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Christ takes the garbage!

(Charles Spurgeon, "The Meek and Lowly One")

Jewelers can only prepare and polish the choicest diamonds.
But Jesus Christ polishes a common pebble, and makes a jewel of it!

Jewelers make their precious treasures, out of precious materials.
Christ makes His precious things, out of dross!

He always begins with bad material. Christ takes . . .
  the despicable,
  the vilest,
  the scum,
  the off-scouring,
  the filth,
  the garbage of the world,
and out of such stuff and matter as that, He builds up a holy temple, and gathers to Himself trophies for His honor and praise!

"Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And that is what some of you were! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

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It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

(Matthew Mead, "Falling into the Hands of the Living God!" 1629-1699)

"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" Hebrews 10:31

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, because, as He is the all-knowing and Almighty God--so He is the just and righteous God; and will be so forever, for He is the living God. His righteousness and justice are everlasting--and this makes Hell so dreadful.

As it is the great comfort of believers to have such a Mediator and Surety, such a high priest to live forever to make intercession for them--so this is the great misery of lost sinners: to fall into the hands of that God, who ever lives to avenge Himself on their unbelief and rebellion. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God . . .
  who knows all their sins,
  who is so holy--that He must punish them,
  who is so powerful--that He can punish them,
  who is so just--that He does punish all impenitent sinners forever!

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Looking at the world through the cross!

(Octavius Winslow)

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

Jesus could accomplish man's redemption in no other way than by crucifixion. He must die--and die the death of the cruel cross.

What light and glory beam around the cross!

Of what prodigies of grace, is it the instrument,
of what glorious truths, is it the symbol,
of what mighty transforming power, is it the source!

Around the cross gathers all the light of the Old Testament economy:
  it explains every symbol,
  it substantiates every shadow,
  it solves every mystery,
  it fulfills every type,
  it confirms every prophecy,
of that dispensation which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable, but for the death of the Son of God upon the cross.

Not the past only--but all future splendor gathers around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures us of the ultimate reign of the Savior, and tells of the reward which shall spring from His sufferings. And while its one arm points to the divine counsels of eternity past--with the other it points to the future triumph and glory of Christ's kingdom in the eternity to come! Such is the lowly yet sublime, the weak yet mighty instrument, by which the sinner is saved and God eternally glorified.

The cross of Christ is . . .
  the grand consummation of all preceding dispensations of God to men;
  the meritorious procuring cause of all spiritual blessings to our fallen race;
  the scene of Christ's splendid victories over all His enemies and ours;
  the most powerful incentive to all evangelical holiness;
  the instrument which is to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus;
  the source of all true peace, joy and hope;
  the tree beneath whose shadow all sin expires, all grace lives.

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!
What a holy thrill these words produce in the heart of those who love the Savior!
How significant is their meaning, how precious is their influence!

Marvelous and irresistible, is the power of the cross! The cross of Christ has . . .
  subdued many a rebellious will;
  broken many a marble heart;
  laid low many a vaunting foe;
  overcome and triumphed, when all other instruments have failed;
  transformed the lion like heart of man, into the lamb like heart of Christ!

When lifted up in its own bare simplicity and inimitable grandeur--the cross of Christ has won and attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and love!

What a marvelous power does this cross of Jesus possess! It changes the Christian's entire judgment of the world. Looking at the world through the cross--his opinion is totally revolutionized.
He sees the world as it really is--a sinful, empty, vain thing.
He learns its iniquity, in that it crucified the Lord of life and glory.
His expectations from the world, and his love to the world, are transformed.
He has found another object of love--the Savior whom the world cast out and slew.
His love to the world is destroyed by that power which alone could destroy it--the crucifying power of the cross.

It is the cross which eclipses, in the view of the true believer, the glory and attraction of every other object.

What is the weapon by which faith combats with, and overcomes the world? What but the cross of Jesus!

Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun, is blinded for the moment to all other objects by its overpowering effulgence; so to the believer, concentrating his mind upon the glory of the crucified Savior, studying closely the wonders of grace and love and truth meeting in the cross--the world with all its attraction fades into the full darkness of an eclipse.

Christ and His cross infinitely better than the world and its trinkets!

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

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The Infinite has become an infant!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Christ's Incarnation, the Foundation of Christianity")

"Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:8

How surprised the angels must have been when they were first informed that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life, intended to shroud Himself in clay, and become a human babe, and live and die upon the earth! We don't know how the information was first communicated to the angels; but when the rumor began to circulate among the shining hosts--we may imagine what strange astonishment there was in their lofty minds!

