Grace Gems

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MURDERED!

(From Spurgeon's autobiography)

There was a day, as I took my walks abroad, when I came by a spot forever engraved upon my memory, for there I saw this Friend, my best, my only Friend . . . MURDERED!

I stooped down in sad affright, and looked at Him. I saw that His hands had been pierced with rough iron nails, and His feet had been torn in the same way. There was misery in His dead countenance so terrible that I scarcely dared to look upon it. His body was emaciated with hunger, His back was red with bloody scourges, and His brow had a circle of wounds about it--clearly could one see that these had been pierced by thorns.

I shuddered, for I had known this Friend full well. He never had a fault--He was the purest of the pure, the holiest of the holy.

Who could have injured Him?

For He never injured any man--all His life long He "went about doing good." He had healed the sick, He had fed the hungry, He had raised the dead--for which of these works did they kill Him? He had never breathed out anything else but love--and as I looked into the poor sorrowful face, so full of agony, and yet so full of love--I wondered who could have been a wretch so vile as to pierce hands like His. I said within myself, "Where can these traitors live? Who are these that could have smitten such a One as this?"

Had they murdered an oppressor--we might have forgiven them; had they slain one who had indulged in vice or villainy--it might have been his desert; had it been a murderer and a rebel, or one who had committed sedition--we would have said, "Bury his corpse--justice has at last given him his due!"

But when You were slain, my best, my only-beloved--where did the traitors hide? Let me seize them, and they shall be put to death! If there are torments that I can devise--surely they shall endure them all. Oh! what jealousy--what revenge I felt! If I might but find these murderers, what I would do to them!

And as I looked upon that corpse, I heard a footstep, and wondered where it was. I listened, and I clearly perceived that the murderer was close at hand! It was dark, and I groped about to find him. I found that, somehow or other, wherever I put out my hand, I could not meet with him, for he was NEARER to me than my hand would go.

At last I put my hand upon my bosom. "I have you now!" said I--for lo, he was in my own heart--the murderer was hiding within my own bosom, dwelling in the recesses of my inmost soul!

Ah! then I wept indeed, that I, in the very presence of my murdered Master, should be harboring the murderer! I felt myself most guilty while I bowed over His corpse, and sang that plaintive hymn,
"Twas you, MY SINS, my cruel sins,
 His chief tormentors were!
 Each of my sins became a nail,
 and unbelief the spear!"

Amid the rabble which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations--fit music to accompany that march of woe.

When my soul can, in imagination, see the Savior bearing His cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women, and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief--cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die--but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn.

MY SINS were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned those bleeding brows with thorns! My sins cried, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders.

His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity--but MY having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.

If Christ has died for me, as ungodly as I am, without strength as I am--then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me.

I cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend.

I must be holy for His sake.

How can I live in sin--when He has died to save me from it?

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Heaven's richest treasure!

(Gleanings from the Inner Life of Ruth Bryan)

"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

I wonder why dear saints do not talk with more ardor about Him who has, in love to our souls, brought them up from the pit of corruption.

Oh! what it cost Him! Price beyond all computing! Heaven's richest treasure--paid for worms of earth!

Oh! the wonders and blessedness of union to such a rich Husband, who thought not His own precious blood too much for my ransom!

Oh, that my heart were a ten-stringed instrument, and my life a living epistle--in which all might read Him. But, alas! it is so blotted over with unbelief and other sins, that it is hard to pick out His dear name in most of the pages!

Oh! when I see Him face to face, and behold those love-prints in His glorious body, what shall I feel? That will be Heaven--not one of harps and crowns, or of anything else--but JESUS and the open vision of His unveiled glories, the ineffable glories of Deity, and perfect beauties of humanity ever beaming with new effulgence in the person of our Bridegroom! Then shall we reflect His glory, and show forth His praise!

Eternal praises to the worthy Lamb!

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The religion of sinners!

(Matthew Henry)

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:8-9

We must beware of deceiving ourselves in denying or excusing our sins. The more we see them--the more we shall esteem and value the remedy.

The Christian religion is the religion of sinners--of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some measure still dwells.

The Christian life is a life of . . .
  continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin,
  continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and
  hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished forever!

"He will save His people from their sins!" Matthew 1:21

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Bedridden saints!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

I bear my witness that some of the best things I have ever learned from mortal lips--I have learned from bedridden saints!

There is no greater mercy that I know of on earth than good health--unless it is sickness. Sickness has often been a greater mercy to me than health!

