Grace Gems

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We need more sermons in shoes!

(Theodore Cuyler)

"Live such good lives among the pagans, that . . . they may see your good deeds and glorify God!" 1 Peter 2:12

"Whoever says he abides in Him--ought to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself." 1 John 2:6 (Amplified version)

We need more sermons in shoes--men and women going up and down the roads of life preaching Christianity by their imitation of Christ!

The demand of the day is for a higher standard and style of Christian life. Every follower of Christ must represent His religion purely, loftily, impressively--before that multitude of "Bible-readers" whose only Bible is the Christian!


"The true test of religion, is in the street. It lies in the common walks of life--even more than in the worship of the sanctuary. The test of our religion is not the regular manner in which we go to church, or the way in which we read our Bibles, or any elaborate religious ritual we perform. Its test is the kind of people it makes us--the kind of life it produces in us."


"A fine illustration of the worth of Christian character was seen in a teacher of one of the government schools of Japan. His contract was that he was not to teach Christianity--and, so far as words were concerned, he kept it faithfully. But all the while his life was so blameless and beautiful--that it did the work without words. As evidence of this, forty of the students, without his knowledge, met in a grove secretly, and signed a covenant to forsake idolatry--for the religion of their teacher. Some of them are now preaching the gospel in their native land."

"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven!" Matthew 5:16

"That you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe!" Philippians 2:14-15

"So that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive." Titus 2:10

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love--just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us" Ephesians 5:1-2

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When a proud heart meets with flattering lips!

(John Flavel)

"A flattering mouth works ruin!" Proverbs 26:28

"Whoever flatters his neighbor, is spreading a net for his feet!" Proverbs 29:5

They are not our best friends, who stir the pride in our hearts--by the flattery of their lips.

Christian! You carry gunpowder with you! Desire those who carry fire, to keep at a distance from you! It is a dangerous crisis--when a proud heart meets with flattering lips! Faithful, seasonable, and discreet reproofs are much more safe to us, and advantageous to the mortification of sin in our souls.

"Beware of the flatterer!" John Bunyan

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Our clumsy hands!

(J.R. Miller)

"I do not practice what I want to do--but I do what I hate!" Romans 7:15

Think of the brokenness, the incompleteness, the littleness--of these lives of ours!

We get glimpses of beauty in character--which we are not able to attain!
We have spiritual longings--which seem to us too great ever to come true.
We dream of things we want to do--but when we try to work them out, our clumsy hands cannot put them into realizations!

We have glimmerings of a love that is very rich and tender, without a trace of selfishness, without envy or jealousy, without resentment--a love which does not seek its own, nor is not provoked, and bears all things. We get the vision from the life of Christ Himself. We say, "I will learn that lesson of love--I will be like that!" But we fail.

We strive to be sweet-spirited, unselfish, thoughtful, kind--but we must wet our pillow with tears at the close of our marred days, because we cannot be what we strive to be! We have glimpses of an inner peace which is very beautiful. We strive after it strive with intense effort--but do not reach it!

So it is in all our living. Life is ever something too large for us. We attain only fragments of living. Yet take heart, "The desire of the righteous shall be granted!" Proverbs 10:24

"We know that when He appears--we shall be like Him!" 1 John 3:2

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Christ knows His people by certain distinguishing marks

(J.R. Miller)

"I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own sheep--and they know Me!" John 10:14

The Jewish shepherds had certain marks by which they knew their own sheep. Even in this country, the farmers put "brands" on their sheep--their own initial, or an "ear-mark," or some other particular sign by which they will know them anywhere. Christ knows His people by certain distinguishing marks.

He knows them by their faces. There is something in every true child of God, which shows to whom he belongs--some family likeness, some feature of the Divine image shining out. The prodigal's father knew his son when he saw him a long way off. In his rags, in his beggary--the eye of love recognized the child. Just so, Christ knows His own people, however dim the likeness--by their faces. The crowds do not recognize heaven's princes, in the humble Christians they meet; but Jesus does!

Not only does Christ know His own by their faces--but also by their voice. The mother knows her child's voice anywhere, even in the darkness, and can distinguish it among a thousand voices. Christ knows the voices of His own people, wherever He hears them speak or cry.

He knows them also by their character. Even if the outside is rough and uncouth, it does not hide from His eye, the inner life--the spirit, the heart. He saw the future Peter with all his grandeur of character--in the crude Simon who was brought to Him.

