Grace Gems

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Twenty-four hours in Hell!

(James Smith, "ANTIDOTES!" 1858.)

"Why should any living man complain?" Lamentations 3:39

Occasionally, I am tempted to complain of my hard lot--and think myself harshly dealt with. Ingratitude rises and works in my heart. This always makes me wretched. I then find it profitable to look down into Hell--and realize its horrors and agonies as my just deservings.

If anyone ever deserved to go to Hell--I did!

If justice was ever honored in a sinner's damnation--it would have been in mine!

If anyone was ever saved by grace alone--I am the man!

Shall I then, who deserve to be in Hell--but am not;
shall I, who am an heir of Heavenly glory--though no one ever deserved it less;
shall I, because of a few trials, troubles, and disappointments, or because I have rather a heavy cross to carry--shall I dare to murmur, or fret, or complain, or think myself harshly dealt with?

Shocking inconsistency!

What are my present pains or sufferings--compared with the Hell that I deserve!

All the afflictions that I am called to endure here on earth--cannot be compared with only twenty-four hours in Hell! And yet my desert is, not to be in Hell for a few hours--but forever! Surely every lost soul, every damned spirit--will be ready to upbraid me--if I complain of my present lot! What base gratitude--if I do not praise the Lord with joyful lips, for His rich, free, and sovereign grace!

O my soul, whenever I am tempted to complain of my difficult lot--think of my deservings! Think of what would have been my eternal doom--if God had not saved me by His sovereign grace!

Yes, I do find that looking down into Hell . . .
silences my complaints,
awakens my gratitude, and
humbles me in the dust before my God!​

 

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Deceitful & desperately wicked!

(William S. Plumer, "Sinners Saved by Unmerited Kindness")

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is DECEITFUL. Man is the only creature on earth that seems to practice self-deception. That we should sometimes deceive others, is proof of our depravity; but that we should spend our lives in self-deception, is truly astonishing! Men of the fewest virtues, commonly have the highest thoughts of themselves. How strange and yet how common, that he whose heart has deceived him a thousand times--should yet confide in it as if it had always been honest!

The human heart deceives every being but one. It would deceive Him--if He were not omniscient. None but God knows all the depths of iniquity and duplicity within us.

Though the language of the Bible is strong, it is just. God declares, and every Christian knows by sad experience--that his heart is deceitful above all things. A perfect knowledge of the treachery of our hearts, is possessed by none but God.

The heart is also VILE. It is "desperately wicked."
It loves vanity, and folly and sin.
It hates holiness, and truth and divine restraints.
It is . . .
a sink of iniquity,
a pool of pestilential waters,
a cage of unclean birds, and
a sepulcher full of dead men's bones!
It is torn by wild, fierce, unhallowed passions.
It rejects good--and chooses evil.
It is wholly corrupt.
It is full of evil.
There is no soundness in it.

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Matthew 15:19

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool!" Proverbs 28:26​

 

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Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward!

(Charles Naylor)

"Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward!" Job 5:7

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows." John 16:33

"Through many hardships and tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God." Acts 14:22

No one has ever lived, who has not had his times of discouragement, heaviness, sorrow and disappointment. Cares and afflictions come to all.

Life has its adversities--it must needs have them. Adversity, pain, sorrow, and disappointment--are the lathe upon which God shapes us. They are the grinding-wheel which grinds and smoothes us. They are the polishing-wheel which makes us shine.

If we can never be happy until we are so situated that nothing exists which may tend to render us unhappy--then we shall have little happiness in life.

Happiness does not come from a life of ease and indolence. It is not the result of the absence of obstacles and difficulties. Happiness comes from triumphing over them. Therefore the song of true happiness, often arises from the soul which undergoes many adversities.

Dear soul, Jesus knows all about your troubles. He knows every heartache, every difficulty, everything you must overcome, everything you must bear. Trusting in His grace, relying upon His help--you shall soon find your heart filling again with melody, for the clouds will pass away!
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!" Revelation 21:4​

 

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The great goddess Diana!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"The great goddess Diana!" Acts 19:27

"They started shouting again and kept it up for two hours: Great is Diana of the Ephesians! Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" Acts 19:34

So long as they remain in their natural state, the world is, in some form or other, the great goddess Diana--the grand idol of all its inhabitants!

