Grace Gems

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As we pass along the miry paths of life

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. From Your high throne behold with gracious eye--Your humble servants. We would not cross the threshold of this day, without committing ourselves, our souls and bodies, all our concerns, and all our friends--to Your guardian care. We know that we are not our own; we desire to be wholly Yours. Watch over us, keep us, guide us, direct us, sanctify us, and bless us. Incline our hearts to delight in Your holy ways.

As the potter frames the clay--may You mold us wholly into the blessed image of Jesus! Make us vessels of honor, fitted for Your service. May our lips, as well-tuned harps, sound the sweet melody of Your heavenly praise. May all around take knowledge of us--that we have been much with Jesus--that we are dead to earthly vanities--crucified with Christ--yet living by Your Spirit--trampling the world beneath our spurning feet--having no conformity to its lying vanities--but entirely transformed by the renewing of our minds--clad in the whole armor of God--shining as lights in the dark world--and having "holiness to the Lord" conspicuous on our brow!

We do not know with what matters, we may be intermingled with this day. Let no evil soil our hands. Help us, as we pass along the miry paths of life--to keep our garments pure from all spot and stain. While transacting needful concerns, may our affections be high in heaven with You. As the flame tends upward, so may the fire of heavenly love in our souls, kindled and fanned by Your Holy Spirit--be ever ascending in brighter and purer blaze!

Keep our gaze immovably fixed, not on the things which are seen--but on the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal--but the things which are unseen are eternal. Open our eyes to see "emptiness, fragility and mockery" inscribed on all earth's vanities! They cannot satisfy! As a shadow--they depart and flee away! While we grasp them--they are gone! May we view all things in the 'mirror of eternity!'

Impress on us the solemn truth, that in a little while, "the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare!" May we move through this world, with one aspiration ever swelling within our hearts, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

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We meekly knock at mercy's gate

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

"All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind!" Isaiah 64:6

Holy Father, Almighty God,
We feel our weakness, our ignorance, our deep corruptions. We meekly knock at mercy's gate. Regard us in tender love--for Jesus' sake. Bend down Your ear--and grant Your smile.

We are blind--be our light.

We are ignorant--be our wisdom.

We are steeped in selfishness--pluck all SELF out of us.

In the deep sense of our guilt--we fly for refuge into the wounded side of Jesus! Be merciful, be merciful unto us--whose only hope is in Your unfailing mercy.

Our sins rise higher than the heavens--but Your merits in our behalf surpass the very heaven of heavens!

Our unrighteousness would weigh us down to hell--but Your glorious righteousness exalts us to Your heavenly throne!

All things in us call for our damnation--but all things in You demand our forgiveness.

We appeal, then, from Your throne of perfect justice--to Your throne of boundless grace!

Blessed Jesus, we hide ourselves in the sure covert of Your wrath-appeasing wounds!

Grant us to hear Your voice assuring us: that by Your stripes we are healed; that You have been bruised for our iniquities; that You have been made sin for us--that we might have Your divine righteousness; and that all our vile and grievous iniquities, are forgiven and buried in the ocean of Your sin-concealing blood!

We are guilty--yet pardoned!

We are lost in ourselves--yet fully saved in You!

Enable us to cling firmly to Your cross--even as we now seek safety and repose beneath its sin-atoning shelter!

Let floods of sustaining grace from Your inexhaustible treasury, enrich our poor and weary souls.

If the enemy approaches, quicken our steps to flee into the wounds of Jesus as our sure refuge! Sheltered in the ark of safety, may we cease to tremble at all alarms. May the good Shepherd lead us this day into the green pastures of His refreshing Word, and cause us to lie down beside the rivers of His divine comforts.

These prayers we humbly offer in the name of Jesus Christ, and trusting only in His saving merits. Amen.

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The Lord preserves His people

(Letters of John Newton)

March 1, 1769
Dear madam,
Through grace, I can say, that, as I never saw more of my own vileness--so I never saw Jesus more precious and desirable; or was more clearly sensible of the vanity of everything without Him, than I have of late. "None but Jesus!" is my motto. All wisdom, righteousness, holiness and happiness, which does not spring from and center in Him--I renounce!

