Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy

Posted on January 11, 2019 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 5:12-14; Isaiah 58:13,14; Exodus 20:8

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is easy to ridicule the Jewish Sabbath and “the Puritan Sunday.” No doubt there have been and are well-meant but mistaken efforts to insist on too rigid observance. No doubt it has been often forgotten by good people that the Christian Lord’s Day is not the Jewish Sabbath.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The day of rest under the law, as a pledge of final rest with God, was the last day of the seven, the seventh day; but under the gospel it is the first day of the seven. Then the week of labour went before, now it follows after. And the reason hereof seems to be taken from the different state of the church. For of old, under the covenant of works, men were absolutely to labour and work, without any alteration or improvement of their condition, before they entered into rest. They should have had only a continuance of their state wherein they first set out, but no rest until they had wrought for it. The six days of labor went before, and the day of rest, the seventh day, followed them. But now it is otherwise. The first thing that belongs unto our present state is an entering into rest initially; for we enter in by faith, Hebrews 4. And then our working doth ensue; that is, “the obedience of faith.” Rest is given us to set us on work; and our works are such as, for the manner of their performance, are consistent with a state of rest. Hence our day of rest goes before our days of labour: it is now the first of the week, of the seven, which before was the last. And those who contend now for the observation of the seventh day do endeavour to bring us again under the covenant of works, that we should do all our work before we enter into any rest at all.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “The Sabbath was made for man,” Mark 2:27; God has graciously sanctified it for the good of the whole world.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Of course the religious observance of the day is not a fit subject for legislation. But the need for a seventh day of rest is impressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and devout hearts will joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and service. The vigour of religious life demands special seasons set apart for worship. Unless there be such reservoirs along the road, there will be but a thin trickle of a brook by the way. It is all very well to talk about religion diffused through the life, but it will not be so diffused unless it is concentrated at certain times. They are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and relax the stringency of the prohibition of labour.

J. W. ALEXANDER (1804-1859): The best preparation for the week’s work is the communion of the Sabbath.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL  (1635-1711): We sin when we make a workday out of this day—if we occupy ourselves with the work of our profession; we sin when we transform this day into a market day.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: There never was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of modern life demands Sunday rest more than ever…we are all going at top speed; and there would be more breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some people think they are promoting the public good by destroying―a seventh day of rest. Our great trading centres have the same foreign element to complicate matters as Nehemiah had to deal with, Nehemiah 13:15,16. The Tyrian fishmongers knew and cared nothing for Israel’s Jehovah or Sabbath, and their presence would increase the tendency to disregard the day. So with us, foreigners of many nationalities, but alike in their disregard of our religious observances, leaven the society, and help to mould the opinions and practices, of our great cities. That is a very real source of danger in regard to Sabbath observance and many other things; and Christian people should be on their guard against it.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must “turn away our foot from the sabbath,” from trampling upon it, as profane atheistical people do.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The foot in Scripture is frequently used for all the labour and business of men: see Proverbs 4:26,27, Psalm 119:101, and Isaiah 56:2.

MATTHEW HENRY: On sabbath days we must not walk in our own ways―that is, not follow our callings; not find our own pleasure―that is, not follow our sports and recreations; nay, we must not speak our own words, words that concern either our callings or our pleasures.  

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL: We sin when we make this day into a day of worldly pleasure.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): How vilely is this rule transgressed by the inhabitants of this land! They seem to think that the Sabbath was made only for their recreation!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How do all faithful souls mourn in secret in the view of those troops of sabbath-breakers of our poor bleeding land, for which the nation mourns, and which come forth every Lord’s day to their sport and pleasures!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: If once the idea that Sunday is a day of amusement takes root, the amusement of some will require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend to extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule.

 CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Worldly business, and carnal pleasure, and unprofitable conversation, are all expressly proscribed: “we must not do our own ways, nor find our own pleasure, nor speak our own words.” On all the other days of the week we may find time for these things; but on the Sabbath-day they are to be excluded altogether. It is a grievous mistake to imagine, that after the public services of the day we are at liberty to engage in vain pursuits, invented only to beguile the time, which otherwise would be a burden upon our hands: there are pursuits proper to the day; and in them exclusively should our time be occupied.

 JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  If we framed our life in obedience to God, we should be His delight, and, on the other hand, He would be our delight.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): You show me a nation that has given up the Sabbath and I will show a nation that has got the seed of decay.

 

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Possessing the Land of Our Inheritance

Posted on January 4, 2019 by The Editor

Joshua 13:1: Joshua 15:63; 1 Chronicles 11:4

There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed…

As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.

And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Jebusites were one of the seven nations of the land of Canaan who were to be dispossessed and destroyed.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Whether Jebus had its name from the Jebusites, or the Jebusites from it, cannot be ascertained―though after the death of Joshua it appears to have been partly conquered by the tribe of Judah, yet the Jebusites kept the stronghold of Zion till the days of David, by whom they were finally expelled.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Mount Zion was a place of so much strength, that, from the days of Joshua to the time of David, the Israelites could never take it. They occupied Jerusalem: but Mount Zion was too strong for them; insomuch that the Jebusites who inhabited it laughed them to scorn, vaunting, that if there were none left but blind and lame to defend the fortress, the Jews should never be able to prevail against it.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The Jebusites who, from the long respite which had been given them, seemed to have struck their roots most deeply―this furnishes no excuse for the people, for had they exerted themselves to the full measure of their strength, and failed of success, the dishonour would have fallen on God Himself, who had promised that He would continue with them as their leader until He should give them full and free possession of the land, and that He would send hornets to drive out the inhabitants. Therefore, it was owing entirely to their own sluggishness.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Israel had suffered the Jebusites to remain among them contrary to the Lord’s command, and therefore they became a snare to them as the Lord had said, Judges 1:21; Deuteronomy 7:16-18.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Why did He not show Himself strong on their behalf? Because they had failed in their duty, for, instead of finishing the work which the Lord had given them to do, they became slack and took their ease.

