THE FAITHFUL PROMISER

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A CONDITION IN CHASTISEMENT
by John MacDuff - 1849

"If need be." — 1 Peter 1:6

Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears has been shed for nothing! Not one stroke of the rod has been unneeded, or that might have been spared! Your heavenly Father loves you too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher correction than your case requires! Is it loss of health, or loss of wealth, or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a needs be. We are no judges of what that "needs be" is; often through aching hearts we are forced to exclaim, "Your judgments are a great deep!" But God here pledges Himself, that there will not be one unnecessary thorn in the believer's crown of suffering. No burden too heavy will be laid on him; and no sacrifice too great exacted from him. He will "temper the wind to the shorn lamb." Whenever the "need be" has accomplished its end, then the rod is removed — the chastisement suspended — the furnace quenched.

"If need be!" Oh! what a pillow on which to rest your aching head — that there is not a drop in all your bitter cup but what a God of love saw to be absolutely necessary! Will you not trust His heart, even though you cannot trace the mystery of His dealings? Not too curiously prying into the "Why it is?" or "How it is?" but satisfied that "So it is," and, therefore, that all must be well! "Although you say you cannot see Him, yet judgment is before Him, therefore trust in Him!"

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STRENGTH IN THE WEAK
by John MacDuff - 1849

"A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench."  — Matthew 12:20

Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine? — this erring, treacherous, traitor heart? The past! — how many forgotten vows — broken covenants — prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and the burning flax been well-near quenched by guilty omissions and guiltier commissions! Oh! my soul! you are low indeed — the things that remain seem "ready to die." But your Savior-God will not give you "over unto death." The reed is bruised; but He will not pluck it up by the roots. The flax is reduced to a smoking ember, but He will fan the decaying flame. Why wound your loving Savior's heart by these repeated declensions? He will not — cannot give you up. Go, mourn your weakness and unbelief. Cry unto the Strong for strength.

Weary and faint one! You have an Omnipotent arm to lean on. "He faints not, neither is weary!" Listen to His own gracious assurance: "Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you with the right hand of my righteousness!" Leaving all your false props and refuges, let this be your resolve — "I trust in the Lord for protection!"

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ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE DESPONDING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out."  — John 6:37

Cast out! My soul! how often might this have been your history! You have cast off your God — might He not often have cast out you? Yes! cast you out as fuel for the fire of His wrath — a sapless, fruitless cumberer. And yet, notwithstanding all your ungrateful requital for His unmerited forbearance, He is still declaring, "As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies." Your sins may be legion — the sand of the sea may be their befitting type — the thought of their vileness and aggravation may be ready to overwhelm you; but be still! your patient God waits to be gracious! Oh! be deeply humbled and softened because of your guilt, and resolve to dedicate yourself anew to His service, and so coming, "He will by no means cast you out!" Despond not by reason of former shortcomings — your sins are great, but your Savior's merits are greater. He is willing to forget all the past, and sink it in oblivion, if there be present love, and the promise of future obedience. "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?" Ah! how different is God's verdict from man's! After such sins as yours, man's sentence would have been, "I will in nowise receive!" But "it is better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of man;" for He says, "I will in nowise cast out!"

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PEACE IN BELIEVING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world gives."  — John 14:27

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You." "Perfect peace!" — what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it yours? I am sure it is not, if you are seeking it in a perishable world, or in the perishable creature, or in your perishable self. Although you have all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless you have peace in God, and with God, all else is unworthy of the name — a spurious thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of death utterly annihilate! Perfect peace! What is it? It is the peace of forgiveness. It is the peace arising out of a sense of God reconciled through the blood of the everlasting covenant — resting sweetly on the bosom, and the work of Jesus — to Him committing your eternal all.

My soul! stay yourself on God, so that this blessed peace may be yours. You have tried the world. It has deceived you. Prop after prop of earthly scaffolding has yielded, and tottered, and fallen. Has your God ever done so? Ah! this false and counterfeit world-peace may do well for the world's work, and the world's day of prosperity. But test it in the hour of sorrow; and what can it do for you when it is most needed? On the other hand, what though you have no other blessing on earth to call your own? You are rich indeed, if you can look upwards to Heaven, and say with an unpresumptuous smile, "I am at peace with God."

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BLISS IN DYING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."  — Revelation 14:13

My Soul! is this blessedness yours in prospect? Are you ready, if called this night to lie down on your death-pillow, sweetly to fall asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? — It is sin. Is death, then, to you, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents of pardoning love, "Be of good cheer, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven?" If you have made your peace with God, resting on the work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested of all his terror, and you can say, in sweet composure, of your dying couch and dying hour — "I will both lay down in peace and sleep, because You, Lord, make me to dwell in safety!" Reader! ponder that solemn question, "Am I ready to die? Am I living as I should wish I had done when that last hour arrives?"