The heart is deceitful,
the world is ensnaring,
the enemy is subtle and powerful.
But we know Him who has said, "My grace is sufficient for you!" He is able to keep us from falling, in every circumstance and situation to which His providence calls us.

The Lord preserves His people--by putting His fear in their hearts, by making them sensible of their dangers, and drawing them to come boldly to His throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need.

Our daily prayer should be, "Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117

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SOVEREIGNTY

(John MacDuff, "The Rainbow in the Clouds")

"The Lord reigns!" Psalm 93:1

No rainbow of promise in the "dark and cloudy day" shines more radiantly than this. God, my God, the God who gave Jesus--orders all events, and overrules all for my good! "When I," says He, "send clouds over the earth." He has no wish to conceal the hand which shadows for a time, earth’s brightest prospects. It is He alike who "brings the cloud," who brings us into it, and in mercy leads us through it! His kingdom rules over all. "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." He puts the burden on, and keeps it on, and at His own time will remove it!

Beware of brooding over second causes. It is the worst form of atheism! When our most fondly cherished gourds are smitten; our fairest flowers lie withered in our bosom; this is the silencer of all reflections, "The Lord prepared the worm!" When the temple of the soul is smitten with lightning, and its pillars rent: "The Lord is in His holy temple!" Accident, chance, fate, destiny, have no place in the Christian’s creed. He is no unpiloted vessel left to the mercy of the storm. "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters!" There is but one explanation of all that befalls him: "I will be mute, I will open not my mouth, because You O Lord, did it."

Death seems to the human spectator, the most capricious and severe of all events. But not so. The keys of death and Hades are in the hands of this same reigning God! Look at the parable of the fig-tree. Its prolonged existence, or its doom as a cumberer, forms matter of conversation in Heaven; the axe cannot be laid at its root--until God gives the warrant! How much more will this be the case regarding every "Tree of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord?" It will be watched over by Him, "Lest anyone hurt it." Every trembling fiber--He will care for; and if made early to succumb to the inevitable stroke, "Who knows not in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has wrought this." Be it mine to merge my own will in His; not to cavil at His ways, or to seek to have one jot or tittle of His will altered; but to lie passive in His hands; to take the bitter as well as the sweet, knowing that the bitter cup is mingled by One who loves me too well to add one ingredient that might have been spared!

Who can wonder that the sweet Psalmist of Israel should seek, as he sees the rainbow spanning the lower heavens, to fix the arrested gaze of a whole world on the softened tints of this Rainbow of Comfort, "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice!"

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A LOVING PURPOSE

(John MacDuff, "The Rainbow in the Clouds")

"Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." Psalm 35:27

What is "prosperity"? Is it threads of life weaved into a bright outcome? a full cup? ample riches? worldly applause? an unbroken circle? No, these are often a snare; received without gratitude; dimming the soul to its nobler destinies. Often spiritually, it rather means God taking us by the hand into the lowly Valleys of Humiliation; leading us as He did His servant Job of old--out of his sheep, oxen, camels, health, wealth, children; in order that we may be brought before Him in the dust, and say, "Blessed be His holy name!"

Yes! The very reverse of what is known in the world as Prosperity forms the background on which the Rainbow of Promise is seen. God smiles on us through these rainbows and teardrops of sorrows! He loves us too well. He has too great an interest in our spiritual welfare to permit us to live on in what is misnamed "Prosperity." When He sees duties languidly performed, or coldly neglected; the heart deadened, and love to Himself congealed by the absorbing power of the present world, He puts a thorn in our nest to drive us to the wing, and prevent our being grovelers forever!

I may not be able now to understand the mystery of these dealings. I may be asking through the tears, "Why this unkind arrest on my earthly happiness? Why so premature a lopping of my boughs of promise? Why such a speedy withering of my most cherished gourd?" The answer is plain. It is your soul’s prosperity He has in view. Believe it, your true Ebenezers will yet be raised close by your Zarephaths (the place of furnace).

