WALKING WITH JESUS by Mary Winslow
Spiritual meditations for pilgrims in a weary land on
their way to glory!
Part 2
"Jesus, You are my chief joy, my life, my all.
Without You this world would be wretchedness itself. Keep, oh keep me
near Yourself, nearer, nearer still; and allow no earthly love to occupy
Your place in my heart."
All events are in His hands to direct, and
overrule, and bless to His own redeemed people.
When a corrupted Christianity spreads, what cold,
heartless formality prevails!
What communion can a formalist have with God?
Communion is supposed to be an interchange of sentiment, feeling, and
expression. What communion could one have with a statue? You may speak to
it, question it; but there is no response, no intimation of feeling, no
communion. So is it with the mere religious formalist. He regularly
says his prayers, but it is to an unknown God. He repeats the same again
and again, but he does not know the Being he addresses. There is no
response, no interchange of feeling; above all, of love. There is no
answer from the Lord, no bending down of His ear, no lifting up of His
countenance, no cheering welcome. Sadly, the formalist is satisfied with
this. He does what he thinks is his duty. He repeats his lifeless,
heartless prayers, and thinks he has done well. And so he lives and dies
with a lie in his right hand, unless God, in His sovereign mercy, awakens
him from his awful delusion, and shows him his lost and undone condition.
Go with all you need to Jesus; keep nothing back. Go
with all the simplicity of a babe, and tell Jesus. He will bow down
His loving ear, and listen to all you have to say to Him.
Oh, let us bow our neck to the cross, for Jesus is
walking with us every step of the way! When tried, rush at once into
the very bosom of Christ, and feel the warm pulsations of His own
loving heart, and rest your head there. All will be well. He is with you
now, and will never leave nor forsake you.
Oh, the wondrous, the ocean like love of Jesus! Who
can fathom it?
Oh, carry all your needs to Him, not doubting that
He not only hears you, but is every moment watching over you! All is well,
and though dark clouds come between, there is a bright light behind them.
Go at once with your trouble, be it what it may; nothing is too trivial to
carry to Him. Let us come to Jesus and bring to Him all our cares, large
and small, and tell Him all that is in our hearts.
Oh, the care of the Good Shepherd! His wakeful eye
is ever upon us, and His loving heart is ever towards us!
In heaven we shall have new bodies, more
beauteous than the brightest angel in heaven, and standing, too, nearer to
the Savior than they.
Oh, we shall see, when we arrive in heaven, how
wonderful has been the wisdom that has guided us in all our journey
through! You may be quite certain that all that takes place, small or
great, is in that covenant that is ordered in all things and sure.
Nothing is uncertain with God. A sparrow falls not to the ground
without Him. You are of more value than many sparrows.
Jesus is indeed very precious to my soul. All
creature love sinks into nothing before it. The more I see of the
fulness, the boundless love of Christ, the more I sink in the dust of self
abasement before Him.
What could we do in this world of manifold
temptations, had we not a God to go to, ever ready to be a present help?
Allow no distance to arise between you and your best
Friend. He has undertaken for us in all things. We need Him as our
Counselor, as our Guide, as our Protector, as our Deliverer, in ten
thousand ways. How needful and how sweet to be ever sitting at His feet,
looking up and meeting His eye bending down upon us in love!
Confession of sin is one of the most sweet, holy,
and profitable exercises of the soul. It endears us to Christ, and
endears Christ to us. It brings us into a brokenhearted, contrite
communion with a loving, sympathizing Savior, purifies the heart, and
keeps the conscience tender and watchful.
Death, to the believer, is but passing out of a
world of sorrow and of sin, and entering upon a world of indescribable
glory! If we lived more in anticipation of the happiness that waits us,
earth would have less hold on our hearts' best affections.
All His dispensations are designed to draw you
closer to Himself, and He would remove every object that comes between Him
and you. You shall not have one trial too much. His loving eye is upon
you; let yours be upon Him.
Dear friend, keep close to Jesus, and the throne of
grace. If you feel your heart cold, go at once, and He will warm it. If
you feel it hard and impenitent, go, and He will soften and awaken it to
sweet contrition. Go, under all circumstances and with all frames. All
your difficulties, however small or however great, you have a right to
bring to Jesus, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Dear
friend, we need to live more upon Him, like little helpless children.
May the Lord bless and keep you very near Himself, is the prayer of your
sincere friend in Christ.