And when shall it arrive? Tomorrow is not yours. "Truly, there may be but a step between you and death." Oh! solve the question speedily — risk no doubts and no peradventure. Every day is proclaiming anew the lesson, "The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." Seek to live, so that that hour cannot come upon you too soon, or too unexpectedly. Live a dying life! How blessed to live — how blessed to die, with the consciousness, that there may be but a step between you and glory!

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A DUE REAPING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"In due season you shall reap, if you faint not."  — Galatians 6:9

Believer! all the glory of your salvation belongs to Jesus — none to yourself; every jewel in your eternal crown is His —  purchased by His blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the ascription of all eternity: "By the grace of God I am what I am!" But though "all be of grace," your God calls you to personal strenuousness in the work of your high calling — to "labor," to "fight," to "wrestle," to "agonize;" and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the earthly sowing: "He that sows sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and He that sows bountifully, shall reap also bountifully!" What an incentive to holy living, and increased spiritual attainments!

My soul! would you be a star shining high and bright in the firmament of glory? — would you receive the ten-talent recompense? Then be not weary. Put on your armor for fresh conquests. Be gaining daily some new victory over sin. Deny yourself. Be a willing cross-bearer for your Lord's sake. Do good to all men as you have opportunity; be patient under provocation, "slow to wrath," resigned in trial. Let the world take knowledge of you that you are wearing Christ's uniform, and bearing Christ's spirit, and sharing Christ's cross. And when the reaping time comes, He who has promised that the cup of cold water cannot go unrecompensed, will not allow you to lose your reward!

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AN END OF WEEPING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"The days of your mourning shall be ended."  — Isaiah 60:20

Christ's people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin — their own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is dishonored — need we wonder at their tears? — that they should be called "Mourners," and their pilgrimage home a "Valley of Tears?" Bereavement, and sickness, and poverty and death following the track of sin, add to their mourning experience; and with many of God's best beloved, one tear is scarce dried when another is ready to flow!

Mourners! rejoice! When the reaping time comes, the weeping time ends! When the white robe and the golden harp are bestowed, every remnant of the sackcloth attire is removed. The moment the pilgrim, whose forehead is here furrowed with woe, bathes it in the crystal river of life — that moment the pangs of a lifetime of sorrow are eternally forgotten! Reader! if you are one of these careworn ones, the days of your mourning are numbered! A few more throbbings of this aching heart, and then the angel who proclaims "time," shall proclaim also, sorrow, and sighing, and mourning, to "be no longer!" Seek now to mourn your sins more than your sorrows; reserve your bitterest tears for forgetfulness of your dear Lord. The saddest and sorest of all bereavements, is when the sins which have separated you from Him, evoke the anguish-cry, "Where is my God?"

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A SPEEDY COMING
by John MacDuff - 1849

"Behold, I come quickly."  — Revelation 3:11

"Even so! come, Lord Jesus!" "Why do the wheels of Your chariot tarry?" Six thousand years this world has rolled on, getting timeworn with age, and wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn shadows of twilight announcing, "The Lord is at hand." Prepare, my soul, to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when your adorable Redeemer, so long dishonored and despised, shall be publicly enthroned in the presence of an assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, satisfied in the fruits of His soul's travail, destroying His enemies with the brightness of His coming — the lightning-glance of wrath — causing the hearts of His exulting people to "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Prepare, my soul, to meet Him!

Let it be a joyous thought to you — your "blessed hope" — the meeting of your Elder Brother. Stand oftentimes on the watchtower to catch the first streak of that coming brightness, the first murmur of these chariot wheels. The world is now in preparation! It is rocking on its worn-out axle. There are voices on every side proclaiming "He comes! He comes to judge the earth!" Reader! are you among the number of those who "love His appearing?" Remember the attitude of His expectant saints: "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, will find WATCHING!"

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EVENING LIGHT
by John MacDuff - 1849

"At evening time it shall be light."  — Zechariah 14:7

How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of "a world to come!" Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond a soul-trammeling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and vapors of this land of shadows, and rest on the "better country." But, alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings often refuse to soar — the spirit droops — guilty fears depress — sin dims and darkens — God's providences seem to frown — God's ways are misinterpreted — the Christian belies his name and his destiny.

But, "At evening time it shall be light" — The material sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled sky, sets often in a couch of lustrous gold! So, when the sun of life is setting, many a ray of light will shoot across memory's darkened sky, and many mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an "All is well!" How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus especially felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings hushed with His own gentle accents, "Fear not! it is I; do not be afraid." A triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lit with holy luster, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life's evening time be yours!

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HEAVENLY ILLUMINATION
by John MacDuff - 1849

"What I do you know not now; but you shall know hereafter."  — John 13:7

As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in gloom. It is not always "light" at his evening time; but this we know, that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth's shadows will forever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence may be to him a baffling enigma; but before the first hour has struck on heaven's chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! "in God's light you shall see light;" the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now — "A great deep" is all the explanation you can often give to His judgments; the why and the wherefore He seems keep from us, to test our faith, to discipline us in trustful submission, and lead us to say, "Your will be done!"

