Grace Gems

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My Friend!

(James Smith, "The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior's Grace Displayed!")

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

Jesus manifests His love--as the Friend of His people. He . . .
  fills every relation to them,
  performs every kind office for them, and
  comforts them with divine consolations.

He invites them to pour their griefs into His bosom--and tell out all their troubles before Him. He holds communion with them--and indulges them to converse with Him as a man with his friend. He encourages them by assurances of His love--and fortifies them by promises of His presence. "Fear not," He says, "for I am with you! Be not dismayed, I am your God! I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand!"

His power, His riches, His wisdom, and His Spirit--are devoted to their best interests, and employed for their present and everlasting welfare. He watches over them in tender love--and listens to them with compassionate concern.

He is a friend who loves at all times--a brother born for adversity. His love, in its immutability, fullness, and perfection--is the great bulwark of their safety; and His friendship--is the joy of their hearts. He sticks closer than a brother, and never will fail or forsake the soul that trusts in Him.

He performs all the kind offices of friendship . . .
  in sickness and health;
  in plenty and poverty;
  in life and death.
He has Heaven and earth at His command--as the friend of the defenseless soul.
He has all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge--as the companion of the ignorant and fearful.

He calls His people, friends--and presents Himself to them as their friend for their comfort, confidence, and joy.

O how the love of Jesus shines in His friendship! As our friend, He . . .
  lived in our world,
  suffered in our place,
  died in our stead,
  rose as our representative, and
  ascended to Heaven, where He continually makes intercession for us!

He acknowledges that I am an undeserving vile worm--yet calls me His friend! He knows the worst parts of my character--and yet He says, "You are mine! I have chosen you--and will not cast you away!"

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God's hand in everything!

(Mary Winslow)

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered!" Matthew 10:29-30

How unspeakably precious and sweet it is when we can believe that God our Father in Heaven is absolutely directing the most minute circumstances of our short sojourn in this wilderness world! That nothing, however trivial, takes place, whether it relates to the body or the soul--but is under His control, in fact, is ordered by Himself!

But how hard to believe this, particularly when things look dark, and we cannot discern the way we should take. It is, then, the province of faith to wait upon the Lord, keeping a steadfast eye upon Him only; looking for light, help, and deliverance, not from the creature, but from Jehovah Himself. Well may it be called precious faith!

How happy do those travel on, whose faith can discern God's hand in everything. But I fear the number is very small, who so live.

I cannot imagine how those who deny God's particular providence can get comfortably on, for they must perpetually be confronted with minute events in their history, as mysterious and baffling to them as greater ones.

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We are all going, going, going!

(J.C. Ryle, "Eternity!" 1878 )

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
 For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
     2 Corinthians 4:18

"This world in its present form is passing away." 1 Corinthians 7:31

"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while--and then vanishes!" James 4:14

We live in a world where all things are temporary and passing away. Surely, a man must be blind, who cannot realize this. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end.

We are all going, going, going--whether . . .
  eminent or unimportant,
  gentle or cruel,
  rich or poor,
  old or young.
We are all going--and will soon be gone!

The houses we live in,
the homes we love,
the riches we accumulate,
the professions we follow,
the plans we formulate,
the relations we enter into--
they are only for a short time!

Oh, you who love the world--awake to see things in their true light, before it is too late. The things you live for now, are all temporary and passing away! The pleasures, the amusements, the recreations, the profits, the earthly callings, which now absorb all your heart and drink up your entire mind--will soon be over! They are poor fleeting things, which cannot last.
Oh, do not love them too much;
do not hold on to them too tightly;
do not make them your idols!
You cannot keep them--and you must leave them!

This same thought ought to cheer and comfort every true Christian. Your trials, crosses, and conflicts--are all temporary! Your cross will soon be exchanged for a crown!

"What is unseen is eternal." The world which we are going to, is  . . .
  an endless eternity,
  a sea without a bottom,
  and an ocean without a shore!

"And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18

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The secret of true happiness!

(Timothy Shay Arthur, "Sweethearts and Wives")

Man's unhappiness springs from his blind love of self.

True happiness can only spring from a self-sacrificing spirit--a spirit which seeks to bless and serve others. In this humble spirit, resides the secret of true happiness on earth.

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

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Nothing but the cross!

(William S. Plumer, "The Rock of Our Salvation" 1867)

"They will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn" Zechariah 12:10

Nothing but the cross will . . .
  melt a hard heart,
  or bend a stubborn will,
  or give a death-blow to corruption.

A sight of Hell never frightened one out of the love of sin.
The thunders of Sinai never made a rebellious heart submit to God.

