Grace Gems

[nChrist]

Kings in disguise!

(Thomas Watson, "The Great Gain of Godliness")

"They will be Mine!" says the Lord Almighty, "in
the day when I make up My jewels!" Malachi 3:17

What a comfort is this—in respect of our present
poverty! Believers are married to the King of heaven
—and all that is in God is theirs! Though we have no
earthly riches—yet if God is ours and we are His—this
creates joy in the most impoverished condition!

And that which may raise the comfort of the godly
higher, and cause a jubilation of spirit, is that shortly
God will own His people before all the world, and say,
"These are mine!" At present the elect are not known:
"It does not yet appear what we shall be" 1 John 3:2.
The saints are like kings in disguise; but how will
their hearts leap for joy—when God shall pronounce
these words, "These are Mine! The lot of free grace
has fallen upon them! These shall lie forever in the
bosom of My love!"

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[nChrist]

Our daily employment of time

(J. C. Ryle, "Occupy Until I Come")

"Occupy until I come." Luke 19:13

    How instructive are these words to all who are troubled by doubts about mingling with the world, and taking part in its vain amusements. It is obvious that races, and balls, and theaters, and operas, and cards—are not forbidden by name in Scripture. The question which we should ask ourselves is simply this—"Am I occupying, as one who looks for Christ's return—when I take part in these things? Would I like Jesus to return suddenly—and find me on the race-course, or in the ball-room, or at the theater, or at the card-table?"

    Oh, dear reader, this is the true test by which to try our daily employment of time! That thing which we would not do, if we thought Jesus was coming tonight—that thing we ought not to do at all! That place to which we would not go, if we thought Jesus was coming this day—that place we ought to avoid. That company in which we would not like Jesus to find us—in that company we ought never to sit down. Oh, that we would live as in the sight of Christ!

    "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16

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[nChrist]

I dislike square pews, and bad music

(J. C. Ryle, "The Outlook" 1886)

The worst cloud which I see in our Church's outlook, is the widespread disposition to regard religious externalism, as a substitute for vital soul-saving Christianity.

When I speak of externalism, let me explain what I mean. We all know that the external part of religion has received a large amount of new attention during the last forty years. All over the land it has become the fashion to restore churches, to get rid of old square pews, to improve the singing and music, to have a well-adorned choir, to decorate the church-building in a most elaborate style, and, in one word, to adorn, beautify, and improve the whole exterior of Church Christianity. Do I say there is anything sinful in all this? Nothing of the kind! I abhor everything like slovenliness in the ceremonials of worship. I dislike square pews, and bad music, and bad singing as much as anyone! But I do say, that I fear an external improvement often takes place in a church—without the slightest corresponding increase of godliness in the worshipers! No doubt there is a far more show of religion in our Churches—but it is very doubtful whether there is more vital Christianity, more presence of the Holy Spirit, more heart and conscience work, in the private lives and the homes of our people. I fear that in hundreds of cases, men have rested content with having secured a handsome church and a 'bright and hearty service,' and have forgotten that what God looks at—is the hearts of the worshipers, and the quantity of grace to be found among them.

This is a very delicate subject, and I would be sorry to be misunderstood, or to give pain to anyone in handling it. But I am obliged to say plainly, that I fail to see that all the external improvement of the last forty years, is accompanied by any corresponding growth of practical holiness! There is no decrease in the total idolatry of recreations, or the extravagant expenditure of money, or self-indulgence of all kinds. On the contrary, there is far less repentance, faith, holiness, Bible-reading, and family religion! If this state of things is not a most unhealthy symptom in the condition of a Church, I know not what is!

We may depend upon it—that knowledge of Christ, obedience to Christ, and the fruits of the Spirit—are the only tests by which God weighs and measures any Church. If these are absent, He cares nothing for beautiful buildings, fine singing, and a pompous ceremonial. These are 'leaves,' and He desires to see not leaves only, but 'fruit'. The tree of the Church of England perhaps never had so many leaves on it, as it has just now. I wish there was a corresponding quantity of fruit!