But rejoice in that hereafter — light which awaits you! Now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face. In the great mirror of eternity all the events of this chequered scene will be reflected; the darkest of them will be seen to be bright with mercy — the severest dispensations, "only the severer aspects of His love!" Pry not, then, too curiously; pronounce not too censoriously on God's dealings with you. Wait with patience until the grand day of disclosures; one confession shall then burst from every tongue, "Righteous are You, O Lord!"

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A GLORIOUS REUNION
by John MacDuff - 1849

"I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also."  — John 14:3

If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of your union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! "I will come again!" Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honor and dignity is this! — His saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. "Where I am, there you shall be also!" Father, I will (It was His dying wish — a wondrous addition in that testamentary prayer) that those whom You have given me be with me where I am." Happy reunion! Blessed Savior, if Your presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must be that presence in a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory!

Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family — the Head with all its members — the Vine with all its branches — the Shepherd with all His flock — the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided — ties snapped asunder on earth, indissolubly renewed — severed friendships reunited — the triumph of love complete — love binding brother with brother, and friend with friend, and all to the Elder Brother! My soul! what do you think of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him upon His throne — "He who overcomes."

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EVERLASTING ESPOUSALS
by John MacDuff - 1849

"And I will betroth you unto Me forever."  — Hosea 2:19

How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! your Savior-God has "married you!" Would you know the time of your betrothal? Go back into the depths of a bypast eternity, before the world was; then and there, your espousals were contracted: "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when your absent Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. "The Bridegroom tarries;" but see that you do not slumber and sleep! Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the burning lamps. At "midnight!" (the hour when He is least expected) the cry may be — shall be heard — "Behold, the Bridegroom comes!" My soul! has this mystic union been formed between you and your Lord? Can you say, in humble assurance of your faith in Him, "My beloved is mine, and I am His!" If so, great, unspeakably great, are the glories which await you! Your dowry, as the bride of Christ, is all that Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a feeble creature can receive. In the prospect of those glorious nuptials, you need dread no pang of widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can take asunder; He betroths you, and it is — "forever!"

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A JOYFUL RESURRECTION
by John MacDuff - 1849

"This corruptible must put on incorruption."  — 1 Corinthians 15:53

Marvel of marvels! The sleeping ashes of the sepulcher springing up at the tones of the archangel's trumpet! — the dishonored dust rising into a glorified body, like its risen Lord's! At death, the soul's bliss is perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in the redemption price of Calvary; and "those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when Christ's "dead men shall arise" — when, together with His dead body, they shall come; and the summons shall sound forth, "Awake, and sing, you who dwell in the dust!"

All the joys of that resurrection morn we cannot tell; but its chief glory we do know — "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Like Him! — My soul, are you waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God? Like Him! — Have you caught up any faint resemblance to that all-glorious image? Having this hope in you, are you purifying yourself, even as He is pure? Be much with Jesus now, that you may exult in meeting Him hereafter. Thus taking Him as your Guide and Portion in life, you may lay down in your dark and loathsome grave, and look forward with triumphant hope to the dawn of a resurrection morn, saying, "What time I awake, I am still with You!"

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A NIGHTLESS HEAVEN
by John MacDuff - 1849

"There shall be no night there."  — Revelation 21:25

My soul! is it night with you here? Are you wearied with these midnight tossings on life's tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall your Lord appear. "His going forth is prepared as the morning." That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. "The sun will never set; the moon will not go down. For the Lord will be your everlasting light. Your days of mourning will come to an end." Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a nightless world! — the glories of a present God! — the everlasting light of the Three in One, quenching the radiance of all created orbs — superseding all material luminaries. "My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning!" The haven is nearing — star after star is quenched in more glorious effulgence — every bound over these dark waves is bringing you nearer the eternal shore. Will you not, then, humbly and patiently endure "weeping for the night," in the prospect of the "joy that comes in the morning?" Strange realities! a world without night — a heaven without a sun; and, greater wonder still, yourself in this world — a joyful citizen of this nightless, sinless, sorrowless, tearless Heaven! — basking underneath the Fountain of uncreated light! No exhaustion of glorified body and spirit to require repose; no lassitude or weariness to suspend the ever-deepening song — "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty — the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come."

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A CROWN OF LIFE
by John MacDuff - 1849

"And when the Chief Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in His glory and honor." 1 Peter 5:4

What! is the beggar to be "raised from the ash-heap, set among Princes, and made to inherit a throne of glory?" Is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, a guilty traitor — to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven — gifted with kingly honor — royally fed — royally clothed — royally attended — and, at last, royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall be the dispenser of royal diadems to His people; and when they shall begin the joyful ascription of all eternity, "Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us Kings — to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Will you not be among the number? Shall the princes and monarchs of the earth wade through seas of blood for a corruptible crown; and will you permit yourself to lose the incorruptible diadem, or barter it for some perishable nothings of earth? Oh! that you would awake to your high destiny, and live up to your transcendent privileges as the citizen of a Kingly Commonwealth, a member of the blood-royal family of Heaven. What would you not sacrifice — what effort would you grudge, if you were included at last in the gracious benediction, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?"