But I give myself unto prayer. Psalm 109 verse 4

Lying tongues were busy against the reputation of David, but he did not defend himself. He moved the case into a higher court and pleaded before the great king himself. Prayer is the safest method of replying to words of hatred.

the psalmist prayed in a no cold-hearted manner he gave himself to the exercise threw his whole soul and heart into it straining every sinew and muscle as Jacob did when wrestling with the angel thus and thus only shall any of us speed at the throne of grace as a shadow has no power because there is no substance in it. Even so, that supplication in which a man's proper self is not thoroughly present in agonizing earnestness and vehement desire is utterly ineffectual, for it lacks that which would give it force

Fervent prayer, says an old divine, like a cannon planted at the gates of heaven, makes them fly open. The common fault with most of us is our readiness to yield to distractions. Our thoughts go roving hither and thither, and we make little progress toward our desired end. Like quicksilver, our mind will not hold together, but rolls off this way and that.

how great and evil this is. It injures us and what is worse it insults our God. What should we think of a petitioner if while having an audience with a prince he should be playing with a feather or catching a fly?

Continuance and perseverance are intended in the expression of our text. David did not cry once and then relapse into silence. His holy clamor was continued till it brought down the blessing. Prayer must not be our chance work. but our daily business, our habit, and vocation. As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer. We must be immersed in prayer as in our element and so pray without ceasing.

Lord, teach us so to pray that we may be more and more prevalent in supplication.

I will help thee saith the Lord Isaiah chapter 41 verse 14

This morning, let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us. I will help thee. It is but a small thing for me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What? Not help thee? Why, I bought thee with my blood. What? Not help thee? I have died for thee. And if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help Thee. It is the least thing I will ever do for Thee. I have done more and will do more.

Before the world began, I chose Thee. I made the covenant for Thee. I laid aside my glory and became a man for Thee. I gave up my life for Thee. And if I did all this, I will surely help Thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee. Thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow.

Help thee? Fear not. If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat, and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. I will help thee. O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit?

bring hither thine empty pitcher. Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here, thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply. What canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might, the eternal God is thine helper.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.

And it came to pass, in an even tide, that David rose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 2

At that hour David saw Bathsheba We are never out of the reach of temptation. Both at home and abroad, we are liable to meet with allurements to evil. The morning opens with peril, and the shades of evening find us still in jeopardy. They are well kept, whom God keeps. But woe unto those who go forth into the world, or even dare to walk their own house unarmed. Those who think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any others.

The armor-bearer of sin is self-confidence. David should have been engaged in fighting the Lord's battles. Instead of which, he tarried at Jerusalem and gave himself up to luxurious repose. For he arose from his bed at eventide.

idleness and luxury are the devil's jackals, and find him abundant prey. In stagnant waters, noxious creatures swarm, and neglected soil soon yields a dense tangle of weeds and briars. Oh, for the constraining love of Jesus to keep us active and useful!

When I see the King of Israel sluggishly leaving his couch at the close of the day and falling at once into temptation, let me take warning and set holy watchfulness to guard the door. Is it possible that the King had mounted his housetop for retirement and devotion? If so, what a caution is given us to count no place, however secret, a sanctuary from sin. While our hearts are so like a tinderbox, and sparks so plentiful, we had need use all diligence in all places to prevent a blaze.

Satan can climb housetops and enter closets, and even if we could shut out that foul fiend, Our own corruptions are enough to work our ruin, unless grace prevent.

Reader, beware of evening temptations. Be not secure. The sun is down, but sin is up. We need a watchman for the night, as well as a guardian for the day. Oh, blessed spirit, keep us from all evil this night. Amen.

And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the mount Sion. Revelation chapter 14 verse 1.

The Apostle John was privileged to look within the gates of heaven. And in describing what he saw, he begins by saying, I looked and lo a lamb. This teaches us that the chief object of contemplation in the heavenly state is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Nothing else attracted the Apostle's attention so much as the person of that divine being who hath redeemed us by his blood. He is the theme of the songs of all glorified spirits and holy angels.

Christian, here is joy for thee. Thou hast looked, and thou hast seen the Lamb. Through thy tears thine eyes have seen the Lamb of God taking away thy sins. Rejoice then. In a little while, when thine eyes shall have been wiped from tears, thou wilt see the same Lamb exalted on his throne. It is the joy of thy heart to hold daily fellowship with Jesus. Thou shalt have the same joy to a higher degree in heaven. Thou shalt enjoy the constant vision of his presence. Thou shalt dwell with him forever.