His afflictions are no arbitrary appointments. There is righteous necessity in all He does. As He lays His chastening hand upon you, and leads you by ways you know not, and which you never would have chosen--He whispers the gentle accents in your ear, 'Beloved I wish above all things that you would prosper, and be in health.'

Rest in the quiet consciousness that all is well. Murmur at nothing which brings you nearer His own loving Presence. Be thankful for your very cares, because you can confidently cast them all upon Him. He has your temporal and eternal "prosperity" too much at heart to appoint one superfluous pang, one needless stroke. Commit therefore, all that concerns you to His keeping, and leave it there!

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Calvary's stupendous scene!

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

"It is finished!" John 19:30

Holy Father,
The heavens, the earth, and all that are therein, proclaim Your wondrous goodness. But Your love shines forth in surpassing luster--at Calvary's stupendous scene! At the cross we see Your heavenly grace removing the tremendous load of our iniquities from us--and heaping them all on Your beloved Son! We see Him standing as a transgressor in our place. We see Him, who knew no sin--made sin for us. We see Him, the all-holy One--accounted as a curse! We see Your justice leading the spotless Lamb to the slaughter--and rigorously demanding the full payment for all our sin-debt!

The avenging sword enters into His very heart!

The stream of sin-atoning blood flows!

Full recompense is meted out!

Divine Justice can ask no more.

Charges against us are all obliterated.

The debt-book is cancelled. If our sins are searched for, they cannot now be found!

The spotless Lamb is devoted to all anguish--that we may be inheritors of all joy.

He is cast off from You--that we may be brought near to You.

He is treated as Your enemy--that we may be welcomed as Your friends.

He is deserted by You--that we may be received to Your everlasting favor.

He is surrendered to hell's worst--that we may attain heaven's best.

He is stripped--that we may be clothed.

He is wounded--that we may be healed.

He thirsts--that we may drink of the water of life.

He is in darkness--that we may rejoice in the glories of eternal day.

He weeps--that all tears may be forever wiped from our eyes.

He groans--that we may sing an endless song.

He endures all pain--that we may rejoice in unfading health.

He wears a crown of thorns--that we may receive a crown of glory.

He bows His head in death--that we may lift up our head in heaven.

He bears earth's reproach--that we may receive heaven's welcome.

He is tormented--that we may be comforted.

He is made all shame--that we may inherit all glory.

His eyes are dark in death--that our eyes may gaze on unclouded brightness.

He dies--that we may escape the second death, and live forevermore.

O gracious Father, thus You spare not Your only begotten Son--that You may spare us! All our sins are cast behind Your back--all are buried in the ocean of reconciling blood!

We can only fall low and cry, "We adore You for the gift of Your Son as our substitute; for the death of Your Son as our ransom!"

Blessed Jesus, we have been standing beneath Your cross. The sight constrains us to the deepest humility. Our vile iniquity--is the cause of Your shame! We cannot fathom the sins which plunged You into such depths of unutterable woe! We cannot estimate the burden of wrath which thus crushed You. We cannot deny that the sins which stain us are evils of infinite malignity, since nothing but Your blood could wash away their guilty stains! As transgressors, we abhor ourselves before You.

While we humbly gaze--may we anxiously ponder, "Why, blessed Jesus--why did You thus die?" May His precious answer sound through every part of our hearts and souls,
"I die--that you may not die.
I lay down My life--to purchase your life.
I present Myself as a sin-offering to--expiate all your sins.
My blood thus streams--to wash out all your guilt.
The fountain is thus opened in My side--to cleanse you from all impurity. I thus endure your curse. I thus pay your debt. I thus rescue you from all condemnation. I thus satisfy divine justice for you!"

