how much less will He turn away those who come to Him for cure of soul and spirit? If He turn you away, you will be the first He ever has, and the last He ever will reject. Hear what He says, "I hate putting away." "Whosoever will, let him come; and him that cometh I will in no wise cast out." 66 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Take Him at His word. Go right to Him. Go now. Go just as you are. Go, saying to Him, "You bade me come; you said, if I came, you would give me rest." Plead before Him His own promise; plead His past kindness and mercy to others. Fill your mouth with arguments. Put Him in remembrance. Ask, seek, "knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" for JESUS IS GOD, and cannot lie. Num. xxiii. 19. Oh! fearful soul, here is more comfort from Jesus being Godman, the creature, broke the law-God, the Creator, fulfilled it. That shuts its mouth. "Christ has hushed the law's loud thunder; He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame." The law has been magnified by "the obedience of God." It was man's blood only that justice could demand--God gave it His own blood. That sheathes its sword. These things being so, the way to God is now open; all barriers are removed, and sinners, even the chief, can come-yea, are bidden to come with boldness to the mercy-seat, by the blood and righteousness of JESUS-GOD. How full and overflowing is mercy's fountain, having Jesus' righteousness—“the righteousness of God"—as its spring and source ! "This is the name by which He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Then "Come, all ye vilest sinners, come, He'll form your hearts anew; His Gospel and His grace have room For sinners such as you." JESUS IS GOD," able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him." MORE COMFORT STILL! Jesus being God, how rich, how infinite, the merit in which the believer stands before God! Adam, thy pristine righteousness was nought to what His is now. Cherubim and seraphim, His robe casts yours into the shade, eclipsing all your glory. Not thine, but His is the "righteousness of God.", O JESUS-GOD! is this thy love to sinners, to make them heirs of God's own righteousness? Amazing grace, O love Divine ! 66 Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord." How safe are His people! Ah, Noah, no safer wert thou, shut in by God into thine ark, than is every believer whose "life is hid with Christ in God." The arm that defends Him is the arm of God. JESUS-GOD says, "They shall never perish. I give to them eternal life." Oh, how delightful to think that while we are bowing the knee to Jesus, we are worshipping the "Eternal God!" We may feel ready to envy the privilege of these devoted women, and think with what raptures of love and gratitude we would have "held Him by the feet;" but let us not forget that AS GOD He made and fulfils the promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I." Every true Christian worships JESUS GOD as did these holy women. When burdened with a sense of sin and guilt, flees he not to Jesus' atoning blood for peace and pardon? Is not this worshipping Jesus? In temptation, trouble, and danger, he remembers Him" that was tempted," and takes refuge under His protecting wing. Is not this worshipping Jesus? In sickness, poverty, and trials, looks he not to the "Man of Sorrows," who had "not where to lay His head," and seeks his supplies from Him? Is not that worshipping Jesus? And in view of the dying hour, his desire is to die at the feet of Jesus, at His mercy-seat. Ah! is not that worshipping Jesus? There, says he, let me be found-this my last act, "looking for the mercy of God my Saviour." JESUS IS GOD. Then, Church of God, arise from the dust, put on thy beautiful garments, display thy glorious banners, sound aloud thy silver trumpets, and "shout for joy in the sight of all nations!" Thy Jesus is God—“ God of all the ends of the earth," God over all, King of all earth's kings, Lord over all earth's lords. Nor is the day distant when " 'all kings of the earth shall bow down before Him," and all nation's serve our JESUS-GOD, whom these devoted women held by the feet and worshipped." Amen. Hallelujah! JOHN GRAY. PRAY ALWAYS. Luke xxi. 36. 1. Pray in early life. However it may be with others, God says, "They that seek me early shall find me." Prov. ii. 17. 2. Pray early in the day. David prevented or went before the dawning of the morning, and cried (Ps. cxix. 147); and Jesus, our great example, arose long before day and prayed. Mark i. 35. 3. Pray in your closet in secret. There you may be most free, and will most likely be sincere. There God is especially nigh, and He will openly bless those who secretly call upon Him. Matt. vi. 6. 4. Pray at the domestic altar with your family; for prayerless families are classed with the ignorant heathen, and the fury of the Almighty is called down upon both. Jer. x. 25. 5. Pray in the sanctuary, the house of prayer. Attend constantly, and with this view, for there public prayer is made for all classes and for all blessings. 6. Pray in affliction. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray." Prayer is the wisest counsel, the best medicine, and the most effectual help for a sick man. Read of David in Ps. cxvi, and of King Hezekiah, Isaiah xxxii. 7. Pray in the time of any trouble. This, God has permitted and appointed, promising to hear, help, and deliver; and He is faithful who has promised. See Ps. 1. 15. 8. Pray when you are not in trouble. Pray in the time of health and ease, peace and prosperity; for the prayers extorted by trouble only INVENTIVE PIETY. Ir is enjoined upon all Christians, that they do good as they have opportunity." Compliance with this Divine precept requires 1. A will, a heart, a purpose to do good. Of this, many are but too sadly destitute. They seek their own, plan for themselves only, and are, in a word, thoroughly selfish. By such, an opportunity of doing good is seldom or never sought; and if it presents itself unsought, is speedily put aside. 