It was love, infinite love that brought Jesus down
to earth. It was love, infinite love that led Him to pass through
the tremendous conflict, when he grappled with death, hell, and the grave.
It was love, infinite love that sustained Him in it, and that
brought Him out of it a royal Conqueror. It was love, infinite love
that bore Him back to heaven, where He is now, and where we shall be also.
And now, what have we to do here, but to glorify Him who has done such
great things for us?
Oh the glorious prospect that is before the feeblest
child of God! Look often at your inheritance. Take your walks in the
'garden of love' above! See Jesus there, no longer wearing a crown of
thorns, but a diadem of glory!
Let us ever trust Jesus for His unchanging and
unchangeable love. From everlasting to everlasting He has loved us; and
all the varying dispensations of His loving providence are only to prepare
us more completely for the place He is now preparing for us. Let us aim to
see Him in all things, and to have Him ever present with us. How sweet
to walk through this wilderness with our hand in His hand, feeling
that He is leading us safely along the narrow road that leads to
everlasting life. Dear friend, may Jesus be more and more precious to you
and I. None but Jesus can make us happy here and hereafter.
Join me in praising God for His great and
distinguishing mercy to us, in opening our eyes, and leading us to His
beloved Son, that we might be saved, with a sure and everlasting
salvation.
How is it with your soul? Are your prospects growing
brighter and brighter as you travel on? Do you find Jesus nearer and more
precious day by day? What progress have you made? You have had your
conflicts, your wanderings, and backslidings many; but still onwards you
must go. There is no standstill in this journey. Tell me when you saw
Him last, and how you feel in the prospect of soon being with the
beloved One forever and ever. I am not happy here without Him, and would
be miserable indeed, were I not quite sure of seeing and dwelling with Him
in glory. Jesus is all in all to my soul, and life would be wearisome
indeed were it not so. He makes up the sum of my happiness here, and will
be my joy, my life, and my glory hereafter. Dear friend, let us speed more
our journey, nor loiter in the way.
Oh that the saints of God would live more in the
anticipation of the glory that awaits them! There is much of heaven to
be enjoyed even on earth. Let us live, too, more in holy familiarity
with Jesus. Nothing is too much beneath His notice.
Jesus is the very same Jesus now that He was when He
walked the streets of Jerusalem. Though His body is glorified, He is not
altered. His heart is still the same, full of sympathy and love, ready to
listen to all we have to say to Him, and to do all we ask Him to do, and
in the best possible way. Precious Jesus! Is He not altogether lovely? He
is everything to my soul. Life would be an aching void without Him.
Oh, how few really know God! I meet with many
hearsay Christians, who have heard of Jesus, as Job did, with the
hearing of the ear, but who have no personal acquaintance with Him. They
have never come to Christ as poor, wretched, blind, and naked; and
therefore they know nothing of that peace which the application of the
atoning blood alone can impart. They have never come in contact with
Christ. They only believe what others say of Him, and know nothing of a
blessed recognition, a oneness and a holy communion between Jesus and the
poor sinner, saved by sovereign grace, and eternal, everlasting love.
Oh, the luxury of prayer! To have true communion,
familiar communion with God. To talk with God! To go and shut the door,
and tell God all, all that is in our heart! To feel that He is listening
to hear what we have to say to Him; and then to wait and see what He will
say to us! No tongue can tell the rich enjoyment of sitting in all the
helplessness of an infant at His feet, and know that He is listening to
all I say to Him. I rest on His loving, fatherly care!
What could we do in this poor dying world without a
throne of grace, and a God of grace upon the throne, in our every time of
need? Oh, let us keep close to Him who loved us with an everlasting love,
and with loving kindness has drawn us to Himself.
We are journeying to the inheritance which the Lord
our God has given to us, through a world crowded with temptations on
either side, which would divert us from the way, if it were possible. Our
worst foe, the body of sin and of death, we bear about with us. But our
Jesus is for us, and we can say, "More are they who are for us, than they
who are against us."
We are traveling fast, and at every step are
nearing our heavenly home! We shall see Jesus soon! Oh, how soon! Jesus
sits, in all the majesty of heaven, waiting to welcome His pilgrims home.
May you be led to see unceasingly that this world is
not worthy of one anxious thought! It is all passing away, and we
shall soon stand before the great white throne!