He knows His friends by their obedience. He knows His disciples--by their following where He leads.

He also knows the white garments of righteousness which His redeemed ones wear.

He knows the penitent heart--by the fragrance it puts forth. It is an altar of incense. It is a box of ointment broken open. Just as we find out the hiding-places of flowers by their fragrances--so God knows the home of the penitent heart by the sweetness that wafts up from it.

"I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own sheep--and they know Me!"

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The Sympathy of Christ!

(Francis Bourdillon)

"We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are" Hebrews 4:15

In all our infirmities and troubles of every kind--in pain and sickness, in poverty and need, in anxiety and grief--Jesus has a sympathetic heart for us. Is not this comforting? Does it not cheer us in a time of suffering, when some kind friend comes in and sits down beside us and shows most plainly that though he is unable to help us, he does sincerely feel for us? How much more cheering it is to know that Jesus in Heaven sympathizes with us in all our troubles here below! Does not this thought, this blessed truth--take the edge off the sharpest suffering, and lift us for the time above our sorrows?

Jesus Christ Himself was afflicted when He was on earth. He is called a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. No sorrows were ever equal to His. We know that He was tired and hungry and sad. He was besides, the poorest of the poor--He had nowhere to lay His head. He led what would be called a very hard life.

Our greatest sufferings are light when compared with His. He had some afflictions which we cannot fully understand, as when He prayed in the garden, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me!" And as when He cried upon the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!"

He can sympathize with the poor--because He was poor Himself.
He can sympathize with the sad--because He was a man of sorrows.
He can sympathize with all who suffer--because His own sufferings were so many and so great.

He was tempted; He was tried; He was afflicted; He went through what we have to go through--and much more. In this very world in which we live now--He lived and suffered; and therefore He can and does sympathize with His suffering people.

"He was despised and rejected by men--a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces--He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows--yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace, was upon Him--and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:3-5

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The bags will come to an end, long before the treasure is exhausted!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"If a wealthy and mighty king should open his treasure, and bid men come and bring their bags, and take as much as they would--do you think they would neglect this occasion of gain? Surely not! They would run and fetch bag after bag, and never cease. Thus does the Lord act toward us with His grace."

He makes over all His fullness to His people, and says, "All is yours!" We are not straitened in Him. The bags will come to an end, long before the treasure is exhausted!

Let us come, then, to the throne of grace with enlarged desires and widened expectations! The Lord does not stint us--why should we put ourselves upon scanty fare? He says, "Eat and drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved!" Why, then, do we sit at the table and starve, or rise from it hungry? Let us by faith, drink of the abundance of the sea of grace, and partake largely of the hidden treasure which the Lord has laid up for us!

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need!" Hebrews 4:16

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We cannot fathom the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls!

(Charles Spurgeon)

If we give any description of the doom of the impenitent which is at all true to God's Word, those who reject the Scriptures begin to cry out that we have borrowed it from Dante, or taken it from Milton! But the most awful and harrowing descriptions of the woes of the lost which ever fell from human lips, do not exceed or even equal the language of the loving Christ, Himself! Listen: "Depart from Me, you who are cursed--into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels!"

You and I can never imagine all the depths of Hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness--we cannot fathom the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls!

Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests would be but a maiden's whisper--compared with one wail of a damned soul.

It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish which knows no alleviation. Our eyes would become sightless balls of darkness--if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment!

Hell is horrible, for we may say of it: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man--to conceive of the horrors which God has prepared for those who hate Him!

SIN, indeed, is Hell--Hell in embryo, Hell in essence, Hell kindling, Hell emerging from the shell.

HELL is but sin when it has manifested and developed itself to the full!

Stand at the gates of Hell and understand how venomous is the disease for which Heaven's remedy is provided in the ignominious sufferings and death of the Only Begotten.

He is the true lover of men's souls--who does not deceive them! He who paints the miseries of Hell as though they were but little--is seeking to murder men's souls under the pretense of being their friend!
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath--but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 1 Thessalonians 5:9

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What are these Christians doing on Satan's ground?

(James Smith)

"What are these Hebrews doing here?" 1 Samuel 29:3

David's men wanted to mingle with the Philistine army--this was decidedly wrong.

It is always wrong when God's people unite with the world, contrary to His holy Word.

