Quite Hopeless

 

Beyond His Will

What the Gospel is not

The gospel isn’t advice, instructions, threats, or warnings. It isn’t our response to the gospel: not our repentance, faith, or obedience. It’s not our story or our testimony. It is the good news of victory of all God has accomplished for us through Christ by the Spirit. -- Burk Parsons

God knew the worst about you.

God knew the worst about you when he accepted you for Jesus' sake; and the verdict which he passed then was, and is, final. -- J.I. Packer

NATURAL DISTANCE

A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for,and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.” ~Jonathan Edwards~

 

MAKE THEM KNOW THAT HE LOVES THEM.

 God hath abundantly revealed to us, in His word, that 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥 in bringing men from sin to holiness of life, is, first to make them know that He loveth them, and that their sins are blotted out.

—Puritan Stephen Marshall (Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Pg. 19)

Expects nothing from this World.

 

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

 [Some not-so-well-known verses]

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,

Till released from flesh and sin,

Yet from what I do inherit,

Here Thy praises I'll begin;

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Here by Thy great help I've come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood;

How His kindness yet pursues me

Mortal tongue can never tell,

Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me

I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,

I shall see Thy lovely face;

Clothed then in blood washed linen

How I'll sing Thy sovereign grace;

Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,

Take my ransomed soul away;

Send thine angels now to carry

Me to realms of endless day.

Robert Robinson (1735-90), 1758, as it appeared in his A Collection of Hymns Used by the

Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopgate, 1759

CAST DOWN

 Remember, you that are cast down, under the sense of sin, that Jesus, your friend, in the court above, "is able to save to the uttermost.”

—Puritan John Flavel, Works 1.178

My children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 1 John 2:1

EFFICACY IN THE BLOOD

 John Flavel – ‘...there is more efficacy in the blood of Christ (to forgive sins, than there is reason in the heinousness of sin to condemn the sinner). There is power enough in that blood, not only to pardon (your) sins, but the sins of the whole world, were it actually applied. There is not only sufficiency, but also a redundancy of merit in that precious blood.’ - (Works, vol.1, p.375)

Christ is All the Armour

 

Great Awakening

 GREAT AWAKENING.  

Jonathan Edwards, who was one of America's greatest theologians, was a New England pastor of the 1700s. Edwards was brilliant. At age 6 he studied Latin. He entered Yale when not quite 13 and graduated when barely 15. He was ordained at 19, taught at Yale by 20 and later became president of Princeton. Harvard granted him both a bachelor's and a master's degree on the same day.

But he is best known for Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God - the most famous sermon in American history. He preached it on Sunday, July 8th, 1741 while ministering in tiny Enfield, Connecticut. A group of women had spent the previous night praying for revival. When Edwards rose to speak, he quietly announced his text was Deuteronomy 32:35 "... their foot shall slide in due time." This "hellfire and brimstone" approach was somewhat a departure for Edwards. Of his thousand written sermons, less than a dozen are of this type. Edwards neither gestured nor raised his voice. He spoke softly and simply, warning the unconverted that they were dangling over hell like a spider over the fire.

"O sinner! Consider the fearful danger. The unconverted are now walking over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there innumberable places in this covering so weak that it will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen."

Edwards' voice was suddenly lost amid cries and commotion from the crowd. He paused, appealing for calm. Then he concluded: "Let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom."

Strong men held to pews and posts, feeling they were sliding into hell. Others shook uncontrollably and rolled on the floor. Throughought the night cries of men and women were heard throughout the village, begging God to save them. Five hundred were converted that evening, sparking a revival that swept thousands into the kingdom. The Great Awakening had come.

THE DUTIES GOD REQUIRES

the duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God’s tasks. This is a law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment. But alas, this is a secret we often fail to discover.

--John Owen

"We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own." - John Owen

IF GOD DID NOT WANT TO ANSWER YOU

 "If God did not want to answer you, He would not have you pray." ~Martin Luther

THE MISERABLE

 "God is the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted, the oppressed, the desperate, and those who have been brought to nothing. ~Martin Luther

I did not induce it

 "The spiritual life which I have is not my own. I did not induce it, and I cannot maintain it. It is only and solely the work of Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me. My whole life is His alone."