We must never forget that the Temple service at Jerusalem in the day of our Lord's crucifixion was the most perfect ceremonial that ever was—whether for singing, order, vestments, or general magnificence and beauty. Yet we all know that at this very time, the Jewish Church was thoroughly rotten at heart, and after forty years was swept away! Who can doubt that the little upper chamber, where the apostles met on the day of our Lord's ascension, was far more beautiful in God's sight, than the beautiful temple which our Master Himself called 'a den of thieves'? I heartily wish that we would remember this, more than we appear to do. The disposition to make an idol of externals, and to sacrifice the inside of religion to the outside, is, in my judgment, the darkest cloud on our ecclesiastical horizon! Of this we may be quite certain—that God will never bless a Church which is content with such a low standard of practical piety.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness!" Matthew 23:25-28

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[nChrist]

The arm of grace is very long

(J. C. Ryle, "Many Shall Come")

Let us learn never to despair of the salvation of
anyone--as long as he lives. Fathers ought never
to despair of prodigal sons. Mothers ought never
to despair of self-willed, headstrong daughters.
Husbands should never despair of wives, nor
wives of husbands. There is nothing impossible
with God. The arm of grace is very long, and
can reach those who seem very far off. Let us pray
on, and hope on, for others--however unlikely
their salvation may appear to be at present.

The Holy Spirit can change any heart!

The blood of Christ can cleanse away any sin!

We shall see many in heaven, whom we never
expected to see there. Grimshaw, the famous
pastor of Yorkshire, when he died, left his only
son unconverted, careless, thoughtless, and
indifferent to true religion. The day came when
the young man’s heart was changed, and he
walked in the steps of his holy father. And
when he lay upon his deathbed, one of his
last words was, "What will my old father
say--when he sees me in heaven!"

"Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short
 to save!" Isaiah 59:1

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[nChrist]

God will dry your tears!

(Octavius Winslow, "Day Breaking")

"God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
 There will be no more death or mourning
 or crying or pain." Revelation 21:4

What a cluster of sweet hopes is here! What
a collection of bright beams throwing, in focal
power, their splendor over that cloudless day.

Child of solitude and sorrow! sick ones dear to
Christ! bereaved mourners! hear these precious
words--and let music break from your lips!

You know how the mother comforts her sorrowing
babe. See how God will comfort His. God will dry
your tears!

Will God Himself wipe my tears away?

Yes, child of grief, there will be no more weeping
then, for, O ecstatic thought! "God will wipe every
tear from their eyes!" O kind and condescending
Father!

No more frustrated plans,
no more bitter disappointments,
no more withered hopes,
no more corroding cares,
will mingle with the deep sea of bliss, now
pouring its tide of joyousness over the soul.

"God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
    Revelation 7:17

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[nChrist]

If you would live gloriously

(Brooks, "The Glorious Day of the Saints Appearance")

Professors look far too much upon the tempting world,
when she smiles and holds forth her beautiful breasts!
If you would live gloriously, look away from the
tempting world: it is a plague and a snare! Look away
from it--whether it smiles or whether it frowns.

Remember you have a God to look at, a Christ to look
at, and an unfading crown of glory to look at; which is
better than all--which is more than all other things to
your souls!

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[nChrist]

Ignorant formal Christianity

(J. C. Ryle,  "What Is Needed?" 1895)

I am convinced that one of our grave defects today, is a most serious diminishing of the good old custom of private reading of the Bible. Between the growth of Christian periodicals and books, I have a strong impression that Bibles are not read as much and as carefully as they were two hundred years ago.

I am well aware that there are more Bibles in Great Britain at this moment, than there ever were since the world began! There is more Bible-buying and Bible-selling, more Bible-printing and Bible-distributing, than there ever was! But all this time, I fear we are in danger of forgetting -- that to have the Bible is one thing -- and to read it privately ourselves quite another!