We may ask, "What are these Christians doing here?" What are they doing--joining with the world? Their Master has told them to "Come out from among them and be separate! Touch no unclean thing!" He has said, "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest--because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy!" What are these Christians doing out of the path of duty--or by their presence, sanctioning sin?

God has said, "Be holy--for I am holy." What are these Christians doing on Satan's ground? They are in the enemy's ranks? Do they intend to leave Jesus--and go back to the world? Are they  . . .
  tired of His company,
  set against His Word, and
  determined to throw off His yoke?

Do they intend to share in . . .
  the slavery of Satan,
  the sinner's doom,
  the wrath of God?

What are these Christians doing here? Their conduct is . . .
  unnatural,
  degrading,
  traitorous!

Christian! you should . . .
  keep the company of Jesus,
  walk with holy people, and
  keep yourselves unspotted from the world!

"The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins--to rescue us from the present evil age!" Galatians 1:3-4

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The fruitful branch!

(Francis Bourdillon)

"He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit." John 15:2A

But the gardener does something to the fruitful branch also: "While every branch that does bear fruit--He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." John 15:2B

He is not content with a little fruit from it--he wants more. So he takes his knife and prunes it--and that not once only, but again and again. Not roughly or hastily--but with great skill and care, that it may bear as much fruit as possible.

Does not this show us the meaning of our afflictions? God is the Gardener of souls. What is He doing when . . .
  He sends sore trouble on the Christian,
  or lays him on a bed of sickness,
  or takes away his comforts,
  or removes some who were very dear?
What is the meaning of this? God has taken the pruning-knife in hand, and is pruning the branch that it may bring forth more fruit.

People are sometimes surprised at seeing trouble fall on the godly--and not on the wicked. But this parable explains it quite plainly. The godly man is a fruit-bearing branch; he is joined by faith to Christ, the true Vine, and does already bear fruit. But God, the heavenly Gardener, desires more fruit--and therefore prunes him by means of affliction.

It may be a sharp pruning knife that He makes use of--and He has sharpened it for the very purpose. But it is not too sharp. In His wise and gracious hands--it will do its work well. The Christian will rise from his sick-bed, or come forth from the house of mourning, all the better for God's dealing with him--more humble, more spiritually-minded, more sober-minded, more zealous and in earnest. Henceforth the world will be less to him--and his Savior more precious to him.

Cannot every Christian, who has been under God's pruning-knife--bear witness to the gentle firmness with which it has been used? There is no weakness or wavering in God's dealings--yet no roughness. There is no lack of decision, no half-work--yet no rashness, no mistake.

The gardener's hand may make a slip--and he may cut too deep, or cut where he did not mean to cut. Not so with the hand of God. When He takes the knife, He uses it . . .
  with perfect firmness,
  with unerring wisdom, and
  with tender and compassionate love.
He will make no slip.
He will not cut too deep.
He will give no needless pain.
He will take away no comfort that would better have been left.

Sometimes the gardener adds an ointment to the place where the cut has been made--lest the branch should "bleed" too much, as they say.

Just so, God is always ready to apply a healing ointment to the wounds which He makes.
Oh, what comfort He sends in trouble!
Oh, what soothing, heavenly thoughts!
Oh, what a sense of His love!
Oh, what answers to prayer!
Oh, what grace and peace--what thankfulness and love!
These are His precious ointments. This is how He binds up the wounds which He has made.

Do not shrink from your Father's hand--even though the knife is in it! Trust Him, love Him. He will do all wisely, tenderly, faithfully. Let it be your heart's desire to abide more closely to Christ, and to bring forth more fruit to the glory of God.

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He would save you from disappointment, sorrow and woe!

(James Smith)

"Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils." Isaiah 2:22

Never trust in man--for his heart is deceitful.

Never expect satisfaction from from man--for he is an empty cistern.

Never follow man--for he is a false guide.

Do not trust even in a friend. One object of trust is enough--Jesus has all you need.

If you neglect this loving direction--then you may expect to suffer.
But if you walk by it--then your peace will be a river, and your soul will be like a well-watered garden.

He cautions you--because He loves you.

He knows what is in man--you do not.

He would save you from disappointment, sorrow and woe!