John Owen

Repentance quote by MLJ

ULTIMATE TEST

The ultimate test of my understanding of the scriptural teaching is the amount of time I spend in prayer. As theology is ultimately the knowledge of God, the more theology I know, the more it should drive me to seek to know God. Not to know “about” Him but to know Him! The whole object of salvation is to bring me to knowledge of God… If all my knowledge does not lead me to prayer there is something wrong somewhere. ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

A Praying Man

“A praying man is a useful man; Useful to God. Even a man of limited knowledge who is a man who spends much time in the presence of God is a useful man to God and a pleasing man to God.” - Paul Washer

God sees us in Jesus

God sees us in Jesus and loves us with an infinite love. Every believer, though his faith may be weak, his fears many, his corruptions strong, his trouble great, and his temptations sore, is the object of God’s delight. — James Smith

It is the will of God

 "It is the will of God to have the Spirit of God use the Word of God to make the children of God look like the Son of God." – H.B. Charles Jr.

FORGIVENESS REQUIRES THE SATISFACTION OF GOD'S JUSTICE

 Forgiveness requires the satisfaction of God’s justice as an expression of God’s mercy. We are not forgiven based upon how bad we feel about our sins. -- Kevin DeYoung.

Owen on Sanctification

 

OUR FAITH DOESN'T SAVE US

 

Vocation post

Your vocation and the daily routine of work matters to God. “All phases of life should glorify God, and if a man is a carpenter or a plumber, he should and can glorify God by his trade as well as a student or professor. To serve God acceptably, one does not need to be a monk, neither does he need to be a scholar…What is required is that each should use faithfully what he has received.” ~Gordon Clark

ARMS UNDERNEATH

 

TOO MUCH EASY

 

I can be weighed

 "I can be weighed against the law, and yet sit securely, knowing that now and for ever, I am equal to the law. It hath nought against me since Christ is mine, Its terrors have no power to affright me, and as for its demands they can exact nothin...g of me for they are fulfilled to the utmost in Christ." -C. H. Spurgeon.

Rest in Him Then

 

Surely

 Surely Adam could not propagate so strong a poison but Jesus Christ could propagate as strong an antidote, and much stronger. 

Matthew Henry.

Adam’s fall was terribly effectual, it has brought death upon the human race age after age. And Christ’s death is wonderfully effectual, for on behalf of all those for whom he died, his atonement so prevails as to put their sins away for ever. 

-Charles Spurgeon.

INSTABILITY OF EARTHLY THINGS

 

Our sins stand no chance of standing safely before a Holy God.

 “The greatest guilt that ever was contracted upon a trembling, shaking conscience, can stand before the efficacy of the blood of Christ no more than the sinner himself can stand before the justice of the Lord, with all their guilt upon him. Flavel, 1.328

Paraphrased by James Dorman IV: Just as: A guilty sinner stands no chance of standing safely before a Holy God.

In similar manner: The believer's sins (no matter how large, or greatly felt) stand no chance of standing safely before the powerful, effective atoning pardoning redeeming forgiving blood of Christ.

SEEING MORE CLEARLY

There is a difference between growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287

 We are sinful out of measure, but see it not to the full, until an hour of temptation comes. But when it comes, it does as a painter does, sketching out our heart… yet the sight of what we are should not keep us from coming to Jesus Christ.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287

There is a difference between growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287There is a difference between growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287

There is a difference between growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287

There is a difference between growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.

—John Bunyan, Works 1.287

Christ is glorified

 Christ is glorified, and God in and by Him, in the preaching of the Gospel, whether men receive it or not.

—John Owen, on Hebrews 4:1

Surely

 Surely if He would not spare His own Son one stroke, one tear, one groan, one sigh, one circumstance of misery, it can never be imagined that ever He should, after this, deny or withhold from His people, for whose sakes all this was suffered, any mercies any comforts, any privilege, spiritual or temporal, which is good for them.

— J. Flavel

What is Prayer

 

This is a great answer;  and yet, perhaps, it can be improved;  What would be the description of prayer based upon the prayer Jesus taught His disciples.

A.  Our:  Corporate; Community,

B.  Father:  Fellowship/Family.  Love, Nurture, Instruction, Guidance, Provision, Correction.

C. who are in Heaven:  Holy, Separate, Eternal, Powerful, Pure, Creator, Aseity.

D.  Hallowed be thy name..

(unfinished article....)  

Is He Absolute

 

Speak to the Ear

 A man may speak to the ear, but it is the Spirit of God alone who can speak to the heart.

George Whitefield

CEASED COUNTING HEADS

 

Three Quotes for today

 "I have not one good work that I dare think of, much more trust to, but being what I am, unworthy, undeserving, and hell-deserving, I trust Christ to save me, and if he does not save me, he is not as good as his word; but I have no suspicion about that."