We are on a race course. The point from which we
start is conversion; the goal to which we run is heaven; the prize for
which we contend is a crown of glory, which the righteous Judge will give
us at that great day. If, dear friend, you have started in this race, so
run that you may obtain. Go forward. Do not rest where you are. How few
lay these great things to heart! The world and its trifles so engross the
thoughts, that God, and Christ, and eternity, with our vast
responsibility, are shut out of sight; and Satan, the great foe of
mankind, gains his point, unless sovereign grace interferes, and opens the
blind eye to see the danger, and Jesus the Refuge!
Oh, it is with a holy, heart searching God that we have
to do. And the soul is of more value than ten million worlds. What shall
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? These
are solemn, awful truths; but only by a few are they laid to heart.
None will ever come to Jesus until they feel that
they are lost and undone in themselves. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance.
Oh, what is all the grandeur, wealth, and honor of this
fleeting world, compared with the glory that awaits the believer in Jesus?
Kings and queens pass away, and leave their crowns; but the
Christian goes to his, and wears it through eternity, ever bright, ever
pure!
How much more are our thoughts engaged with this
present evil world, and our poor decaying bodies, than concerned to know
what awaits us in an endless eternity. Is not this one of Satan's
devices? He will endeavor to often engage our thoughts with
inconsequential trifles that would shame a child, in order to hide
from us the eternal realities of the glory that awaits the believer. Oh,
let us beware of Satan's devices!
We cannot utter one real prayer but by the Holy
Spirit. He it is who shows us our iniquity and helplessness, teaches us
how to pray and what to ask for, and then responds to our prayer.
Eternity, eternity, with all its solemn realities,
is before us!
Oh, the change from earth to heaven! The thought of
seeing Jesus face to face! Think, the joy of that moment!
With all its hopes and glory, this is but a poor world,
even if we could possess the whole of it. Take this world in its best
attire, it is but a wilderness of 'bitter sweets'.
Let us set out afresh to run the heavenly race;
warmed with the love of Christ in our heart, anointed with the Holy
Spirit, heaven in view, a crown of glory awaiting us, and Jesus on the
throne ready to bid us welcome!
There is none on earth or in heaven like Jesus! He is
the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely one. Oh, love Him!
Give your whole, your undivided heart to Him. If I had a thousand, He
would have them all.
If your heart appears cold, hard, and insensible,
take it to Jesus, and tell Him how it is with you. He will warm, soften,
and fill it with His love. Go, under all circumstances, and tell Him all
you feel, and all you do not feel. Let nothing come between you and your
best Friend. In all your fears, failures, and discouragements, go to Him,
and tell Him all.
How boundless is the love of God to the feeblest of
His little ones!
What will heaven be!
Nothing so keeps the heart right as having constant
communication with Christ.
I am nearing day by day my heavenly inheritance. It
seems at times almost in view. It is but a step, and I am there!
The more I see of Jesus, the more He opens to me His loving heart, the
deeper is my sorrow for sin. I lie down in the dust of His feet closer
than ever I did before. I can truly say I abhor myself in dust and ashes
before Him.
My heart seems ready to melt into contrition in
view of the ten thousand thousand sins, wilful and aggravating, that I
have committed against Him, who loved me with an everlasting love, and
with loving kindness drew me to Himself.
It is sweet to think how soon, how very soon, we shall
be fitted for the companionship of Jesus Himself, beholding Him in all His
unveiled beauties. Does not the thought often gladden our heart, and fill
your eyes with tears of joy, and holy contrition for sin? I cannot
conceive of holy joy unaccompanied with godly sorrow. Confession of sin
should make up one half of our lives. Only acknowledge your iniquity. And
when we remember that we have to do with One so willing and so able to
pardon, it becomes then a mingled feeling of pleasure and pain. By
confessing sin we gather strength to resist it; thereby the enemy of our
souls is foiled, the conscience is kept tender, the heart is sanctified,
and the blood of Jesus becomes increasingly precious. Let us constantly
flee to the cleansing fountain!
Oh, what a pleasant prospect is before us, almost in
full view! Jesus is at hand, and if He does not soon come to us, we shall
soon go to Him, our best and dearest Friend. Oh, to see His face, once so
wearied and careworn, traced with sorrow and with grief; and that because
our sins were laid upon Him. But now resplendent with glory; His
countenance is beaming with ineffable delight upon His redeemed, blood
bought family, rescued from the power of hell, death, and the grave.
