Seasons of Comfort Volume 1
"Bearing reproach without the camp." - The type in the law. - The excommunicated and despised believers in Israel. - A modern parallel. - Separation from the names and denominations. - The reasons. -The true pillar and ground of the truth. - The truth a unity composed of many elements. - The necessity for each element having its place. - The popular system. - The truth reversed in many particulars. - The Trinity. - Immortal soulism. - Hell torments. - Substitutionary atonement heaven gaining. - The partial holding of the truth. - False cry of charity. - Holding the truth in unrighteousness. - Making our calling and election sure. - Dangerous extremes. - The barred gate of the kingdom.
Refreshment for the travellers. - The lxxii. Psalm. - A twofold significance. - Solomon and Christ. - Duality in Divine scheme throughout. - Abel's offering and the Lamb of God. - First and second covenants. - The first restoration of Israel and the second. - Moses and Christ. - Allegory in first events of Israel's history. - Christ in the lxxii. Psalm. - Prospects for the poor. - Mortal rule inefficient. - The reign of Christ infallible. - Christ's immortal and infallible assistants. - The perfection of the Kingdom of God. - The preparation of saints. - The explanation of delay. - Christ's present superintendence of his house. - Suffering no proof of neglect. - The good effects of regulated trouble.- Joy ahead. - Glorious multitude made perfect through suffering. - The final song. - Wait.
Two sides to the Divine character.- The Severe side.- Condemnation of sin in the House of God.- The two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets.- Religious exercises odious without these.- Obedience without the right intention.- A technical submission to the Gospel not enough.- Lacking the two commandments it is vain.- Israel's case our example.- Destructive effect of a Calvinistic theoloqy.- Apostolic application of Israel's case.- The prophets a large source of practical quidance.- Salt without savour.- A faint desire to be saved.- The well-salted state.- No mistaking the example of Christ.- His relation to the world.- His case our standard.- The certain end.
Paul's letters models.- Purity before peace.- The comfort of saintship in Christ.- The command to be kind to the unthankful.- Disobeyed on specious pretexts.- Pleasant duties and the reverse.- The unpleasant duties must be borne.- Evil times the saint's opportunity.- Christ alone in the midst of company.- Submission to evil not a finality.- Probationary merely.- The comforting results alterwards.- The crown after the cross.- Meanwhile the cross to be borne.- Young Dorcases.- Intellectual disciples.- Many ways of bearing the cross.
Paul's desire that believers might be comforted.- The nature of the comfort.- The coming goodness.- Present fellowship.- Few with whom it can be enjoyed.- Love an element of comfort.- Faith and hope abortive without it.- The "love" of popular talk not the love of apostolic discourse.- Its basis, identity of the enthusiastic convictions in the truth.- The knowledge of the truth and general intelligence not the same.- The mystery of godliness.- Its recognition a SINE QUA NON of full assurance of understanding.- The natural man's view of Christ.- The apostolic warning against philosophy and Judaism.- The "enticing" nature of the lie propounded by both systems.- Christ the focalisation of the Divine purpose towards man.- No hope in any other direction.- In Christ, all power.- The end of the philosophy and the Judaizers.- The wise and their choice.- Christ cannot be put too high.
Wisdom of the breaking of bread.- The memory of Christ.- The only agreeable memory, Christ very high.- A Captain.- Selects his brethren. -They do not select him.- Highest loyalty required.- The favours Christ has for bestowal.- The called.- First a preliminary and indiscriminate calling.- The calling to be made sure by diligence.- The sort of diligence wanted.- The danger of being sucked in by the world's maelstrom.- Self serving right in its place, but must be subject to Divine law.- Self-service only leads to ruin.- Dangers.- The harvest of a wise life.- Glory, honour, and immortality.- The contrast between the end of saint and sinner.- The beauty of wisdom.- Wise things disagreeable for a time.- But see them at their end.- The honour of waiting the approved of God.- Human insects.- Everlasting glory.
Constuction of the Bible.- Its diversified character.- Noture and the Bible both having the stamp of Divinity.- Character of God His goodness.- What might have been.- Heaven and earth bear witness to the Divine beneficence.- His promises.- Praise.- Ninevah, Jonah.- An artless narrative.- Mosaic tabernacle a symbol of friendship.- The Ninevites forgiven without sacrifice.- Forgiveness unto eternal life requires sacrifice.- Why? no substitution.- Kindness and forgiveness in harmony with righteousness. The requirement of sacrifice not inconsistent with goodness.- The only thing that can separate from God's goodness.