Charles H. Spurgeon

"If God be just, he cannot punish me for sin for which Jesus has offered satisfaction. As long as there is justice in the heart of Deity, it cannot be that a soul justly claiming Christ as his substitute can himself be punished."

Charles H. Spurgeon

“Let it not be forgotten that God’s providences are but the manifestations of His decrees: what God does in time is only what he purposed in eternity- His own will being the alone cause of all His acts and works.”

~ Arthur Pink 1886-1952, "The Sovereignty of God"

ARE YOU AFRAID, THEN YOU ARE OF NO USE

 "You are of no use in the ministry, my dear brother, if you are not quite willing to be called a fool, to be called a thief, or even to be called a devil! You will never be successful if you are afraid of being pelted."

Charles H. Spurgeon

Augustus Toplady

 "I dare say, that, in such an auditory as this, a number of Arminians are present. I fear, that all our public assembles have too many of them. Perhaps, however, even these people, idolaters as they are, may be apt to blame, and, indeed, with justice, the absurdity of those who worship idols of silver and gold, the work of men's hands; what must it be, to worship the works of our own hands? Perhaps, you may ask, God forbid that I should do so. Nevertheless, let me tell you, that trust, confidence, reliance, and dependence, for salvation, are all acts and very solemn ones too, of divine worship; and upon whatsoever you depend, whether in whole or part, for your acceptance with God, and for your justification in His sight, whatsoever, you rely upon, and trust in, for the attainment of grace or glory; if it be any thing short of God in Christ, you are an idolater to all intents and purposes."

Augustus Toplady- The Golden Idol of Freewill

How will You Run with Horses

 Jeremiah 12:5-7  “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?  6  For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you.”  7  “I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.

Christ in All Scripture

 "We find Christ in all Scripture.

In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospel He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the Epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is Expected." —Alistair Begg.

Tasteless until the Holy Spirit

"God's Grace is tasteless to men, until the Holy Spirit brings its savor." -- Calvin.

GOD CAN CONQUER ANY HEART

 

SINICERE PRAYERS

 "God looks not at the oratory of your prayers, how elegant they may be; nor at the geometry of your prayers, how long they may be; nor at the arithmetic of your prayers, how many they may be; not at logic of your prayers, how methodical they may be; but the sincerity of them He looks at." ~Thomas Brooks

Nor is God known by the Intellect

 

VERY, MOST, ALWAYS, ALTOGETHER LOVELY

 

Superficial Evangelism

 

THE STARS VANISH

 

All that I am I give to you

‘All that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you’ says the bridegroom to his bride. This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. (from Mike Reeves Tweet)

Call the Day to Witness

“I call the day, sun, earth, trees, stones, wind, rain, frost, snow, my home, bed, table, food, books, drink, clothes, to witness that I come to You for rest of soul from the thunders of guilt and dread of eternity.” 

 – The Valley of Vision

INCAPABLE OF ONE RIGHTEOUS DESIRE

 

Multiple Quotes

The heads and hearts of multitudes have been filled with such a crowd and noise of worldly business that they have lamentably declined in their zeal, their love, their delight in God, and their heavenly, serious, and profitable way of conversing with men. --- John Flavel.


Christ's love did not rest in mere feeling, nor in light efforts and small sacrifices, but though we were enemies, yet He so loved us, that He was willing to deny Himself, and undertake the greatest efforts, and undergo the greatest sufferings, for our sakes. -- Jonathan Edwards.


Christ's love did not rest in mere feeling, nor in light efforts and small sacrifices, but though we were enemies, yet He so loved us, that He was willing to deny Himself, and undertake the greatest efforts, and undergo the greatest sufferings, for our sakes.-- Jonathan Edwards.


It is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelings upon which we must rest, but upon Christ and ON CHRIST ALONE!

— C. H. Spurgeon

Lesson 13: Qal Perfect – Strong Verbs

DELIVERED FROM THE LOVE OF SIN

 

GOD HOLDS US BACK EVERY MOMENT

 From online:

David Brainerd, Presbyterian missionary to Native Americans, was born this day 1718.

"If you hope for happiness in the world, hope for it from God, and not from the world."

- David Brainerd

"If God did not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate!" -David Brainerd.

