There may be obstacles and hindrances in the building and beauty of the spiritual temple, in the edification and glory of the gospel church. But the work is of God, and it shall prosper in the hands of our Zerubbabel. His hands, which have laid the foundation—even His hands shall finish it—and He shall bring forth the top-stone thereof with shouting, crying, "Grace, grace unto it." Nor shall any impediments ever stand in the way of the Savior's rising interest, but what shall serve as a foil to illustrate the brightness of that omnipotent power, infinite grace, truth, and faithfulness, which soon, very soon, will redound to His and the Church's glory, in spite of all opposition from the powers of darkness.
Not the least breathing of your enlarged heart, not a desire of your capacious soul, nor the least attempt you ever made for the advancement of the Redeemer's interest, but is recorded by Him in the book of His remembrance, and shall be rewarded of Him at His appearance. And, lo, this Lord and King of Glory will Himself will be your exceeding great reward! And can you fathom the measure of your glory in your immeasurable Lord? No! heaven's bliss, is immense.
But think, O think with pleasure, on those sweet foretastes of God with which your happy soul has been favored in times past! What peace and rest, what refreshing joy, has been given to your spirit when Jesus drew near! Was not your bliss in those happy moments ineffable—your joy full of glory unspeakable—and your reward abundantly great and full? And yet think, O think with rising joy, that the whole of your heart-ravishing bliss, of your soul-satisfying reward hitherto, if compared with that which is to come in the immediate presence, and full eternal enjoyment of God and of the Lamb, is no more than a drop in an immense ocean! Joy enters into you now; but then, you shall enter into joy, even the joy of your Lord. God puts a glory upon you now; but then, your God will be your glory! Rejoice, therefore, as an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ!
And until you come to your eternal inheritance, give your Father leave to choose your time-portion of trials, which are to prepare you for your eternal lot of glory.
And until you come to your eternal inheritance, give your Father leave to choose your time-portion of trials, which are to prepare you for your eternal lot of glory. And think it not strange, if so dear a favorite of heaven should meet with a variety and perpetuity of griefs on the earth, nor yet if your greatest trials should be reserved for the last. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? Shall we walk joyfully in the light, and not patiently in darkness? Especially since we have so sweet a companion in tribulation as our Lord Jesus, who loves us immensely, and will speak to us comfortably. God our Father has given Christ to be our Leader—to be the Captain of our Salvation—and, as such, he is continually with us, and goes before us. Through all the wilderness-way, even to the last step of it, he will never leave nor forsake us. He will tread down the briars and thorns before us, to make the way passable for us, and easy for our tender feet.
And no grief will He ever allow to touch us but what He sees to be absolutely necessary for us, and what He Himself, by an infinite sympathy, will bear together with us. The most tender pity of the nearest and dearest relative is not worth a thought, if compared with the infinite affection of Christ, our Immanuel, our Husband, Brother, Friend, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. In our Jehovah-Jesus there is a fullness of tender mercy, whence He can be, and is, inwardly touched with the feeling of our misery. And in Him also there is a fullness of power to relieve and deliver, which from an infinity of love, grace, and faithfulness, He does and will exert to save us to the uttermost. Our Captain-Leader, The Lord our lover, goes before us as a mighty conqueror, to vanquish all our enemies, to make our distress subserve our bliss, to swallow up death in victory, and to raise us up with Him to reign in life and immortal glory.
Let us, then, in faith, and without having fear, commit ourselves entirely to our Lord's all-wise and all-gracious conduct, and cheerfully come up from the wilderness leaning upon our Beloved.
Let us, then, in faith, and without having fear, commit ourselves entirely to our Lord's all-wise and all-gracious conduct, and cheerfully come up from the wilderness leaning upon our Beloved. For lo, we shall be fully persuaded "that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hallelujah! And again let us say, "Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns!"
That His rich, reigning grace may be with your spirit, and upon you in your work, until you rest from your labors and are received up to glory, in my hearty desire.
My Dear Sister,
How good is the Lord to us! He tries us for a while, and then He comforts us. Light and darkness—joy and sorrow—bitter and sweet—are wisely mixed and graciously overruled for the glory of God in our salvation. Oh, the infinite wisdom of our Leader, the glory of His conduct, the happiness of those under His care, and the blissful end to which He brings them! Happy is their way, and happy is their end. Happy are they in the midst of griefs—because the God of joy, God their joy, their exceeding joy, is with them there. Happy are they when delivered from grieving things—because God their deliverer is their deliverance.
