Give Me That Old Time Gospel

[Soldier4Christ]

The Grave Spoiled

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be your plagues. O grave, I will be your destruction." Hosea 13:14

Christian! the grave is lit with Emmanuel's love. The darkest of all clouds, that which rests over the land of Hades, has the brightest rainbow in it. These gloomy portals are not to hold your loved and lost ones forever. The land of forgetfulness, where your buried treasures lie, is not a winter of unbroken darkness and desolation. A glorious spring time of revival is promised, when the mortal shall put on immortality, and the corruptible shall be clothed with incorruption.

 The resurrection of the body! It is the climax of the work of Jesus; its culminating glory. Paul represents a longing Church as "waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body." It was the pre-eminent theme of his preaching; "He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." It was the loved article in his creed, which engrossed his holiest aspirations, "If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead." It was the grand solace he addressed to other mourners. It is not when speaking of the immediate bliss of the departed spirit at the hour of death, but it is when dwelling on the "last trump"; the dead "rising incorruptible," and "caught up," in their resurrection bodies, "to meet the Lord," that he says, "Therefore comfort one another with these words." Blessed day; the Easter of creation! the dawn of the Sabbatic morn! the Jubilee of a triumphant Church! Christian mourner! go not to the grave to weep there. Every particle of that moldering dust is redeemed by the oblation of Calvary; and the great Abolisher of death is only awaiting the ingathering of the elect to give the commission to His archangels regarding all His saints, which He gave of old regarding one, "Loose him and let him go!" And who can paint the glory of these resurrection bodies, reunited to their companion spirits, fashioned like their Lord's? Every sense, every faculty, purified, sublimated, overflowing with holiness; emulous with ardor in His service; eager to execute His will; retaining it may be, the personal identities of earth, the old features worn in the "nether valley." The Lamb, in the midst of the throne, "leading" them and "feeding" them; climbing along with them, steep by steep, in the path of life, and saying at each ascending step in the endless progression, "I will show you greater things than these!" Meanwhile He has Himself risen as the pledge of this resurrection of all His people. The Great Sheaf has been waved before the throne as the Pledge of the mighty harvest. "Christ the First Fruits, afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming." "Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection!"
 

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Everlasting Love

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn  you!" Jeremiah 31:3

Believer! are you tempted now to doubt His love? Are His footsteps lost amid the night shadows through which He is now conducting you? Remember He had His eye upon you before the birth of time; yes, from all eternity! What appears to you now some sudden capricious exercise of His power or sovereignty, is determination and decree of "everlasting love." "I have loved you," He seems to say, "suffering one, into this affliction; I will love you through it; and when My designs regarding you are complete, I will show you that the love which is 'from everlasting is, to everlasting!'"
 Child of God if there is a ripple now agitating the surface of the stream, trace it up to this fountain-head of love. God is faithful. He cannot deny Himself. If some dark clouds are now intercepting those gracious beams, He must have some wise end to subserve.

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will bring you back. In a moment of anger I turned my face away for a little while. But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer. "Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth and destroy its life, so now I swear that I will never again pour out my anger on you. For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear, but even then I will remain loyal to you. My covenant of blessing will never be broken," says the Lord, who has mercy on you. Isaiah 54:7-10

 God sets His rainbow in the dark sky; and as if it were not enough that His people should look upon it and take comfort in its many and varied promises; He himself graciously becomes a party in gazing on the covenant pledge, "And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant!" (Genesis 9:16) He puts himself (so to speak) in mind of His own everlasting love! In His saint's dark and cloudy day, when they imagine that their eyes are alone resting on the tokens of covenant faithfulness, the eye of a covenant keeping God is resting upon them too. "I will look upon my own promises," He seems to say. "They shall be memorials to Myself of my purposes of unchanging mercy." Nor is this love merely a general indiscriminate affection. The verse speaks of each individual member of the Covenant family, "I have loved you!" "O my Father", says Madam Guyon, "it seems to me sometimes as if You did forget every other being in order to think only of my faithless and ungrateful heart."

 Let us seek to view our trials as so many cords of loving-kindness, by which our God is seeking to draw us, yes, and will draw us nearer Himself. Who knows what mercy may be bound up in what may seem to us dark and mysterious dispensations? We are apt to misname and misinterpret His ways. We call His dealings severe trials. He calls them "loving-kindness." Drooping saint! let your eyes rest on the rainbow over-arching the throne of God, spanning from eternity to eternity; and read for your comfort the gracious declaration, "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him."
 

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Invoilable Attachment

"There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24

Close is the tie which binds brother to brother; the companions of infancy, sharers of one another's joys and sorrows; cast in the same human mold; having engraved on their heart of hearts, the same hallowed associations of life's early morning.