JOHN CALVIN: A moderate delay might have been free from blame; but a long period of effeminate ease, in a manner, rejected the blessing which God was ready to bestow.

CHARLES SIMEON: Now this is an habit which we are all too apt to indulge, and which has a most injurious effect wherever it prevails―it was four hundred years before the Jebusites were driven from Jerusalem. Had all the tribes proceeded with united vigour to fulfil the divine command in its utmost extent, they would not so long have had to lament that their remaining enemies were as “scourges in their side, and thorns in their eyes,” Joshua 23:13. And who does not find, that corruptions gather strength by indulgence, and that graces decay for want of exercise?

ROBERT HAWKER: Much corruption remains in that heart where grace dwells.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): The Jebusites still held a hilltop in the heart of the country, never having been dislodged―and there are Jebusites in every Christian heart. For example, there is worldliness, which has its Jebusites everywhere. It is so intrenched there, too, that it seems impossible to dislodge it. There are many other such citadels of evil, which rear their proud towers and defy conquest. Sometimes it is a secret sin which lives on amid the general holiness of a life, refusing to submit to the sway of the grace of God. Sometimes it is a remnant of the old nature—pride, willfulness, weakness, selfishness, or bitterness. “We all have our faults,” we confess with penitence, and under this veil we manage to tuck away a large number of dear idols that we do not want to give up.

CHARLES SIMEON: In the mortification of sin we particularly resemble the Israelites of old. Because the armies of Canaan were no longer formidable to them, they overlooked the scattered remains which still occupied many strongholds, and considered them as unworthy of their notice. And is it not thus with too many amongst ourselves? We are not any longer tempted to the commission of gross, open, scandalous iniquities; and therefore we rest satisfied with the victories we have gained, instead of prosecuting them to the utter extirpation of our indwelling corruptions. Look at many professors of religion: they will not be guilty of palpable dishonesty: yet will harbour covetous and worldly desires: they will not commit whoredom or adultery: yet will indulge much impurity in their imaginations―Do not these things shew, how lukewarm we are in the prosecution of our best interests? Were we in earnest, as we ought to be, we should account sin our only enemy, and the extirpation of it would be the one labour of our lives.

J. R. MILLER: We ought to give attention to these unsubdued parts of our life, that every thought, feeling, and temper may be brought into subjection to Christ. It is perilous to leave even one such unconquered stronghold in our heart. It may cost us dearly in the end.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are saved, but we are not completely delivered from tendencies to sin, neither have we reached the fullness of holiness.

A. W. PINK: The fact must be faced that “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” No matter what be your growth in grace or the extent of your progress in spiritual things, you are not as completely conformed to the image of Christ as you should be, nor have you as fully possessed your possessions as it is your privilege to do…The antitypical Canaan is ours. It is the “purchased possession,” bought by Christ’s precious blood. That inheritance is to be enjoyed now: by faith, by hope, by fixing our affection upon things above. As we do so, we experimentally “possess our possessions.”―But there are powerful foes seeking to keep us from enjoying our heritage! True, but we may obtain victory over them, as Israel did over theirs. And we shall, in proportion as faith is in exercise, and as we walk obediently.

CHARLES SIMEON:  “Look then to yourselves, that ye lose not the things that ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward,” 2 John 8—the promise and oath of Jehovah are on your side.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion,” 2 Samuel 5:7. David’s exploit reads us anew the lesson that to the Christian soldier there is nothing impossible, with Jesus Christ for our Captain…For our own personal struggle with sin, and for the Church’s conflict with social evils, this story is an encouragement and a prophecy.

C. H. SPURGEON: Though there is very much land to be possessed, yet plunge into the war without fear, for, “He has said, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5. We are able to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, since the Lord our God will be with us.

 

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An Ebenezer for New Year’s Eve

Posted on December 28, 2018 by The Editor

1 Samuel 7:12

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Where that gray stone stands no man knows today, but its name lives for ever. This trophy bore no vaunts of leader’s skill or soldier’s bravery. One name only is associated with it. It is ‘the stone of help,’ and its message to succeeding generations is: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The “hitherto” included all through which they had passed, not the victories only, but the discipline and the suffering also.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): Just now we are looking back over the story of a closing year. What have we given the days to keep for us? What lessons of wisdom have we learned from them, as one by one they have passed. There is little good in worrying over the failures of the year, but we ought to learn from our past―there is a proper use of past experiences.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment, the divine help which has filled our lives. Like some track on a mountain side, it is less discernible to us, when treading it, than when we look at it from the other side of the glen. Many parts of our lives, that seemed unmarked by any consciousness of God’s help while they were present, flash up into clearness when seen through the revealing light of memory, and gleam purple in it, while they looked but bare rocks as long as we were stumbling among them. It is blessed to remember, and to see everywhere God’s help. We do not remember aright unless we do. The stone that commemorates our lives should bear no name but one, and this should be all that is read upon it: “Now unto Him that kept us from falling, unto Him be glory!”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Perhaps you are like the Welsh woman who said that the Ebenezers which she had set up at the places where God had helped her were so thick that they made a wall from the very spot she began with Christ to that she had then reached! Is it so with you? Then talk—talk you of all His wondrous works! I am sure you would find such talk most interesting, most impressive, and most instructive, for the things we have seen and experienced, ourselves, generally wear a novelty and abound in interest beyond any narrative we get from books, or any unauthenticated story we pick up secondhand. Tell them how God has led you, fed you, and brought you to this day—and would not let you go!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Reader! how many Ebenezers have you and I erected of deliverances and mercies? Alas! if we cannot point to very, very many, it is not because our gracious God hath afforded no remarkable occasions for them; but because they have passed by unnoticed and disregarded from our ungrateful and unworthy minds. How much owest thou unto my Lord? is a question, I would pray for grace to put to my soul in the close of every day and night.

C. H. SPURGEON: Is not this a very common fault with us? Do we not too often forget what the Lord has done for us in times past? Do we not forget those Ebenezers?