Oh, the infinite wisdom of our Leader, the glory of His conduct, the happiness of those under His care, and the blissful end to which He brings them!
Jesus our Redeemer, the Captain of our salvation, marches on before His redeemed, treads down the briars and thorns of the wilderness, and gives us a comfortable passage through them to the land of rest. What need we fear, since the Lord is with us—with us when we pass through the waters and walk through the fire—that the one does not consume us, nor the other overflow us?
Our happiness lies in having a saving interest in the all-sufficient God, in the enjoyment of Him as such, and in our entire dedication to His glory, in every changing providence. To have God in everything—to see God in everything—and to love, bless, and adore God in everything—will make everything sweet to us. And without this, nothing will be substantial, nothing joyous, nothing profitable, nothing savory to a new-born soul, as such.
Oh, what a heap of empty vanities and cruel vexations are all things which this world affords without God enjoyed, without God revered in everything!
Oh, what a heap of empty vanities and cruel vexations are all things which this world affords without God enjoyed, without God revered in everything! It may well be said, "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him, is the chief end of man," and ineffably happy is that man who eagerly pursues this great end as his chief good. That man is prepared for the enjoyment, for the employment of heaven. And the more he answers that character, the greater is his preparation for the heavenly state; yes, the more of heaven comes down into his soul while his abode is on this earth.
I wish you daily fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit the Comforter.
My Dear Sister in Christ,
Your Beloved is yours and you are His, and what can you want or desire more? Your one Lord Jesus is worth infinitely more than millions of worlds, were there so many! Oh, what little, uncertain, dying things, are all creature-enjoyments! Not a drop of refreshment can we find in them, unless the Creator fills them, and communicates of His own fullness through those pipes of conveyance; and yet, how prone are we to seek after creatures as if our happiness were in them! Ah, foolish we, to "forsake the fountain of living waters, and hew out to ourselves cisterns—broken cisterns—that can hold no water!" Were every pipe broken and every cistern dry, the Lord—the full fountain, the overflowing ocean of our life and bliss—would never fail. There is a river of love, life, and glory in God, the streams whereof, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, shall make glad the hearts of the citizens of Zion.
A believer can never lack anything, languish and die in his spirit for lack of any good thing, unless he goes out of the bosom of Christ, where he has all things—to hunt for supplies among the creatures where there is nothing.
My dear sister, God, our kind Father, takes away the creatures from us that we may learn to live upon Himself as our present and eternal All; and not a soul that has Him for a well, while passing through the valley of Baca, of tears, shall ever lack supply of life and joy. A believer can never lack anything, languish and die in his spirit for lack of any good thing, unless he goes out of the bosom of Christ, where he has all things—to hunt for supplies among the creatures where there is nothing. Blessed is that soul that seeks God in the creatures it desires, that lives upon God in the creatures it enjoys, and that makes life a peaceful, joyous, glorious life out of God—or rather, that lives peacefully, joyfully, gloriously in Him when the creatures fail—for surpassingly excellent, sweet and soul-satisfying is God in all—is God in Himself.
O for more faith to live upon Him, and to Him, in all things that He gives us, and in what He withholds or takes from us; for our God will supply all our needs, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.
Your God, your all-supplying God, will be with you in every strait, to the last moment of your stay on earth, and then He will bring you home, to be forever with Him in heaven
Don't you see, then, my dear sister, how well you are provided for? Oh, live joyfully, as a child of God—and heir of God—for no good thing will He allow you to lack—and soon He will bring you to His great, His glorious, His eternal Self! Your God, your all-supplying God, will be with you in every strait, to the last moment of your stay on earth, and then He will bring you home, to be forever with Him in heaven, where, in His immediate presence, and seated at His right hand, He will bless you with fullness of joy, and make you drink of the river of His pleasures for evermore!
The love of God’s heart towards us is as unchangeable as His great Being, whose name is I AM—and is as invariable as that glorious Person through whom it flows, who is yesterday, today, and forever the same. The designs of Jehovah’s kindness, the thoughts of His heart concerning us, stand fast unto all generations; and by all our earthly changes He ushers in upon us some new fruit of His eternal unchanging love—to refresh our pilgrim-souls in this desert land, and to prepare us for our promised rest in the unchanging bliss of blessed eternity.
