Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

The sum of human wisdom is, to keep us from surprise in any thing-the sum of Divine wisdom is, to keep us from surprise in death. We know

not how soon the event may come; nor in what manner it may befall us. It may not wait the close of threescore years and ten; and it may not announce its approach by the common warnings of sickness-If we have not learned this truth already from our observations of mortality-neither should we be persuaded though one rose from the dead.

JULY 13.-"I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel, to do it for them."

Ezek. xxxvi. 37.

THAT is, what he had been promising; and notwithstanding the freeness and certainty of the engagement. Such is the revealed "will" of God. And his will is law; and law from which there lies no appeal. Nothing, therefore, can dispense with the obligation of prayer.-But let us look at this fact.

As we have no claims upon God, and all he does for us must be from pure mercy and grace; no one can deny that he has a right to determine the way in which his favours shall be conferred. Nor can it be questioned that he is the most competent judge in this case; for his understanding is infinite: he knows himself and his relations; and he knows us and our welfare, perfectly.

But let us not suppose that he acts arbitrarily, though he may act sovereignly. And let us remember, too, that his acting sovereignly does not consist in his acting without reasons, but in his being governed by reasons which are often far above out of our sight.

; His wisdom and his goodness are to be seen here as plainly as his authority. Some vainly ask, Where is the propriety of prayer? Can prayer be necessary to inform a Being, perfect in knowledge? Or to excite a Being, always ready to do good? Or to induce a Being, with whom there is no variableness, to change his measures? But the question is beside the mark. What is not necessary as to God, may be necessary as to us. Religion is founded not in His wants, but in ours. Does not something of this kind obtain among all ranks and conditions of our fellow-creatures? All-parental as you are, do you always dispense with your child's asking for what he wants? As a master, though willing to forgive, do you not deem it needful to require the servant that has offended you, to confess his fault, and implore pardon?

How many are the advantages arising from God's requiring us to ask, that we may have; and seek, that we may find! The exercise of prayer keeps alive a sense of our indigence and dependence. Every time I go to God in prayer, I am reminded-that I am ignorant, and that he is wise; that I am weak, and that he is powerful; that I am guilty and miserable, and that he is merciful and gracious; that I am nothing, and that he is all in all.

Prayer, by bringing us into the presence of God, will impress us with its excellencies: and the intercourse we have with him, will lead us to admire, and fear, and love, and resemble him. For we soon catch the spirit, and take off the manners of those with whom we are intimate; especially if they are above us, and are much esteemed by us. It is said, that those who are about the Court have an air and an address peculiar to themselves; and that it is difficult, if not impossible, for another to assume it. A man who is much at the Throne of Grace, will betray it in a manner of feeling, speaking, and acting, that a religious pretender can never entirely exemplify.

Hereby, too, the blessing is more endeared, and enhanced. We never much regard what we acquire without application or effort. The effort is a kind of price: and we judge of the commodity by the cost. That which blesses us, is what relieves our wants; fulfils our desire; accomplishes our hope; crowns our sacrifices. God's blessings are not bestowed upon those who are incapable of feeling their value-they would then yield neither pleasure to the receiver, nor praise to the Giver. His way, therefore, is to make us sensible of our need; to shew us the importance and excellency of the favours ; and to draw forth our souls after them. Then we are in his way. Then we can plead his promise. For blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.

JULY 14.-" My peace I give unto you."

John xiv. 27.

PEACE Sometimes signifies a confluence of temporal good things. This is not the meaning of it here. Our Saviour himself was poor, and a man of sorrows. And he said to his disciples, In the world ye shall have tribulation. Yet at the same time they were to have peace in him. This peace, therefore, must have been something which trouble could not hinder or injure. It must have been a spiritual privilege -composure of mind; especially for here is the source of the greatest perplexity and disquietude; the calm of conscience, arising from a hope of our acceptance in the Beloved. Before it can be enjoyed, the awful breach between God and us must be healed; and the blessed partaker of it be able to say, Thou wast angry with me; but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. For there

[blocks in formation]

must be a sense or apprehension of God's favour, which is life. I may be pardoned; but if I am ignorant of my forgiveness, my anxieties and uneasinesses will remain. But when He says to my soul, I am thy salvation, then, being justified by faith, I have peace with God-not only peace with him above, but peace with him within-a peace that passeth all understanding.

For who can adequately conceive the value of this donation? We need not descend into the depths of hell, to enquire what the miserable victims of despair would give for a moment's enjoyment of it. Let those speak who have been convinced of sin, who have felt a wounded spirit, and, expecting to fall into the hand of the living God, have exclaimed, What must I do to be saved! What were the feelings of the man-slayer, with the avenger of blood at his heels! And what was the change he experienced, as soon as he had entered the appointed asylum, and could turn round, and face the foe! Say ye-for ye have realized the blessed transition-ye who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before you.

""Tis a young heav'n on earthly ground,
"And glory in the bud."

It is a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol. It weans from the world. It enlivens duty. It smooths the rugged path of adversity. It turns a dying chamber into the House of God and the Gate of Heaven.

But the Saviour calls it his peace-" My peace I give unto you." It would be a low sense of this, though a true one, that he came and preached it. It was his in an infinitely more expensive way. He procured it for us. He came not to tell us the way to heaven, but to be the way-not to shew us how to make our peace with Gud, but to make it; and he did make it-we were reconciled unto God

by the death of his Son. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed-He made peace by the blood of his Cross. And he applies it by the agency of his Holy Spirit; enabling us to believe, and enter into rest; and maintaining our hope in all the changes of life, and under a continued sense of our unworthiness and guilt. Nor is it more his by derivation, than distinction. Many have peace; but how unlike his! There is the peace of the sinner. This is of Satanic origin. The strong man armed keepeth his palace and his goods in peace. But this peace is worse than war. It is not founded in conviction, but ignorance. It cannot endure thought. It is unworthy of the name of peace-There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. How can a man retire, and go to sleep, when, if he dies before the morning, (and how easily may his bed become his grave!) God is under an oath to destroy him? He denies it, or forgets. -There is the peace of the self-righteous Pharisee; and the peace of the Evangelical hypocrite; both of which will prove as the spider's web, and as the giving up of the Ghost.-There is the peace of the worldling, who, in the calm of his fire-side or evening's walk, musing on his abundance, says, O my soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But he may, that very night, have his soul required of him; and then whose are those things which he has provided? What is it to be at ease in our circumstances, and to enjoy peace with our neighbours, and in our families-while we are at war with God, and his wrath abideth on us!

-But this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian cometh into the land! Look to him. Repair to him. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up all their wounds." While you neglect Him, you may seek peace, but you will never find it. But he cries-oh! hear him-"Come unto

« AnteriorContinua »