What! was it true that He whose crown was all bejeweled with stars, would lay that crown aside? What! was it certain that He, about whose shoulders was cast the purple robe of universal sovereignty--would become a man, dressed in a peasant's garment? Could it be true that He who was eternal and immortal, would one day be nailed to a cruel cross!

How their wonderment must have increased as the details of the Savior's earthly life and death were made known to them. Well might they desire to "look into" these things, which were so surprising and mysterious to them.

And when He descended from on high they looked upon Him in rapturous amazement--wondering how it could be that He "who was rich--for our sakes became poor."

Do you see Him as, on that day of Heaven's eclipse, He did, as it were, ungird Himself of His majesty? Can you conceive the increasing wonder of the heavenly hosts when the great deed was actually done--when they saw His priceless tiara taken off, when they watched Him unbind His belt of stars, and cast away His sandals of gold?

Can you conceive what must have been the astonishment of the angels when He said to them, "I do not disdain the womb of the virgin; I am going down to earth to become a man!"

O angels, be lost in astonishment, as you see that the Infinite has become an infant!

He, upon whose shoulders the universe hangs--hangs at His mother's bosom!

He, who created all things by the word of His power, and who bears up the pillars of all creation--has now become so weak that He must be carried in the arms of a woman!

Wonder, you angels who knew Him in His riches--while you behold Him in His poverty!

Is He not just the Savior that we need? God and yet man in one adorable person!
He is able to sympathize because He is man--and He is able to save because He is God!

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Your Almighty Friend!

(Octavius Winslow, "Christ, the Mighty God")

"He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!" Isaiah 9:6

Because Jesus is the almighty God, His people have an almighty burden-bearer.

We are a burdened people. Every believer carries a burden peculiar to himself.

What is your burden, O believer?
Is it indwelling sin?
Is it some natural infirmity of the body?
Is it a constitutional weakness?
Is it some domestic trial?
Is it a personal or relative trial?
Is it a state of poverty?
Is it the decay of health?
Is it soul anxiety?
Is it mental despondency?

It is well that you are sensible of the pressure, that you feel your weakness and insufficiency, and that you are brought to the end of all your own power. Now turn to your Almighty Friend, who is the Creator of the ends of the earth, even the everlasting God, who does not faint, neither is weary. Come, oppressed and burdened believer, ready to give up all and sink--behold Jesus, the Almighty God, omnipotent to transfer your burden to Himself, and give you rest!

How precious is the promise addressed to you! "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint!" Isaiah 40:29-31

Oh, what strength there is in Jesus for the weak, and faint and drooping of His flock!

You are ready to succumb to your foes, and you think that the battle of faith is lost. Cheer up! Jesus, your Savior, friend, and brother, is "the Almighty God," and will perfect His strength in your weakness. He . . .
 sustains our infirmities,
 bears our burdens,
 supplies our needs, and
 encircles us with the shield of His Almightiness!

What a Divine spring of consolation and strength to the tired and afflicted saint, is the Almightiness of Jesus. Your sorrow is too deep, your affliction is too heavy, your difficulty is too great for any human to resolve. It distances in its intensity and magnitude, the sympathy and the power of man.

Come, you . . .
  who are tempest-tossed and not comforted;
  whose spirit is wounded,
  whose heart is broken,
  whose mind is bowed down to the dust--
and hide within Christ's sheltering Almightiness!

Jesus is equal to your condition.
His strength is almighty!
His love is almighty!
His grace is almighty!
His sympathy is almighty!
His arm is almighty!
His resources are infinite, fathomless, measureless!

Almighty to rescue, He is also your Brother and Friend to sympathize. And while His Divine arm encircles, upholds, and keeps you--His human soul, touched with the feeling of your infirmities, yearns over you with all the deep intensity of its compassionate tenderness.

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The way to escape from the power of sin!

(Charles Spurgeon, "The Way" #942)

The great object of a penitent soul is to get away from the tyranny and slavery of evil habits and of corrupt desires.

The saints in glory overcame through the blood of the Lamb--and there is no other way of overcoming. The precious blood of atonement wherever sprinkled, kills sin; and he who lives in the full belief of it will be purified from sinful habits.

It is living under a sense of divine love as manifest in Christ; it is living with the full conviction of pardon through the blood, which brings to us freedom from the reigning power of sin.