2. The precept requires the exercise of thought, invention, discovery. Waiting for opportunities does not suffice. A Christian has feet with which to move, and eyes with which to see, and hands with which to help. These all must be used in the service of a Christian disposition. To one having heart and thought for good-doing, occasions for his gratification will come of themselves, or be searched for with eager desire. The Master went about doing good. He passed from place to place. He visited, and counselled, and healed. His disciples are presumed to imitate His example. If they do not, of what value is their profession? One grand difficulty in the cultivation of a practical Christianity consists in this-that so many professors of religion wait for important, or extra, or pre-arranged occasions for doing good. They are not inventive, nor energetic, nor enterprising, in seeking for small and daily opportunities, wherein to show their love for God and man; and yet it is by seizing these smaller opportunities, and turning them to account, that nearly all real good is effected. In conversation, in a visit of compassion, in inviting one's neighbour to the house of God, in looking up neglected children, in aiding the poor when he crieth-these and many other deeds of charity, done now by the few, but obligatory upon all true Christians-these modest modes of doing good, which are never celebrated in newspapers, nor chronicled in history, are the modes which afford the fullest scope for the exercise of practical piety. But, in order that the heart's sympathies may not run to waste, and the best intentions do not subside into slum ber, it is necessary that there should be daily cultivated the habit of looking up and searching out the oppor tunity, which Providence never fails to furnish those who will be faithful almoners of the Divine grace. "Do good! do good! There is ever a way, A way where there's ever a will; Don't wait for to-morrow, but do it to-day, And to-day, when to-morrow comes, still." PRAYER ANSWERED. ABRAHAM prayed, "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!" and God said, "As for Ishmael, I have heard thee." Lot prayed, and Zoar became a city of refuge for him, while Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed. Jacob prayed, and his name was changed to Israel. His descendants cried to God in their bondage, and He stretched out the right hand of His power for their deliverance. Moses cried unto the Lord, and the waters gushed from Horeb. Hannah prayed, and then testified, "The Lord hath given me my petition." Samuel besought Jehovah in Israel's behalf, and great thunder discomfited the Philistines. Solomon had a wise and an understanding heart because he had asked this thing. Elijah on Carmel prayed, "Hear me, oh Lord, hear me." Soon the multitude exclaimed, "The Lord He is the God; the Lord He is the God." Elisha prayed, and the Shunamite's son breathed again. Hezekiah prayed, and the shadow went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz. Asa cried unto the Lord, and the Ethiopians filed before Him and Judah. Jehoshaphat prayed, and Judah and Jerusalem saw the salvation of God. Nehemiah made prayer unto God amid the tauntings of enemies, and saw them silenced under the power of Jehovah. David in trouble called upon the Lord, and deliverance came to him and mercy to his seed for evermore. Jeremiah cries in our hearing unto the Lord, "Thou hast heard my voice." Gabriel came with swift wing to Daniel to assure him that his supplication was not in vain. From the billow and the wave Jonah sent up his cry, and the Lord heard. Zacharias prayed, and an angel from the presence of God came with glad tidings. Bartimeus cried aloud and glorified God for sight bestowed. The dying thief uttered one prayer, and Paradise opened its gates to receive him. THE ATONEMENT. It is easy to see the necessity of having correct views of the nature of the Atonement itself. This is the life of the Christian system; it is the spirit which animates it; and if our apprehensions and impressions about this are wrong, our religion will be wrong. In proportion to our error in this point will be our happiness in Christian experience. If we do not catch the true spirit of the doctrine of the Atonement, we shall not catch the true spirit of Christian life; and if we live at all to Christ, then it will be a diseased and sickly life; and, instead of resembling those who breathe the pure atmosphere that quickens a heavenly existence, we shall resemble those who breathe the poisoned and pestilent vapours that sometimes float even over the green fields of the Zion of God. The Atonement is the believer's breath of life. He cannot take a step, he cannot speak a word, he cannot feel an emotion in religion, without it. It tempers all his hopes, his fears, his faith; it governs his humility, his peace, his love; it guides his gentleness, his goodness; it opens the fountain of his tears; it is the key-note of the song he sings. And when he goes forth to do good, it turns him from the track of the Levite and the Priest, to the better path of the good Samaritan who bears his oil and his wine. If this pervading principle, therefore, becomes corrupted, all else will partake of the taint. If the truth of the principle be all lost, grace will not exist in the soul, and the soul will not be saved. UNIVERSALISM. IF Universalism be the doctrine of the Scriptures, it will follow, of course, that 1. The happy man is he "whose conscience is seared with a hot iron." 2. The suicide is a wise man. 3. The atheist, who lives according to the dictates of nature, and has no dread of a future, is to be envied. 4. The Apostle Paul was a fool for striving "to bring his body into subjection." He actually laboured lest when he preached to othersthat all men should inherit the kingdom of God-he himself should be a castaway. 5. The Epicureans were better practical Christians than is often supposed. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we" shall be in heaven. |