They bow down to it.

They worship it.

They spend and are spent for it.

They educate their children in its service.

Their hearts,
their minds,
their memories,
their imaginations,
are full of the world.

Their tongues speak of it.

Their hands grasp it.

Their feet pursue it.

In a word, it is all in all to them! And all the while, they give scarcely a word, a look, or a thought to Him who made and preserves them--and who really is all in all.​

 

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What is it that you wish for?

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

What is it that you wish for? My unconverted friends, I will tell you what you wish for. You wish to live as you please here on earth, to disobey your Creator, to neglect your Savior, and to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And at death, you wish to be admitted into a kind of sensual paradise, where you may taste again the same pleasures which you enjoyed on earth.

You wish that God would break His Word; and stain His justice, purity, and truth.

You wish that God would sacrifice His own rightful authority, and the best interests of the universe--to the gratification of your own sinful propensities!​

 

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Do you ask why He is angry?

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"God is angry with the wicked every day!" Psalm 7:11

Do you ask why He is angry?

I answer:

He is angry to see rational, immortal and accountable beings--spending twenty, forty, or sixty years in trifling and sin; serving numerous idols, lusts, and vanities, and living as if death were an eternal sleep!

He is angry to see you forgetting your Maker in childhood, in youth, in manhood--and making no returns for all His benefits.

He is angry to see you casting off His fear and rebelling against Him--who has nourished and sustained you.

He is angry to see you laying up treasures on earth--and not in Heaven.

He is angry to see you seeking everything in preference to the one thing needful.

He is angry to see you loving the praise of men more than the praise of God; and fearing those who can only kill the body, more than Him who has power to cast both soul and body into Hell.

He is angry to see that you disregard alike His threatenings and His promises, His judgments and His mercies.

He is angry that you bury in the earth the talents He has given you, and bring forth no fruit to His glory.

He is angry that you neglect His Word and His Son, and perish in impenitency and unbelief.

These are sins of which every person, in an unconverted state, is guilty. And for these things God is angry--daily angry, greatly and justly angry! And unless His anger is speedily appeased, it will most certainly prove your everlasting destruction!​

 

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Fanning the inextinguishable fire, and sharpening the tooth of the immortal worm!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

If you would learn the full extent of that wretchedness which sin produces--then you must follow it into the eternal world, and descend into those regions where peace and hope never come. There behold sin tyrannizing over its wretched victims with uncontrollable fury--fanning the inextinguishable fire, and sharpening the tooth of the immortal worm!

See angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers--stripped of all their original glory and beauty--bound in eternal chains, and burning with rage and malice against that Being in whose presence they once rejoiced, and whose praises they once sang!

See multitudes of the human race, in unutterable agonies of anguish and despair--cursing the Giver and Prolonger of their existence, and vainly wishing for annihilation to put an end to their miseries.

Follow them through the long, long ages of eternity--and see them sinking deeper and deeper in the bottomless abyss of ruin! View them perpetually blaspheming God because of their plagues, and receiving the punishment of these blasphemies in continued additions to their wretchedness.

Such are the wages of sin--such the doom of the finally impenitent!

From these depths of anguish and despair--look up to the mansions of the blessed, and see to what a height of glory and felicity, the grace of God will raise every sinner who repents. See those who are thus favored in unutterable ecstasies of joy, love, and praise--beholding God face to face, reflecting His perfect image, shining with a splendor like that of their glorious Redeemer, and bathing in those rivers of pleasure which flow forever at God's right hand! ​

 

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Choice excerpts from Edward Payson!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

Every Christian is in the exact situation, which God in His infinite wisdom sees best for him!

~ ~ ~ ~

The mind which has contemplated eternity--thinks lightly of the things of time!

~ ~ ~ ~

If you sincerely search your heart--then you will find pride, like the different layers of an onion, lurking one beneath another to the very center of it!

~ ~ ~ ~

Praise Christ for everything. He is the foundation of every good thought, desire, and affection.

~ ~ ~ ~

It should be our aim to draw all we can from Him by prayer--and return Him all we can by praise.