There is no way to get the likeness of Christ, except by learning of His love. You imitate Christ, and so become like Him. You commune with Christ--and as you talk with Him, His character sacredly operates upon yourself, and you are changed from glory to glory, as by the image of the Lord.

Christ is the way to escape from the power of sin! The moment we forget Christ, and then seek after personal sanctification--we are trying to get to our journey's end by declining to tread the road to it.

It is impossible to grow in grace, except by abiding evermore at the foot of the cross.

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His master-purpose!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Christ's Incarnation, the Foundation of Christianity")

Let us gather with grateful boldness around the infant in the manger, and behold our God! "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins!" Matthew 1:21

The great object of our Lord's coming here was not to live, but to die.

He appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, or to manifest goodness, or to perfect an example for us to imitate--but "to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

The modern teachers of error would thrust the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus into the background--but our Lord placed it in the forefront. He came to take away our sins. Do not think of Jesus without remembering the design of His coming.

We preach Christ--so do a great many more. But, "we preach Christ crucified!" 1 Corinthians 1:23. We preach, concerning our Lord--His cross, His blood, His death! Upon the blood of His cross we lay great stress, extolling much "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," by putting away their sin "by the sacrifice of Himself."

We will not deny, or conceal, or depreciate His master-purpose--lest we be found guilty of trampling upon His blood, and treating it as an unholy thing.

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst!" 1 Timothy 1:15

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 Who but Christ?
 
(Charles Spurgeon, "Our Glorious Transforming")

Think of GOD a moment. Your thoughts cannot reach Him. He is infinitely pure--the heavens are not clean in His sight. He even charges His holy angels with folly!
 
That is one side of the picture.
 
Now look at YOURSELF--a worm that has rebelled against its Creator, loathsome with sin, defiled through and through!
 
When I see a beggar and a prince stand together, I see a distance--but ah! it is but an inch compared with the infinite leagues of distance in character and nature between God and the fallen man.
 
Who but Christ could have lifted us up from so low an estate, to so high a condition; from fellowship with devils, unto communion with Jehovah Himself?
 
The distance was inconceivable. We are lost in wonder at the greatness of the love that made it all to vanish.

"Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us--that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1

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Oh! Wonder of wonders!

(Charles Spurgeon, "His Name, Wonderful")   

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. The government will be upon His shoulder--and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!" Isaiah 9:6

Oh! what is that I see?

Oh! world of wonders--what is that I see?

The Eternal of ages, whose hair is white like wool, as white as snow--becomes an infant!

Can it be?

You angels, are you not astonished?

He becomes an infant, hangs at a virgin's bosom, and draws his nourishment from the woman!

Oh! Wonder of wonders!

Manger of Bethlehem, you have miracles poured into you.

This is a sight which surpasses all others!

Talk of the sun, moon, and stars; consider the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars that He has ordained--but all the wonders of the universe shrink into nothing, when we come to the mystery of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I do believe that the very angels have never wondered but once, and that has been incessantly ever since they first beheld it! They never cease to tell the astonishing story, and to tell it with increasing astonishment too--that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born of a Virgin, and became a man!

Is He not rightly called Wonderful?

Infinite--and an infant!

Eternal--and yet born of a woman!

Almighty--and yet hanging on a woman's bosom!

Supporting the universe--and yet needing to be carried in a mother s arms!

King of angels--and yet the carpenter's despised son!

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The malady--the misery--the shame of our whole race!

(Henry Law, "The Sin Offering")

"He must bring to the Lord a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed." Leviticus 4:3

SIN!

The sound is brief--but it presents a dark abyss of thought.
No mind can trace its birth--no eye can see its death.
Before the worlds it scaled the heavens, and dragged angels down.
In life's first dawn it entered Eden and slew innocence.
It ends not with the end of time.
It ever rolls on in its ever-deepening course.

Reader, think much of sin!

It is earth's death-blow.
It marred the beauty of a beauteous world, and stripped it of its lovely robe.
It caused the soil to harden, and the leaves to wither and decay.
It turned fertility into weeds, and armed the brier with its bristling thorns.
It made the clouds to blacken, and the storm to rage.
It raised the tempest's roar, and plumed the lightning with its forked wings.
It placed its foot upon a perfect workmanship, and left it a disordered wreck!

Reader, think much of sin!