The word written for our learning.- Daily reading of it a necessity.- The necessary motive, the fear of God.- The state of mind that will lead to the study of the Bible.- A re-action.- Another view.- The Bible God's representative.- A man's treatment of the Bible, his treatment of God.- Coming consequences.- God great.- The lessons of the law.- Treat His word with attention.- Difficulties and their overcoming.
A time of indefinite waiting.- Effects of delay. No delay in the true sense.- Delay of expectation only.- The Lord's time fixed, but only its whereabouts revealed.- The time of the end already come, but not the end yet.- Some of the advantages of delay.- The way to use it and make it pass lightsomely.- Acquaintance with God's plans.- Patience the result of wisdom.- The difference knowledge makes to our views of things.- Right view of the present.- Present experience one of endurance.- Apparent indifference of God.- Impressions of Jeremiah, Malachi, and David on the subject.- Desolateness of the children of God.- The coming dawn of gladness.- God's encouragement to those who fear Him.- The comfort Christ has given them.- The signs of the Lord's nearness.- Patience for a little longer.
Apostolic recommendations.- Uncarefulness in temporal matters.- Master and servant.- Truth generates indifference to social position.- The slave free in Christ.- Coming emancipation.- The ennobled sons of suffering.- Resurrection-glory.- The lowest place in the house of greatness.- The durability of earthly glory an untrue, story.- The scythe-bearer's visits universal.- The time when the world stops.- The reality of the bubble.- A poor man's service.- The rich man Christ's servant.- Different ways of sowing to the flesh.- Rich and poor the Lord's.- People who think a faithful life "extreme."- Who are they?- Martha and Mary.- The carefulness.- Everything in its own place.- The provisional and eternal.- Widened friendship.
Contracted views of the present. - The right view. - Part of a mighty programme. - Walking worthy of it. - Those who do, and those who do not. - The chosen and the rejected. - The principle on which they are so. - Touching the root of the matter. - Remembrance. - The things to be remembered. - High and mighty matters branching in all directions. - Negligence of the table and the word. - Evil consequences. - The brain as a book of blank pages. - The different things written therein, and how. - The table a potent agent of spiritual good. - Keeping in memory. - The danger of failing to do so. - Things easy to remember, and things difficult. - The necessity for effort. - The successful result, even now, of surpassing interest. - Self-controlled and isolated, though not indifferent, spectators of the beautiful perishing world. - Successful business. - Honourable politics. - The comment of a saint on the whole picture. - The established clergy. - The saints' speech to them. - True consolation yet purchased by submission to the Cross.
The end foreshown in Nebuchadnezzar's vision. - The days of the clay and iron feet. - The fulfilment of the vision during past ages without human assistance. - Our non-existence during the progress of the vision. - Yet our turn at last. - The importance of our part. - The Lord's arrival. - The standard of our position then. - The kingdom of heaven. - The principles of the kingdom in the saints beforehand. - The wisdom of the present world manifested as folly when the kingdom of God arrives. - The right course to pursue now. - The principles of the kingdom of heaven. - Individual sense of insignificance. - The fear of the Lord. - Broken and contrite in heart. - The case of Job. - Human doctrines in the contrary direction. - The undivine nature of present sociey. - The man after God's own heart. - His example on the subject of prayer. - Love and fear nourish prayer. - Christ's brethren men of prayer. - Self-examination. - Shortcomings and forgiveness. - Christ's compassion on the people. - Our example. - Mercy an attribute of God and all His children. - Saying and doing. - Loving in deed and in truth. - Present dangers. - The thing to aim at.
The beautiful anticipations of the natural man in vain. - Revels of the imagination. - In the state of nature, no hope, no comfort. - Aliens from God. - The great works of God not the property of sinners. - Our unutterable orphanage in Adam. - The joyful significance of the Lord's table. - Called to be sons of God and heirs. - The Father comes nigh in Christ. - Unmeasured blessedness. - Dim eyes. - Believing in Christ and waiting for his appearing. - Our former darkness. - The glorious light. - Yet mourning as strangers and pilgrims. - Sight all against us. - Faith still has strong foundations. - What they are. - Watching for the daybreak. - The age of woe. - Need for patience. - Comfort in the dark. - Yet agonizing for the day of righteousness. - Yearning even unto death for the glory to be revealed. - Pining in the wilderness. - Longing for God. - Waiting for the Lord.