Pliny, the naturalist, says that blood readily extinguishes fire. However that may be--the blood of Christ not only quenches the flaming wrath of God, but it also extinguishes the fires of unhallowed desires in the soul. It begets hatred to sin--and love to holiness.

When the Romans saw Caesar's bloody robes, they said, "His murderers shall die!" And when by faith, the sinner sees how his sins crucified the Lord of glory--he will mortify his sins!

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There is divine wisdom in every trial--and divine love in every cross!

(James Smith, "The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior's Grace Displayed!")

Jesus is infinitely wise and immutably holy--therefore His love is a wise and holy love. He wisely manifests His love, so as to . . .
  discountenance sin,
  encourage holiness, and
  further His people in their heavenly way and work. He . . .
visits in trials,
reproves for folly,
smites for sin, and
withholds the light of His countenance, to testify His disapprobation of our ways--and yet, all this is in love!

He will not caress the believer--when he is indulging in pride, worldliness, and backsliding from Him. Those whom He loves--He wisely corrects! He never spares the rod--to the spoiling of the child--but says, "I will correct you in measure--but will not leave you wholly unpunished."

His wisdom and holiness shine in every part of His works--but in none more than in His dealings with His people. Was He less wise, we might have more comfort--but it would injure us. Was He less holy, we might have fewer trials--but we would assuredly be losers. Divine love, wisdom, and holiness combined--drew the plan of the Christian's lot; and the same divine love, wisdom, and holiness--executes that plan.

All the wisdom of Deity, under the guidance of Almighty love--shines in our path, our portion, and our circumstances; and when we enjoy the clear light of eternity--we shall see that this was the case. O if we really believed this now--how different would be our feelings and our practices often! How quietly would we submit to every painful dispensation of divine providence; how cheerfully would we acquiesce in every intimation of our Father's will; and how readily would we take the cup which He has prepared for us, and drink it saying, "The cup which my heavenly Father gives me--shall I not drink it?"

There is divine wisdom in every trial--and divine love in every cross! Holiness and wisdom in Jesus, demand that our way should at times be hedged up with thorns. The infinite love of Jesus, shines in every painful discipline. He is no indulgent parent, no foolish friend, no unholy companion; He will not tempt us to evil, nor with evil--neither will He indulge us to our injury. He would rather close His ears to our cries--than His heart to our best interests; and the day is coming when we shall see that all our trials were needful--and not a trial could have been omitted, consistently with the wisdom and holiness of His love. May His love shed abroad in my heart--lead me to love, seek, and pant for holiness!

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We were stinking in the grave of sin!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him." John 12:2

Lazarus is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve Jesus--but better to be Lazarus and commune with Jesus. There are times for each purpose, and each is lovely in its season--but none of the trees of the garden yield such clusters--as the vine of communion with Jesus. To sit with Jesus, to hear His words, to mark His acts, and receive His smiles--was such a favor as must have made Lazarus as happy as the angels!

When it has been our happy lot to feast with our Beloved in His banqueting-hall--we would not have given half a sigh for all the kingdoms of the world, if so much breath could have bought them!

Lazarus is to be imitated. It would have been a strange thing if he had not been at the table where Jesus was, for he had been dead--and Jesus had raised him. For the risen one to be absent when the Lord who gave him life was at his house, would have been ungrateful indeed.

We too were once dead! Yes, and like Lazarus--we were stinking in the grave of sin! Jesus raised us--and we live! Can we be content to live at a distance from Him? Do we omit to remember Him at His table, where He deigns to feast with His brethren? Oh, this is cruel! It behooves us to repent, and do as He has bidden us, for His least wish should be law to us.

To have lived without constant fellowship with one of whom the Jews said, "Behold how He loved him," would have been disgraceful to Lazarus! Is it excusable in us--whom Jesus has loved with an everlasting love! To have been cold to Him who wept over his lifeless corpse, would have argued great brutishness in Lazarus. What does it argue in us--over whom the Savior has not only wept--but bled!

Come, brethren, who read this portion--let us return unto our heavenly Bridegroom, and ask for His Spirit--that we may be on terms of closer intimacy with Him, and henceforth sit at the table with Him!

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You have only just begun!

(J.R. Miller, "Intimate Letters on Personal Problems" 1914)

Dear friend,
You say that you cannot live up to the things you read in the Bible and in Christian books. I know of no one who can do so. The Bible sets before us very lofty ideals--so lofty that we cannot reach them in a day or a month or in twenty-five years. So long as you may live, and if you spend every year in striving toward the best things--you will still find that you have not fully attained them.