 But the time for separation at last comes. The birds must leave the parent's nest, and try their pinions beyond their native valley. The world's call to work and warfare is imperious. The old homestead, like a dismembered vessel, is broken to pieces; and the inmates, like the vessel's planks, are strewn far apart on life's ocean. The world's duties sever some; unhappy estrangements at times, may sever others; death, at some time, must sever all.

 But there is One whose friendship and love, circumstances cannot estrange, distance cannot affect, and death cannot destroy. The kindest of earth's relatives may say to us regarding this true Elder Brother, as Boaz said to Ruth, "It is true that I am your near kinsman, however there is a kinsman nearer than I." He is brother, yes more than a brother; Friend, Counselor, Portion Physician, Shepherd, all combined! Happy for us, when the old avenues of comfort are closed up, to hear Him, whose faithfulness is unimpeachable, saying, "I will not fail you or forsake you!" Happy for us when the old moorings give way, to have one safe Anchorage, that cannot be removed or shaken. "I shall now go to sleep," said a remarkable saint, who, driven about with storm and tempest, at last found the safe Shelter, "I shall now go to sleep on the Rock of Ages!"

 Tried believer! He has never failed you and never will. With Him are no altered tones, no fitful affections. The reed may be shaken, but the Rock remains immutable. He is Himself the true "rainbow in the cloud." The promises of scripture, like the varied hues in the natural rainbow, are manifold. But all these promises are "In Him" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Yes, and it is in the "cloudy day" that this Divine encircling rainbow most gloriously appears. Never would we have known Christ as the "Brother, born for adversity," unless by adversity. It is trial that unfolds and develops His infinite worth and preciousness. When the love of earthly friends is buried in the grave, the love of the Heavenly Friend shines forth more tenderly than ever. As Jonathan of old, wandering faint and weary in the woods, found honey distilling from a tree and was revived by eating it; so, faint and weary one; wandering among the tangled thickets, the deep glades of affliction, seat yourself under your "Beloved's Shadow with great delight," and let His "fruit be pleasant to your taste!" This "Tree of Life" distills a balm for every broken, wounded, bleeding heart; every faint and downcast spirit. Yes, Jesus will make, in this the hour of your loneliness and sorrow, His own life giving, life sustaining words and promises, "sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Though now exalted on the throne, "inhabiting the praises of eternity," He still manifests the Brother's heart and the Brother's tenderness. "He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
 

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The Supporting Presence

"When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you." Isaiah 43:2

What a diversity of afflictions in this trial world! "Waters," "rivers," "floods," "flames," "fires!" The Christian is here forewarned that he will encounter these in some one of their innumerable phases; whether it be loss of health, loss of wealth, loss of friends, baffled schemes, or blighted hopes.

 But, blessed thought; these trials have their limits. The floods will not "overflow," the fires will not "burn," the flames will not "consume." God will "stay His rough wind in the day of His East wind." He will say, "Thus far shall you go, and no farther."

 And, better still, Jesus will be in all these trials, and prove sufficient for them all. We shall hear in the midst "of the great fight of afflictions" the sound of our Master's footsteps. He Himself has passed through these flames, braved these floods, and bowed His guiltless head to these storms. He comes to us as He did to His disciples in the very midst of the tempest, and says, "Fear not, it is I, do not be afraid."

 Believer! what is your experience? Is it not that of the triumphant Israelites? "They went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoice in Him" (Ps 66:6) "The Flood!" the very scene of your trial, you were able to march boldly through it, unappalled by the threatening waves; yes, with your lips vocal with praise! How this moral heroism, this strange "rejoicing?" It was because the God of the Pillar-cloud was at your side. Your rejoicing was "in Him." He made you "more than conqueror." You may have many adversaries ranged against you: "Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword." But there is ONE in the midst of fires and flames and floods mightier than all; and with Him at your side, you can boldly utter the challenge to the heights above and the depths beneath, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" "Oh, Sirs!" says Thomas Brooks, "there is in a crucified Jesus something proportionable to all the difficulties, needs, necessities, and trials of His poor people."
 

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Fellow-Feeling

"For 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– yet was without sin." Hebrews 4:15

"Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around Him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." Ezekiel 1:28

 What an elevating truth. The Sympathy of the God-man-Mediator (the true Rainbow in the cloud), JESUS in our sorrows! What a source of exalted joy to the stripped and desolate heart! What a green pasture to lie down upon, amid the windy storm and tempest, or in the dark and cloudy day!
 The sympathy of man is cheering and comforting; but "thus far shall you go, and no farther." It is finite, limited, often selfish. There are nameless and numberless sorrows on earth, beyond the reach of all human alleviation.