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man--who depends on flesh for his strength!" Jeremiah 17:5

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord--whose confidence is in Him!" Jeremiah 17:7

"O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in You!" Psalm 84:12

"In You, O Lord, I have put my trust!" Psalms 71:1

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The worldling's Bible!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 5:16

The worldling's Bible is the Christian. He never reads the Book--but he reads the disciple of Christ, and he judges the Christian religion by the lives of its professors!

The world does not read the Bible--the world reads Christians!

"For it is God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men!" 1 Peter 2:15

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:1-2

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It will even make the cross of Christ into a pedestal on which to erect its deformed visage!

(Octavius Winslow, "Eminent Holiness Essential to an Efficient Ministry" 1843)

An attribute in the formation of an elevated standard of ministerial holiness--too essential and important to be overlooked--is a growing humbleness of mind.

Where is the spiritual minister of Christ who has not detected the latent existence, and who has not had to struggle against--the secret workings of the sin of pride? It is so insidious and powerful a sin--and is so exhilarating in the sensations it produces--that few are more liable to be enamored by its fair exterior, and ensnared by its specious and seductive form--than the minister of the gospel! And yet, pride is an evil more calculated to feed as a cankerworm at the root of his ministry! A sin more loathed of God, against which His denunciations are more severely recorded, on which His wrath has more signally and fearfully fallen--is not found to exist! Pride originated the first form of evil that ever existed--and it constitutes, at this moment, the great center of rebellion against God on earth!

Thus, the identical sin which we find to form so impregnable a stronghold of Satan in the hearts of the unregenerate, and which has so sadly wounded the peace, retarded the prosperity, and deformed the beauty of Christ's Church--is the sin most rife in our own bosoms!

Its classifications are many. Among them may be specified the pride of office, the pride of denomination, the pride of knowledge, the pride of talent, the pride of scholarship, the pride of influence, the pride of orthodoxy, the pride of eloquence, the pride of pulpit, the pride of platform, the pride of success, and the pride of applause.

Pride is a protean evil--assuming a thousand varied and opposite forms! It will insinuate itself into the most spiritual and solemn of our services. There is no soil so holy--in which its root will not strike. There is no employment so sacred--on which it will not engraft itself. It will even make the cross of Christ into a pedestal on which to erect its deformed visage! Yes, while exalting Jesus--we may be found but exalting ourselves! And while exclaiming, "Behold the Lamb of God!"--we may be but veiling His true glory behind our insignificant persons; virtually exclaiming, "Behold my talents, my eloquence, and my zeal!" We are often guilty of the awful sin of self-exaltation--while setting forth the person, work, glory, and humiliation of the Son of God!

Is there not in us, my brethren, a manifest deficiency of the humble, self-annihilating spirit of the divine Master whom we serve--and whom it should be our aim and glory to resemble? In maintaining our position in the Church--may there not be a lofty deportment, an air of self-sufficiency and importance--utterly at variance with the "mind that was in Christ Jesus"? Is there not an unholy ostentation, and a desire for self-promotion--in much that we do for Christ?

Is there not . . .
  an eagerness for preferment to influential and wealthy churches,
  a fondness for conspicuousness of place,
  a shrinking from fields of labor where no laurels are to be won,
  a thirsting for human applause,
  a studied aim after popularity,
  a trimming policy designed to please the world,
  a trumpeting of our own fame, and
  a vaunting parade of our own success?
We have plucked the crown from Christ's head--and placed it on our own! In setting forth Christ's infinite glory, and His deep abasement and sufferings--we have turned it into an occasion of pride and self-exaltation!

Instead of inquiring, "Who shall be most lowly--the most like Christ--the least in the kingdom?" is it not, "Who shall be the greatest? Who shall stand upon the highest pinnacle of renown?"

Are we not, in many or in all these points--truly guilty before our God?

And yet how much is there in us, if soberly and frequently pondered--calculated . . .
  to abase our pride,
  to repress our aspirings of vanity,
  to rebuke our self-adulation,
  and to lay us low in a low place?

Has not the cherishing of this sin of pride in our bosom--deeply grieved the Spirit? Is not the real secret . . .
  of our barren souls,
  of our ineffectual ministry,
  of our languishing churches,
  of our paralyzed efforts--
simply the sad but certain consequences of our accursed pride?

A holy ministry--is a humble ministry!

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He gives His beloved sleep!