I am afraid that the Bible of many a man and woman in Great Britain is never read at all. In one house, it lies in a corner -- as stiff, cold, glossy and fresh as it was, when it came from the bookseller's shop! In another house, it lies on a table, with its owner's name written in it -- a silent witness against him day after day! In another house, it lies on some high shelf, neglected and dusty -- to be brought down only on grand occasions, such as a birth in the family -- like a heathen idol at its yearly festival. In another house, it lies deep down at the bottom of some box or drawer, among the things not wanted, and is never dragged forth into the light of day -- until the arrival of sickness, or death! These things are sad and solemn. But they are true.

I am afraid that many in Great Britain who do read the Bible -- yet do not read it aright. One man looks over a chapter on Sunday evening -- but that is all. Another reads a chapter every day at family prayers -- but that is all. A third goes a step further, and hastily reads a verse or two in private every morning, before he goes out of his house. A fourth goes further still, and reads as much as a chapter or two every day, though he does it in a great hurry, and omits reading it on the smallest inconvenience. But each and every one of these men does what he does -- in a heartless, scrambling, formal kind of way. He does it coldly, as a duty. He does not do it with appetite and pleasure. He is glad when the task is over. And when the book is shut -- he forgets it all! This is a sad picture. But in multitudes of cases -- oh, how true!

But why do I think all this? What makes me speak so confidently? Listen to me a few moments, and I will lay before you some evidence. Neglect of the Bible, is like disease of the body -- it shows itself in the face of a man's conduct. It tells its own tale. It cannot be hidden.

I fear that many neglect the Bible -- because of the enormous ignorance of true religion which everywhere prevails. There are thousands of professing Christians in this country, who know literally nothing about the Gospel. They could not give you the slightest account of its distinctive doctrines. They have no more idea of the true meaning of conversion, grace, faith, justification, and sanctification -- than of so many words and names written in Arabic! And can I suppose that such people search the Scriptures? I cannot suppose it. I do not believe they do!

I fear that many neglect the Bible -- because of the utter indifference with which they regard false doctrine -- as if it did not signify much, and was all the same thing in the long run -- whether one was a Roman Catholic, or a Socinian, or a Mormonite, or a Deist, or an Agnostic. And can I suppose that such people search the Scriptures? I cannot suppose it. I do not believe they do!

I fear that many neglect the Bible -- because of the readiness with which they receive false teaching. They are led astray by the first false prophet they meet with, who "comes in sheep's clothing," and has a pleasant voice, a nice manner, and a gift of eloquent speech! They swallow all that he says without inquiry, and believe him as implicitly as papists believe the Pope! And can I suppose that such people search the Scriptures? I cannot suppose it. I do not believe they do!

I declare my firm conviction, that an idle neglect of the Bible is one cause of the ignorant formal Christianity which is so widely prevalent in these latter days!

Brethren! We are drifting, drifting, drifting -- and what the end will be -- no man can tell.

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[nChrist]

True Christianity

(J. C. Ryle,  "What Is Needed?" 1895)

    (1) True Christianity has always taught the inspiration, sufficiency, and supremacy of Holy Scripture. It has told men that "God's written Word" is the only trustworthy rule of faith and practice in religion; that God requires nothing to be believed that is not in this Word; and that nothing is right which contradicts it. It has never allowed reason,  or the voice of the Church, to be placed above, or on a level with Scripture. It has steadily maintained that, however imperfectly we may understand it, the Old Book is meant to be the only standard of life and doctrine.

    (2) True Christianity has always taught fully the sinfulness, guilt and corruption of human nature. It has told men, that they are born in sin, deserve God's wrath and condemnation, and are naturally inclined to do evil. It has never allowed that men and women are only weak and pitiable creatures, who can become good when they please, and make their own peace with God. On the contrary, it has steadily declared man's danger and vileness, and his pressing need of a Divine forgiveness and atonement for his sins, a new birth or conversion, and an entire change of heart.

