Grace Gems

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They are new every morning!

(James Buchanan, "Comfort in Affliction" 1837)

"His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:24

Each Christian may find in his own case, some peculiar token of God's providential kindness to him. It is in the details of each man's personal history that we find the most touching manifestations of God's providential care. None of us can refuse to acknowledge that we have been the objects of a watchfulness which has never slumbered, and of a benevolence which has never been weary in doing us good.

Were we to attempt an enumeration of all the . . .
  blessings which we have received at God's hand,
  deliverances which He has wrought out for us,
  snares from which He has preserved us,
  manifestations of His long-suffering patience, and tender mercy, of which we ourselves have been the objects--were we to begin with the years of infancy and helplessness, and to trace our progress through the slippery paths of youth, until we reached our present state--we would soon find how impossible it is to reckon up the sum of our innumerable obligations to "the loving-kindness of the Lord."

For not only has God spared us in life, and upheld us from day to day, by His almighty power; not only has He given us our daily bread, and made our cup to run over--and that, too, notwithstanding all the ingratitude which we have displayed, and the manifold provocations which we have offered; but, in peculiar seasons, in seasons of difficulty and trial--He has often delivered . . .
  our eyes from tears,
  and our feet from falling,
  and our souls from death!
And as often as we have cried to the Lord in our trouble, He has delivered us from our distresses--or supported and comforted us under them. So that each of His redeemed people, on a review of God's dealings with Him, will be forced to exclaim:
"The Lord has been my Shepherd!"
"I have not lacked any good thing!"
"Hitherto has the Lord helped me!"
"The Lord has done all things well!"
"Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life!"

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We are now in the wilderness!

(James Buchanan, "Comfort in Affliction" 1837)

"He led them forth by the right way--that they might go to a city of habitation." Psalm 107:7

There is a striking analogy between the Israelites in the wilderness, on their journey to Canaan--and believers in the world, on their journey to Heaven. The history of the former, has been recorded mainly for the purpose of guiding and comforting the latter.

Dear brethren, we are now in the wilderness! This poor world is not our rest! We too have heard of a city of habitation, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And many of us, I trust, have been separated from the world and united to that company of pilgrims who have set their faces steadfastly to go up to the Jerusalem above.

God is our leader, as He was theirs. And as God is our leader, so our path through life is as really ordered and directed by Him, as was the way of the Israelites in the wilderness. True, we hear no audible voice from Heaven, directing our steps; but God leads us by His providence, shutting us up to a particular line of life, fixing the bounds of our habitation, determining our work, our connections, our success, by a variety of circumstances over which we feel that we have no control, and many of which are apparently trivial--but not one of them are by chance or accidental. And as God is our leader, and as our path in life is prescribed and ordered by Him--so, if we belong to the number of His people, we may rest assured that He is leading us by the right way.

Our experience, indeed, may often resemble that of the Israelites in the wilderness. God may seem to lead us in a circuitous and indirect way. We may be, we shall be, subjected to tribulation. We must leave the world behind us, as the Israelites left the flesh pots of Egypt. We must encounter difficulties, and endure the assault of enemies, and sustain trials--such as will humble us and prove us, and show what is in our hearts. Our hearts, too, may be much discouraged because of the hardness of the way. It may seem a tedious, a dreary, a perplexing way--and, when faith is ready to fail, it may lead us to murmur against the Lord.

All this is true--but the Lord knows the way which we take in this great wilderness; and as sure as God is our guide, so sure is it, that He is leading us by the right way.
All the difficulties,
all the trials,
all the disappointments,
all the bereavements,
all the delays,
all the chastisements
which befall us--are as needful for us, as they were for the children of Israel.
We, too, need to be proved.
We, too, need to be humbled.
We, too, have evil hearts of unbelief which must be subdued.
We, too, must be educated by instruction, and trained by discipline, and purified by suffering--that we may be fitted for our glorious inheritance above.

There is an inheritance for us, as there was for them. Their inheritance in the land of Canaan--was but a type or shadow of the incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance, reserved in Heaven for us.

And seeing that God has opened up such a glorious prospect before us--oh! why should we doubt that He will lead us by the right way on our journey towards it. Why should we quarrel with any of His appointments here--if they are all designed to fit and prepare us for such a glorious destiny hereafter?

Would we take the regulation of our life out of God's hands--and keep it in our own?