Can we conceive of anything to equal such a scene? The Bridegroom
rejoicing over his bride, saints singing, angels admiring. Endeavor to
realize this, dear friend. Take your walks in the good land, flowing with
milk and honey.
A throne of grace, with a broken heart for sin, and a
pardoning Savior, is a verdant spot in this wilderness! Nothing in
this fading world can equal it!
The more we have to do with Christ, the more we shall
know of His excellences, His sympathy, and His exquisite, boundless
love! May we not be satisfied to know Jesus in theory only, but in our
soul's sweet experience.
There is no uncertainty with God. His thoughts of love
towards us have been from everlasting to everlasting. He loved us when we
were wandering far from Him, and far from happiness. He loved us when we
knew Him not. He loved us out of Satan's kingdom into the kingdom of
grace, and He will love us into the kingdom of glory. Our doubts and
fears may harass us, but they can make no alteration in His eternal
purposes.
Precious friend, look fully at Jesus. Look no
longer to your own weak, sinful heart. We are to look for comfort only to
Christ. The bitten Israelites looked at once and directly to the brazen
serpent, and were healed. Oh the precious fountain for sin and
uncleanness! I am obliged to come again and again to it.
I am fighting on my way, often sorrowing and
rejoicing at the same time; mourning for my sins, while I can and do
rejoice that Christ has made an all sufficient atonement for all my sins;
past, present, and to come; which, while it humbles me in the dust of self
abhorrence, makes me increasingly long to be like Him.
We have but a brief space left to show our love to
Christ. Let us work for Him, live for Him, live to Him, and look forward
to living with Him.
I would like to hear if all is well with you, and
if you are making progress heavenward, homeward, and if Jesus is
increasingly precious to your soul.
We do not know how soon we may be called to render in
an account to God? One step and we are there, in the very presence
of a holy, heart searching Jehovah. Is there anything upon earth of equal
importance to this?
Worldly prosperity is unfavorable soil for the true
Christian to grow in. It stupefies the soul.
What a grief it is to me to see those professing
Christ, and yet living for the world. Oh that this evil might be subdued
in me!
Why should our grace droop, and languish, and die,
when we can repair to the Fountain of living water, at all times and under
all circumstances? Oh, the blessing of having such an Almighty Friend in
glory, waiting to be gracious to us, whose power is infinite in heaven and
on earth; and whose love, like Himself, is from everlasting to
everlasting!
True religion is essentially experimental in its
nature. True Christianity is nothing less than the life of Jesus dwelling
in the soul of the believer. But Christian experience varies; it may be
more strongly developed in some individuals than in others. One believer
may present a more robust type of this essential Christianity than
another.
What, oh what shall I render unto You for Your wondrous
goodness and patience towards me? Nothing have I to render. I am
poor and needy, and dependent upon You moment by moment.
How intricate is often the believer's way! So
hedged up that he cannot discern a single step before him. All is dark. He
here and there goes too often to the creature for counsel, and perhaps for
sympathy, but finds all broken cisterns. But Jesus is at hand; a Fountain
of living waters, ever ready to impart all comfort, wisdom, and direction.
But, oh, how slow to approach this Fountain! How base and ungrateful the
heart, and wretched the unbelief that still lurks within, ever leading us
away from Him who is a present help in every time of need. Take up your
rest, O my soul, in Him who has loved you with an everlasting love, and
will love you unto the end!
Surely I have seen an end of all perfection, both in
myself and in others. But, oh, there is One, and only one, and He is
perfect. The goodness, the patience, the loving kindness of Jesus
surpasses our conceptions! Eternity only can unfold it to us, and we shall
be even there learning it out forever and ever!
We must go in all our helplessness to Him who has said,
"Without Me you can do nothing." We must cast ourselves at the feet of Him
who is watching over us with a loving, sleepless eye!
The Lord has tried you of late, and I do feel
anxious to speak a word of comfort to you in this affliction. Those whom
He loves He invariably tries. The graces of the Spirit are thus brought
into holy exercise. Jesus is thereby honored, and our souls ascend a
higher round in that ladder that reaches from earth to heaven. We must sit
at His feet, and believe that He does all things well. What we don't know
now, we shall know hereafter. The Judge of all the earth must do right.
Soon we pass away to our heavenly inheritance, and then we shall see all
the way He led us through the wilderness was the right way, and that not
one trial or cross could have been dispensed with. Oh, let us cling closer
and closer to Him than ever. Let us make Him our all in all. May the
constraining love of Christ, the eternal love of the Father, and the
sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit, rest upon you, guide, and bless you!