It is man's ruin.
Its most tremendous blight fell on our inner life.
It drove the soul from peaceful fellowship with God.
It changed the loving child into a hardened rebel.
It robbed the mind of light.
It rendered reason a bewildered maze.
It made the heart . . .
  a nest of unclean birds;
  a spring of impure streams;
  a whirlpool of tumultuous passions;
  a hot-bed of ungodly lusts;
  a den of God-defying schemes!

It is the malady--the misery--the shame of our whole race!
It is the spring of every tear!
Each sigh which rends the bosom;
each frown which ploughs the brow;
each pain which racks the limbs--are cradled in its arms.

It is the mother of that mighty monster--death!
It digs each grave in every grave-yard.
Each widow and each orphan tastes its gall.
It fills each hospital with the sick.
It strews the battlefield with the slain.
It is the core in every grief.
It is the worm which gnaws the root of peace.

Reader, think much of sin!

Its terrible destructions do not die in the grave.
There is a region where its full-blown torments reign.
It built the prison-house of Hell.
It kindled quenchless flames.
It forged the chains which bind lost sinners to their burning beds.
It sharpened the undying sting of an upbraiding conscience.
It arms the jailer--Satan, with his scourge.
It bars the hopeless in that outer darkness, where . . .
  weeping ever weeps,
  and wailing ever wails,
  and teeth forever gnash,
  and all is woe, which knows neither respite nor end.

Reader, think much of sin!

It works this bitter and eternal anguish, because God's curse attends it.
It raised a rebel-hand against His will.
It dared to violate His holy law.
It strove to lay His honor in the dust.
It trampled on the statute-book of heaven.
Therefore God's anger fiercely burns against it.
Hence every misery follows in its succession.
He must be wretched, who has God against him!

Reader, here is a picture in which all horrors meet!
Regard it with an earnest eye.
No fiction colors it.
No power can over-paint the terrible reality.
No artist's skill can represent a flame.
The dreadful truth exceeds description.
The lost writhe out eternity in fully learning the deserts of sin!

Reader, receive the soul-reviving voice: Though sin is death, the sinner need not die.
There is a fortress of escape.
There is a remedy to heal these wounds.
What though your sins are as countless as the sands? They all may disappear.
What though the dye of each sin is double crimson? Each may be washed away.
The filth may all be cleansed.
The debts may be wiped out.
The soul may meet Jehovah's eye without one stain.
There is a way, by which the vilest may stand pure.
God's love decreed a plan.
He willed a ransom, and His Son achieved it.

Let us draw nearer to the amazing sight!

Each sin must bear its merited load of woe.
Each curse must be endured.
Each violation of the holy law must drink the dregs of condemnation.

Jesus comes forth to help!
The guiltless One takes the guilty place.
The God-man represents His chosen flock.
He stands as their complete sin-offering.
He pays in anguish and in blood, their every due.
Their wrath is endured.
Their penalties are paid.
Their sufferings are suffered.
Their agonies are agonized.
The saving work requires infinity of woe. Infinity of woe is borne by Him.
His Deity enables--His manhood qualifies.
Thus their sin is fully punished--thus the redeemed are fully saved!

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Do we have any evidence that we really intend to go there?

(John Owen)

We all profess that we are bound for Heaven, immortality and glory. But do we have any evidence that we really intend to go there--if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us--and have only occasional thoughts of things above?

"If then you were raised with Christ--seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above--not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears--then you also will appear with Him in glory!" Colossians 3:1-4

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The funeral of all his sorrows!
 
(Charles Spurgeon)

"They will go away to eternal punishment--but the righteous to eternal life." Matthew 25:46

There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly--and the death of the ungodly.

Death comes to the ungodly man, as a punishment.
Death comes to the righteous, as a summons to his Father's palace!

To the lost sinner, death is an execution.
To the saint, death is an undressing from his sins and infirmities!

Death to the wicked, is the King of terrors.
Death to the saint, is the end of terrors and the commencement of glory!

"The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth!" King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:1)

"We spend our years with sighing--for life is a valley of tears.
 Yet for the Christian, death is the funeral of all his sorrows!" Thomas Watson

"Death is only a grim porter to admit us into a stately palace." Richard Sibbes

"He who rides to be crowned, will not be much bothered with a rainy day." John Trapp

"Let your hope of Heaven, master your fear of death!" William Gurnall

"Eternity to the godly, is a day that has no sunset.
 Eternity to the wicked, is a night that has no sunrise." Thomas Watson

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Imitate the pearl oyster!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Love's Labors")

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13

I wish, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate the pearl oyster. A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. The oyster cannot reject the evil--but it 'covers' it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl!

Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians--so that pearls of patience, gentleness, and forgiveness might be bred within us, by that which otherwise would have harmed us!

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

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The choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian!

Thomas Manton: "What is the reason that there is so much preaching, and so little practice? For lack of meditation. The end of study is information--and the end of meditation is practice, or kindling of the affections. The end of study is to hoard up truth. The end of meditation to lay it forth in holy conduct. To hear sermons and not to meditate upon them, is unfruitful. We may hear and hear, but it is like putting a thing into a bag with holes!"

Thomas Brooks: "It is not the bee's touching of the flower which gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower which draws out the sweet. Just so, it is not he who reads most, but he who meditates most--who will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian!"

William Bridge: "Meditation will keep your hearts and souls from sinful thoughts. When the vessel is full, you can put in no more. If the heart is full of sinful thoughts--then there is no room for holy and heavenly thoughts. If the heart is full of holy and heavenly thoughts by meditation--then there is no room for evil and sinful thoughts."

William Plumer: "Without meditation grace never thrives, prayer is languid, praise is dull, and religious duties are unprofitable. It is easier to hear a year of sermons--than to spend an hour in close, devout, profitable thoughts on divine things."

George Muller: "It often astonishes me that I did not see the importance of meditation upon Scripture earlier in my Christian life. We must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts. The most important thing I do, is to read the Word of God and to meditate on it. Thus my heart might is comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved and instructed."

Thomas Watson: "The reason we come away so cold from reading the Word, is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation. Without meditation, the truths which we know will never affect our hearts. As a hammer drives a nail to the head, so mediation drives a truth to the heart. Read before you meditate. Reading furnishes with matter--it is the oil which feeds the lamp of meditation. Be sure your mediations are founded upon Scripture. Reading without meditation is barren and unfruitful; meditation without reading is dangerous."

Charles Spurgeon: "Some people like to read so many chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather let my soul soak in half a dozen verses all day, than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up into your very soul, till it saturates your heart! Set your heart upon God's Word! Let your whole nature be plunged into it as a cloth into a dye!"

William Bridge:
"By meditation, your knowledge is raised.
By meditation, your memory is strengthened.
By meditation, your hearts are warmed.
By meditation, you will be freed from sinful thoughts.
By meditation, your hearts will be tuned to every duty.
By meditation, you will grow in grace.
By meditation, you will fill up all the chinks and crevices of your lives, and know how to spend your spare time profitably.
By meditation, you will draw good out of evil.
By meditation, you will converse with God, and enjoy God."

Philip Henry: "It is easier to walk six miles to hear a sermon, than to spend one quarter of an hour in meditating upon it when I come home."

Arthur Pink: "Meditation upon the Word of God is one of the most important of all the means of grace and growth in spirituality, yes there can be no true progress in vital and practical godliness without it. Meditation on Divine things is not optional but obligatory, for it is something which God has commanded us to attend unto."

   "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Joshua 1:8

   "But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His Law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:2

   "I meditate on Your precepts, and consider Your ways." Psalm 119:15

   "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long." Psalm 119:97

   "My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on Your promises." Psalm 119:148

[nChrist]

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Would any do this but a madman?

(David Clarkson, "Hypocritical Religion" 1622-1686)

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them: 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" Matthew 7:21-23

Many professors cannot judge of the face of their soul--whether the features of Heaven or Hell are on it. They dislike looking in the mirror of the Word--lest the visage of their soul, truly represented, should trouble them.

Satan blinds one eye, self-love closes the other, and the deceitfulness of sin seals both! It is no wonder that they imagine themselves on the way to Heaven, when they are on the high road to Hell.

When the blind leads the blind, you know what the outcome will be! It is no wonder that they think they shall be safe ashore in Heaven and their feet near the very banks of happiness--at that very moment they are falling into the bottomless pit!

Most professors simply assume that they shall go to Heaven--when, alas, they have no ground for such an assumption, but what Satan suggests, or their own deceitful hearts prompt them. And thus they hang the whole weight of eternity upon a cobweb! Thus, they pin the everlasting concerns of their souls upon a shadow, as though it would hang there safe enough, where it can have no hold at all.

Would any do this but a madman? What! Trust without verifying, in a matter of eternal consequence to body and soul?

Many promise themselves Heaven--when nothing but Hell is reserved for them!