Would we think it safer and better for us to be guided by our own will--rather than by His unerring wisdom and infinite love?

No, our safety is, that we are in God's hands! The Lord is our Shepherd, and we may rest assured, that however perplexing the path may be by which He conducts us--He will lead us like a flock through the wilderness; that while we are in it, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life; and that in the end we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

"Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!" There we shall be able to look back on all the way by which the Lord has led us in the wilderness--and we shall then see it to have been "the right way." And, in admiration and gratitude, we shall acknowledge with Moses, "In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling!" Exodus 15:13

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They are not intended for our pleasure, but for our profit!

(Thomas Watson)

"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort. But to be assured . . .
  that all things which happen shall cooperate for their good,
  that their crosses shall be turned into blessings,
  that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish more
--this may fill their hearts with joy until they run over!


"As the wicked are hurt by the best things--so the godly are bettered by the worst things!" William Jenkyn


"Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride." Richard Sibbes


"God's wounds cure--sin's kisses kill." William Gurnall


"I am . . .
  mended by my sickness,
  enriched by my poverty, and
  strengthened by my weakness.
Thus was it with King Manasseh when he was in affliction, "He sought the Lord his God."
His iron shackles were more precious to him than his gold,
his jail was a more happy lodging than his palace,
Babylon was a better school than Jerusalem.
What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions!
These, however difficult, are our best friends!
They are not intended for our pleasure, but for our profit!" Abraham Wright


"God disciplines us for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness." Hebrews 12:10

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The disciple is in God's school!

(James Buchanan, "Comfort in Affliction" 1837)

"The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God" 1 Peter 3:4

The character which is so exquisitely delineated in these few simple words, is not the result of mere natural temperament or constitution--but the product of ripe and mature Christian experience. It is formed by slow degrees, under the teaching of God's Word and Spirit, and the long-continued discipline of His providence. It is lamentably defective in many, whose personal religion cannot be charitably doubted--and is seldom acquired in the earlier stages of the Christian course. It resembles the mellow flavor and sweetness of fruit which has been fully matured, and is ready to be gathered.

It is obviously a part of our piety to cherish at all times, a meek and quiet spirit towards God. His Character should secure our heartfelt reverence--and His Will should secure our quiet and unquestioning submission. We should be as little children in God's hands, regarding Him as our Father in Heaven, and feeling towards Him as a confiding child feels towards a kind parent . . .
  whose worth he reveres,
  whose love he cannot question, and
  whose will he would not resist for the world.

The believer is called to exercise a meek and quiet spirit, in reference to all God's providential dealings towards him. In the course of God's providence, he may be raised to great prosperity--or he may be reduced to deep poverty and distress. In either case, he is still meek and quiet towards God.

But meekness is more peculiarly appropriate in the season of adversity and trial. Such seasons every Christian has experienced, and many yet expect. It is through great tribulation that we must enter the Kingdom. If all men are born to trouble--the Christian is doubly sure of his share, for "whom the Lord loves, He chastens; and scourges every son whom He receives." At such seasons, and especially if the trial is very severe, or suddenly sent, or long-continued--the disciple is in God's school, learning a practical lesson of no easy attainment--even the lesson of meekness and quietness towards God. His clearest duty is that of resigned submission, of uncomplaining acquiescence in God's will.

God's people know that every painful dispensation with which they are visited, proceeds from God's unerring wisdom and infinite love; and that it is a part of that discipline by which God is seeking to purify them, and prepare them for Heaven. He feels that God has taken the management of his case into His own hands, and by ways which seem hard or mysterious, but which are really beneficial--is seeking to "humble him, and to prove him, and to show him what is in his heart." He learns by experience--what he was slow to learn by the mere reading of the Word, however clearly it was there set before him.

And thus he comes to cherish habitually a "meek and quiet spirit"--a spirit which neither disputes the necessity, nor questions the wisdom, nor doubts the love of God's dispensations towards him--but which leads him to place himself entirely in God's hands, to be dealt with according to His good pleasure, not doubting, that "all things shall work together for good to those who love God, and are the called according to His purpose." He feels the pressure of affliction, and may even be stunned by its unexpected stroke--but still he says with the Psalmist, "I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for You are the one who has done this!" Psalm 39:9

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Whenever we find ourselves irritated, discomposed, fretful, impatient, or wretched!