~ ~ ~ ~

He who falls from a pulpit--seldom stops short of the lowest abyss in Hell.​

 

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This is too much!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

Only to be permitted to contemplate such a being as Jehovah . . .
to ponder goodness, holiness, justice, mercy, patience and sovereignty--personified and condensed;
to ponder them united with eternity, infinite power, unerring wisdom, omnipresence, and all sufficiency;
to ponder all these natural and moral perfections indissolubly united and blended in sweet harmony--in one pure, spiritual being, and that being placed on the throne of the universe
--to ponder this would be happiness enough to fill the mind of any creature in existence!

But in addition to this,
to have this ineffable Being for my God, my portion, my all;
to be permitted to say, "This God is my God forever and ever!"
to have His resplendent countenance smile upon me;
to be encircled in His everlasting arms of power and faithfulness and love;
to hear His voice saying to me, "I am yours--and you are Mine! Nothing shall ever pluck you from My hands, or separate you from My love--but you shall be with Me where I am, behold My glory, and live to reign with Me forever and ever!"

This is too much! It is honor, it is glory--it is happiness too overwhelming, too transporting for mortal minds to conceive, or for mortal frames to support!

In Heaven, the saints will be entirely lost and swallowed up in God, and their minds will be so completely absorbed in the contemplation of His ineffable, infinite, uncreated glories!

Oh, then, what must it be, to escape forever from error and ignorance and darkness and sin--into the region of bright, unclouded, eternal day!

What must it be, to behold your God and Redeemer face to face!

What must it be, to continually to contemplate, with immortal strength--glories so dazzlingly bright, that one moment's view of them would now, like a stream of lightning, turn your frail bodies into dust!

What must it be to to see the eternal volume of the divine counsels, the mighty map of the divine mind, unfolded to your eager, piercing gaze!

What must it be to to explore the heights and depths, the lengths and breadths of the Redeemer's love--and still to see new wonders, glories, and beauties pouring upon your minds in constant, endless succession, calling forth new songs of praise--songs in which you will unite with the innumerable choirs of angels, with the countless myriads of the redeemed, all shouting with a voice like the voice of many waters, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns!"​

 

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How is your Beloved better than others?

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"How is your Beloved better than others?" Song of Songs 5:9

Does not our Friend as far excel all other friends . . .
as Heaven exceeds earth,
as eternity exceeds time,
as the Creator surpasses His creatures?

See all the fullness of the Godhead--dwelling in One who is as meek and mild as a child.
See His countenance beaming with ineffable glories--full of mingled majesty, condescension and love.
Hear the soul-reviving invitations and gracious words which proceed from His lips.
See that hand in which dwells everlasting strength--swaying the scepter of universal empire over all creatures and all worlds.
See His arms expanded to receive and embrace returning sinners.
While His heart, a bottomless, shoreless ocean of benevolence--overflows with tenderness, compassion, and love.

Such, O sinner, is our Beloved--and such is our Friend.

Will you not then embrace Him as your Friend? If you can be persuaded to do this--you will find that half, nay, that the thousandth part has not been told to you!

All the excellency, glory and beauty which is found in men or angels, flows from Christ--as a drop of water from the ocean, or a ray of light from the sun.

If, then, you supremely love the creature--can you wonder that Christians should love the Creator! Can you wonder that those who behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, should be sweetly drawn to Him by the cords of love, and lose their fondness for created glories? All that you love and admire and wish for in creatures, and indeed infinitely more--they find in Him!

Do you wish for a friend possessed of power to protect you?
Our Friend possesses all power in Heaven and earth, and is able to save even to the uttermost!

Do you wish for a wise friend?
In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Do you wish for a tender, compassionate friend?
Christ is tenderness and compassion itself.

Do you wish for a faithful, unchangeable friend?
With Christ there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

His unchangeable love will ever prompt Him to make His people happy!

His unerring wisdom will point out the best means to promote their happiness!

His infinite power will enable Him to employ those means.

In all these respects, our Beloved is more than any other beloved!​

 

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Slighted, disobeyed, and dishonored by His creatures on earth!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

I look up to Heaven and there see the blessed and only Potentate, the Creator and Upholder of all things, the infinite and eternal Sovereign of the universe--governing His vast kingdom with uncontrollable power, in a manner perfectly wise and holy and just and good. In this Being, I see my Creator, my Preserver, my unwearied Benefactor--to whom I am indebted for everything which I possess.