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THE SAFE REFUGE
by John MacDuff

"And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Isaiah 32:2

"A man!" This first word forms the key to the precious verse, it is "The man Christ Jesus!" And when and where is He thus revealed to His people as their hiding place and shelter? It is, as with Elijah of old, in the whirlwind and the storm! Amid the world’s bright sunshine, in the tranquil skies, uninterrupted prosperity, they seek Him not! But when the clouds begin to gather, and the sun is swept from the firmament; when they have learned the insecurity of all earthly refuges, then the prayer ascends, "My heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." The Earthquake, the Tempest, the Fire, and then "the still small voice!"

Sorrowing believer, you have indeed a Sure Refuge; a Strong Tower which cannot be shaken! The world has its refuges too. But they cannot stand the day of trial. The wind passes over them and they are gone! But the louder the hurricane, the more will it endear to you the abiding Shelter; the deeper in the clefts of this ROCK--the safer you are.

A Man! Delight often to dwell on the humanity of Jesus; you have a brother on the throne! a "living Kinsman," one who "knows your frame," and who, by the exquisite sympathies of His exalted human nature--can gauge, as none other can, the depths of your sorrow.

An earthly friend comes to you in trial, he has never known bereavement, and therefore can not enter into your woe. Another comes; he has been again and again in the furnace; his heart has been touched tenderly as your own; he can feelingly sympathize with you. It is so with Jesus. As man, He has passed through every experience of suffering. He has Himself known the storm from which He offers you shelter. He is the ROCK, yet "a Man!" "Mighty to save;" yet mighty to compassionate! "Emmanuel, God with us!" He is like the rainbow in the material heavens, which, while its summit is in the clouds, each base of its arc rests on earth; or like the oak which, while it can wrestle with the tempest, yet invites the most feeble bird to fold its wing on its branches!

Mourner! Go sit under your "Beloved's shadow with great delight." Hide in His wounded side! The hand which was pierced for you--is ordering your trials; He who roused the storm is the hiding place from it; and as you journey on, gloomy clouds mustering around you, let this bright rainbow of comfort ever arrest your drooping eye; "For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way... since He Himself has gone through suffering and temptation, He is able to help us when we are being tempted."

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We confess with shame

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

O Eternal God, who alone has immortality, ever living in glory, unchanged, unchangeable, bend down Your ear to hear. We confess with shame--past hours wasted in unprofitable reading and other worldly entertainments. If future days are ours--guide us that no more time be squandered in vain pursuits.

Impress on our minds . . .
  the shortness of time,
  the work to be done,
  the account to be rendered,
  the nearness of eternity,
  the misery of lamps expired, when the voice of the Bridegroom is heard.

May we never forget that . . .
  Your eye always sees us;
  Your ear always hears us;
  Your recording hand commits all to a book of remembrance;
  all hidden works must be unveiled at the judgment day!

Above all things--may we seek Your favor!

Above all things--may we dread Your frown!

May Christ be the pulse of our hearts.

May He speak in every word of our lips.

May He shine in every step of our earthly walk.

Grant our requests, for His dear sake. Amen.

[nChrist]

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The sword of Divine justice buried in His sinless heart!

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

Holy Father,
We blush to lift up our eyes unto You, O God of all grace and love. Shame and confusion of face humble us to the very dust. Wherever You have been boundless in mercy--we have been abundant in sin! We cannot measure our ingratitude. We cannot estimate our vileness. Each day has added to our guilt. Each scene has witnessed our wicked hearts, our straying feet and our offending tongues. What is there in heaven or in earth, above, around, without, or within--which condemns us not? The sun condemns us, which has seen our mis-deeds; the darkness, too, which hides nothing from Your all-penetrating eye! The cruel accuser justly accuses us. Your righteous law, Your holy Word, our sin-soiled consciences, our public and our private hours--write dark things against us! We make no denial. We frame no excuse. We confess, Father, that we have sinned against heaven and before You--and are not worthy to be called Your sons!