(James Buchanan, "A Meek and Quiet Spirit" 1840)

"The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God" 1 Peter 3:4

Let me very briefly adduce some reasons and motives fitted to persuade you to the acquirement and cultivation of this meek and quiet spirit. It is here described as a beautiful and lovely disposition of mind--it is called an ornament. Wherever a meek and quiet spirit is consistently exhibited in the character of a Christian--it is universally felt and owned to be most attractive and engaging.

Those professors who lack a meek and quiet spirit, or who are as yet greatly deficient in it, are on that account less esteemed--their society is often felt to be disagreeable rather than pleasing--their conversation is not so sweet or refreshing.

Accordingly, a very large portion of God's Word is devoted to the inculcation of those principles by which this meek and quiet character is formed. And a large part of God's providential discipline is designed to produce and strengthen it in our souls.

No one can estimate how much his own personal comfort depends on his possessing a meek and quiet character. Such a spirit easily endures much which frets and discomposes those who are less thoroughly subdued.

An affront which exasperates a proud man--a meek man calmly suffers.

An injury which a revengeful man resents--meekness overlooks or forgets.

And trials which scarcely ruffle the composure of a quiet and contented mind--are sufficient to toss the wicked as on the waves of a troubled and boisterous sea.

Whenever we find ourselves irritated, discomposed, fretful, impatient, or wretched--we may rest assured that our misery arises much more from the distempered state of our souls, than from any external cause. We should seek relief, by acquiring that meek and quiet spirit, which will raise us above the influence of external circumstances, or enable us calmly to endure them.

Finally, let it be remembered that this meek temper of mind is not natural to any of us--it must be acquired and cultivated. Nor is it a plant of easy and speedy growth--it is the gradual product of much discipline, and of growing Christian experience. It seldom springs up, so as to reach maturity, until after many a storm has rooted and established it--nor even then, unless it is implanted and watered by the Spirit of God. "The fruit of the Spirit is meekness, gentleness, long-suffering."

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

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Benefits of severe affliction

(James Buchanan)

"This is my comfort and consolation in my affliction: that Your Word has revived me and given me life." Psalm 119:50

It is not one of the least benefits of severe affliction, that it shatters our confidence in every other support, and breaks up our hopes from every other quarter--and leads us, in simplicity, to search the Word of God for comfort. Nor is it one of the least recommendations of that precious Book, that its characters become more bright in proportion as all else around us is dark; and that, when all other information becomes insipid or nauseous--its truths are rendered only the more sweet and refreshing by the bitter draught of sorrow.

The Bible cannot be known in its excellence,
nor its truths relished in their sweetness,
nor its promises duly appreciated and enjoyed
--until, by adversity, all other consolation is lost, and all other hopes are destroyed. But then, when we carry it with us into the fiery furnace of affliction, like the aromatic plant which must be burnt before the precious perfume is released--it emits a refreshing fragrance, and is relished in proportion as our sufferings are great.

Glorious peculiarity! Other books may amuse the hours of ease. Other knowledge may suffice to pass the short day of prosperity--but this Book alone is for the hour of sorrow; this knowledge comes to our aid when all other knowledge fails. Like the sweet stars of Heaven, the truths of God shine most brightly in the darkest night of sorrow!

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Worldly ease and prosperity!

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

"Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that I need; or I shall be full, and deny you, and say: Who is the LORD?" Proverbs 30:8-9

How plainly I see that worldly ease and prosperity do not help the children of God. Covet them not, I beseech you! How the creature steals the heart's best affections from God! But oh of this one thing I am assured--that when that is the case, our good and wise Father knows how to deal with His beloved children. He breaks their cisterns and destroys their gourds.

What a snare, too, to the believer, is the society of the ungodly. Our nature is so much more inclined to evil than to good, that we insensibly imbibe the poison, and it contaminates our whole spiritual being. Who could be enclosed in a sepulcher with a putrid corpse--and not feel his health and strength and life decline? May the Lord in mercy preserve us!

None but God Himself is a satisfying Portion. Earth, with all its promised comforts, cannot do it. Therefore the Apostle exhorts, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

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This old house!

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

"Dear friends, I urge you, as strangers and pilgrims in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." 1 Peter 2:11

What a snare is this world to us! Thankfully, we are not here on this poor earth forever--better things await the Christian in a glorious hereafter. We are traveling homeward! This world is not our rest, because it is defiled--Jesus is preparing a better place for us. I feel like a bird standing between time and eternity, and ready to launch away at a moment's notice of the summons from above!