 The sympathy of Jesus is alone exalted, pure, infinite, removed from all taint of selfishness. He has Himself passed through every experience of woe. There are no depths of sorrow or anguish into which I can be plunged, but His everlasting arms are lower still. He has been called, "The great sympathetic nerve of His Church, over which the afflictions, and oppressions, and sufferings of His people continually pass." Child of Sorrow! a human heart beats on the Throne! and He has your name written on that heart. He cares for you as if none other claimed His regard. As the Great High Priest, He walks in the midst of his Temple lamps (His golden candlesticks,) replenishing them, at times, with oil; trimming them, if need be; but all in order that they may burn with a steadier and purer luster.

 He was "tempted in every way." Blessed assurance! I never can know the Sorrow into which the "Man of Sorrow" can not enter. Ah rather, in the midst of earth's most lacerating trials, let me listen to the unanswerable challenge from the lips of a suffering Savior, "Was there ever any sorrow like unto my sorrow?" Yet He refused not to drink the cup of wrath! He shrunk not back from the appointed cross! "He set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem;" and even when He hung upon the bitter tree, He refused the vinegar that would have assuaged the rage of thirst and mitigated physical suffering. Are we tempted at times to murmur under God's afflicting hand? "Think about all He endured when sinful people did such terrible things to Him, so that you don't become weary and give up." Hebrews 12:3. Shall we hesitate to bear any trial our Lord and Master sees meet to lay upon us, when we think of the infinitely weightier Cross He so meekly and uncomplainingly carried for us?

 Afflicted one! Have your eye on this radiant Rainbow in your cloud of Sorrow! You may, like the disciples on the Transfiguration mount, "fear to enter the cloud," but hear the voice issuing from it, "This is my Beloved Son, hear Him."

 Jesus speaks through these clouds! He tells us our cares are His cares; our sorrows His sorrows. He has some wise and gracious end in every mysterious chastisement. His language is, "Hear the rod and He who has appointed it" (Micah 6:9). He has too kind and loving a heart to cause us one needless or superfluous pang.

 Oh that we may indeed hear the voice out of the cloud, and seek that the trials He sends in love may be greatly sanctified. Let us not dream that affliction of itself is a pathway to Heaven. Clouds do not form the material rainbow. These glorious hues come from the sunbeams alone. Without the latter, we could discern nothing but blackened heavens and dismal rain torrents.

 It is not because those clad in "white robes" had "come out of great tribulation" that they were enjoying the beatific Presence; but because they had "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation. 7:14). We have only reason to glory in affliction when it has been the means of bringing us nearer the Savior, and leading us to the opened Fountain.

Jesus! my only hope you art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart;
Oh! could I catch a smile from Thee,
And drop into Eternity!
 

[Soldier4Christ]

A Speedy Coming

"Yet a little while, and He shall come and will not tarry." Hebrews 10:37

"A little while," and the unquiet dream of life will be over, and the "morning without clouds" shall dawn. A few more tossings on life's tempestuous sea, and the peaceful haven shall be entered. A few more night-watches, and the Lord of love will be seen standing on the heavenly shore, as once He did on the shores of an earthly lake, with an eternal banquet of love prepared for His "children." Yes! "He comes!" that is the Church's "blessed hope." It is the voice and presence of her "Beloved" which will turn "the shadow of death into morning." The dead; the ransomed dead; shall "hear His voice and come forth;" those "asleep in Jesus" God is to "bring with Him." His final invitation is not, "Go, you blessed, to some bright paradise of angels prepared elsewhere for you;" but "Come share my bliss; be partakers in My crown," "Enter into the joy of your Lord!" Paul's heaven was described in two words: "With Christ." John's heaven was made up of two elements: of likeness to Jesus, and fellowship with Jesus. "We shall be like Him," "we shall see Him as He is." In his sublime apocalyptic visions, when "the door was opened in heaven," the first object which attracts his arrested gaze is, "One who sat upon the throne" around whom was "a rainbow like unto an emerald." (Revelation 4:2,3)

 Our happiness will not be complete until we are ushered into the full vision and fruition of Jesus. We are nourished in this far off land from "the King's country," but we shall not be satisfied until we see the King Himself. Jacob received full wagon loads from Joseph, but he could not rest until he had seen Joseph with his own eyes; when he did so, the aged man's spirit "revived." We receive manifold pledges of covenant mercy from the true Joseph, in this "house of our pilgrimage" but we long to "behold His face in righteousness." We shall only be "satisfied" when we "awake in His likeness!"

 "Come! Lord Jesus, come quickly!" "He will not tarry!" Each sun, as it sets, is bringing us nearer the joyful consummation. Time is hastening with gigantic footstep, to the advent throne. The sackcloth attire of a now burdened creation will soon be exchanged for the full robe of light and beauty which is to deck a "Sabbath world."