J. R. MILLER: We should remember past mercies and blessings. If we do, our past will shine down upon us like a sky full of stars. Such remembering of the past will keep the gratitude ever fresh in our heart, and the incense of praise ever burning on the altar. Such a house of memory becomes a refuge to which we may flee in trouble. When sorrows gather thickly; when trials come on like the waves of the sea; when the sun goes down and every star is quenched, and there seems nothing bright in all the present, then the memory of a past full of goodness, a past in which God never once failed us, becomes a holy refuge for us, a refuge gemmed and lighted by the lamps of other and brighter days.

C. H. SPURGEON: The word “hitherto” seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, “hitherto the Lord hath helped!” Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, “hitherto hath the Lord helped us!” We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received “hitherto.” But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes “hitherto,” he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Hitherto” means more than it says. It looks forward as well as backward, and sees the future in the past. Memory passes into hope, and the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God’s “hitherto” carries ‘henceforward’ wrapped up in it. His past reveals the eternal principles which will mould His future acts. He has helped, therefore He will help, is no good argument concerning men; but it is valid concerning God.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And we trust He will do so still; for every former mercy is a pledge of a future mercy.

J. R. MILLER: We are leaving the old year behind, but we are not leaving Christ in the dead year. We need not be afraid, therefore, to go forward, if we go with Him.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): How many Ebenezers have we been called upon to rear to His praise! And He has said, He will never leave us nor forsake us. And, oh, what a prospect lies before us! When by His counsel He has guided us through life, He will receive us to His kingdom, give us a crown of glory, and place us near Himself, to see Him as He is, and to be satisfied with His love for ever.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: That “hitherto” is the word of a mighty faith.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let not the new year’s midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit!

JOHN NEWTON: He who hath helped thee hitherto,

Will help thee all thy journey through;

And give thee daily cause to raise

New Ebenezers to His praise.

 

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A Great Mysterious Wonder

Posted on December 21, 2018 by The Editor

Matthew 1:18-23

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Doubtless there is great mystery in these things.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,” 1 Timothy 3:16. This is a great mystery, is it not? “God was manifest in the flesh,” is one of the most extraordinary doctrines ever declared in human hearing. Were it not so well attested, it would be absolutely incredible that the infinite God, who filleth all things, who was, and is, and is to come, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, and the Omnipresent, actually condescended to veil Himself in the garments of our inferior clay. He made us, yet He deigned to take the flesh of His creatures into union with Himself; the Eternal was blended with mortality.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): With the greatest astonishment, Solomon asked the important question, “Will God in very deed dwell with men on earth?” (2 Chronicles 6:18). The question is now answered in the affirmative by men and angels. Though we cannot form any idea of the infinite distance between God and man, yet that vacuum is filled up in the incarnation of the Messiah, so that He is called the true God, and the man Christ Jesus―Though it was impossible for the divine nature to become human, or the human nature to become divine, yet the two natures, mysteriously united in Christ, make but one glorious person.

MATTHEW POOLE: How an infinite nature could be personally united to a finite nature, so as to make one person, is a mystery, and a great mystery.

C. H. SPURGEON: Since this matchless truth is “without controversy,” let us not enter into any controversy about it, but let us reverently meditate upon it. What a miracle of condescension is here, that God should manifest Himself in flesh! This is not so much a theme for the tongue or the pen, as something that is to be pondered in the heart. It needs that we sit down in quietness, and consider how He, who made us, became like us; how He, who is our God, became our Brother man; how He, who is adored of angels, once lay in a manger; how He, who feeds all living things, hungered and was athirst; how He, who oversees all worlds as God, was, as a man, made to sleep, to suffer, and to die like ourselves. This is a statement not easily to be believed. If He had not been beheld by many witnesses, so that men handled Him, looked upon Him, and heard Him speak, it would have been a matter not readily to be accepted that so Divine a Person should ever have been manifest in flesh.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word with God, and the Word was God…and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth,” John 1:1,14―that very person who was in the beginning―who was with God―and who was God, in the fullness of time became flesh―became incarnated by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin. Allowing this apostle to have written by Divine inspiration, is not this verse, taken in connection with John 1:1, an absolute and incontestable proof of the proper and eternal Godhead of Christ Jesus?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): When you hear these very plain words of God the Holy Ghost, concerning the person and coming of the Son of God, in substance of our flesh, and behold the whole body of scripture in both Testaments bearing testimony to the same; perhaps you are astonished how it is, that such men should arise, who deny Christ’s Godhead.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Jesus Christ is to be confessed as the Son of God, the eternal life and Word, that was with the Father from the beginning; as the Son of God that came into, and came in, our human mortal nature, and therein suffered and died at Jerusalem―on the contrary, “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God,” 1 John 4:3.

C. H. SPURGEON: Consider, again, the incarnation of Christ, and you will rightly say, that His name deserveth to be called “Wonderful.” Oh! what is that I see? Oh! world of wonders, what is that I see? The Eternal of ages, whose hair is white like wool, as white as snow, becomes an infant. Can it be? Ye angels, are ye not astonished? He becomes an infant, hangs at a virgin’s breast, draws his nourishment from the breast of woman. Oh wonder of wonders!

AUGUSTINE (354-430): Man’s maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Behold here a sacred riddle or paradox—“God manifest in the flesh.” That man should be made in God’s image was a wonder, but that God should be made in man’s image is a greater wonder. That the Ancient of Days should be born, that He who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle; that He who rules the stars should suck the breast; that a virgin should conceive; that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which He Himself made; that the branch should bear the vine; that the mother should be younger than the child she bare, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother; that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God—Christ taking flesh is a mystery we shall never fully understand till we come to heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON: It must ever remain to us the mystery of mysteries that God Himself was manifest in the flesh. God the invisible was manifest; God the spiritual dwelt in mortal flesh; God the infinite, uncontained, boundless, was manifest in the flesh—if we desire to see God, we must see Him in Christ Jesus.

AUGUSTINE: The only Son of God became the Son of man, that He might make us sons of God.

THOMAS WATSON: He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God. He took our flesh, that He might give us His Spirit. He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise. He came down from heaven, that He might bring us to heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON: Man may go up to God, now that God has come down to man.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): This is the meaning of Christmas. Oh, the glory and the wonder of it all!