Time is quickly hastening on! This poor world is not worth a thought--all is passing away, but a glorious eternity awaits us! Oh, what must it be to be there!

The heart of Jesus is an ocean of love! O the joy of eternal communion with the Savior! He is the Chief of ten thousand, and the altogether lovely one! Having Him, we have all things we can desire here, and a good hope of eternal life hereafter.

I would not be without this hope for millions of worlds! I feel that this old house is being taken down little and by little. I stand astonished, considering the storms and tempests that have assailed it, that it has continued so long. But I have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! And there, first of all, I shall meet with the Savior of poor sinners, even Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled, and died that I should live forever!

Let us then live like one whose home is not here in this wilderness, but who is traveling day by day to a better and more glorious inheritance above, which is to last through the countless ages of a vast and endless eternity!

"Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear!" 1 Peter 1:17

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What could we do in this wilderness world?

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

"From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another!" John 1:16

What could we do in this wilderness world, beset with manifold temptations within and without--had we not a God to go to--Jesus, an ever-present Help in times of trouble? He is our Helper in little matters, as in great ones. No one on earth, however dear, can take His place. We need Him as our Counselor and Guide, our Protector and Deliverer. How needful, then, and how sweet--to be ever sitting at His feet, looking up and meeting His loving eye, as it looks down upon us. Let us allow no distance between us and our dearest and best Friend.

Jesus indeed is very precious. Everything else sinks into its native nothingness when compared with Him. The more we see of the matchless, boundless love of Christ--the more we lie under a sense of our wretched deformity in the dust of self-abasement before Him. But O the love springing from a sense of free pardon and full acceptance in Him, is often overpowering, and produces bitter tears, yet mixed with so much that is sweet.

All is given freely and fully. We come needy and helpless--and receive all from Him. O the riches of His grace, and matchless love to such as we are!

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Poor Miss Smith--where is she now?

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

She entered the train in full expectation of many years of health, wealth, and happiness in this world--and in a few hours was gone forever! Poor Miss Smith--where is she now?

Oh to live for eternity, a glorious eternity! What madness not to be preparing for it. There is nothing on earth so important as to be ready for eternity. Like Miss Smith, you may leave your home in health and in high spirits, in the anticipation of meeting dear friends--and in a few hours be ushered into the presence of the great Judge of Heaven and earth, to be tried at His bar, and acquitted or condemned. But this is a subject ridiculed and slighted by the ungodly.

Try to live on earth, as you expect to live in Heaven. Walk holy and uprightly--just as if the Lord were with you, and in your midst.

I often long to see Jesus--and also Heaven. Heaven is an ocean of love!

Earth is a weary place to me--and Heaven looks very inviting!
To be freed from a body of sin and death,
to be done with the conflict,
to shed no more tears,
to breathe no more sighs,
to have grappled with, and to have overcome the "last enemy,"
to enter into an eternal rest,
to behold Jesus in all His beauty and glory,
to unite my praises with those who are dear to me by nature and by grace,
Oh is not this worth living for, and is it not worth dying for!
O blessed hope of immortality!

A few more steps, and I too am there--a sinner saved by sovereign grace!

I want to have all my thoughts centered on Jesus--He is all and everything to my soul. As I near my home in Heaven, He grows more and more endeared. I feel that Heaven would be no Heaven to me, were He not there.

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Carrying our little troubles and needs to God!

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

"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

What a mercy it is to have an Almighty Friend--powerful and willing to help in every time of need!

I often think it requires more faith to go to Him with small things, than in great trials. We are apt to think He will not take notice of our little difficulties, and feel ashamed to call upon so great and mighty a Being for every trifle. But this thought originates with the pride of our hearts, for in one sense the universe itself and ten thousand such worlds--are trifles to God.

But when we read that every hair of our head is numbered--what encouragement we have to take everything to Him who alone can deliver us out of all our troubles. I think carrying our little troubles and needs to God, honors Him even more than when we go to Him with greater.

O what a mercy to be persuaded that whatever may be our circumstances, God is with us, directing and overruling the whole for our good and for His own glory. To know that He is ours--and that we are His. To draw near in faith, telling Him all that is in our hearts, conscious of having the ear and heart of Jehovah towards us. Is not this true, substantial happiness?

