
No wonder that their children go astray!
It is a melancholy fact, that there are many families with professing Christian parents, where scarcely the semblance of domestic piety or instruction is to be found, where...
no family altar is seen, no family prayer is heard, no parental admonition is delivered!
What! this cruel, wicked, ruinous neglect of their children's immortal interests in the families of professors! Monstrous inconsistency! Shocking dereliction of principle! No wonder that their children go astray! Some of the most profligate young people that I know, have issued from such households.
Their prejudices against true religion are greater than those of the children of avowed worldlings!
Inconsistent, hypocritical, negligent professors of religion, frequently excite in their children, an unconquerable aversion and disgust against true piety—which seems to produce in them a determination to place themselves at the furthest possible remove from its influence.
Oh! this is a cold and selfish world!
Scattering the seeds of poison and death!
“One sinner destroys much good.” Ecc_9:18
To do good is God-like. To do evil is devil-like. And we are all imitating God or Satan—accordingly as we are leading a holy or a sinful life.
“One sinner destroys much good.” He not only does not do good himself—but he destroys good in others!
Instead of doing good, he does only evil. He not only leaves unassisted all the great means and instruments for improving and blessing the world, and has no share in all that is being done for the spiritual and eternal welfare of mankind; but he opposes it, and seeks to perpetuate and extend the reign of sin, and the kingdom of Satan! He...
corrupts by his principles, seduces by his example, and leads others astray by his persuasions!
He is ever scattering the seeds of poison and death in his path!
Who can imagine, I again say, how many miserable specters await his arrival in hell—or follow him there to be his tormentors—in revenge for his having been their tempter!
True religion happily saves all who possess it from this mischief—it makes a man an instrument of good, and not of evil—to his fellow creatures. True religion renders him...
a blessing—and not a curse; a savior—and not a destroyer; a physician to heal—and not a murderer to destroy!
He lives to do good...
good of the noblest and most lasting kind, good to the soul, good to distant nations, good to the world, good to unborn generations, good for eternity!
He is a benefactor to his race—a philanthropist of the noblest order! By a godly example, he adorns true religion, and recommends it to others, who, attracted by the beauties of holiness as they are reflected from his character—are led to imitate his conduct.
God's eye!
“By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.”
Pro_16:6
True religion will implant in your hearts a regard to the authority and presence of God. This veneration for God comes in to aid the exercise of love for holiness.
By the fear of God, I do not mean a slavish and tormenting dread of the Divine Being, which haunts the mind like an ever-present spectre—that is superstition, not true religion.
But I mean a fear springing out of affection, the fear of a child dreading to offend the father whom he loves. What a restraint from sin is there in that child's mind! He may be absent from his father; but love keeps him from doing what his father disapproves.
So it is with true religion; it is love to God, and love originates fear. He who is thus blessed with the love and fear of God is armed as with a shield of triple brass, against sin. The temptation comes with all its seductive force—but it is repelled with the indignant question—
“How shall I do this wickedness, and sin against God?”
And this awesome Being is felt to be everywhere!
Yes, God is in every place. Heaven and the earth are full of his presence. A person once dreamed that the sky was one vast eye of God, ever looking down upon him. He could never get out of the sight of this tremendous eye, he could never look up but this solemn eye was gazing upon him. The moral of this fearful dream is a fact. God's eye is always, and everywhere, upon us!
Who could sin, if he saw God in a bodily form looking upon him? Young man, could you go to the theater, or to still worse places, if you saw this vast and searching eye, with piercing looks, fixed upon you? Impossible! “No!”
you would say, “I must wait until that eye is gone, or closed, or averted.” But it is never gone, never closed, never averted! This the pious man knows, and therefore says, “O God, You see me!”
Would you sin, if your father were present? Would you enter the haunt of vice if he stood at the door, looking in your face, and saying, “My son, if sinners entice you, consent not; my son, do not walk in the way with them —turn your foot from their path!” You could not so insult and grieve your good father's heart. But though your earthly father is not there—your heavenly Father is. Your father's eye does not see you—but God's eye does! This the pious person believes and feels—and turns away from sin!