And what does this Being see--what has He seen, in me? He sees a frail worm of the dust, who is of yesterday and knows nothing, who cannot take a single step without making mistakes, who is wholly incompetent to guide himself, and who, by his own folly, is self-destroyed. He has seen this frail, blind, erring worm, presumptuously daring to criticize and censure His proceedings, attempting to interfere in His government of the universe; and trying to set up his own perverse will against the will of his Creator, his Sovereign, and his God; his own ignorance--against divine omniscience, and his own folly--against infinite wisdom.

Should an angel who knew nothing of our characters, but who had heard of the blessings which God has bestowed on us, visit this world--would he not expect to find every part of it resounding with the praises of God and His love? Would he not expect to hear old and young, parents and children--all blessing God for the glad tidings of the gospel?

How, then, would he be grieved and disappointed! How astonished would he be to find that Being whom he had ever heard praised in the most rapturous strains by all the bright armies of Heaven--slighted, disobeyed, and dishonored by His creatures on earth!

O, then, let us strive to wipe away this foul stain--this disgrace to our race and our world.

Let not this world be the only place, except Hell--where God is not praised.

Let us not be the only creatures, except devils--who refuse to praise Him!​

 

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How loudly and persuasively does His conduct preach!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"He who says he abides in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:6

It was highly important and desirable that the Lord Jesus should not only describe Christianity in His discourses, but exemplify it in His life and conduct. In Him, we see pure and undefiled religion embodied. In Him, Christianity lives and breathes. How convincing, how animating is our Savior's example! How loudly and persuasively does His conduct preach!

Would you learn submission to parental authority? See Him, notwithstanding His exalted character, cheerfully subjecting Himself to the will of His parents; and laboring with them, as a carpenter, for almost thirty years.

Would you learn contentment with a poor and low condition? See Him destitute of a place where to lay His head.

Would you learn active beneficence? See Him going about doing good.

Would you learn to be fervent and constant in devotional exercises? See Him rising for prayer before the dawn of day.

Would you learn in what manner to treat your brethren? See Him washing His disciples' feet.

Would you learn filial piety? See Him forgetting His sufferings, while in the agonies of death--to provide another son for His desolate mother.

Would you learn in what manner to pray for relief under afflictions? See Him in the garden of Gethsemane.

Would you learn how to bear insults and injuries? See Him on the cruel cross!

In short, there is no Christian grace or virtue, which is not beautifully exemplified in His life.

There is scarcely any situation, however perplexing, in which the Christian, who is at a loss to know how he ought to act--may not derive sufficient instruction from the example of his divine Master.

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

 

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We are lords! We don't need Him anymore!

(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

"O my people, listen to the words of the LORD! Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness? Why then do my people say: We are lords! We don't need Him anymore!" Jeremiah 2:31

If men are indeed independent of God--then it may with safety be asserted that He is almost the only being or object in the universe on whom they are not dependent.

From the cradle to the grave, their lives exhibit little else than a continued course of dependence. They are dependent on the earth, on the water, on the air, on each other, on irrational animals, on vegetables, on unorganized substances.

Let but the sun withhold his beams, and the clouds their showers for a single year--and the whole race of these mighty, independent beings expires!

Let but a pestilential blast sweep over them--and they are gone!

Let but some imperceptible derangement take place in their frail but complicated mind--and all their boasted intellectual powers sink to the level of an idiot's mind.

Let a small portion of that food, on which they daily depend for nourishment, pass from its proper course--and they choke and expire in agony.

An insect, a needle, a thorn--has often proved sufficient to subject them to the same fate!

And while they are dependent on so many objects for the continuance of their lives--they are dependent on a still greater number for happiness and for the success of their enterprises.

Let but a single spark fall unheeded or be wafted by a breath of air--and a city, which it has cost thousands the labors of many years to erect, may be turned to ashes!

Let the wind but blow from one point rather than from another--and the hopes of the merchant are dashed against a rock.

Let but a little more, or a little less, than the usual quantity of rain descend--and in the latter case the prospects of the gardener are blasted; while, in the other, his anticipated harvest perishes beneath the clods or is swept away by an inundation.