I looked, and lo, a lamb. Why, that lamb is heaven itself. For as Good Rutherford says, heaven and Christ are the same thing. To be with Christ is to be in heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ. That prisoner of the Lord very sweetly writes in one of his glowing letters, O my Lord Jesus Christ, If I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell. And if I could be in hell and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me. For thou art all the heaven I want.

It is true, is it not, Christian? Does not thy soul say so? Not all the harps above can make a heavenly place if God his residence remove or but conceal his face. All thou needest to make thee blessed, supremely blessed, is to be with Christ.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here. Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness. But in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal. His constant cry is, Help me to serve thee, O my God. If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labor, not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, I am not wearied of the labor, but I am wearied in it.

Ah, Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not forever. The sun is nearing the horizon. It shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen, upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labors. Here rest is but partial. There it is perfect. Here the Christian is always unsettled. He feels that he is not yet attained. There all are at rest. They have attained the summit of the mountain. They have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go.

Ah, toil-worn labourer! only think when thou shalt rest forever. Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal, a rest that remaineth.

Here my best joys bear mortal on their brow,
My fair flowers fade, my dainty cups are drained to dregs,
My sweetest birds fall before death's arrows,
My most pleasant days are shadowed into nights,
And the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow.

But there, everything is immortal. The harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight.

Happy day, happy, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. and the eternal Sabbath shall begin.

He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke chapter 24 verse 27

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had the most profitable journey. Their companion and teacher was the best of tutors, the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus consented to become a preacher of the gospel, and he was not ashamed to exercise his calling before an audience of two persons. Neither does he now refuse to become the teacher of even one. Let us court the company of so excellent an instructor, for till he is made unto us wisdom, we shall never be wise unto salvation.

this unrivaled tutor used as his class book, the best of books. Although able to reveal fresh truth, he preferred to expound the old. He knew by his omniscience what was the most instructive way of teaching, and by turning at once to Moses and the prophets, he showed us that the surest road to wisdom is not speculation, reasoning, or reading human books. but meditation upon the word of God. The readiest ways to be spiritually rich in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this mine of diamonds to gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus himself sought to enrich others he wrought in the quarry of Holy Scripture. The favored pair were led to consider the best of subjects, for Jesus spake of Jesus, and expounded the things concerning himself. Here the diamond cut the diamond, and what could be more admirable? The master of the house unlocked his own doors conducted the guests to his table and placed his own dainties upon it. He who hid the treasure in the field himself guided the searches to it. Our Lord would naturally discourse upon the sweetest of topics and he could find none sweeter than his own person and work. With an eye to these we should always search the word. Oh for grace to study the Bible with Jesus as both our teacher and our lesson.

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. Luke 24 1 45 He whom we viewed last evening as opening Scripture, we here perceive opening the understanding. In the first work he has many fellow laborers, but in the second he stands alone. Many can bring the scriptures to the mind, but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the scriptures. Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers. They reach the ear, but he instructs the heart. They deal with the outward letter, but he imparts an inward taste for the truth by which we perceive its savor and spirit. The most unlearned of men become ripe scholars in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by his Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them and grants the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the invisible.

Happy are we if we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master. How many men of profound learning are ignorant of eternal things? They know the killing letter of Revelation, but its living spirit they cannot discern. They have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate. Such was our case a little time ago. We who now see were once utterly blind. Truth was to us as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not been for the love of Jesus, we should have remained to this moment in utter ignorance, For without his gracious opening of our understanding we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge that an infant can climb the pyramids or an ostrich fly up to the stars. Jesus's college is the only one in which God's truth can be really learned. Other schools may teach us what is to be believed but Christ's alone can show us how to believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus and by earnest prayer call in his blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly things.

Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. Psalm 119 verse 37 There are diverse kinds of vanity. The cap and bells of the fool, the mirth of the world, the dance, the lyre, and the cup of the dissolute, all these men know to be vanities. They wear upon their forefront their proper name and title. Far more treacherous are those equally vain things, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. A man may follow vanity as truly in the counting house as in the theater. If he be spending his life in amassing wealth, he passes his days in a vain show. Unless we follow Christ and make our God the great object of life, we only differ in appearance from the most frivolous. It is clear that there is much need of the first prayer of our text. The psalmist confesses that he is dull, heavy, lumpy, all but dead. Perhaps, dear reader, you feel the same. We are so sluggish that the best motives cannot quicken us apart from the Lord himself. What? Will not hell quicken me? Shall I think of sinners perishing and yet not be awakened? Will not heaven quicken me? Can I think of the reward that awaiteth the righteous and yet be cold? Will not death quicken me? Can I think of dying and standing before my God and yet be slothful in my master's service? Will not Christ's love constrain me? Can I think of his dear wounds? Can I sit at the foot of his cross and not be stirred with fervency and zeal? It seems so. No mere consideration can quicken us to zeal. But God himself must do it. Hence the cry, Quicken thou me. The psalmist breathes out his whole soul in vehement pleadings. His body and his soul unite in prayer. Turn away mine eyes, says the body. Quicken thou me, cries the soul. this is a fit prayer for every day oh Lord hear it in my case this night and so all Israel shall be saved Romans chapter 11 verse 26 when Moses sang at the Red Sea it was his joy to know that all Israel was safe not a drop of spray fell from that solid wall until the last of God's Israel had safely planted his foot on the other side of the flood That done, immediately the floods dissolved into their proper place again, but not till then. Part of that song was, Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. In the last time, when the elect shall sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb, it shall be the boast of Jesus, of all whom thou hast given me, I have lost none. In heaven there shall not be a vacant throne. For all the chosen race shall meet around the throne, shall bless the conduct of his grace, and make his glories known. As many as God hath chosen, as many as Christ hath redeemed, as many as the Spirit hath called, as many as believe in Jesus, shall safely cross the dividing sea. We are not all safely landed yet. Part of the host have crossed the flood, and part are crossing now. The vanguard of the army has already reached the shore. We are marching through the depths. We are at this day following hard after our leader into the heart of the sea. Let us be of good cheer. The rearguard shall soon be where the vanguard already is. The last of the chosen ones shall soon have crossed the sea. And then shall be heard the song of triumph when all are secure. But oh, if one were absent! Oh, if one of his chosen family should be cast away, it would make an everlasting discord in the song of the redeemed, and cut the strings of the harps of paradise, so that music could never be exhorted from them. he was sore of thirst and called on the Lord and said thou has given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and now shall I die for thirst? Judges chapter 15 verse 18 Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a thousand philistines. But when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so specially been delivered. It is very usual for God's people, when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water. Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel and overcomes omnipotence itself and then goes halting on his thigh. Strange that there must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he said, I have slain a thousand men. His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst and he betook himself to prayer. God has many ways of humbling his people. Dear child of God, if after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he said, I am this day weak, though anointed king. You must expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst. And the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road to sorrow is the road to heaven, But there are wells of refreshing water all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with Samson's words and rest assured that God will deliver you ere long. Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Ezekiel chapter 15 verse 2. These words are for the humbling of God's people. They are called God's vine, but what are they by nature more than others? They, by God's goodness, have become fruitful, have been planted in a good soil. The Lord hath trained them upon the walls of the sanctuary, and they bring forth fruit to his glory. But what are they without their God? What are they without the continual influence of the Spirit begetting fruitfulness in them? O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that thou hast no ground for it. Whatever thou art, thou hast nothing to make thee proud. The more thou hast, the more thou art in debt to God, and thou shouldst not be proud of that which renders thee a debtor. Consider thine origin. Look back to what thou wast. Consider what thou wouldst have been but for divine grace. Look upon thyself as thou art now. Doth not thy conscience reproach thee? Do not thy thousand wanderings stand before thee, and tell thee that thou art unworthy to be called his son? And if he hath made thee anything, art thou not taught thereby that it is grace which hath made thee to differ? Great believer, thou wouldst have been a great sinner if God had not made thee to differ. O thou who art valiant for truth, thou wouldst have been as valiant for error if grace had not laid hold upon thee. Therefore be not proud, though thou hast a large estate, a wide domain of grace, thou hath not once a single thing to call thine own except thy sin and misery. O strange infatuation! that thou, who hast borrowed everything, shouldst think of exalting thyself, a poor, dependent pensioner, upon the bounty of thy Saviour, one who hath a life which dies without fresh streams of life from Jesus, and yet proud. Fie on thee, O silly heart! Doth Job fear God for naught? Job 1.9 This was the wicked question of Satan concerning that upright man of old. But there are many in the present day concerning whom it might be asked with justice. For they love God after a fashion because He prospers them. But if things went ill with them, they would give up all their boasted faith in God. If they can clearly see that since the time of their supposed conversion the world has gone prosperously with them, then they will love God in their poor carnal way. But if they endure adversity, they rebel against the Lord. Their love is the love of the table, not of the host. A love to the cupboard, not to the master of the house. As for the true Christian, he expects to have his reward in the next life, and to endure hardness in this. The promise of the old covenant was