    (3) True Christianity has always set before men, the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief object of faith and hope in religion -- as the Divine Mediator between God and men, the only source of peace of conscience, and the root of all spiritual life. The main things it has ever insisted on about Christ, are -- the atonement for sin He made by His death, His sacrifice on the cross, the complete redemption from guilt and condemnation by His blood, His victory over the grave by His resurrection, His active life of intercession at God's right hand, and the absolute necessity of simple faith in Him. In short, it has made Christ the Alpha and the Omega in Christian theology.

    (4) True Christianity has always honored the Person of God the Holy Spirit, and magnified His work. It has never taught that all professing Christians have the grace of the Spirit in their hearts, as a matter of course -- because they are baptized, or because they belong to a Church. It has steadily maintained that the fruits of the Spirit are the only evidence of having the Spirit, and that those fruits must be seen! It has always taught, that we must be born of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, and feel the operations of the Spirit -- and that a close walk with God in the path of His commandments, a life of holiness, love, self-denial, purity, and zeal to do good -- are the only satisfactory marks of the Holy Spirit.

    Such is true Christianity. Well would it have been for the world, if there had been more of it during the last nineteen centuries! Too often, and in too many parts of Christendom, there has been so little of it -- that Christ's religion has seemed extinct, and has fallen into utter contempt!

    This is the Christianity which, in the days of the Apostles, "turned the world upside down!" It was this which emptied the idol temples of their worshipers, routed the Greek and Roman philosophers, and obliged even heathen writers to confess that the followers of the "new superstition," as they called it, were people who loved one another, and lived very pure and holy lives!

    Let it never be forgotten, that its leading principles are those which are least likely to please the natural man. On the contrary, they are precisely those which are calculated to be unpopular and to give offense. Proud man does not like to be told that he is a weak, guilty sinner -- that he cannot save his own soul, and must trust in the work of another -- that he must be converted and have a new heart -- that he must live a holy, self-denying life, and come out from the world.

    Yet, this is the Christianity which is doing good at this day, wherever real good is done. The only religious teaching which can show solid, positive results -- is that which gives prominence to the doctrines which I have endeavored to describe. Wherever they are rightly taught, Christianity can point to fruits which are an unanswerable proof of its Divine origin. There are myriads of professing Christians who have no life or reality in their religion -- and are only nominal members of Christ's Church. Except for going to church on Sundays, they give no evidence of true Christianity. If you mark their daily life -- they seem neither to think, nor feel, nor care for their souls, or God, or eternity. Men and women who crowd churches on Sundays -- and then live worldly selfish lives all the week -- are the best and most efficient allies of the devil.

    True faith is not a mere "mental assent" to certain theological propositions -- but a living, burning, active principle -- which works by love, purifies the heart, overcomes the world, and brings forth much fruit of holiness and good works. Let us live as if we really believed every jot and tittle of Scripture -- and as if a dying, risen, interceding, and coming Christ, were continually before our eyes!

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[nChrist]

But a flea-bite!

("The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod"
 or, "The Silent Soul with Sovereign Antidotes"
 by Thomas Brooks, 1659, London.)

Christian! Your present afflictions are not great--if compared
with the afflictions and torments of many of the damned, who
when they were it this world, never sinned at so high a rate
as you have done! There are many now in hell, who never
sinned against such clear light as you have done, nor against
such special love as you have done, nor against such precious
mercies as you have done! Certainly there are many now
a-roaring in everlasting burnings--who never sinned as you
have done!

What are your present afflictions and troubles--compared
to the torments of the damned, whose torments are . . .
  without intermission,
  without mitigation,
  numberless,
  bottomless,
  remediless,
  and endless!
Who have . . .
  weeping served for the first course, and
  gnashing of teeth for the second course, and
  the gnawing worm for the third course, and
  intolerable pain for the fourth course!
Yet the pain of the body is least part of pain. The very soul of
sorrow and pain--is the soul's sorrow and pain! The everlasting
alienation and separation from God is served for the fifth course!