(Arthur Pink)

"He gives His beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2

How often is it lost sight of, that the Lord cares for the bodies of His saints--as well as for their souls. Sleep is a Divine gift---but the nightly recurrence of it blinds us to the fact. Sleep is as imperative for our physical well-being--as is food and drink. Sleep is as much the gift of our heavenly Father, as is the other.

When it so pleases Him, God withholds sleep--and then we have to say with the Psalmist, "You kept my eyes from closing." Psalm 77:4. But that is the exception rather than the rule--and deeply thankful should we be that it is so. Day by day the Lord feeds us--and night by night, "He gives His beloved sleep."

We should perceive the gracious hand of God ministering in tenderness to all of our daily needs. He is mindful of our frailty--and tempers His dealings with us accordingly. He is aware when our energies are spent, and graciously renews our strength and mercifully refreshes our bodies with sleep.

Alas, how little are we affected by the Lord's goodness and grace unto us. The unfailing recurrence of His temporal and spiritual mercies--incline us to take them for granted. So dull of understanding are we, so cold our hearts Godward--it is to be feared that most of the time we fail to realize whose loving hand it is, which is ministering to us.

Is not this the very reason why we do not begin to really value our health--until it is taken from us? It is not until we spend night after night tossing upon a bed of pain--that we perceive the worth of regular sleep with which we were formerly favored. And such vile creatures are we, that when illness and insomnia come upon us, instead of improving the same by repenting of our former ingratitude--we murmur and complain at the hardness of our present lot, and wonder what we have done to deserve such treatment!

O let those of us who are still blessed with good health and regular sleep--not fail to daily return thanks for such privileges, and earnestly seek grace to use the strength from them to the glory of God!


"Let us thank God for common mercies--for they prove to be uncommonly precious, when they are once taken away!" Charles Spurgeon

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Why are those blessed, who hear and obey the Word of God?

(Francis Bourdillon, "Short Sermons for Family Reading" 1881)

"Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it." Luke 11:28

The Word must be obeyed--as well as heard. We must not hear it carelessly. Nor must we be hearers only, forgetting it as soon as heard. We are to guard it and keep it--to treasure it in our hearts as a precious possession. We are to believe it and to follow it--then the full blessing will be ours.

Why are those blessed, who hear and obey the Word of God?

1. Because the Word of God tells us of the Savior, speaks pardon and peace, and opens to us God's wondrous way of saving sinners. This can be said of no other book, and no other thing. The works of God in nature tell us much--but they do not tell us this. Many books of man are written on these subjects--but they are but man's books after all.

2. They are blessed also, because the Word of God is a sure guide. It is a difficult path through the wilderness of this world. Many hindrances and perplexities meet us--and many different rules are offered for our guidance: fashion, custom, prudence, man's opinion, etc. But the Word of God is the only sure guide. A simple, humble, earnest following of this guide--is the wisest, happiest, safest course! The poorest and most unlearned who through grace take this course--have more security for going right than the greatest and wisest who follow any other path. Therefore they are blessed who hear and keep the word of God--because they have a sure guide through life.

3. The word of God also comforts in trouble, and therefore they are blessed who hear it and keep it. This world has its sorrows as well as its difficulties--sorrows many and great; but the word of God has comfort for all of life's sorrows. It is full of comfort. It has promises and declarations of God's love. It contains examples of mourners whom He has comforted--and these in great number and variety. There is no kind of trouble for which some suitable comfort may not be found in the Bible. In time of deep sorrow--a comfort and consolation are found in the Word of God which are sought in vain in other books. It is the best of all books for those in trouble.

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What is most needed today!

(Arthur Pink)

It is my deepening conviction that what is most needed today is a wide proclamation of those Scripture truths which are the least acceptable to the flesh.

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting forth of the character of God:
   His absolute sovereignty,
   His ineffable holiness,
   His inflexible justice,
   His unchanging veracity.

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting forth of the condition of the natural man:
   his total depravity,
   his spiritual insensibility,
   his inveterate hostility to God,
   the fact that he is "condemned already," and
   that the wrath of a sin-hating God is even now abiding upon him!

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting forth of the alarming danger which sinners are in--the indescribably awful doom which awaits them; and the fact that if they follow their present course only a little further, they shall most certainly suffer the due penalty of their iniquities!

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting forth of the nature of that dreadful punishment which awaits the lost:
   the dreadfulness of it,
   the hopelessness of it,
   the unendurableness of it,
   and the endlessness of it!