Paul was a great deal better Christian than most of us, and he said, when he was quite an old man, that he was not yet perfect--but was still striving after the things which he wished to attain. We never measure up to our ideals. We never are so holy any day, as we intend to be in the morning when we set out.

We certainly fall very far below God's requirements. If we did not, there would be no special need of a Savior. Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem us and save us--because we cannot live up to the requirements of His divine law.

You must not judge yourself, therefore, too severely. Christ does not. He is very patient with our slow progress. Always do your best every day, and you will do better still tomorrow.

Make every day as beautiful as you can--pure and true and holy, with obedience and love. Then next day can be made a little better than this one, and so on through every day, unto the end.

Yet you will still find on the last evening of your life, that you have very much to attain, that really you have just begun to be a Christian. I think it was Rubinstein, the great musician, who said at the close of a long life devoted to intense musical work, "I have just begun to know music." It is so in Christian life. If you live to be eighty years old, growing every day more and more holy, you can say then no more than that you have begun--just begun, to know Christ and to know how to live a Christian life.

Remember that you will never reach your goal, until you leave this poor world, and enter upon the perfect life in Heaven.

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus!" Philippians 3:13-14

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Your Savior-God has married you!

(John MacDuff, "The Faithful Promiser")

"And I will betroth you unto Me forever!" Hosea 2:19

How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! your Savior-God has married you! Would you know the TIME of your betrothal? Go back into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and there, your espousals were contracted: "I have loved you with an everlasting love!"

Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when your absent Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace! At "midnight!" (the hour when He is least expected) the cry may be--shall be heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes!"

My soul! has this mystic union been formed between you and your Lord? Can you say, in humble assurance of your faith in Him, "My beloved is mine--and I am His!" If so, great, unspeakably great are the glories which await you! Your dowry, as the bride of Christ--is all that Omnipotence can bestow--and all that a glorified bride can receive! In the prospect of those glorious nuptials, you need dread no pang of widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can put asunder! He betroths you, and it is, "forever!"

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Many times Jesus and His people pull against one another in prayer

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me--be with Me where I am." John 17:24

O death! why do you touch the tree beneath whose spreading branches, weariness has rest? Why do you snatch away the excellent of the earth, in whom is all your delight? If you must use your axe--use it upon the trees which yield no fruit--you might be thanked then. But why will you strike down the goodly cedars of Lebanon? O stay your axe--and spare the righteous!

But no, it must not be! Death smites the goodliest of our friends! The most generous, the most prayerful, the most holy, the most devoted--must die. And why? It is through Jesus' prevailing prayer, "Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me--be with Me where I am." It is Jesus' prayer which bears them on eagle's wings to heaven. Every time a believer mounts from this earth to paradise--it is an answer to Christ's prayer.

A good old divine remarks, "Many times Jesus and His people pull against one another in prayer. You bend your knee in prayer and say 'Father, I will that Your saints be with me where I am'; Christ says, 'Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me--be with Me where I am.'" Thus the disciple is at cross-purposes with his Lord. The soul cannot be in both places--the beloved one cannot be with Christ, and with you too.

Now, which pleader shall win the day? If you had your choice; if the King should step from His throne, and say, "Here are two supplicants praying in opposition to one another--which shall be answered?" Oh! I am sure, though it were agony, you would start from your feet, and say, "Jesus, not my will--but may Yours be done!" You would give up your prayer for your loved one's life, if you could realize the thoughts that Christ is praying in the opposite direction, "Father, I will that those also, whom You have given Me--be with Me where I am." Lord, You shall have them. By faith, I will let them go!

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An infinite love!

(James Smith, "The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior's Grace Displayed!")

"And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should--how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully!" Ephesians 3:18-19

The love of Christ is an infinite love--its heights and depths, its breadths and lengths--surpass our knowledge! The whole of His nature and perfections are thrown into His love, therefore He is said to BE LOVE. He cannot love His people more than He does--nor will He love them less! Until we can comprehend infinity and measure eternity--we cannot know the love of Christ to perfection.

Love in us--rules us; just so, the infinite love of Jesus, rules Him. All that He has ever purposed, promised, or performed for His people--has flowed from this ocean of divine love! He is a globe of love--without beginning or end! He is a sea of love--without fault of defect! Only an infinite intellect can grasp Christ's love--only eternity is sufficient to reveal it to our minds. Christ's love will be always unfolding--but never be fully unfolded. It will be always displaying--but never be fully displayed. We may stand in the center and endeavor to follow its lines--but Christ's love defies our powers, and drowns our thoughts in its immensity!

Christ's love can never be diverted from its objects; it is immutably fixed upon them--and remains fixed forever! Had it been possible to have turned its current, it would have been done long ago; but it is still the river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.