Ah, Christian! how can you seriously think on these things and
not lay your hand upon your mouth--even when you are under
the greatest temporal sufferings? Your sins have been far greater
than many of those who are now in hell, and your great afflictions
are but a flea-bite compared to theirs! Therefore hush your
murmuring, and be silent before the Lord!

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
 comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us!"
    Romans 8:18

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving
 for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all!"
    2 Corinthians 4:17-18

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[nChrist]

Nothing can tame savage hearts!

(John MacDuff)

Oh, the human heart is deep in its corruptions,
deep in its self-deceptions. "The human heart
is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who
really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

Nothing can tame savage hearts but the
regenerating power of the blessed Gospel.

"I will cleanse you from all your impurities
 and from all your idols. I will give you a
 new heart and put a new spirit in you; I
 will remove from you your heart of stone
 and give you a heart of flesh. And I will
 put My Spirit in you and cause you to
 follow My decrees and be careful to
 keep My laws." Ezekiel 36:25-27

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[nChrist]

Creature comforts

(John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace")

All the temporal blessings and accommodations
God provides to sweeten life, and make our passage
through this wilderness more agreeable, will fail and
disappoint us, and produce us more thorns than roses
--unless we can keep sight of His hand in bestowing
them, and hold and use the gifts in some due
subservience to what we owe to the Giver.

But, alas! we are poor creatures, prone to wander,
prone to admire our gourds, cleave to our cisterns,
and think of building tabernacles, and taking our
rest in this polluted world.

Hence the Lord often sees it necessary,
in mercy to His children . . .
  to embitter their sweets,
  to break their cisterns,
  send a worm to their gourds, and
  draw a dark cloud over their pleasing prospects.

His Word tells us, that all here is vanity, compared
with the light of his countenance. And if we cannot
or will not believe it upon the authority of His Word
--we must learn it by experience.

May He enable you to settle it in your hearts, that
'creature comforts' are precarious, insufficient,
and ensnaring; that all good comes from His hand;
and that nothing can do us good--but so far as He is
pleased to make it the instrument of communicating,
as a stream, that goodness which is in Him as a fountain.

Even the bread which we eat, without the influence
of His promise and blessing, would no more support
us than a stone. But His blessing makes everything
good, gives a tenfold value to our comforts, and
greatly diminishes the weight of every cross.

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[nChrist]

His life is the text book

(J. R. Miller, "In His Steps" 1897)

"Leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

Jesus took His first disciples into His school and for three years taught and trained them. He made known to them the great truths of Christianity, which He had come to reveal. Then He taught them how to live.

Bible knowledge alone, does not alone make one a godly Christian. One might know all the great facts and doctrines of the Word of God, might be a profound Bible scholar and a wise theologian -- and yet not be an advanced or even a growing Christian! We are to learn to live Christ as well as to know the truths about Christ. Jesus in His teachings makes a great deal of obedience. We are His friends -- if we do whatever He commands us. We are to learn to be patient, meek, gentle, long suffering, compassionate. We are to learn to be humble, kindly affectioned, unselfish, truthful, sincere.

We enter Christ's school, to be trained in all the qualities which make up the true Christian life. Jesus is not only the teacher -- His life is the text book which we are to study. Part of His mission to this world, was to show us in Himself -- a pattern of a godly life. We are to look to His life to learn just how to live, the kind of character we are to seek to have, the meaning of the lessons which His words set for us. We are in the school of Christ -- to be trained in all Christian life and duty.

The lessons the Bible sets for us -- we are to learn to live out in common life. Every word of Christ sets a copy for us, as it were -- and we are to learn to write it in fair and beautiful lines. For example, it is not enough to learn from the Beatitudes, that certain qualities are praised by the great Teacher; we are to get the Beatitudes into our own life as quickly and as perfectly as we can. Just so of all the teachings of Christ -- they are not for knowing merely, as one learns the fine sayings of favorite literary writers; they are for living! They are to become lamps to our feet and lights to our path -- and they are to be wrought into the web of our character.