BROUGHT TO KNOW THEIR NEED

 "Until men and women are brought to feel their sinfulness and need, no real good is ever done to their souls. Until a sinner sees himself as God sees him, he will continue careless, trifling, and unmoved. By all means we must labor to convince the unconverted man of sin, to pierce his conscience, to open his eyes, to show him himself. To this end we must expound the length and breadth of God's holy law. To this end we must denounce every practice contrary to that law, however fashionable and customary. This is the only way to do good. Never does a soul value the Gospel medicine until it feels its disease. Never does a man see any beauty in Christ as a Savior, until he discovers that he is himself a lost and ruined sinner. Ignorance of sin is invariably attended by neglect of Christ." - J. C. Ryle

Thankful for Thorns

 

He is not interested in numbers

 God does not work through big battalions, He is not interested in numbers; He is interested in purity, in vessels fit and meet for the Master’s use. We must concentrate, not on numbers, but upon doctrine, upon regeneration, upon holiness, upon the realisation that this is a holy temple in the Lord, a habitation of God.

• Martyn Lloyd-Jones (God’s Way of Reconciliation)

  

  
  

The Work of Christ is Perfect

 

A Believer Longs

 "A believer longs after God: to come into His presence, to feel His love, to feel near to Him in secret, to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour, than in an eternity of the presence of man." - Robert Murray McCheyne

First Words

 “Let the first words out of your mouth while still on your pillow be a cry to God: ‘I need you again today.’”

Faith is not a Virtue Proceeding from us.

 

Experiences

 

Preaching the Gospel removes the fear of death. CHS

 

Why We Pray. Spurgeon

 

24 years

 Adoniram Judson spent 24 years translating the Burmese Bible. In this month's magazine, you'll read stories of how we carry on his work today by smuggling Bibles into Myanmar (formerly Burma).

Everything from God's Hands

"To take everything from God’s hands, and to trust everything in God’s hands, is a happy way of living, and very helpful to prayer." - Charles Spurgeon

Expressing Prayer - Samuel Rutherford

 All my ways of expressing prayer are imperfect. In God’s book, a look toward heaven or an uplifting of the eyes is set down as prayer: In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will look up (Ps. 5:3). What is prayer but a pouring out of the soul to God. Faith will find another outlet if one be stopped. Feeling breaks out in looks when voice is lacking, just as smoke pours out of the windows when the door is shut. Dying Stephen looked up to heaven by the window of the soul to give notice that a poor friend was on his way, and that was prayer enough.

~ Samuel Rutherford

All Things Working For Good

 

Our Best is Far From Perfect

 

Faith Doesn't Save Us

 

Grace will Spring Up

 "Grace does not lie as a sleepy habit in the soul, but will put forth itself in vigorous and glorious actings. Grace can no more be concealed, than fire. Grace does not lie in the heart as a stone in the earth—but as seed in the earth. It will spring up into good works!" - Thomas Watson

He Works In Us

 

How Does God View His People

 How does God view His people?

“in Christ” (38 times) “in Christ Jesus” (51 times) “in him” (21 times) “in the Lord” (44 times) and other similar expressions no less than 216 times.

Confounded with Shame

 

Christ Prizeth Him More

 

Saves Completely

 When He saves, He saves completely, He removes the curse, restores access and power with God, renews the divine image upon the soul, and thus reclaims the rebel and teaches him reverence, love and serve the God of his life. ~ John Newton

WCF: Man's Will.

 I. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil.

II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well-pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it.

III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.

IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he frees him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.

V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.

WCF. (post inspired by Monergism).

We need Bruising

 “After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy. Such bruising may help weaker Christians not to be too much discouraged, when they see stronger ones shaken and bruised…. The heroic deeds of those great [Bible] worthies do not comfort the church so much as their falls and bruises do….. Hence we learn that we must not pass too harsh judgment upon ourselves or others when God exercises us with bruising upon bruising. There must be a conformity to our head, Christ, who ‘was bruised for us’ (Isaiah 53:5) that we may know how much we are bound unto Him.” ~The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes (Puritan Paperbacks, page 5)

God uses the Hidden Saint

 Satan wishes to keep the children of God in a sad, and perplexed state, because he hates Christians, and cannot devour their faith, nor pluck them out of the hand of God.

As long as Satan has a child of God confused as to whether they are true believers or just deceiving themselves, he will have them in a constant state of misery, and put off of many of their Christian duties.

It is very difficult for a person to enjoy Christ, rejoice in Him, commune with Him, fellowship with the saints, pray and meditate on His word without vain interruptions, and many other ordinances when they are not even sure if they are just bringing a greater judgment on themselves by deceiving themselves as false believers or not.

And one of Satan’s ways of keeping a child of God in this confused and sad state is by having them compare their portion or degree of faith with a person in the body who appears to have a significantly greater portion or degree of faith, and then says “your faith is not like their faith, and so your faith is not a true faith. They stand firm in the same afflictions and temptations where you stumble and sin. You are not just weak, you are a phony.”