But in vain do we attempt to describe the extent of man's dependence, or enumerate all the objects and events on which he depends. Yet all these objects and events are under the control of the great Jehovah! Without His superintendence and appointment--not a hair falls from our heads, nor a sparrow to the ground.

O how far is it, then, from being true--that man is not dependent on God!

"For in Him we live and move and have our being!" Acts 17:28 ​

 

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A quiet hour spent alone with God at the beginning of the day

(Thoughts for the Quiet Hour)

"In the morning the Word of the Lord came to me" Ezekiel 12:8

A quiet hour spent alone with God at the beginning of the day, is the best beginning for the toils and cares of the day. A brief season of prayer, looking to God for wisdom and grace and strength, and seeking the assistance of the Holy Spirit--helps us to carry our religion into all of the events of the day. It brings joy and peace within the heart.

And as we place all our concerns in the care and keeping of the Lord, faithfully striving to do His will--we have a joyful trust that however dark or discouraging events may appear--our Father's hand is guiding everything, and will give the wisest direction to all our toils.
"In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation." Psalm 5:3

"Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul." Psalm 143:8​

 

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I am a perverse and unruly patient!

(Letters of John Newton)

I am bound to speak well of my Physician--He treats me with great tenderness, and bids me in due time to expect a perfect cure. I know too much of Him (though I know but little) to doubt either His skill or His promise.

It is true, I have suffered sad relapses since I have been under His care. Yet I confess that the fault has not been His--but my own! I am a perverse and unruly patient! I have too often neglected His prescriptions, and broken the regimen He appoints me to observe. This perverseness, joined to the exceeding obstinacy of my disorders, would have caused me to be turned out as an incurable long ago--had I been under any other hand but His! Indeed--there is none like Him! When I have brought myself very low--He has still helped me. Blessed be His name--I am yet kept alive only by means of His perfect care.

Though His medicines are all beneficial--they are not all pleasant. Now and then He gives me a pleasant cordial; but I have many severe disorders, in which there is a needs-be for my frequently taking His bitter and unpalatable medicines!

We sometimes see published in the newspapers, acknowledgments of cures received. Methinks, if I were to publish my own case, that it would run something like this:
"I, John Newton, have long labored under a multitude of grievous disorders:
a fever of ungoverned passions,
a cancer of pride,
a frenzy of wild imaginations,
a severe lethargy, and
a deadly stroke!

In this deplorable situation, I suffered many things from many physicians, spent every penny I had--yet only grew worse and worse!

In this condition, Jesus, the Physician of souls, found me when I sought Him not. He undertook my recovery freely, without money and without price--these are His terms with all His patients! My fever is now abated, my senses are restored, my faculties are enlivened! In a word, I am a new man! And from His ability, His promise, and the experience of what He has already done--I have the fullest assurance that He will infallibly and perfectly heal me--and that I shall live forever as a monument of His power and grace!"​

 

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The crown of universal monarchy!

(Charles Spurgeon)
"He is Lord of lords and King of kings!" Revelation 17:14

Jesus Christ is King in the world today!

The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!

Jesus Christ wears the crown of universal monarchy!

Nothing happens but that which Jesus permits, ordains, and overrules!

Let empires go to wreck--it is Christ who breaks them with a rod of iron and shivers them like potters' vessels.

Let conflagrations burn down cities,
let diseases devastate nations,
let war follow war,
let pestilence follow to famine--
yet still Jesus rules all things well, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose!​

 

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A great hospital!

(J.C. Ryle)

"All of you shall desert Me!" Mark 14:27

We see in these verses, how well our Lord foreknew the weakness and infirmity of His disciples. He tells them plainly what they were going to do: "All of you shall desert Me." He tells Peter in particular of the astounding sin which he was about to commit, "This night, before the rooster crows twice--you shall deny Me three times."

Yet our Lord's fore-knowledge did not prevent His choosing these twelve disciples to be His apostles. He allowed them to be His intimate friends and companions, knowing perfectly well what they would one day do. With a clear foresight of the melancholy weakness and lack of faith which they would exhibit at the end of His ministry--He granted them the mighty privilege of being continually with Him, and hearing His voice. This is a remarkable fact, and deserves to be had in continual remembrance.

