Page images
PDF
EPUB

180. Legible only by the light they give,

Stand these soul-quickening words, believe and live. Too many, shock'd at what should charm them

most,

Reject the plain direction, and are lost :

Heaven on such terms, they cry, with proud disdain,

Incredible, impossible, and vain;
Rebel because 'tis easy to obey,

And scorn for its own sake the gracious way.

Cowper.

181. Justifying righteousness, sanctifying grace, healing virtue, and saving power, are all derived from Immanual through believing.

182. "Would you be safe, Christ must be your sanctuary; would you be holy, Christ must be your pattern; would you be happy, Christ must be your portion."

183. Thrice happy they who have living faith in the dying hour.

184. Faith builds a bridge across the gulph of death,

To break the shock blind nature cannot shun,
And land us safely on the farther shore.
Death's terror is the mountain faith removes.

Dr. Young.

185. Examine carefully the grounds of your confidence. Do not mistake presuming for be

lieving. The faith of a sinner is not to believe that he is a saint, but that he not that he has attained pardon, but that it is attainable.

be one; may

186. You must be rooted in faith and love, before you can be fruitful in good works.

187. "True faith has gospel promises for its foundation of dependance, and gospel obedience for its superstructure.

188. He who professes to believe in Christ, yet lives a worldly or wicked life, is carried away with a delusion.

189. Saving faith is a holy, active, victorious principle. It purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world.

[ocr errors]

190. Christ comes with blessings in each hand, pardon in one and holiness in the other, and never gives either to any who will not receive both.-T. Adam.

191. Faith has a clear eye, a strong hand, and a swift foot. It discerns with a glance the sufficiency of Christ, seizes with a firm grasp the promises of the gospel, and flees without delay from the wrath to come.

192. What has he to dread who has an Advocate to plead his cause, a Surety to answer for his

debt, a Physician to heal all his maladies, and a GOD to supply all his wants?

On the Holy Spirit.

193. That God should dwell with man upon earth, is a miracle of mercy, which ought to fill our hearts with wonder and joy, and our lips with thanksgiving and praise.

194. If an earthly prince quits his palace to visit the cottage of a poor peasant, it is thought great condescension-what then shall we think of the King of kings, who deigns to fix his abode in the contrite and humble soul?

195. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to testify of Christ, to enlighten the understanding, sanctify the affections, and comfort the heart.

196. Seek a large measure of the divine influence from Him who has promised it in answer to prayer, Luke xi. 13.

197. As we cannot truly call Jesus our Master without the spirit or temper of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. so neither can we call God our Father without the spirit of adoption.

198. The Holy Spirit is compared to the wind or air, which is necessary to life and health; to water, which cleanses, refreshes, and fertilizes; to fire, which warms, melts, and refines.

199. The fruits of the Spirit are obvious and visible, but the manner of his operation on the mind is mysterious and incomprehensible.

200. Voices, visions, sudden impulses, and unaccountable impressions, are the work or rather wild-fire of an overheated imagination. Divine grace works by the word, first convincing of sin, and then filling the soul with joy and peace in believing A Renewe

201. The heart is God's temple. Let no unhallowed fire, no infernal passions, burn in his Sanctuary.

202. Beware of quenching or grieving the Holy Spirit.

On Conscience.

203. Conscience is an exact recorder, that writes every man's history; an inward witness, that will sooner or later speak the whole truth;

an impartial judge, whose sentence will acquit or condemn.

204. Scourges, racks, and flames, can inflict no pains to be compared with the stings and tortures of a guilty conscience.

205. Wicked men by specious errors and intoxicating pleasures contrive to lull conscience into a slumber; but when it wakes, its voice is louder than thunder, and its strokes keener than flashes of lightning.

206. The impenitent man who adds sin to sin, and guilt to guilt, is laying up fuel to consume his own soul, Rom. ii. 5.

207. There cannot be a good conscience without these three things: peace, purity, and tenderness.

208. The first acts of sin may disturb, but long habits of wickedness sear the conscience.

209. Evil thoughts and evil affections, as sprightly and ærial as they seem to be, leave a stain upon the conscience, as breathing upon glass sullies it.-Bishop Hopkins.

210. He that has no other measure of right and wrong than custom, talks as absurdly about principle, as a blind man of colours, or a deaf man of music.

« EelmineJätka »