I am near my eternal home. Jesus is very precious, and
His presence is sensibly with me. I live now more as a little helpless
infant upon Christ, than ever I did in my long life.
Dear friend, this is our season for the trial of
faith, and every fresh trial, under the loving eye of Jesus, and
sanctified by the indwelling Spirit, is like a fresh gale wafting us
nearer and nearer to our port; to the place He has gone to prepare for us.
All these things work together for our prosperity of soul. We will never
think, when we get heaven, that we had one trial too many. We shall see
that we could not have done without one of them, for all were so many
needful lessons to instruct us in a journey through a wilderness full of
temptation. Infinite wisdom has chosen them for us. I know your trials are
often great, but the loving eye of Jesus is upon you, and your name is
deeply engraved upon His heart. Whom He loves He loves unto death.
The eye, the all searching eye of God is upon us
every moment!
It is Satan robed as "an angel of light," not
Satan appearing as a fiend of darkness, that we have most to dread.
I fear we have too little contact with Christ Himself.
We do not sufficiently make him our personal friend; walking with him,
talking with him, confiding in him as we would with the dearest personal
friend of our hearts. And yet this is our high and precious privilege. "This
is my Friend," should be the language of every believer, as he points
to, and leans upon, Christ.
O there is no school like God's school; for "who
teaches like Him?" And God's highest school is the school of trial.
All his true scholars have graduated from this school. "Who are these who
are clothed in white? Where do they come from? These are the ones coming
out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes in the blood
of the Lamb and made them white." Rev. 7:13-14. Ask each spiritually,
deeply taught Christian where he attained his knowledge; and he will point
you to God's great university; the school of trial.
The Lord has laid His heavy hand upon you. All is
in love. May He open your eyes to see it. He loves us too well to afflict
us with out a 'needs be'. When we get above, we shall see how
needful the chastening of Him who loves us, for our preparation for the
full enjoyment of that place He has gone to prepare for us. Oh, what a
change! from earth to heaven! From a suffering bed to a mansion of glory!
You are the sufferer; but dry your tears, for home will come at last, and
may we receive from His own loving lips a "Well done, good and faithful
servant; enter into the joy of your Lord." I feel for you, and pray you
may be sustained and comforted by God. Jesus is very near. He is ordering
all things for you. He does not willingly afflict us. It is to wean us
from a dying world and from ourselves. We too much grovel here. The
Lord sees the encroachment of earthly ties, which leave but half for Him.
Let us, then, gird up the loins of our mind, and make a fresh start for
heaven. A crown of glory awaits us! Jesus, the very same Jesus, is on the
throne, as full of love, compassion, and sympathy as when a man of sorrows
here upon earth. Oh, the glory that awaits the Christian! By all these
painful dispensations He is preparing us for the full enjoyment of that
glory; glory begun here; glory increasing through out eternity. This world
is not worth a thought; and we should ever bear in mind it is but a
passage to a better world. Let this fresh trial, like a stormy gale, drive
you nearer and still nearer to Jesus. Make Him your all in all.
We must all pass through much tribulation before we
enter the kingdom He has gone to prepare for us. Let us, then, take up the
cross, and follow hard after Him. A little while, and we shall be there.
Sweet thought! Oh, let us try and realize it. Heaven is not so far off
as we imagine. But as I draw nearer and nearer, heaven seems to open
with increasing attraction; and the prospect of seeing Jesus, that same
Jesus that bore all my sins on the accursed tree, fills me with joy
unspeakable and full of glory.
There is nothing too small to carry to Jesus.
Abroad, at home, in company, or in the street, lift up your heart, and
tell Him all you feel and all you desire. Aim to have constant communion
with Him. Let Him not be long out of your sight. Oh! to have to do with
Jesus and with Jesus only! Do not make up your mind to do anything before
you ask counsel from Him. The heart is deceitful, and will lead us astray.
Let us be very jealous over this inward foe, and only consult our dearest
and best Friend. Oh, He is an ocean of love! Nothing but love is in His
dear heart towards His precious children.
We live at too great a distance from Christ. He
wants us to experience more of His sympathy, His boundless love, His
nearness to, and His oneness with, us.
One of the delightful employments of heaven will be
to trace back the way the Lord led us safely, in spite of ourselves,
through the wilderness world. And then shall we see how needful was every
cross, and trial, and pain, and dispensation, with which our precious
Jesus saw fit to exercise us.