But still we live! We live to fly as contrite penitents to Your extended arms! We know that You will not cast us off--for Jesus brings us near. You will not condemn us--for Your dear Son died in our place. You will not mark the mountains upon mountains of our sins--for the Savior has removed them all. His precious blood has washed out every crimson stain! His spotless robe of righteousness, covers all our deformities! We put it on by the hand of faith--and we rejoice that we are lovely in His precious loveliness, and beauteous in His matchless beauty.

Open widely the eyes of our faith, that we may see all our justly merited curse, expended on the faultless head of our precious sin-atoning Savior, and the sword of Divine justice buried in His sinless heart!

We come to You . . .
  clinging to His cross,
  sheltered by His side,
  hidden in His wounds,
  cleansed in His blood,
  covered by His spotless robe,
  beautified in His salvation!

[nChrist]

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How often do we mingle sulphur with our incense!

(Charles Spurgeon)

This is a strong expression--but most sadly true. When we offer prayer, is there not at times a sorrowful mixture of self-will, petulance, and impatience? Does not unbelief, which is quite as obnoxious as brimstone, too often spoil the sweet fragrance of our supplications? When we offer praise, is it all pure spices from the heavenly apothecary? Do not self-conceit and pride, frequently spoil the holy frankincense and myrrh? Alas! we fear that the charge must lie against us, and force us to a sorrowful confession!

As the priests of God, our whole life should be the presentation of holy incense unto God--and yet it is not so. The worldly ambitions and carnal lustings of our hearts, deteriorate and adulterate the spices of our lives! And Satan, with the sulphur of pride, ruins the delicate perfume of perfect consecration.

What astounding grace does the Lord display--in accepting our poor, imperfect offerings! What rich merit abides in our Lord Jesus! What sweet fragrance beyond expression dwells in Him--to drown and destroy our foul sulphurous offerings, and to make us accepted in the Beloved! Glory be unto our glorious High Priest, whose perfect life and sin-atoning death, is so sweet--that the Holy Judge is well pleased with us for His righteousness' sake--and accepts us in Him, even with our sulphurous incense!

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We commend our young to Your tenderest care

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

We commend our young to Your tenderest care. How deep, how abiding are early impressions! While the soil is yet tender--may seeds of godliness be sown.

Before Satan with his legion stealthily creeps in,
before the world with its bewitching vanities allures,
before corrupt examples beckon to destruction's way
--do, O blessed Jesus, enter and win their first affections, and mold their pliant wills. Show them in life's dawn--Your beauty and Your glory, the peaceful charms of godly walk, and seal them by Your Spirit as Your own forever.

May Your Holy Spirit be the great teacher, to instruct them that Christ is the mine containing all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. May they early learn that the fear of the Lord is true wisdom, that to depart from evil is right understanding, and that to be brave for Christ is the noblest heroism.

Holy Father, turn not away from the desire of our hearts, humbly presented in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Perfect peace

(Charles Spurgeon, "Gleanings among the Sheaves")

"Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

Unless the heart is kept quiet and peaceable--the life will not be happy. If calm does not reign over that inner lake within the soul which feeds the rivers of our life--the rivers themselves will always be in storm. Our outward acts will always manifest that they were born in tempests--by being tempestuous themselves.

We all desire to lead a peaceful and joyous life; the bright eye and the elastic foot are things which each of us desire; to carry about a contented mind is that to which most people are continually aspiring. Let us remember that the only way to keep our life peaceful and happy--is to keep the heart at rest--for come poverty, come wealth, come honor, come shame, come plenty, or come scarcity--if the heart is quiet, there will be peace and happiness manifested in the life!

But no matter how bright the sun shines outside--if the heart is troubled--the whole life must be troubled too!

"You will keep in perfect peace--all whose thoughts are fixed on You--because he trusts in You!" Isaiah 26:3

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A faint symbol of unutterable affection!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Gleanings among the Sheaves")

"Yes, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

In calling the Lord Jesus "altogether lovely," the redeemed Church asserts that she sees nothing in Him which she does not admire. The world may rail at His cross and call it shameful; but to her it is the very center and soul of glory. He is never without beauty to her! She presses His pierced feet to her embrace--and looks upon His wounds as jewels! Fools stand by His cross and find many a theme for jest and scorn; but she discovers nothing but solemn reason for reverent adoration and unbounded love!