 Happy day! when "the Rainbow," in a nobler sense, "shall be seen in the cloud;" not the Rainbow of Promise, but He in whom all the promises blend and center; "Behold, He comes with clouds!" Seek ever to be in an attitude of watchfulness. Like the mother of Sisera, let faith be straining its ear for the whir of the chariot wheels; that when the cry shall be heard; "Behold, it is He!" we may be able joyfully to respond, "Yes! this is our God, we have waited for Him!" "It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, He will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them." Luke 12:37.
 

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Eternal Joy

"Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness." Isaiah 35:10

Believer! leave your "Rainbow in the cloud" behind you; and with your eye on the "Rainbow round about the throne" (Revelation 4:3), think of the glad return of God's ransomed ones to Zion; every tear drop dried, every pang forgotten!

 Once wanderers "in the wilderness, in a solitary way," prisoners "bound with affliction and iron," mariners struggling in a tempest (Psalms 112:4, 10, 23); mark the termination of their checkered history. God is not only represented as succoring their fainting souls, shivering in pieces their chains, and enabling them to buffet the angry surges; but He leads the pilgrims to "a city of habitation." He rescues the captives from "darkness and shadow of death." He brings the storm-tossed seamen to their "desired haven," and puts the "everlasting song" into the lips of all, "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" (Psalms 112:7, 14, 30)

 Sorrowing one! tossed on life's stormy sea, soon will that peaceful haven be yours. From the sunlit shores of glory, each and all of your trials will be seen to be special proofs of your Heavenly Father's faithfulness, circled with a halo of love! You may now be going forth "weeping," bearing your precious seed, but you shall "doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you."

 As some seeds require to be soaked in water before they germinate, so is immortal seed often here soaked in tears. But, "those who sow in tears shall reap in joy." Though "weeping may endure for the night, joy comes in the morning!" "You are," says Rutherford, "upon the entry of Heaven's harvest; the losses that I write of are but summer showers, and The Sun of the new Jerusalem shall quickly dry them up." The "song of the night" shall then blend with the song of the skies, and inner, glorious meanings will be disclosed to sight, which are now hidden from the eye of faith! "Sorrow and sighing shall forever flee away!" "No sickness, no sorrow, no pain," said an aged saint now entered on these glorious realities; "but this is only your negative. What, O God! must be your positive?" "Songs," "everlasting joy," "joy and gladness." It will be song upon song, joy upon joy, gladness upon gladness! These songs of Heaven will be "songs of degrees." The ransomed will be ever graduating in bliss, mounting "from glory to glory," each song suggesting the keynote of a louder and loftier one.

 Reader! are you mourning the loss of those who "are not," the music of whose voices is hushed for the forever of time, and who have left you to travel companionless and alone the wilderness journey? A few more fears, a few more tears, and you shall meet them in the day-break of glory! No, more; they have but anticipated you in an earlier crown. If they have left you behind for a little season to continue your night-song; think with bounding heart of that eternal day, when, looking back on the clouds floating in the far distance in the nether valley, you shall be able to join in the anthem said to be sung by the twenty-four elders as they gaze on the throne encircled by the "RAINBOW OF EMERALD," for "they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!" (Revelation 4:3,

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The Believer the Object of Divine Love

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. I John 4:9.

Pause, my soul, adore and wonder,
Ask, Oh, why such love to me?
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour's family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks to thee.

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Redeemed by the Blood of Christ

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, -- But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.I Peter 1:18, 19

Our sins and griefs on him were laid;
He meekly bore the mighty load:
Our ransom price he fully paid,
By offering up himself to God.

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Renewed by the Holy Ghost

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5

Vain is every outward rite,
Unless thy grace be given:
Nothing but thy life and light,
Can form a soul for heaven.

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Partaker of the Divine Nature

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4

Blessed are the sons of God;
They are bought with Christ's own blood;
They produce the fruits of grace
In the works of righteousness:
Born of God, they hate all sin;
God's pure word remains within.

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Justified Before God Through Christ

By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13:39

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, and glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds, in these array'd,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

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United to Christ

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, he same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5

Lord of the vineyard, we adore
That power and grace divine,
Which plants our wild, our barren souls,
In Christ the living Vine.

For ever there may I abide,
And from that vital root,
Be influence spread through every branch,
To form and feed the fruit.

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Joint-Heir with Christ

If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:17

Pronounce me, gracious God, thy son;
Own me an heir divine;
I'll pity princes on the throne,
When I can call thee mine:
Sceptres and crowns unenvied rise,
And lose their lustre in mine eyes.

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Complete in Christ

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him. Col. 2:9, 10

Thy saints on earth, and those above,
Here join in sweet accord:
One body all in mutual love,
And thou their common Lord.
Yes, thou that body wilt present
Before thy Father's face,
Nor shall a wrinkle or a spot
Its beauteous form disgrace.