“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable!” Psa_139:1-24.
Bias against the gospel
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1Co_1:19
Man has an intellectual bias against the gospel, because it humbles the arrogance of his pride of intellect. He also has a moral bias against the gospel, because it would check the indulgence of his sinful passions.
“Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Joh_3:19
While looking on his breathless corpse!
To a godly parent, the profligate conduct of a child is the bitterest disappointment of all. To see a young man who has been piously educated, and brought up in the fear of God—so far forgetting the instructions, prayers and examples of his father, and the tears and affectionate entreaties of his mother—as to “walk in the counsel of the ungodly, to stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful”—to see him forming bad associations, indulging his evil propensities, wandering off, like the prodigal, into the paths of vice and profligacy, the slave of lust and wine—how distressfully disappointing is all this!
Unhappy parents! who have been called to endure this trial!
“Oh,” says the Christian parent, “has it come to this —that all my solicitude, my prayers, my tears for my son—end in his profligacy! That all my desires and expectations that he would become a child of God, terminate in his being a prodigal! All my hopes of his being a servant of Christ—disappointed in my seeing him a slave of Satan! How carefully have I watched him, how diligently have I instructed him, how earnestly have I prayed for him! And are all my prayers and tears as water spilt upon the ground? I have been laboring in vain, and spending my strength for nothing, yes, worse than in vain! My every instruction, correction, and reproof, has aggravated his guilt here—
and will increase his misery hereafter! So that while, in intention I was acting the most kind and tender part, I was, in the result, only treasuring up for my son, wrath against the day of wrath. Alas, alas!
Woe is me! O my son, my son!”
How tenfold more dreadful are these reflections if the son has died in his sins—a case by no means uncommon.
How painful are the father's tears that his child has fallen into a state of everlasting ruin! “Oh,” will the afflicted parent say, “how comparatively light would be my sorrows, if, while looking on his breathless corpse, and mourning the disappointment of my hopes as to the present life, I could look forward to the world of glory, and see the branch of my family, which is cut off from earth, transplanted there and flourishing there. Joy would then mingle with my paternal sorrows, and praises with my tears. But alas! I have reason to fear that it was cut down—that it might be cast into everlasting burnings!
Your journey to eternity!
“They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims here on earth.” Heb_11:13
Christian! Your earthly sojourn is a pilgrimage to heaven!
Look up to that better country which is above and beyond the boundaries of earth and time—the home of the holy, the good, and the blessed...
where there shall be no more death, or sorrow, or crying; where there shall be no more pain; where fears, anxieties and labors have no place; where the turmoils and the strifes of life are unknown; where the wicked cease from troubling; where the weary are at rest; where temptation will be over; where the conflict will cease.
Blessed country! May it be your chief concern to travel to that joyful and glorious land.
From this present world you must depart. No choice is left you. The hour of departure draws on—but whether it will be in youth, in manhood, or in old age, is known only to God.
Shall there be no preparation for your eternal home?
Shall there be no thoughtfulness or concern given to your journey to eternity?
There are but two places of abode beyond the grave—heaven and hell. To one or the other you must soon depart! Which? Which?
Lifestyle evangelism
Let your piety be neither ostentatiously displayed, nor timidly concealed. At first it would be well to say little about the gospel to others—until you have gained their confidence and affection. Let there be no bustling and meddlesome zeal, nothing like parading your piety, and proclaiming your intention to convert everyone.
Your light must shine before others—by your good works! Your piety must be seen in all its loveliness and consistency—before it is heard! Be known as the humble, meek, and gentle follower of the Lamb—the friend of everyone—the enemy of none.
Take especial care that your conduct be uniformly consistent. When it is known—and known it ought to be—that you are a Christian, you will be watched by the malignant eyes of those who wait for your failing, and whose ingenuity will be taxed to lay snares for your feet. One wrong step will destroy all your influence!
By defacing the beauty and impairing the strength of your example, you will subject not only yourself—but Christianity, to the suspicion of hypocrisy.
On the high road to poverty!
“He who loves pleasure will becom