But, we must keep in mind that God distributes His grace to each Christian at the measure He sees fit (Ephesians 4:7), and gives each person a different portion of faith (Romans 12:3), just as He does with knowledge and wisdom, and so on. All for His glory.

A light from a candle may not be as bright as the light of a bonfire, but it is still light. We would not let Satan tell us the candle has no light just because it isn’t as bright as the bonfire, and we should not believe him when comparing weaker faith to greater portions of faith.

Our reply should be “Yes, my faith may only appear to be the size of a mustard seed right now, but my great God planted it in me, and He didn’t do so in vain. It is small, but sincere and equally as true and saving as the faith the size of an entire mustard tree.” --Joshua Arnold

A notion of God commensurate

 

If we could have thoughts of him, as high and excellent as his nature; our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature. All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every created species is finite; it cannot therefore represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him, who is greater than our words, vaster than our understandings. No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God, as can give us a clear view of him.  Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellence, and point us to those excellences in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellences which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we draw our lessons being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being. --Charnock

Pronounces People "Just"

The glory of the gospel is that God pronounces people “just” while they are still sinners. —R.C. Sproul

WE CANNOT STAND ONE MOMENT

So many are those difficulties, discouragements, diversions and hinderances, which we have to wrestle with, and overcome in the way to heaven, (Acts 14:22) that except we be underpropped and strengthened by God’s almighty power, we cannot stand one moment, and much less advance in our Christian course. James Fergusson.

Hostility to Holiness

 

Eloquent; yet, regarding the lowly.

 Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eats with them. ~Luke 15:1, 2

"Never was there a tongue like Christ's — so learned, so eloquent, and so skilled. 'Never man spoke like this man.' Greece and Rome, in their 'high and palmy state,' never exhibited such philosophy as He taught, such erudition as He displayed, or such eloquence as He breathed. Had He so chosen it, He could have placed Himself al the head of a school of His own, and with a beck might have allured to His feet all the poets and the philosophers of His day, proud to own Him as their Master.

"But no! The wisdom and the eloquence of this world possessed no charm for Jesus. He drew the learning and the melting power with which He spoke from a higher, even a heavenly, source. His was Divine philosophy; His was the eloquence of God! 'The Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of the learned.'

"And to whom did He consecrate this learning, this wisdom, and this eloquence? To the very objects whom the proud philosophers and the doctors of His day despised and neglected — even the weary. What a field was here for the exercise of His skill, and for the play of His benevolence! How fully would he demonstrate that He truly possessed the 'tongue of the learned'!

"If to interest the feelings of the exhausted — if to enchain the attention of the weary — if to concentrate upon one subject the powers of a mind jaded and burdened — if to awaken music from a heart whose chords were broken and unstrung, mark the loftiest reach of eloquence, then His was eloquence unsurpassed — for all this He did.

"The beings whom He sought out, and drew around Him, were the burdened, the bowed, the disconsolate, the poor, the friendless, the helpless, the ignorant, the weary. He loved to lavish upon such the fullness of His benevolent heart, and to exert upon such the skill of His wonder-working power.

"Earth's weary sons repaired to His out-stretched arms for shelter, and the world's ignorant and despised clustered around His feet, to be taught and blessed. Sinners of every character, and the disconsolate of every grade, attracted by His renown, pressed upon Him from every side.

"'This man receives sinners,' was the character and the mission by which He was known. It was new and strange. Uttered by the lip of the proud and disdainful Pharisee, it was an epithet of reproach, and an expression of ridicule.

"But upon the ear of the poor and wretched outcast, the sons and daughters of sorrow, ignorance, and woe, it fell sweeter than the music of the spheres. It passed from lip to lip, it echoed from shore to shore — 'This man receives sinners.'

"It found its way into the abodes of misery and want; it penetrated the dungeon of the prisoner and the cell of the maniac; and it kindled a celestial light in the solitary dwelling of the widow and the orphan, the unpitied and the friendless.

"Thus received its accomplishment the prophecy that predicted Him as the 'Plant of renown,' whom Jehovah would raise up. Thousands came, faint, weary, and sad, and sat down beneath His shadow; and thousands more since then have pressed to their wounded hearts the balsam that exuded from His bleeding body, and have been healed." ~Octavius Winslow, Evening Thoughts, March 10

Turn your Families into Churches

“Turn your families into little churches.” -Matthew Henry