 

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Angelic Curiosity

Posted on December 14, 2018 by The Editor

Ephesians 3:9-11; I Peter 1:12

The fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus.

Which things the angels desire to look into.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Angels spend their existence in a wondering study of the ways of God, especially of God’s gracious acts. “These things,” said the apostle Peter, “the angels desired to look into.” They are continually increasing in knowledge, and it appears from the book of Daniel that they ask questions, and long to be instructed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This was one things, among others, which God had in his eye in revealing this mystery, that the good angels, who have a pre-eminence in governing the kingdoms and principalities of the world, and who are endued with great power to execute the will of God on this earth may be informed, from what passes in the church and is done in and by it, “of the manifold wisdom of God;” that is, of the great variety with which God wisely dispenses things, or of His wisdom manifested in the many ways and methods He takes in ordering His church in the several ages of it, and especially in receiving the Gentiles into it―and this is “according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Holy angels are struck with astonishment at the plan of human redemption, and justly wonder at the incarnation of that infinite object of their adoration.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “For unto us a child is born,” Isaiah 7:14. This was “good tidings of great joy to all people,” Luke 2:10. Angels first brought it, and were glad of such an errand. Still they pry into this mystery and can never sufficiently wonder to see that the great God [should be] a little child; that He who ruleth the stars should be sucking at the breast; that the eternal Word should not be able to speak a word; that He that should come in the clouds should appear in clouts―old tattered rags.

MATTHEW HENRY: It was a wonder of His grace that Christ “humbled Himself,” and appeared “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” Romans 8:3.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): That babe, lying in the manger―a helpless babe that can’t move, has to be carried, has to be attended to―there He is, lying in a manger. What is this? Well, you see, this how the apostle Paul describes it, this is what he says: “All the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily,” Colossians 2:9. It’s all there! In that one little babe!―All the glorious purposes of God, they’re all there in that helpless little babe in the manger! And all the Godhead, “for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell,” Colossians 1:19―it’s all in Him―the babe lying in the manger! But He is the Saviour of the world.

RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752): Indeed, all the elect angels brake forth into joyful songs of praise at this solemnity; when He came in the flesh, they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards man,” Luke 2:14.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): So excellent and ravishing a mystery is this plot of salvation of lost sinners by Christ incarnate, that the very angels cannot enough exercise themselves in the contemplation of it.

ADAM CLARKE: The design of God, in the incarnation, was to manifest the hidden glories of His nature, and to reconcile men to each other and to Himself. The angels therefore declare that this incarnation shall manifest and promote the glory of God, not only in the highest heavens, among the highest orders of beings, but in the highest and most exalted degrees. For in this astonishing display of God’s mercy, attributes of the Divine nature which had not been and could not be known in any other way should be now exhibited in the fullness of their glory, that even the angels should have fresh objects to contemplate, and new glories to exult in. These things the angels desire to look into, and they desire it because they feel they are thus interested in it―the incarnation of Jesus Christ is an infinite and eternal benefit: heaven and earth both partake of the fruits of it, and through it angels and men become one family, Ephesians 3:15.

C. H. SPURGEON: Angels take an active interest in the gospel of our salvation. It is true that they are not interested in it for themselves. They have never sinned and, consequently, they need no atonement and no forgiveness―as far as the Gospel brings salvation, healing, pardon, justification and cleansing, angels do not need it. Never having been defiled, they need not to be washed. And being perfect in their obedience, they need not to be forgiven for any shortcomings. And yet they take a deep interest in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: You know, were it not for you and me, and those who are redeemed, the angels would know nothing about the grace of God. It is only where our salvation is concerned that the grace of God comes in, and the angels are astounded at it; they say, “What is this?  This is the most wonderful thing of all.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Angels know not what it is to be fallen; they have never fought with any temptations from within―they carry about with them no inbred sin―they have not to lament lascivious desires, or covetous cravings; they have no proud thoughts which must be cast down, no depressions of spirit, no taunts of unbelief, no motions of self-will; they serve God without a slur in their obedience; no thought of sin ever taints their soul; no syllable of evil ever falls from their holy lips; no thought of transgression defiles their service.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It’s such a marvel, it’s such a wondrous thing, that these created angelic spirits who have always spent eternity in the presence of God as it were, are looking at this thing which is most astonishing to them, surpassing everything else.

ADAM CLARKE: The victories of the cross in the conversion of sinners causes joy among the angels of God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): “I say unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,” Luke 15:10. Nothing can more powerfully imply or express the importance of conversion than this declaration of the Saviour, the faithful and true witness. However lightly or contemptuously conversion may be thought of among men, celestial beings, proverbial for their wisdom and incapable of mistake, always behold it with wonder and delight. With them, the improvement of art, the discoveries of philosophy, the exploits of heroes, the revolutions of empires, are comparatively nothing to the salvation of a soul.

MATTHEW HENRY: The conversion of sinners is the joy of angels, and they gladly become ministering spirits to them for their good, upon their conversion. The redemption of mankind was matter of joy in the presence of the angels, for they sung, “Glory to God in the highest.”

ADAM CLARKE: If then these things be objects of deep consideration to the angels of God, how much more so should they be to us; in them angels can have no such interest as human beings have.

 

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Eminent Examples of Meekness in Word & Deed

Posted on December 7, 2018 by The Editor

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Who are the meek?

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Let us set before our eyes the examples of some of the saints who have shined in this grace.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Look at Abraham, and you see a wonderful portrait of meekness―you remember his behaviour with respect to Lot, and how he allows the younger man to assert himself and take the first choice and does it without a murmur and without a complaint―that is meekness. See it again in Moses, who is actually described as the most meek man on the face of the earth, Numbers 12:3. Examine his character and you see the same thing, this lowly conception of himself, this readiness not to assert himself but rather to humble and to abase himself―that is meekness.