Be of good cheer, God has sent your trial. It is
a messenger of love; nothing but eternal, boundless, never ending love.
God is love, an ocean of love, nothing but love. His tender, loving eye is
upon you, and His loving heart is towards you at this moment. See what a
God and Father He is. Soon we shall all pass away, and be done with sorrow
and sin forever. A thousand times have I thanked the Lord for all my
trials and afflictions. I would not have been without them for worlds.
They have been messengers of boundless love and mercy to me. I do trust
this will be your rich experience. Your friend and sister in tribulation.
The Lord has taken His suffering child out of all her
troubles, to her happy, happy home! Long had she been refining in the
furnace, and preparing for that place Jesus had gone to take possession of
for her. Not one pain did she suffer, or sorrow did she feel, but had in
it the tenderest love of Jesus. All was needful. He was preparing her for
the full enjoyment of His presence. Shall not the Judge all the earth do
right? She has made her escape from a world of sin and trouble, and from a
body, not only of sin and death, but of suffering, and long a clog to her
soul. She has broken loose from her cage, and is with Jesus! Oh,
the happiness to look upon Him; to behold Him in all His unveiled
beauties; to see Him face to face! I rejoice that she is at last released!
I covet her joy.
There is nothing that can take place towards a child of
God but what our heavenly Father designs, in infinite love, for our
spiritual advancement, and His own glory. We are to submit to His holy
will, and believe that there was a 'needs be' for it. The Lord loves
His children too well to lay upon them the weight of a feather, without an
absolute necessity, and without some wise and loving purpose. God deals
wisely and graciously with us in all His varying dispensations. If tears
could be shed in heaven, we would weep that we ever mistrusted His
goodness in His dealings towards us. Let us, in this world of trial, cling
close to Him, and lean more upon Him as little helpless children. Keep a
constant communion with Him. Tell Him all you feel, or wish, or need.
I would not have been without my sad trials for ten
thousand worlds. What would I have known of the wondrous, tender, and
unchanging love of Jesus, but for my deep trials?
This poor world is but a wilderness, and, like the
children of Israel, we must pass through it to reach our heavenly home.
Live much in holy contemplation of the glory that awaits you. This will
enable you to bear the bitter trials that daily cross your path. Carry all
your difficulties, small and great, at once to Jesus. His ear is open to
your requests, and he will make every crooked path straight, and rough
path smooth. We are on a journey, and how soon it terminates!
Oh, how awfully blind are many who call themselves
Christians! Religious formalism is the bane of thousands! They say
prayers, but never pray. They know nothing of the great change from nature
to grace; nothing of the new birth. They have no personal, spiritual
acquaintance with Christ; nothing of real conversion. Is it not melancholy
to see so many, whom we love, yet living in the gall of bitterness and in
the bond of iniquity, while we know that, dying in that state, they are
lost forever?
We are so prone to look to 'the creature'; and then
He takes our prop away, that we may lean upon Him and upon Him only.
Oh, let it be our aim, our chief business, and the desire of our souls, to
walk humbly and closely with God! In a little while and we pass away; and
oh, how we shall wonder at ourselves that we could have allowed any one
thing to divert our minds, even for a moment, from the great, the
overwhelming concerns of eternity!
There is not a single truth in God's word which
will be of any avail to us, but as it is wrought out in the experience of
the soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the varying
dispensations of Divine Providence. Thus the Israelites were led through
many trials and difficulties in the wilderness, to show them what was in
their hearts. We are such dull scholars; and I often wonder and wonder
again at the patience of a good, gracious, and unchanging God towards us.
He varies His dealings, that He might teach us our nothingness, weakness,
and total helplessness.
The kingdom of God does not come with observation. The
world knows nothing of what is passing within the soul of the believer;
the mighty work which the Spirit is carrying silently on. The hidden evil
is revealed; his soul, in sorrow, flees to Jesus; the Comforter applies
the blood to the accusing and disturbed conscience; the throne is erected;
the King reigns supreme; the soul rejoices; all this transpires in the
believer without any outward sign, and the world knows it not. And
so the kingdom of God's grace in the soul works secretly and silently,
and without observation.
I thank Him for the throne of grace, where I can
relieve my burdened heart, and tell Him all, keeping nothing back, good or
bad. Oh, is not this a mighty privilege? The God of heaven, the Creator of
all worlds, stooping in love to 'simple dust'!