Darkness and distance attend the sons of God in the present state, but our approaching inheritance lies in light, in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb—where unfading joys will be new and full unto endless days!Darkness and distance attend the sons of God in the present state, but our approaching inheritance lies in light, in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb—where unfading joys will be new and full unto endless days! O blessed state, when we shall be as happy, as holy—as we desire to be! A few more trials—and we shall be as gold that is seven times refined! A little more faith—and patience, and our race will be run and the crown won! And, glory to our three-one God! all needful grace to enable us to hold out unto endless glory is, and shall be given us.
Ah, were our graces left to their own strength, and to our management, they would soon fly in pieces and be no more. But blessed is the man whose strength is in the Lord, and whose new-created soul is under Jehovah’s care, who works in saints both to will and to do of His own good pleasure, and will perfect that which concerns them, and not forsake the work of His own hands.
I commit you to Him on whom you have believed, who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy!
O happy soul, how does Jesus love you! And yet I must tell you He has but begun to love you. The love of Christ to you will pass on in brighter displays from glory to glory, glancing upon you through time as it passes by in its own everlasting round, in the state, in the majesty of a God, of the Lord Jehovah. I would be undone if the love of Christ were not just as it is, an infinite, strong, free, all-surpassing, unchangeable, and eternal love; if it were not the love of the Lord to an adulteress-bride, who by heart-idolatry looks to other gods, and loves sacred raisin cakes. But O, amazing wonder, our Lord's love-language is, "The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes!" Hosea 3:1
O happy soul, how does Jesus love you! And yet I must tell you He has but begun to love you. The love of Christ to you will pass on in brighter displays from glory to glory
The love of Christ being the love of the Lord, that has all the immense fullness, glories, and perfections of the Godhead in it, will always have a "yet" for us—a yet of continuance of infinite favor, a yet of increasing display—notwithstanding all our unworthiness and provocations. And O, surpassing wonder! Our Lord will say of us, as washed in His blood, clothed with His righteousness, anointed with His Spirit, and adorned with His graces, "How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves!" What, say of an adulteress-bride, who looks to other gods, even after redeemed by and acquainted with the love of the Lord-Redeemer, "You have dove's eyes!" Oh, none could say this but He who is the Lord, the God of love! It is His language whose love has in it heights and depths, breadths and lengths, which are infinite, passing knowledge.
His soul is fixed upon her; He loves her from Himself, He loves her in His own beauties cast upon her; He loves her as Himself—as His own flesh—as nearly, as inseparably related to Him.
And of His bride, black as she is in herself, by the workings of sin in her corrupt nature, this Bridegroom will say,"How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful my love!" My love! Oh, there it is! She is the object of Emanuel's love—of His heart-love, of His dying, living love, of His time-love, of His eternal love—His soul is fixed upon her; He loves her from Himself, He loves her in His own beauties cast upon her; He loves her as Himself—as His own flesh—as nearly, as inseparably related to Him. He will love her into love, into a full and glorious conformity to His own bright image. He had the pattern of all her glory given Him of old by His Father, when she was presented to Him in the mirror of decree. She ravished His heart then; He took her in the everlasting covenant, to love her ever; yes, though He must die for her, to bring her up to her decreed life of glory. He has wrought her up unto all her perfect beauty, her designed brightness in Himself. He is now working her up by His Spirit in herself to that pattern-glory. Her future brightness is present in His eye; and in all respects, from an infinity of grace and love, of flowing delights, this Bridegroom says to His bride, "How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves!" which shows how fitly the eyes of Christ are set to look with delight upon His own dove.
He is now working her up by His Spirit in herself to that pattern-glory. Her future brightness is present in His eye
O! His eyes are as the eyes of doves (pure, piercing, mild, loving), by the rivers of water (by the flows of infinite grace), washed with milk (bathed in those milky streams), and fitly set to look upon His spouse, His love, His dove, under all her miseries and mournings, with boundless compassion, ardent desires, infinite delights, and almighty influence, to look her into communion unto her full salvation by and eternal glory with Him. Happy, thrice happy then, is that soul who can say of Christ, that fairer than the sons of men, that altogether lovely Bridegroom, who can love a black bride in and into His own beauty and brightness—this is my beloved, and this is my friend!
Praise Him for His amazing kindness to me, and pray that His love may change me into its own image.
Such a sweet visit my Lord lately made me, such a glance, such a taste, such a shine of His love He favored me with that broke, melted, and overcame my heart; that made me long to serve Him here, yes, to be with Him, to behold, to enjoy, to adore Him in the glory of His love, which, with an heart-ravishing majesty, a soul-overcoming glory, so brightly beamed upon me in this land of distance. And before that time, my Lord has frequently of late applied many of His precious promises to my heart, which foretell great things that He will yet do, in His infinite grace, for His most unworthy worm. Praise Him for His amazing kindness to me, and pray that His love may change me into its own image.