THOMAS WATSON: Moses was a man of unparalleled meekness.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): That is a precious testimony which the Holy Ghost gives of Moses.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When Joshua conceived that he was only shewing a commendable regard for the honour of Moses, he desired that Eldad and Medad, who were prophesying in the camp, should be silenced, Numbers 11:28. But Moses reproved him, saying, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets!”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is perfectly beautiful. Moses was far removed from that wretched spirit of envy which would let no one speak but himself. He was prepared, by grace, to rejoice in any and every manifestation of true spiritual power, no matter where or through whom.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): How was Moses so meek, when we often read of his anger?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): True meekness doth not exclude all anger, but only such as is unjust, or immoderate, or implacable. Moses was, and ought to be angry, where God was offended and dishonoured, as he was in Exodus 11:8; 16:20; 32:19; Leviticus 10:16; and Numbers 16:15.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Moses could be angry enough when there was cause.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a holy and spiritual anger―a righteous indignation―as well as a carnal and sinful one. Anger is one of the divine perfections, and when the Son of God became incarnate we read that on one occasion He “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” Mark 3:5.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When God’s honour was concerned, as in the case of the golden calf, no man was more zealous than Moses; but, when his own honour was touched, no man more meek: as bold as a lion in the cause of God, but as mild as a lamb in his own cause.

THOMAS WATSON: How many injuries did he put up with? When the people of Israel murmured against him, instead of falling into a rage, he falls to prayer for them, Exodus 15:24,25. The text says, they murmured at the waters of Marah. Sure the waters were not so bitter as the spirits of the people, but they could not provoke him to passion, but to petition. Another time when they wanted water, Exodus 17:3, they fell a chiding with Moses. “Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children with thirst?” As if they had said, ‘If we die we will lay our death to your charge.’ Would not this exasperate? Surely it would have required the meekness of an angel to bear this.

MATTHEW POOLE: The meekest men upon earth are provoked sometimes, yea, oftener than Moses was.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Take Jeremiah. He was called upon to speak the truth to the people—not the thing he wanted to do—while the other prophets were saying smooth and easy things. He was isolated―non-co-operative they would call him today—because he did not say what everybody else was saying. He felt it all bitterly. But he suffered it all and allowed the unkind things to be said about him behind his back, and went on delivering his message. It is a wonderful example of meekness…

Look at it in the case of Paul, that mighty man of God. Consider what he suffered at the hands of the different churches and at the hands of his own countrymen and various other people. As you read his letters you will see this quality of meekness coming out, especially as he writes to the members of the church at Corinth who had been saying such unkind and disparaging things about him.

THOMAS WATSON: Another eminent pattern of meekness was David. When Shimei cursed David, and Abishai, one of David’s lifeguards, would have beheaded Shimei. No, says king David, “Let him alone, and let him curse,” 2 Samuel 16:11. And when Saul had wronged and abused David and it was in David’s power to have taken Saul napping, and have killed him, yet he would not touch Saul, 1 Samuel 26:7,12

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Read the story of David again and you will see meekness exemplified in a most extraordinary manner.

THOMAS WATSON: When Saul lay at David’s mercy and David only cut off the skirt of his robe, how was Saul’s heart affected with David’s meekness? Saul lifted up his voice and wept, and he said to David, “Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil…wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou has done unto me this day.” This ‘heaping of coals’ melts and thaws the heart of others.

C. H. SPURGEON: In Puritan times, when an eminent godly minister named Edward Deering was sitting at a table, a graceless fellow insulted him by throwing a glass of beer in his face. The good man simply took his handkerchief, wiped his face and went on eating his dinner. The man provoked him a second time by doing the same thing—he even did it a third time with many oaths and blasphemy. Edward Deering made no reply, but simply wiped his face and, on the third occasion, the man came and fell at his feet and said that the spectacle of his Christian meekness, and the look of tender, pitying love that Deering had cast upon him, had quite subdued him. So the good man was the conqueror of the bad one! No Alexander was ever greater than the man who could bear such insults like that!

THOMAS WATSON: Meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy.

C. H. SPURGEON: It used to be said of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, “Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn, and he will be a friend to you as long as you live.” That was a noble spirit, to take the man who had been his enemy and to make him henceforth to be a friend. This is the way to imitate Him who prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Of course we must come to the supreme example, and look at our Lord Himself.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “Learn of me,” says Christ, “for I am lowly and meek,” Matthew 11:29.

THOMAS WATSON: Christ was the pattern of meekness. “When he was reviled, he reviled not again,” 1 Peter 2:23. His enemies’ words were more bitter than the gall they gave him, but Christ’s words were smoother than oil. He prayed and wept for His enemies.

 

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The Prayer Life of Married Life

Posted on November 30, 2018 by The Editor

1 Peter 3:1,7; Ephesians 5:33

Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands…Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-1667): Mutual respect is a duty of married life; for though especial respect is due from the wife, yet respect is due from the husband also.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Marriage necessitates certain mutual relations. I cannot say “duties,” for the word seems out of place on either side.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): They are united to be companions; to live together, to walk together, to talk together. They should be helpful to each other in the concerns of personal religion―where both spouses are real Christians, there should be the exercise of a constant reciprocal solicitude, watchfulness, and care, in reference to their spiritual and eternal welfare. One of the ends which every true believer should propose to himself, on entering the marriage state, is to secure one faithful friend, at least, who will be a helpmate for him in reference to the eternal world, assist him in the great business of his soul’s salvation, and that will pray for him and with him; one that will affectionately tell him of his sins and his defects, viewed in the light of a Christian; one that will stimulate and draw him by the power of a holy example, and the sweet force of persuasive words; one that will warn him in temptation, comfort him in dejection, and in every way assist him in his pilgrimage to the skies. The highest end of the marital state is lost, if it be not rendered helpful to our piety; and yet this end is too generally neglected, even by professors of religion.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That verse inculcates family worship, the husband and wife praying together. Further, it teaches that their treatment of one another will have a close bearing upon their joint supplications, for if domestic harmony does not rule—what unity of spirit can there be when they come together before the Throne of Grace?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): If a man doesn’t treat his wife right he needn’t pray. It is all a farce, you know. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God; but the prayer of the upright is His delight,” Proverbs 15:8. If sacrifice is an abomination to God do you tell me that the prayers of a man or woman who is not living right is not an abomination to God?