It is often worth while being afflicted, in order to experience the great loving kindness of God which He bestows so abundantly on us in the hour of trouble and perplexity. Yes, God turns our fasts into feasts--and we are glad in the midst of our sorrow!

A whole-hearted consecration,
a child-like confidence,
a deep-toned submission--
these will make us ready for suffering, whatever it may be.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Peter 1:6

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No way!

There are many ways to get into Hell.
"For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Matthew 7:13

There is only one way to escape Hell.
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

There is no way to get out of Hell.
"They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever!" Revelation 20:10
"They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power!" 2 Thessalonians 1:9

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We are as moths near a burning candle!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity!" Psalm 119:37

Dear friends, do not gaze upon any sin . . .
  for looking breeds longing,
  and longing begets lusting,
  and lusting brings sinning!

Keep your eyes right--and you may keep your heart right.

If that first woman had not looked upon the forbidden tree and seen "that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise," she would not have plucked and eaten the forbidden fruit--and we would not have been the children of sin and sorrow!

O friends, if we begin to look upon iniquity, we shall almost certainly fall! There are some sins that we poor, frail creatures cannot endure to look at. We are as moths near a burning candle--the only safety for us is to get out of the room and fly into the open air. But if we go near the candle--we shall certainly burn our wings and, perhaps, even destroy ourselves!

Just so, we must take care that we do not get used to sin. I believe that even the common reading in the newspapers of accounts of evil things is defiling to us. If we habitually read such things, we shall come, at last, to think less and less of the coarser forms of vice than we ought to do.

Nothing can keep us away from the fangs of sin, like falling into the embraces of Christ. Looking unto Jesus, is the great remedy against looking unto sin!

Turn away my eyes from vanity, my Lord, by filling them full with a vision of Yourself and holding me spellbound with that grandest spectacle that eyes of men, or angels, or even of God, Himself ever saw--the spectacle of God Incarnate bearing our sin in His own body on the Cross!

Keep your eyes fixed there--and all will be well.

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What gives the world its fatal charms?

(E.M. Bounds, "The World!")

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other--or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Luke 16:13

The world is one of the Christian's enemies which must be fought and conquered on the way to Heaven. The Christian life is represented as a training school, in which to deny worldly desires is one part of its curriculum.

There is no more fundamental statement in Scripture, than that the world is to be renounced by every true disciple of Christ--and that to love the world and the things of the world, puts us in open and standing enmity to God. By virtue of our love or friendship to the world--we are the enemies of God.

Christ Jesus lays it down as an obvious truth that between the world and His disciples, there would be hatred. To serve two opposing masters is impossible. The call of Christ when accepted and obeyed, becomes at once the secret and the source of the world's hatred.

Jesus declares the native and inevitable enmity of the world to His followers: "The world has hated them, because they are not of the world--even as I am not of the world." Again, in His high-priestly prayer, He declares this distinct and eternal separation and conflict: "They are not of the world--even as I am not of the world." By virtue of their relation to Christ--they are separated from, and are in conflict with, the world.

The love of the world is hostile to and destructive of, the love of God. The two cannot co-exist. Yet many modern church members and church goers are friends of the world--its advocates and lovers.

"You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would be the friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God!" James 4:4. Friendship with the world is God's greatest enemy. Love of the world violates our marriage vows to Jesus.

Nothing is more explicit than this, nothing is more commanding, authoritative and more exacting. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him!" 1 John 2:15. Nothing is more offensive to God, nothing is more criminal, more abominable, more violative of the most sacred relationship of the soul with God.

It remains true to this hour, that all the genuine disciples of Jesus are not of the world--but are chosen out of the world, have left the world, have renounced the world, and are crucified to the world.

What gives the world its fatal charms? What makes its enchantment so lethal? What makes it a deadly foe to Christ, and which poisons us against Heaven?

The world is the devil's pawn. The world gets its deadly and fascinating snares from the devil. The world is not simply the ally, but is the instrument and the agent of Satan.

The world's opposition and enmity have been always against the Christian--and often its smiles are more fatal than its hate!

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This year I may be in Heaven!

(Octavius Winslow, "Morning Thoughts")

"You have not traveled this way before!" Joshua 3:4

How solemn is the reflection that each traveler to Zion is commencing a new and untrodden path!
New events in his history will transpire;
new scenes in the panorama of life will unfold;
new phases of character will develop;
new temptations will assail;
new duties will devolve;
new trials will be experienced;
new sorrows will be felt;
new friendships will be formed
new mercies will be bestowed.