"Cast all your care on Him, because He cares for you!" 1 Peter 5:7

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Dear Mrs. Brown died this morning!

(Mary Winslow, "Words of Loving Counsel and Sympathy")

"They are without fault before the throne of God." Revelation 14:5

Dear Mrs. Brown died this morning! She is released from a sinful, suffering body--and has gone to that world of holiness and happiness for which she lived, and where she longed to be. Her whole life, like her Savior's, was devoted to doing good.

How I love to think of Heaven as the atmosphere of love, and the unutterable delight of seeing Him whom we most love, freed from sin, and forever with the Lord.

Time is short!

Live for eternity!

Let us strive not to please ourselves, but Him who loved us and gave Himself for us!

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The painted beauties of this world will wither!

(John Owen)

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God!" Colossians 3:1

I would fix all my thoughts and desires on Christ's glory! The more I see of the glory of Christ--the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy!

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!" Hebrews 12:2

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He it was who suffered a shameful and cruel death at the hands of His own creatures!

(George Everard, "Help on the Way to the Better Land!" 1873)

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect!" 1 Peter 1:18-19

How great is the price which has been paid for man's redemption!

If a prisoner of war, shut up within the walls of some gloomy fortress, were to see a bag of gold sent for his ransom, by the Sovereign whom he had faithfully served--what thankfulness would fill his bosom! But much more than this has been given for us! In tender compassion for our souls, no less a price has been paid by Christ than His own precious blood!
He saw us perishing in our sins;
He saw us in captivity to the Prince of Darkness;
He saw us tied fast by chains that we ourselves could never break
--and then He came to redeem us! He poured out upon the cross, the blood that was to be the means of our everlasting salvation. This blood is infinitely precious, because it is Divine. It is the blood of one who is man's Creator, "Perfect God--and perfect man."

Oh, ponder well this deep and mysterious truth. Little can we fathom it! Yet it was God Incarnate--God in our nature--the Eternal Word made flesh--who died for man's salvation! How marvelous!

His own hand had fashioned the very wood upon which He was nailed!

He Himself gave breath to the very men who cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!"

It was His power which gave strength and nerve to the arm which pierced His side with the cruel spear!

Yes! the Creator and Preserver of man--the King of kings and Lord of lords, He before whom angels worshiped, crying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!"--He it was who suffered a shameful and cruel death at the hands of His own creatures!

When the Jews saw the tears which Jesus shed at the tomb of Lazarus His friend, they rightly judged when they said, "Behold how He loved him!" When we see the drops of precious blood falling on Calvary, when we see the blood flowing from His pierced temples, from His wounded hands and feet and side--well may we say, "Behold, how He loved us!"

Bear in mind that the suffering in body, the shame and the scoffing--were but the least part of that which He endured for our sake. His holy soul was burdened with the weight of man's transgression. How agonizing was the conflict, when thrice He prayed in the garden, that if it were possible the cup might pass from Him! How great was the inner darkness of His soul, when on the cross there arose that exceeding great and bitter cry, "My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me!"

It has been said, "Christ received into His own bosom every arrow of God's quiver--and every one dipped in the poison of the curse!" Here then is love. In the blood of the cross, we find the proof of such love as man never before could conceive: "Christ died or the ungodly!" Romans 5:6

What a mystery of love is this!

Believer, did Jesus give His precious blood for you, to save you from Hell and damnation, to make you a child of God and an heir of eternal glory? Then what will you withhold from Him? Oh, surrender yourself wholly, unreservedly to His service! Oh, think of the debt of love you owe--and endeavor to make some return for it, by laying yourself and all you have at His feet. Time, talents, influence, wealth--freely yield to the Savior who has bought you! Above all things, live daily, hourly, as in the sight of God--and adorn your profession by a very loving, holy, prayerful, Christ-like life.

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The very acme of humility!

(George Everard, "Help on the Way to the Better Land!" 1873)

"Though I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11

Wonderful was the grace that taught the once proud Pharisee thus to speak!

To be "the least of the apostles," was much to say. (1 Corinthians 15:9)

To be "less than the least of all all God's people," was still more. (Ephesians 3:8.)

To be "chief of sinners," was yet more. (1 Timothy 1:15)

But "to be nothing," this is the very acme of humility!

"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6