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Jarring will make them leave praying, or praying leave jarring.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): All married people should take care to behave themselves so lovingly and peaceably one to another that they may not by their broils hinder the success of their prayers.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What a test this is! When husband and wife can kneel and pray together with joy and confidence, the home will be what God desires; but there is something radically wrong when their actions hinder this communion with each other and the Lord.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: We should all enter the married state, remembering that we are about to be united to a sinful person―and it is not two angels that have met together, but two sinful people, from whom must be expected much weakness and selfishness. We must expect some imperfection in our spouse. Remembering that we ourselves have no small share of sinfulness, which calls for the forbearance of the other party, we should exercise the patience that we ask from them. Where both have infirmities, and they are so constantly together, innumerable occasions will be furbished, if we are eager or even willing to avail ourselves of the opportunities for those contentions, which, if they do not produce a permanent suppression of love, lead to its temporary interruption. Many things we should overlook, others we should pass by with an unprovoked mind, and in all things most carefully avoid even what at first may seem to be an innocent disputation. Love does not forbid, but actually demands that we should mutually point out the faults of our spouses; but this should be done in all the meekness of wisdom united with all the tenderness of love, lest we only increase the evil we intend to remove, or substitute a greater one in its place.

JEREMY TAYLOR: Let man and wife be careful to stifle little irritations—that as fast as they spring, they be cut down and trod upon; for if they be allowed to grow by numbers, they make the spirit peevish, and the relationship troublesome, and the affections loose and uneasy, by all habitual annoyance. Some men are more vexed with a fly than with a wound; and when the gnats disturb our sleep, and the reason is disturbed, but not perfectly awakened, it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble than if in the daylight of his reason he were to contest with a potent enemy. In the frequent little incidents of a family, a man’s reason cannot always be awake; and when his discourses are imperfect, and a trifling trouble makes him yet more restless, he is soon betrayed to the violence of passion. It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weakness and folly then, when they can be troubled with a trifling accident; and therefore it is not good to vex them when they are in that state of danger. In this case, the caution is, to subtract fuel from the sudden flame; for stubble though it be quickly kindled, yet it is as soon extinguished, if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath, or fed with new materials. Add no new provocations to the incident, and do not inflame this, and peace will soon return, and the discontent will pass away soon, as the sparks from the collision of a flint—ever remembering that discontents proceeding from daily little things, do breed a secret indiscernible disease, which is more dangerous than a fever proceeding from a discerned notorious malady.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): All sin hinders prayer; particularly anger. Anything at which we are angry is never more apt to come into our mind than when we are at prayer; and those who do not forgive will find no forgiveness from God.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): God cannot be rightly called upon, unless our minds be calm and peaceable. Among strifes and contentions there is no place for prayer. Peter indeed addresses the husband and the wife, when he bids them to be at peace one with another, so that they might with one mind pray to God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): How necessary is prayer in the marriage state.

JOHN TRAPP: Praying together, apart from others, being taken up by married couples, will much increase and spiritualize their affection one to another.

C. H. SPURGEON: Marriage is cemented by mutual love.

WILLIAM JAY: Go hand in hand into His presence: Agree, touching the things you shall ask, and it shall be done for you of our heavenly Father.

 

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Lessons From the Life of Lot Part 7: Lot’s Final Legacy

Posted on November 23, 2018 by The Editor

Genesis 19:29, 17-26, 30-32, 36

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt…And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.

And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt…

And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father…Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Lot’s shameful and scandalous fall. Lord, What is man! Drunk and incestuous, and thus repeatedly too.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): I have sometimes wondered at Lot. His wife looked behind her, and died immediately; but he would not so much as look behind him to see her. We do not read that he did so much as once look where she was, or what was become of her.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Whoever would have concluded that Lot was a “righteous man” had not the New Testament told us so!

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Lot, when commanded to take himself to the mountain, chose rather to dwell in Zoar.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): And how fares he at Zoar?

THOMAS COKE: He is scarcely arrived there, before he thinks himself not in sufficient safety.

JOHN CALVIN: After this habitation was granted to him, according to his own wish, he soon repents and is sorry for he trembles at the thought that destruction is every moment hastening on a place so near to Sodom, in which perhaps the same impiety and wickedness was reigning.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): From this time we hear nothing of him except his drunkenness and incest; and, if Peter had not given us reason to believe that he became truly penitent, 2 Peter 2:6-8, we should have had ground to apprehend that he was, after all, an outcast from heaven.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): One would wonder how the fire of lust could possibly kindle upon those who had so lately been the eye-witnesses of Sodom’s flames.

JOHN CALVIN: It is no new thing for the sins of the fathers to be cast into the bosom of the children.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Lot offended against both their chastities in offering them up to the Sodomites, Genesis 19:8: and they both now conspire against his chastity.

WILLIAM GURNALL: Do not his own daughters bring a spark of Sodom’s fire into his own bed, whereby he is inflamed with lust?

JOHN CALVIN: It was only through the wonderful kindness of God, that Lot did not receive either immediate, or very severe punishment [for wanting to go to Zoar]. For the Lord, by pardoning him at that time, caused him finally to become judge of his own sin. For he was neither expelled from Zoar by force nor by the hand of man; but a blind anxiety of mind drove him and hurried him into a cavern, because he had followed the lust of his flesh rather than the command of God. And thus in chastising the faithful, God mitigates their punishments so as to render it their best medicine. For if he were to deal strictly with their folly they would fall down in utter confusion. He therefore gives them space for repentance that they may willingly acknowledge their fault.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Lot removes to the mountain.