In the school of Christ, we are not to expect perfection -- but we have a right to expect an increasing knowledge of spiritual things, and also spiritual growth in all the qualities which belong to Christian character. We should become . . .
  more patient,
  more loving,
  more unselfish,
  more helpful,
  more faithful in all duty,
  more like Christ!

The ideal Christian life -- is a growing likeness to Christ. Christ is the pattern after which we are to strive to fashion our life. As we study Christ in the Gospels, there rises up before us, the vision of His matchless beauty. We go over the chapters, and we find one fragment of His loveliness here, and another there. And as we read the story through to the end -- beauty after beauty appears, until at length we see a full vision of our blessed Redeemer. This is the pattern we are to follow in fashioning our lives. This is the vision we are to seek to carve into reality in our own character. All our acts we are to bring to the example of Christ, testing each one by that infallible standard.

The Gospels should be studied by the Christian, as a builder studies the architect's drawings -- that every minutest detail may be exactly reproduced; so far as in a faulty and sinful human life, the character and conduct of the faultless and sinless Jesus can be reproduced. The perfect pattern is ever to be held before us for imitation, and as we look at it glowing in all its marvelous beauty -- yet far above us and beyond our present reach -- we are to comfort ourselves and stir our hearts to the noblest efforts and highest attainments by the thought, "That is what I shall one day be!" However slow may be our progress toward that perfect ideal; however sore the struggles with weakness and sin; however often we fail -- we are never to lose sight of the distant goal, nor cease to strive and press toward the mark. Some day, if we are faithful to the end and faint not -- we shall emerge out of all failure and struggle, and, seeing Jesus as He is -- we shall be fully transformed into His blessed image!

Such is the aim of the Christian life. "We shall be like Him!" -- that is the final destiny of every redeemed life. This should be inspiration enough, to arouse in the dullest Christian, every sluggish hope and every slumbering energy -- and to impel to the highest effort and the most heroic struggle.

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[nChrist]

Building their nests in our hair!

(J. R. Miller, "In His Steps" 1897)

    The experience of temptation is universal. Every life must grow up amid unfriendly and opposing influences. Some of them are subtle and insidious, like a pestilence in the air. Some of them fierce and wild, like the blast of storm, or the rush of battle.

    The question in life is not how to escape temptation--but how to pass through it so as not to be harmed by it. Christ's way of helping us, is not by keeping us out of the conflicts. This would leave us forever weak, untried, and undisciplined. The price of spiritual attainment and culture, is struggle. Jesus Himself was made perfect through suffering.

    All the best things in life--the only things worth obtaining--lie beyond fields of battle, and we can get them only by overcoming. It would be no kindness to us--were God to withdraw us into some sheltered spot whenever there is danger; or if He were to fight our battles for us, thus freeing us from all necessity to struggle.

    Yet there is a way of so living in this world--as not to suffer harm in even the fiercest temptations--to pass through them and not be damaged by them. There is even a way of so meeting temptations as to get benefit and blessing from them! "Blessed is the man who endures temptation--for when he has been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him."

    Rightly meeting and victoriously resisting temptation, puts new fiber into the soul. The Indians say that when a warrior kills a foe--the spirit of the vanquished enemy enters the victor's heart and adds to his own strength. This is true in spiritual warfare. We grow stronger through our struggles and victories! Each lust conquered, each evil subdued--adds to the strength of our soul.

    The question, then--is how to meet temptation so as to overcome it, and thus win the blessing there is in it. We must remember, first of all, that we are not able in ourselves successfully to fight our battles. If we think we are, and go forth in our own name and strength, we shall utterly fail. Life is too large, and its struggles and conflicts are too great--for the strongest human, unaided by divine power.