The sin of pride is the child of unbelief. Pride springs from a disbelief of God to be what He is, in His immense and essential glory, in His infinite, underived, all-comprehending, incomprehensible self-sufficiency; and from a vain conceit of the creature’s being that which indeed it is not—that the creature is something independent of God. Whereas, without His all-supporting and all-supplying hand, it would soon sink into its first nothing, and be, as in and of itself it is, a mere vacuity, less than nothing, and vanity…
Nothing like the sin of pride unfits us for divine service. It renders us incapable, so far as it prevails, of any acceptable service either to God or man.
Nothing like the sin of pride unfits us for divine service. It renders us incapable, so far as it prevails, of any acceptable service either to God or man.…this sin of Pride, dragon-like, stands ready with open mouth to devour every heavenly birth as soon as it is brought forth. And it would destroy effectively all the saints' fruits which they by faith bring forth unto God by Christ, as soon as they appear, were they not caught up instantly by as Almighty hand unto God upon the throne of grace for security to His and His people's joy and glory.
Pride is that vile abomination which the Lord hates, and which He will not allow in those whom He loves. This sin of pride, if the heart is not humbled for it deeply, and if not repented sincerely, will bring down upon the children of God His fatherly chastisements severely.
Pride is that vile abomination which the Lord hates, and which He will not allow in those whom He loves.This sin of pride is a master-thief, as it robs God of that honor which would be given Him by His people if humble, and of that joy which He takes in their humility. Pride also robs believers of their present joy and comfort.
Pride is a sin that militates directly against the whole of divine glory as displayed and ascribed. It turns away its lofty eye from that illustrious display of the glory of God the Father in election, of God the Son in redemption, and of God the Holy Spirit in effectual calling, and thwarts thereby, as far as it may, the great design of the God of glory, which in and by this bright display is to make us meek and lowly that we might be happy here and hereafter in being holy. Pride will not allow us to give unto the Lord in any of these respects the glory due unto His name. It robs God as well as His people, and in robbing them it aims at Him.
…Pride is such an abominable sin that no tongue or pen can express a thousandth part of its aggravated guilt. None but the Lord Jehovah, in His understanding infinity, can search the immense depth of this great iniquity.
Then, if pride is so great a sin, and has in it such a fullness of malignity against God and man, no wonder that the people of God are tempted to it by Satan, who hates God, who hates us. Hence we may learn to admire the infinite wisdom and love of God, which devised and provided a way, by and through the death of His only Son, to save His people from this abominable sin—to save them from its dominion here, by grace—and from its very being hereafter in glory.
We hence admire the invincible strength of Jehovah’s favor, in that He casts not away His chosen servants from their appointed services, though God-provoking pride makes its appearance in their best performances. We are forever amazed at that immeasurable grace which forgives this great iniquity, and continues to love us freely, notwithstanding for the Lord’s choicest mercy we return enmity!
And let endless wonder strike our hearts unto rising praises, and eternal ages, at and for the omnipotent grace of the Holy Spirit—Who has begun in us pride's destruction, and will perform it to our soul's perfection, and full and everlasting joy and glory.Hence we learn the infinite merit of the Redeemer's blood which atoned for this sin of an infinite guilt, and reconciled such 'children of pride', to an infinitely holy God, and which cleanses us continually from the filthy stains of this deep-dyed iniquity. And let endless wonder strike our hearts unto rising praises, and eternal ages, at and for the omnipotent grace of the Holy Spirit—Who has begun in us pride's destruction, and will perform it to our soul's perfection, and full and everlasting joy and glory.
If pride is such a great iniquity, let us . . .
bewail it bitterly;
humble ourselves before God, on account of it, deeply;
wash in the fountain set open, instantly;
and entreat forgiving and subduing grace constantly.
Again, if pride is such an abominable sin, let us set ourselves against it with all our might, or rather, to oppose and destroy it, let us be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And since we cannot serve God as we would and should in this world, while this subtle, potent sin works within us, let us long for the nobler joys of the saints in glory; where by pride, nor by any other sin, we shall dishonor, wound, nor grieve our great and good God, the God of grace and love, no more forever.
The good will of Him that dwelt in the bush be with you, and prosper you exceedingly, until time fades into eternal glory.