"You are absolutely beautiful, my Beloved--with no imperfection in You!" Song of Songs 4:7. Viewing Him in every office and relationship--she cannot discover a flaw! She knows too well, His perfect Godhead and His spotless manhood--to offer a moment's shelter to the thought of a blemish in His immaculate person! She abominates every teaching that debases Him! She spurns the most gorgeous religious drapery that would obscure His beauteous features! Yes, so jealous is she of His honor, that a hint against His unsullied purity would stir her soul to holy wrath--and speedy would be her execration, and relentless her execution of the heresy! Nothing has ever aroused the ire of the Church so much--as a word against her beloved Redeemer. To all true believers, this is high treason and an offense which cannot be treated lightly.

Jesus is without a single blot or blemish--yet this negative praise, this bold denial of any fault--is far from representing the fullness of the loving admiration of the Church. Jesus is positively lovely in her eyes! Not merely lovely--His beauties are attracting beauties, and His glories are such as charm the heart. But although this utterance of the Church is the very climax of the language of praise, and was doubtless intended as the pinnacle of all description--yet it is not possible that this one sentence, even when expanded by the most careful meditation, should be able to express more than a mere particle of the admiration felt. Her description towers above all others; but its stature fails to reach the towering height of Heaven-born love. It is but a faint symbol of unutterable affection! It is a choice pearl washed on shore, from the deep sea of Divine love.

"Yes, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

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What a contrast, mixture, paradox I am!

(A letter of Charles Spurgeon, at the age of 17)

My dear father,
I am very comfortable here, and I may say, happy. Were it not for my vile heart--I might rejoice. I am the least of God's people--and I am sure I am the worst. But yet I am one--I believe in Jesus and trust in Him. Conviction of sin, I take it, is the evidence of true spiritual life. I can fall into His arms, though I cannot rest on my own merits, for I have none. Jesus, and Jesus alone--is my sure defense.

I must bless the Lord for making me His son--it is of His own sovereign mercy. Not one good thing has failed. I have felt corruptions rise, and the old man is strong--but His grace always comes in just at the critical time--and saves me from myself! The Lord alone keeps me! I have no hope of persevering--but by His power. I know that His almighty arm is all-sufficient.

I want to feel "less than nothing," but this is a very great attainment.

Sometimes, I pour my heart out sweetly and freely; at another time, I can hardly bring up a petition. What a contrast, mixture, paradox I am! My greatest concern is to grow in grace, and to go onward in the heavenly race! I hope you and dear mother are well. Love to all.
Your affectionate son,
Charles

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The best fighting!

(A letter of Charles Spurgeon, written to his father, at the age of 17)

God saves whom He will, when He will, and where He will.

I feel persuaded that I shall never fathom the depths of my own natural depravity--nor climb to the tops of the mountains of God's eternal love. I feel constrained day by day to fall flat down upon His promises, and leave my soul in Jesus' safe keeping.

How soon would our lamps go out--did not our mighty Lord supply fresh oil. And if it were not for His unshaken promise to supply all our needs out of the fullness of His grace--poor indeed would we be!

Yes, where Jesus comes--He comes to reign. How I wish He would reign more in my heart--then I might hope that every atom of SELF, self-confidence, and self-righteousness, would be swept out of my soul. I surely I long for the time when all evil affections, corrupt desires, and rebellious, doubting thoughts shall be overcome, and completely crushed beneath the Prince's feet, and my whole soul be made perfectly pure and holy. But so long as I am encaged within this house of clay, I know that my corruptions will lurk about, and I must have hard fighting--though the victory by grace is sure. Praying is the best fighting; nothing else will keep them down! I would go forth by prayer, like the Israelites, to gather up this Heavenly manna, and live upon free-grace!