Having loved His own--He loves them unto the very end. Nothing present or future, above or below--can ever separate believers from the love of Jesus!

On this rock they rest--amidst all the storms of life!
In this fortress they hide--when dangers of every kind surround them!
At this fountain they live--when every creature-stream is dried up!

No love is unchangeable--but the love of Jesus! His love is like the great mountains, and abides forever firm!

O believer, admire and adore! Jesus continues to love you--amidst all your coldness, darkness, and proneness to wander; therefore He restores your soul and causes you to walk in the paths of righteousness. Satan may harass and accuse you, the world may frown upon and persecute you--but Jesus rests in His love, and rejoices over you with singing!

And amidst all the changes which we feel within and without, we ask with holy Paul, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" And with him we reply, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of Hell, can separate us from God's love! No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation--will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord!"

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Faith pulls the black mask from the face of trouble!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I will sing of mercy and judgment!" Psalm 101:1

Faith triumphs in trial. When reason is thrust into the inner prison, with her feet made fast in the stocks--then faith makes the dungeon walls ring with her merry notes, as she cries, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment. Unto you, O Lord, will I sing." Faith pulls the black mask from the face of trouble--and discovers the angel beneath.

There is a subject for song--even in the judgments of God towards us. For,
1. the trial is not so heavy--as it might have been,
2. the trouble is not so severe--as we deserved to have borne,
3. our affliction is not so crushing--as the burden which others have to carry.

Faith sees that in her worst sorrow, that there is nothing penal--there is not a drop of God's wrath in it; it is all sent in love. Faith discerns love gleaming like a jewel, on the breast of an angry God! Faith says of her grief, "This is a badge of honor, for the child must feel the rod"; and then she sings of the sweet result of her sorrows, because they work her spiritual good. "Nay, more," says Faith, "these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!" So Faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray!

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Home, sweet home!

(J.A. James, "Woman's Mission")

There are few terms in the language around which cluster so many blissful associations, as that delight of every English heart, the word HOME.

  The paradise of love.

  The nursery of virtue.

  The garden of enjoyment.

  The temple of harmony.

  The circle of all tender relationships.

  The playground of childhood.

  The dwelling of adulthood.

  The retreat of old age.

Home is where . . .
  health loves to enjoy its pleasures,
  wealth revels in its luxuries,
  poverty bears its rigors
  sickness best can endure its pains,
  and dissolving nature expire.

This, home, sweet home--is the proper sphere of woman's action, influence and mission! Is it any hardship upon woman, any depreciation of her importance--to place her sphere of action and influence there? Is it to assign her a circle of influence unworthy of herself--to call her to preside over that little home?

Shall we estimate the importance of such a scene of action? Shall we tell of the varied and momentous interests which are included in that circle? Shall we speak of the happiness of a husband, whose bliss, to so considerable an extent, is created by herself; and which involves her own happiness; or the character and future well-being for both worlds of her children?

It is the privilege of the woman . . .
   to make one such home, a seat of holiness and happiness;
   to fill one such sphere, with an influence so sweet and sacred;
   to throw the fascination of wedded delight and of maternal influence over one such home;
   to irradiate so many faces with delight;
   to fill so many hearts with contentment, and
   to prepare so many characters for their future part in life!

One of the most hallowed, lovely, and beautiful sights in our world, is a woman at home discharging in all the meekness of wisdom, the various duties of wife and mother, with . . .
  an order which nothing is allowed to disturb;
  a patience which nothing can exhaust;
  an affection which is never ruffled; and
  a perseverance which no difficulties can interrupt, nor  any disappointments arrest!

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A living personal Jesus!

(Archibald Brown, 1884)

"Christ is all!" Colossians 3:11

Christianity is all centered in a person! Conversion is not a mere change of human opinion; it is the devotion of the heart to a person. A converted man is not a man who just changes his views concerning certain facts, or theories, or doctrines--but he is a man whose heart has become devoted to a living Christ. All your religion, if it is worth anything--will be centered in a living personal Jesus.
Your doctrines will all come from Him;
your motives will be found in Him
your joys will be found in Him;
your acceptance will be found in Him;
your completeness will be found in Him!

"You are complete in Him!" Colossians 2:10

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It is astonishing

(Gleanings from the Inner Life of Ruth Bryan)

It is astonishing that such a worm should be
so favored with discoveries of His beauty--whom
glorified saints and angels gaze with ineffable
delight. But, after all, I know not a thousandth
part of what He is, and what I have in Him.

Surely Christ is all!

How little, how verily nothing, am I.

Oh! that my lips, my life, and every action--
might speak His praise and glorify His name,
who is a Heaven to me!