It is a perilous and an awful thing to be satisfied
with a form of godliness, without the vital, saving power. May the Lord
lead you into an 'experimental knowledge' of Jesus. No other
knowledge is worth having.
How tender and gentle are the dealings of our good
and gracious Father to His child! Oh, how wisely He acts in all His
various dealings with His children! He gives no account of any of His
matters, but acts as a sovereign on His throne.
How often does covetousness transform itself
into the shape of prudence, and thereby we are likely to be
deceived. Oh for stronger faith to live above the policy and precepts of
this poor dying world!
Every doctrine, as well as every word of God, is only
effectually profitable as it is worked out by the trying providence of God
in the soul's deep experience. Head knowledge will not do. Hearing
with the outward ear does but little for the soul, enables it to make no
progress towards heaven, or unfolds to us the tenderness of Christ, or the
real character of God. The truth as it is in Jesus is more known in one
deep trial than a year of smooth sailing. Worldly prosperity is but
indifferent soil for the Christian to grow in. It rather stunts the soul.
Jesus is the very same; as full of compassion,
sympathy, gentle, tender love, as when He walked the streets of Jerusalem.
Is there not enough in a precious Jesus to engage all our thoughts and all
our hearts? Let Him be our chief joy now. Let us keep very near to Him,
and let no idol come between our soul and our best, nearest, and
dearest Friend. The only way which a good and gracious God has pointed
out to us in the Scriptures, in which we may be enabled to go on our
heavenly journey, is by looking unto Jesus, not only when we first
commence, but all our journey through.
I think, if there is a verdant spot in this
wilderness world, it is where a poor believing sinner, with a contrite,
broken heart, sits at the feet of Jesus. The sinner confessing, Jesus
pardoning; the blood applied, and the conscience cleansed; all guilt
removed, and the redeemed of the Lord rising from his knees, rejoicing in
the Lord his God. Such have I often experienced, and therefore I commend
it to all who are followers of the Lamb.
How many have passed into the eternal world fatally
deceived by the error of baptismal regeneration! Baptized in infancy,
they, were taught to view themselves as spiritually regenerated, as made
the children of God; and they died, it is to be feared, with no more light
and no more grace, believing they were safe. Terrible delusion!
Eternity and an immortal soul, surely, are solemn
realities, and not to be sported with.
God is training us for our happy inheritance. Oh,
let us try and live to it. What are the various sorrows of the way,
compare with the glory that shall be revealed in us?
Jesus is everything to us! Without Him we are
wretched, and with Him we have all that can be desired.
Heaven seems very near to me. It seems but a step
and I am there, where there is no more sin, nor death, and where all tears
are forever wiped away. This poor world is a valley of tears. I have been
a child of sorrow, and yet not one trial too many have I had.
Aim to bring up your children for eternity.
Go to Jesus for all you need. Take Him as your
true, your best, your only Friend. There is not another like Him. Take Him
as your brother born for adversity. The oftener you go to Him, the more
welcome you will be, and the better acquainted. Do not first go to
an arm of flesh, and then to Christ. But go to Christ first, before you
make up your mind as to the course you should take.
This poor dying, disappointing world, at best is but a
cheat, promising much, but performing little! Oh, what a world is
this! What a mercy that we have a Friend who rules over all, and who has
said, "I am the Lord, and I do not change."
I have often thought of the goodness, kindness, and
tender sympathy of God, that though man had sinned and was at enmity with
his Creator, Benefactor, and Friend, so that the ground was cursed for his
sake; there should yet be so much in this world to comfort, to alleviate,
and delight; so much still lingering of its pristine beauty to regale and
please. And if this world is still so attractive, so lovely to the
eye and pleasing to the senses; what must that world be which
infinite love has gone to prepare for the redeemed and pure spirits
designed to inhabit it!
I need to learn to live day by day, trusting God
for the daily supplies of His grace, and for the leadings of His
providence; leaving the morrow in His own blessed hand, who knows how to
give and when to withhold.
Walk in the fear of God, and you need fear nothing
else.
Never undertake a cause without kneeling down and
asking the Lord for wisdom and grace. If Solomon felt it needful to do
this, well may you. Christ says, "Without Me you can do nothing."
Did you but more know the depth of that love
that is in the heart of Jesus you would never be reluctant to go to Him
for all you needed.