prosperity, but the promise of the new covenant is adversity. Remember Christ's words, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, what? He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. If you bring forth fruit, you will have to endure affliction. Alas, you say, that is a terrible prospect. But this affliction works out such precious results that the Christian who is subject of it must learn to rejoice in tribulations. Because as his tribulations abound, so his consolations abound by Christ Jesus. Rest assured, if you are a child of God, you will be no stranger to the rod. Sooner or later, every bar of gold must pass through the fire. Fear not, but rather rejoice that such fruitful times are in store for you, for in them You will be weaned from earth and made meat for heaven. You will be delivered from clinging to the present and made to long for those eternal things which are so soon to be revealed to you. When you feel that as regards the present you do serve God for naught you will then rejoice in the infinite reward of the future. I have exalted one chosen out of the people. Psalm 89 verse 19. Why was Christ chosen out of the people? Speak, my heart, for heart thoughts are best. Was it not that he might be able to be our brother in the blessed tie of kindred blood? Oh, what relationship there is between Christ and the believer! The believer can say, I have a brother in heaven. I may be poor, but I have a brother who is rich and is a king. And will he suffer me to want while he is on his throne? Oh no, he loves me. He is my brother. Believer, wear this blessed thought like a necklace of diamonds around the neck of thy memory. Put it as a golden ring on the finger of recollection, and use it as the king's own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with confidence of success. He is a brother born for adversity. Treat him as such. Christ was also chosen out of the people that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. In all our sorrows we have his sympathy. Temptation, pain, disappointment, weakness, weariness, poverty, he knows them all for he has felt all. Remember this Christian and let it comfort thee. However difficult and painful thy road, it is marked by the footsteps of thy Savior. And even when thou reachest the dark valley of the shadow of death and the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, thou will find his footprints there. In all places, whithersoever we go, he has been our forerunner. Each burden we have to carry has once been laid on the shoulders of Emmanuel. His way was much rougher and darker than mine. Did Christ, my Lord, suffer and shall I repine? Take courage. Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road and consecrated the thorny path forever. Martha was cumbered about much serving. Luke chapter 10 verse 40 Her fault was not that she served. The condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. I serve should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had much serving. We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can. Let head and heart and hands be engaged in the master's service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest, and happy too to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew cumbered with much serving, so that she forgot him. and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one. We should do much service and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites. But Moses on the top of the mountain in prayer needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire of it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear. The most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things which are good enough in themselves, We ought also to see to it that we enjoy living personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Savior's feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for his glory and the first thing for our own usefulness is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world. I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. Isaiah chapter 63 verse 7 And canst thou not do this? Are there no mercies which thou hast experienced? What, though thou art gloomy now, canst thou forget that blessed hour when Jesus met thee and said, Come unto me? Canst thou not remember that rapturous moment when he snapped thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said, I came to break thy bonds and set thee free? Or, if the love of thine espousals be forgotten, there must surely be some precious milestone along the road of life not quite grown over with moss, on which thou canst read a happy memorial of his mercy towards thee. What, dost thou never have a sickness like that which thou art suffering now, and did he not restore thee? Were thou never poor before, and did he not supply thy wants? Was thou never in straits before, and did he not deliver thee? Arise, go to the river of thine experience, and pull up a few bulrushes, and plate them into an ark wherein thy infant, Faith, may float safely on the stream. Forget not what thy God has done for thee. Turn over the book of thy remembrance, and consider the days of old. Canst thou not remember the hill Miser? Did the Lord never meet with thee at Hermon? Hast thou never climbed the delectable mountains? Hast thou never been helped in time of need? Nay, I know thou hast. Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past. They shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the daybreak, and the shadows flee away. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law. Romans chapter 3 verse 31 When the believer is adopted into the Lord's family, his relationship to old Adam and the law ceases at once. But then he is under a new rule and a new covenant. Believer, you are God's child. It is your first duty to obey your Heavenly Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with. You are not a slave, but a child. And now, inasmuch as you are a beloved child, you are bound to obey your father's faintest wish, the least intimation of his will. Does he bid you fulfill a sacred ordinance? It is at your peril that you neglect it, for you will be disobeying your Father. Does he command you to seek the image of Jesus? Is it not your joy to do so? Does Jesus tell you, Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect? Then, not because the law commands, but because your Savior enjoins, you will labor to be perfect in holiness. Does he bid his saints love one another? Do it not because the law says, Love thy neighbor, but because Jesus says, If ye love me, keep my commandments. And this is the commandment that he has given unto you, that ye love one another. Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it not because charity is a burden which you dare not shirk, but because Jesus teaches, Give to him that asketh of thee. Does the word say, Love God with all your heart? Look at the commandment and reply, Our commandment, Christ hath fulfilled thee already. I have no need, therefore, to fulfill thee for my salvation, but I rejoice to yield obedience to thee. because God is my father now, and he has a claim upon me which I would not dispute. May the Holy Ghost make your heart obedient to the constraining power of Christ's love, that your prayer may be Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin. your heavenly father. Matthew chapter 6 verse 26 God's people are doubly his children they are his offspring by creation and they are his sons by adoption in Christ hence they are privileged to call him our father which art in heaven father oh what precious word is that Here is authority. If I be a father, where is mine honor? If ye be sons, where is your obedience? Here is affection mingled with authority, an authority which does not provoke rebellion, an obedience demanded which is most cheerfully rendered, which would not be withheld even if it might. The obedience which God's children yield to him must be loving obedience. do not go about the service of God as slaves to their taskmasters toil but run in the way of his commands because it is your father's way yield your bodies as instruments of righteousness because righteousness is your father's will and his will should be the will of his child father Here is a kingly attribute, so sweetly veiled in love, that the king's crown is forgotten in the king's face, and his scepter becomes not a rod of iron, but a silver scepter of mercy. The scepter indeed seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of him who wields it. Father, here is honor and love. How great is a father's love to his children. that which friendship cannot do and mere benevolence will not attempt a father's heart and hand must do for his sons they are his offspring he must bless them they are his children he must show himself strong in their defense if an earthly father watches over his children with such unceasing love and care how much more does our heavenly father Abba Father He who can say this hath uttered better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in the depth of that word. Father, there is all I can ask, all my necessities can demand, all my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity. when I can say, Father. All they that heard it wondered at those things. Luke chapter 2 verse 18 We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship. For when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory though it may not express itself in song or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as the wonderful. That God should consider his fallen creature man and instead of sweeping him away with the besom of destruction should himself undertake to be man's redeemer and to pay his ransom price is indeed marvelous. But to each believer redemption is most marvelous as he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed that Jesus should forsake the thrones and royalties above to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder For wonder is in this way a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness. You will be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of his dear son You will put off your shoes from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvelous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at anything when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Savior? Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem who told what they had seen and heard. But you can at least fill up the circle of worshipers before the throne by wondering at what God has done. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke chapter 2 verse 19 There was an exercise on the part of this blessed woman of three powers of her being. Her memory, she kept all these things. Her affections, she kept them in her heart. Her intellect, she pondered them. So that memory, affection, and understanding were all exercised about the things which she had heard. Beloved, remember what you have heard of your Lord Jesus and what he's done for you. Make your heart the golden pot of manna to preserve the memorial of your heavenly bread whereon you have fed in days gone by. Let your memory treasure up everything about Christ, which you have either felt, or known, or believed, and then let your fond affections hold him fast forevermore. Love the person of your Lord. Bring forth the alabaster box of your heart, even though it be broken, and let all the precious ointment of your affection come streaming on his pierced feet. Let your intellect be exercised concerning the Lord Jesus. Meditate upon what you read. Stop not at the surface. Dive into the depths. Be not as the swallow which touches the brook with her wing, but as the fish which penetrates the lowest wave. Abide with your Lord. Let him not be to you as a wayfaring man that tarrieth for a night, but constrain him, saying, Abide with us, for the day is far spent. Hold him, and do not let him go. The word ponder means to weigh. Make ready the balances of judgment. Oh, but where are the scales that can weigh the Lord Christ? He taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. Who shall take him up? He weigheth the mountains in scales. In what scales shall we weigh him? Be it so, if your understanding cannot comprehend, let your affections apprehend. And if your spirit cannot compass the Lord Jesus in the grasp of understanding, let it embrace him in the arms of affection. Perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians chapter 1 verse 28. Do not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you. Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye weeps imperfection. Every sigh which bursts from your heart cries imperfection. Every harsh word that proceeds from your lip mutters imperfection. You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you. You are perfect in Christ Jesus. In God's sight, you are complete in him. Even now you are accepted in the Beloved, but there is a second perfection yet to be realized which is sure to all the seed. is it not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer and he shall be presented faultless before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing the church of christ then will be so pure that not even the eye of omniscience shall see a spot or blemish in her so holy and so glorious that heart did not go beyond the truth when he said with my Saviour's garments on, holy as the Holy One. Then shall we know and taste and feel the happiness of this vast but short sentence complete in Christ. Not till then shall we fully comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Does not thy heart leap for joy at the thought of it? Black, as thou art, thou shalt be white one day. Filthy, as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it is a marvellous salvation, this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel. Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in his glory, peerless in his beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. Oh my soul, stand and admire this blessed truth of perfection in Christ. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Luke chapter 2 verse 20 What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard for the good tidings of great joy that a Savior was born unto them. Let us copy them. Let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and his salvation. They also praise God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music, what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own, the things which we have made touching the King. It is not enough to hear about Jesus. Mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp.