JOHN TRAPP: So he should have done at first; and so he had obeyed God, saved his wife, and prevented that sin of incest with his daughters…Say not of this, as Lot did of Zoar, Is it not a little one? The smallness of a sin taketh not away the depravity of it: and a less maketh way for a greater, as wedges do in wood cleaving.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Little did Lot consider that his haste to be rich was the highroad to poverty. But step by step he “entered into temptation.” Every worldly prospect was blasted; and he ends his days, a poor, forlorn, degraded tenant of the desolate cave of Zoar.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Now, just take an inventory of what that man lost. He lost twenty years of time. We do not find that he did any good down there at all; he did not get one inhabitant out of the doomed city…He lost all his property; everything he gained in Sodom—he lost it all; he lost all his family, but his two daughters, and they were so stained by the sins of Sodom that they soon fell into an awful sin; and the last thing we see of Lot is on the mountain side, where he has fallen into that sin and become the father of the Moabites and the Ammonites that ever afterwards were the enemies of God and His people. What a dark picture it is, the end of a poor backslider; the end of a man that went to Sodom and lived for Sodom.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Nor is this all; but at the last, when the fiery rain bursts on the doomed city, Lot has to leave all the wealth for which he has sacrificed conscience and peace, and escapes with bare life; he suffers loss even if he himself is ‘saved as dragged through the fire.’

D. L. MOODY: Lot was one of those characters who are easily influenced―and I think, perhaps, that is just the key to his character…So long as he stayed with Abraham he got on very well. His mistake was in leaving him. Some men all through life have to be bolstered up by others. When they are at home, home has an influence over them; or while they are among their relatives or friends they stand well, but when they are away, and trial and temptation come, and the world comes in like a flood upon them, they are carried away.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Abraham was a man of very different metal.

A. W. PINK: In almost every respect Lot compares unfavourably with Abraham. Abraham walked by faith, Lot by sight. Abraham was generous and magnanimous; Lot greedy and worldly. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God; Lot made his home in a city that was built by man and destroyed by God. Abraham was the father of all who believe; Lot was father of those whose name is a perpetual infamy. Abraham was made “heir of the world,” Romans 4:3; while the curtain falls upon Lot with all his possessions destroyed in Sodom, and himself dwelling in a cave…Lot is a concrete warning, a danger signal, for all Christians who feel a tendency to be carried away by the things of the world.

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): God will wean us from the earth some way―the easy way if possible, the hard way if necessary.

 

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A Thanksgiving Feast of Blessings & Praise

Posted on November 16, 2018 by The Editor

Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others, so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This psalm is perhaps the most perfect song of pure praise to be found in the Bible.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  God is not deficient on His part in furnishing us with abundant matter for praising Him. It is our own ingratitude which hinders us from engaging in this exercise…How is it that we are so listless and drowsy in the performance of this the chief exercise of true religion, if it is not because our shameful and wicked forgetfulness buries in our hearts the innumerable benefits of God?

C. H. SPURGEON: Alas! that forgetfulness of God’s benefits is an evil kind of worm that eats into the very heart of our praise. Oh, for a retentive memory concerning the lovingkindness of the Lord!―Come, my heart, wake up, awake every faculty, but especially my memory: “Forget not all His benefits.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If we do not give thanks for them, we do forget them; and that is unjust as well as unkind.

JOHN CALVIN: Doubtless our slothfulness in this matter has need of continual incitement.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is a favourite opinion of some divines, that we are bound to love God for His own perfections, without having any respect to the benefits which we receive from Him. But this appears to us to be an unscriptural refinement. That God deserves all possible love from His creatures on account of His own perfections, can admit of no doubt―but that any creature can place himself in the situation of a being who has no obligations to God for past mercies, and no expectation of future blessings from Him, we very much doubt: nor are we aware that God any where requires us so to divest ourselves of all the feelings of humanity, for the sake of engaging more entirely in the contemplation of His perfections. Nor indeed can we consent to the idea that gratitude is so low a virtue. On the contrary, it seems to be the principle that animates all the hosts of the redeemed in heaven; who are incessantly occupied in singing praises to Him who loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood. By this also all the most eminent saints on earth have been distinguished. In proof of this, we need go no further than to the psalm before us, wherein the man after God’s own heart adores and magnifies his Benefactor, for some particular mercies recently vouchsafed unto him.

MATTHEW HENRY: David is here communing with his own heart, and he is no fool that thus talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good. Observe, how he stirs up himself to the duty of praise—and that which is very affecting: “Come, my soul, consider what God has done for thee.”

CHARLES SIMEON: To enumerate all the benefits we have received from God, would be impossible…We would call you then to consider, the freeness and undeservedness of them, and their constancy and continuance. See how triumphantly the Psalmist dwells on this—Note: “Forgiveth, healeth, redeemeth, crowneth, satisfieth.”

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): What an enumeration of divine blessings this is! Any one of them is worth more than all earth’s treasures combined.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Be thankful for the great things which He has already done for you.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Learn, then, by this the way of stirring up your hearts to thankfulness to God. Take a view of all his benefits to you in Christ, labour to see your interest in them, and then consider that all this God hath ordained not for my salvation only, but for the praise of His glory. All this, if thoroughly apprehended by a fresh view of faith, will at any time move a good heart to give thanks to God.

ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): How often have saints in Scotland sung this Psalm in days when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper! It is thereby specially known in our land. It is connected also with a remarkable case in the days of John Knox. Elizabeth Adamson, a woman who attended on his preaching, “because he more fully opened the fountain of God’s mercies than others did,” was led to Christ and to rest, on hearing this Psalm―she asked for this Psalm again before she died: “It was in receiving it that my troubled soul first tasted God’s mercy, which is now sweeter to me than if all the kingdoms of the earth were given me to possess.”

CHARLES SIMEON: And let us compare our experience with the Psalmist’s. Has not God made us also the objects of His providential care, by day and by night, from the earliest period of our existence to this present moment? Has He not also renewed to us every day and hour the blessings of His grace, “watering us as His garden,” and “encompassing us with His favour as with a shield?” Surely we may say that “goodness and mercy have followed us all our days;” there has not been one single moment when our Divine keeper has ever slumbered or slept; He has kept us, “even as the apple of His eye;” “lest any should hurt us, He has kept us day and night.” Say now, what are the feelings which such mercies should generate in our souls; and what are the returns which we ought to make to our heavenly Benefactor?