How truly may it be said of the pilgrim journeying through the wilderness to his eternal home, as he stands upon the threshold of this untried period of his existence, pondering the unknown and uncertain future: "You have not traveled this way before!"

Reader! if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you will enter upon a new stage of your journey by a renewed surrender of yourself to the Lord. You will make the cross the starting-point of a fresh setting out in the Heavenly race.

Oh, to begin the year with a broken heart for sin, beneath the cross of Immanuel--looking through that cross to the heart of a loving, forgiving Father!

Do not be anxious about the future--all that future God has provided for:
  "All my times are in Your hands."
  "Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you."
  "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you."

Let it be a year of more spiritual advance: "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward."
Forward in the path of duty;
forward in the path of suffering;
forward in the path of conflict;
forward in the path of labor; and
forward in the path to eternal rest and glory!

Soon will that rest be reached, and that glory appear! This new year may be the jubilee year of your soul--the year of your release. Oh spirit-stirring, ecstatic thought--this year I may be in Heaven!

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What the Church needs today!

(E.M. Bounds)

"They all joined together constantly in prayer" Acts 1:14

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:42

The church is looking for better methods--God is looking for holier men.

What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods--but men mighty in prayer.

The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods--but through men.
He does not come on machinery--but on men.
He does not anoint plans--but men, men of prayer.

Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient.

"The prayer meeting is the gauge of the Church's spiritual condition. You may always test your church's prosperity--by the number who assemble to pray!" Charles Spurgeon

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Millions of millions of millions of millions of years!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"In Your presence is fullness of joy! At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore!" Psalm 16:11

A million million--what must that be? The human mind cannot grasp the meaning of such vast numbers--yet, when millions of millions of millions of millions of years have passed over the heads of Christ's saints in glory, this text will not be exhausted!

No, more--not one jot or tittle of it will be exhausted--and throughout eternity it will still be, "pleasures forevermore!"

Ah, my brethren, this prize is worth winning! Eternal life is worth having! And it shall be the portion of every true believer!

"Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world!" Matthew 25:34

"And so we will be with the Lord forever!" 1 Thessalonians 4:17

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Let me see your tongue!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart--and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks!" Luke 6:45

If your religion does not sweeten your tongue--it has done nothing for you.

If the doctor wants to know the state of your health, he says, "Let me see your tongue!"

There is no better test of the health of the soul, than to see what is on the tongue!
When it gets cankered with unkind words,
when it turns black with blasphemy,
when it is spotted with impurity--
there is something very bad inside the heart, you may be quite sure of that!

Let your lips be a fountain from which all streams that flow shall savor of grace and goodness.

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths--but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29

"Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place--but rather thanksgiving." Ephesians 5:4

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Our refuge and strength!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble." Psalm 46:1

 He is our refuge--let us hide in Him.

 He is our strength--let us array ourselves with Him.

 He is our help--let us lean upon Him.

 He is our ever-present help--let us rest in Him now.

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"For me to live is Christ!" Philippians 1:21

Charles Spurgeon

The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Savior making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth, the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one Pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for Him; to His glory we would live--and in defense of His gospel we would die; He is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character.

Paul's words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ--nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life.

Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ?

Your business--are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self-aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery?

Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dare say that he hath lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet, this alone is the true life of a Christian--its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word--Christ Jesus.

Lord, accept me; I here present myself, praying to live only in Thee and to Thee. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, "Ready for either!"

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Almost saved!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Then Agrippa said to Paul: You almost persuade me to become a Christian." Acts 26:28

To be almost saved--is to be altogether lost!

There are many in Hell who once were almost saved--but who are now altogether damned!

Think of that, you who are not far from the Kingdom. It is being in the Kingdom that saves the soul--not being near the Kingdom.

"You are not far from the Kingdom of God." Mark 12:34

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Some thoughts on idolatry!

"These men have set up their idols in their hearts!" Ezekiel 14:3

"Their heart went after their idols!" Ezekiel 20:16

"We are all born idolaters!" Thomas Watson

"An idol is an idol--whether worshiped inwardly in heart, or adorned outwardly by the knee." J.C. Philpot

"Every one of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols. Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual idol factory!" John Calvin

"An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand." A.W. Tozer

"O wretched idol, MYSELF!" Samuel Rutherford

"If we are indeed Christians--we have broken a great many idols. We have still some more to break--and we must keep the hammer going until they are all broken!" Charles Spurgeon

"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!" Ezekiel 14:6

"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols!" 1 John 5:21