Let us take comfort in the thought that the Lord Jesus does not cast off His believing people because of failures and imperfections. He knows what they are. He takes them, as the husband takes the wife--with all their blemishes and defects; and once joined to Him by faith, He will never leave them. He is a merciful and compassionate High-priest. It is His glory to pass over the transgressions of His people, and to cover their many sins.

He knew what they were before conversion--wicked, guilty, and defiled; yet He loved them.

He knows what they will be after conversion--weak, erring, and frail; yet He loves them.

He has undertaken to save them, notwithstanding all their shortcomings--and what He has undertaken, He will perform.

Let us learn to pass a charitable judgment on the conduct of professing believers. Let us not set them down in a low place, and say they have no grace--because we see much weakness and corruption in them. Let us remember that our Master in Heaven bears with their infirmities--and let us try to bear with them too.

The Church is little better than a great hospital. We ourselves are all, more or less, weak and infirm--and all daily need the skillful treatment of the heavenly Physician. There will be no complete cures until the resurrection day!​

 

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The best evidence of Christianity!

(Frederick Marsh)

Jesus is the chief among ten thousand--the altogether lovely One!

Christ is the Chiefest--or better than the best.

His love is unknowable! Ephesians 3:19

His riches are unsearchable! Ephesians 3:18

His joy is unspeakable! 1 Peter 1:8

His ways are untrackable! Romans 11:33

His grace is inexhaustible! 2 Corinthians 9:8

His peace is unfathomable! Philippians 4:7

And He Himself is unsurpassable! Exodus 15:11


His character was beautiful with holiness in every detail. Hebrews 7:26

His love was pure and faithful in all its affection. John 13:1

His service was true and beneficent in all its workings. Acts 10:38

His words were tender and true in all their utterances. John 7:45

His life was consistent in every department. Mark 7:37

His aim was single and concentrated in glorifying God. John 17:4

His mission was to benefit all who would trust Him, in dying a death which they deserved. 2 Corinthians 8:9

Christ is Christianity--and the best evidence of Christianity is Christ!

"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16 ​

 

[nChrist]

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From Grace Gems:
Very Old - But Beautiful and Timeless Treasures.
Everything is FREE and Public Domain.
Grace Gems!
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Return unto your rest, O my soul!

(Edward Griffin, 1770-1837)

"Return unto your rest, O my soul--for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." Psalm 116:7

To rest in God, is . . .
to be satisfied with Him as our portion,
to take Him for our supreme good, and
to feel that we have enough and abound while possessing Him--though everything else is taken away.

"Give me," says the believer, "the enjoyment of my God--and I desire no more. Allow me to feast on heavenly truth--and I shall never complain that I am poor. Let worldlings divide the globe among themselves--let emmets contend for this little heap of dust; I have God--and I ask no more. Come wars and pestilence, come poverty and death--you cannot rob me of my portion."

Must it not be substantial rest . . .
to have the infinite God for a portion,
to have all the restless desires of the mind composed,
to feel no anxious apprehension for the future,
to know that if everything which time or death can destroy, were removed--the whole of one's portion would remain;
to feel that nothing can injure, nothing impoverish, nothing perplex or disturb?

Ah, give me this portion--instead of thrones and kingdoms!

"Whom have I in Heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!" Psalm 73:25-26​

 

[nChrist]

__________________________________________
From Grace Gems:
Very Old - But Beautiful and Timeless Treasures.
Everything is FREE and Public Domain.
Grace Gems!
___________________________________________​

Look! Gaze! See! Behold!

(Charles Spurgeon)

The doctrine of the death of Christ for our sins, should inspire us with greater love for the Lord Jesus.

Can you look at His dear wounds--and not be wounded with love for Him?
Are not His wounds as mouths which plead with you to yield Him all your heart?

Can you gaze upon His face bedewed with bloody sweat--and then go away and be ensnared with the world's painted beauties?

Oh, for the vision of the Crucified!

When shall we see the face that was so marred for us?

When shall we behold the hands and feet which bear the nail-marks still--and look into the wounded side bejeweled with the spear-wound?

Oh, when shall we leave all our sins and griefs--forever to behold Him?

Our hope, our solace, our glory, our victory--are all found in the blood of the Lamb, to whom be glory for ever and ever! Amen.​