    We must settle it once for all--that we can conquer only in the name and by the help of the strong Son of God. We may come off the field more than conquerors--but only through him who loved us. We can pass safely through all the fierce dangers of this world and be kept unspotted amid its sin and foulness--but only if we have with us, Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and set us before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy. Self-confidence in our own ability to overcome temptation--is fatal folly!

    Men and devils may tempt us--but men and devils cannot force us to yield! Others may seek to influence us--they may plead, entreat and persuade--but they cannot compel us.

    We cannot avoid being tempted--but we ought to avoid yielding to temptation. Luther used to say, "We cannot keep the birds from flying over our heads--but we can prevent them from building their nests in our hair!" Just so, we cannot keep temptations away from our ears, nor prevent them whispering their seductive words close by us--but we can hinder them making their nests in our hearts!

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[nChrist]

The everlasting arms

(J. R. Miller, "In Perfect Peace")

So frail is human strength, though behind it is tenderest, truest love. All that love can do, all that money can do, all that skill can do -- avail nothing. Human arms may clasp us very firmly, yet their clasp cannot keep us from the power of disease -- or from the cold hand of death.

But the love and strength of God are everlasting. Nothing can ever separate us from Him! An Old Testament promise reads: "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27. If we are stayed upon the eternal God, nothing ever can disturb us -- for nothing can disturb Him on whom we are reposing. If we are held in the clasp of His everlasting arms -- we need not fear that we shall ever be separated from the enfolding.

The position of the everlasting arms in this picture is suggestive -- "Underneath." They are always underneath us. No matter how low we sink -- in weakness, in faintness, in pain, in sorrow -- we never can sink below these everlasting arms! We never can drop out of their clasp!

A father tired to save his child in the waves -- frantically clasping his arms around the beloved child. But his arms, though nerved by most passionate love, were too weak, and the child slipped away from them, and sank down in the dark waters.

But evermore, in the deepest floods, the everlasting arms will be underneath the feeblest, most imperiled child of God. Sorrow is very deep -- but in the greatest grief, these everlasting arms of love are underneath the sufferer. Then when death comes, and every earthly support is gone from beneath us, when every human arm unclasps, and every face of love fades from before our eyes, and we sink away into what seems darkness and the shadow of death -- we shall only sink into the everlasting arms underneath us!

The word "are," must not be overlooked -- "Underneath are the everlasting arms." This is one of the wonderful present tenses of the Bible. To every trusting believer, to you who today are reading these words and trying to learn the lesson, God says, "Underneath you are now, this moment, every moment, the everlasting arms!"

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[nChrist]

The devil's daring falsehood

(J. C. Ryle)

I can imagine nothing so pleasant to men, as the
fallacious theory that we may live in sin--and yet
escape eternal perdition; that although we "are
slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures"
while we are here in this world, we shall somehow
or other, all get to heaven hereafter! Only tell the
young man who is "wasting his substance in riotous
living," that there is a heaven at last, even for those
who live and die in sin--and he is never likely to turn
from evil. What does it signify how he lives, if there
is no "future eternal punishment?" Why should he
repent and take up the cross--if he can get to
heaven at last without trouble?

Six thousand years ago, sin entered into the
world by the devil's daring falsehood, "You
shall not surely die!" (Genesis 3:4) At the end
of six thousand years, the great enemy of
mankind is still using his old weapon, and
trying to persuade men that they may live
and die in sin--and yet at some distant period
may be finally saved! Let us not be ignorant
of his devices. Let us walk steadily in the old
paths. Let us hold fast the old truth, and
believe that, as the happiness of the saved
is eternal--so also the misery of the lost is
eternal.

Unrepented sin is an eternal evil--and can
never cease to be sin; and He with whom
we have to do--is an eternal God!

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.
 A man reaps what he sows. The one who
 sows to please his sinful nature, from that
 nature will reap destruction; the one who
 sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit
 will reap eternal life." Galatians 6:7-8

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