One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence as it was told unto them. Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give you rest. Have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should have joy and comfort and life through believing in him. Have you not received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness and his paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the Queen of Sheba the half has not been told me. I have found Christ more sweet than His servants ever said He was. I looked upon His likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with Himself. For the King in His beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have seen keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds what we have heard. Let us then glorify and praise God for a savior so precious and so satisfying.

The things which are not seen 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18

In our Christian pilgrimage, it is well, for the most part, to be looking forward. Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal. Whether it be for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love, the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith. Looking into the future, we see sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect and fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Looking further ahead, the believer's enlightened eye can see death's river passed, the gloomy stream forded, and the hills of light attained on which standeth the celestial city. He seeth himself enter within the pearly gates, hailed as more than a conqueror, crowned by the hand of Christ, embraced in the arms of Jesus, glorified with him, and made to sit together with him on his throne, even as he has overcome and sat down with the Father on his throne. The thought of this future may well relieve the darkness of the past and the gloom of the present. The joys of heaven will surely compensate for the sorrows of earth.

Hush, my fears! This world is but a narrow span, and thou shalt soon have passed it. Hush, hush, my doubts! Death is but a narrow stream, And thou shalt soon have forded it. Time, how short! Eternity, how long! Death, how brief! Immortality, how endless! Methinks I even now eat of Eshkol's clusters, And sip of the well which is within the gate. The road is so, so short! I shall soon be there. When the world my heart is rending with its heaviest storm of care, my glad thoughts to heaven ascending find a refuge from despair. Faith's bright vision shall sustain me till life's pilgrimage is past. Fears may vex and troubles pain me. I shall reach my home at last.

in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11

When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself. So that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus the mediator, the federal head of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the joint riches of all who are in him and on whose behalf he accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but not for himself alone. For it is written, Whither the forerunner is for us entered, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 20. Does he stand in the presence of God? He appears in the presence of God for us. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24. Consider this, believer. You have no right to heaven in yourself. Your right lies in Christ. If you are pardoned, it is through his blood. If you are justified, it is through his righteousness. If you are sanctified, it is because he is made of God unto you. Sanctification. If you shall be kept from falling, it will be because you are preserved in Christ Jesus. And if you are perfected at the last, it will be because you are complete in him. Thus Jesus is magnified, for all is in him and by him. Thus the inheritance is made certain to us, for it is obtained in him. Thus, each blessing is the sweeter, and even heaven itself the brighter because it is Jesus, our beloved, in whom we have obtained all. Where is the man who shall estimate our divine portion? Weigh the riches of Christ in scales and his treasure in balances and then think to count the treasures which belong to the saints. Reach the bottom of Christ's sea of joy and then hope to understand the bliss which God hath prepared for them that love him. over leap the boundaries of Christ's possessions and then dream of a limit to the fair inheritance of the elect. All things are yours for ye are Christ's and Christ is God's.