C. H. SPURGEON: He has been blessing thee; now begin thou to bless Him.

 

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In Remembrance of Oliver Cromwell

Posted on November 9, 2018 by The Editor

Psalm 68:1

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You remember the story of Oliver Cromwell and his men at the Battle of Dunbar [during the English Civil War]―when before the battle they all of them knelt on the heather, and asked the Lord their God to be with them. And then springing up they chanted this old Psalm: “Let God arise and scattered let all His enemies be,

And let all those that Him do hate before His presence flee.

As the smoke is driven, so drive Thou them. As fire melts wax away,

Before God’s face let wicked men, so perish and decay.”

WILLIAM TAYLOR (1821-1902): Cromwell’s Ironsides were sneeringly called Psalm-singers; but God’s Psalm-singers are always Ironsides.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): When they became famous for piety, they became famous for bravery. Yes, there is an inseparable connection between the two things―he who truly fears God, fears not man. It is written, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion,” Proverbs 28:1.

OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658): It may be thought that some praises are due to those gallant men, of whose valour so much mention is made—their humble suit to you and all that have an interest in this blessing, is, that in the remembrance of God’s praises, they be forgotten. It’s their joy that they are instruments of God’s glory, and their country’s good.

A. W. PINK: After the battle at Naseby, in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Oliver Cromwell wrote, “Sir, this is none other than the hand of God, and to Him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with Him.”

OLIVER CROMWELL: Sir, they that have been employed in this service know that faith and prayer obtained this—I do not say ours only, but of the people of God all England over, who have wrestled with God for a blessing…Our desires are that God may be glorified by the same spirit of faith by which we ask all our sufficiency, and have received it. It is meet that He have all the praise. Presbyterians, Independents, all have here the same spirit of faith and prayer; the same presence and answer; they agree here, and have no names of difference: pity it is it should be otherwise anywhere! All that believe have the real unity, which is most glorious―because [it is] inward, and spiritual, in the Body and to the Head.*

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): These are remarkable words. Glory to God in heaven―union among the children of God upon earth―such are Cromwell’s two grand thoughts…It is from this moral point of view that we must study Cromwell; this was his ruling principle; and this alone explains his whole life.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Many fail to realize what the situation was in this country at that time.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: The fearful commotions and sanguinary conflicts which shook the British isles in the middle of the seventeenth century, were in the main a direct struggle against Popery…

Cromwell was forty-two years old, and the father of six children. He was living quietly, like many other good citizens and loyal subjects…Every day these men were disturbed in their homes at London, or in their more tranquil rural retreats, by reports of the massacre of the Protestants in Ireland, of King Charles’ connivance at it, of his insincerity and falsehood, of the punishments already inflicted on many of their brethren, of the acknowledged Popery of the Queen, of the semi-Romanism of the King, of the persecutions in Scotland, the daily banishment of the best Christians in the kingdom, and by other signs and events no less alarming. When everything seemed to announce that the Protestants of England would ere long be either trampled down by Popery or massacred by the sword, these serious men arose, and called upon the King, through the House of Commons, not to deceive the expectations of his subjects. But when they found that prince, deaf to their prayers, raising troops to overawe Parliament, and already victorious in several encounters, they resolved in a spirit of devotedness, to save with God’s assistance their country and their faith.

C. H. SPURGEON: Oliver Cromwell was a real hiding place and cover to this land in the days when the crowned king was unworthy to rule. In him, God raised up a man who risked everything in defense of the liberties which we still enjoy.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: On the 7th of February, 1642, Cromwell contributed £300, a large sum for his small means, towards the salvation of Protestantism and of England. He then joined the parliamentary army with his two sons, respectively twenty and sixteen years of age; and shortly after raised two companies of volunteers at Cambridge…For the space of seventeen years, from this day until that of his death, all his thoughts, however well or ill conceived, were for Protestantism, and for the liberty of his fellow citizens.

C. H. SPURGEON: Family religion was the strength of Protestantism at first. It was the glory of Puritanism and Non-Conformity. In the days of Cromwell it is said that you might have walked down Cheapside at a certain hour in the morning, and you would have heard the morning hymns going up from every house along the street. And at night, if you had glanced inside each home, you would have seen the whole household gathered, the big Bible opened and family devotion offered…What made brave Oliver Cromwell, in the days gone by, so terrible an enemy to all who loved not liberty and right? It was his faith!

NEWMAN HALL (1816-1902): Faith in Christ—Christ crucified, the only foundation of the sinner’s hope, the only secret of the believers’ life and joy. “Here,” as old Oliver Cromwell says in one of his letters, “here rest I would, and here only.”

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: All who were about him bore testimony to his piety―every day of his life he retired to read the Scriptures and to pray.

C. H. SPURGEON: I was reading, yesterday, the dying prayer of Oliver Cromwell and one sentence in that man of God’s last breath pleased me exceedingly. It was to this effect, I think. I have copied out the words―“Teach those who look too much on Thine instruments to depend more upon Thyself.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The great period during Cromwell’s Protectorate from 1649-60 was one of the most amazing epochs in the whole history of this country. To me it was certainly one of the most glorious―it was a time of great religious liberty. Thank God for Oliver Cromwell!―perhaps the most honest man in the 17th century, a man who strove to be true to his conscience above all others that I know of in political history.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: In studying the life of Cromwell, the reader will undoubtedly have frequent reason to bear in mind the saying of holy Scripture, “In many things we offend all,” James 3:2. He interfered violently in public affairs, and disturbed the constitutional order of the state. This was his fault—a fault that saved his country.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is related of Oliver Cromwell that when his portrait was about to be painted by an eminent artist, the painter desired to conceal the wart upon the Protector’s face, but the true hero said, “Paint me just as I am, wart and all.”

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*Editor’s Note: Oliver Cromwell’s remarks concerning unity in the Body and to the Head, refers to true believers as being the “Body of Christ,” and being united by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ as the “Head” of that body.

 

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