Paul's work at Ephesus. - Its widespread power and effect. - The cause of this. - His influence with the Gentiles in miraculous works. - Formation of a large ecclesia. - Timothy among them. - Paul's departure and subsequent letter to Timothy. - His object in writing. - The activity of hurtful questions. - The nature of edification. - Hindrances to it. - The modern need for exercising the apostolic precaution. - "Points" and "questions." - Those in Paul's day. - A change in the "questions" with the progress of time. - Matters that may be casually conversed about but not made the topic of serious debate. - The truth perfectly plain, and glorious as the sun. - Burrowing in the caverns. - The practical purposes of the law and Gospel. - "Sound doctrine." - Comprehension of these. - Turning from "dead works" frustrated by the discussion of abstractions. - Glib bastards. - The result of Timothy's work in Ephesus. - The Lord's subsequent commendation of the ecclesia. - The lesson as to pretenders. - As to "first love" and "first works." - The one synonymous with the other in Scripture language. - Our dangers and their remedy.
Different sorts of love. - The "love" spoken of by John. - Its foundation. - Love bounded by the truth. - The love that belongs to the household of faith. - Its alleged narrowness a libel. - The true breadth and true wisdom of scripturally restricted love. - Danger of love outside the truth. - Walking in the truth. Professors and sons. - The latter unknown, but not dreaming. - Love and obedience scripturally synonymous. - Possibility of losing what has been gained. - To "have not God," a strange saying explained. - God to be had only in Christ and that the true Christ, not an invented one. - The possibility of believing in Jesus of Nazareth and yet holding "another Jesus." - The common origin of heresy about Christ. - Different doctrines and speculations. - Immaculateness. - The true doctrine of God manifest in seed of David. - The command to receive not those who teach error. - A barrier to fellowship. - A painful situation, but a prospect of blessing.
The waiting position to which the Gospel calls us. - An apparently right but wrong conclusion. - Our present relation to the powers that be. - Passive strangers preparing for futurity. - No power but of God. - God rules in the kingdom of men. - The future kingdom. - Heirs thereof nothing to do with State questions. - Yet they owe their respect to State authorities. - The Quakers wrong. - The present governments serve a good purpose. - Duty of disciples to submit. - Pay all dues, even church rates. - Saints not responsible for the State's use of the money. - Duty of brethren not to get into debt. - Wrong to borrow thoughtlessly. - The Lord at hand. - A beautiful traffic.
Apostolic circumstances no parallel in modern experience. - Gifts of the Spirit. - Sectaries in the first ecclesias. - Division and the gifts of the Spirit. - Paul written to. - 1 Cor. answers to questions. - Calling Jesus accursed. - How a man having the Spirit could call him accursed. - Inspiration not common to men. - No man calling Jesus Lord but by the Spirit. - Christ's Messiahship not to be known apart from the Spirit. - The apostolic testimony, the testimony of the Spirit. - This fact wrenched from its meaning in modern times. - Philosophy and theology both dangerous. - The unity of the Spirit though diversity of operation. - The same fact in Nature. - The co-relation of force. - The body of Christ a future development, though now germinally existent. - Mere fragments at present. - Unsightly in most cases. - Perfection of symmetry and sympathy in the future.
The present objects of the truth. -- Holiness. -- What is it ? -- Moral philosophy artificial. -- Obedience to commandment the only rule of righteousness. -- Worship required of saints. -- Nature of true worship. -- Christ's coming, near to every one. -- No gap in death. -- The Lord at the end of every man's journey. -- A comforting and purifying thought. -- The new position of a man who obeys the truth. -- The great anxiety when Christ comes. -- The rule of judgment. -- The way to learn it. -- Mere polemics dangerous. -- Saints ought morally to be the kingdom of God in miniature.
The grace of God. -- Popular theology VERSUS apostolic "grace." -- Israel's history illustrative of the latter. -- Receiving the grace of God in vain. - Unfruitfulness of character. -- The parable of the barren fig tree. -- The double objects of the gospel. -- Not merely that men may be saved, but that the Father may find pleasure in our love. -- The fruit of the Spirit. -- A Spirit-induced state of mind finds expression in action. -- Unfruitfulness and coming consequences. -- The law of fruitfulness. -- Soil and culture. -- Reading, prayer and assembling. -- Growth slow but sure.
The coming of the Lord as a thief. -- The peace and safety cry. -- No peace to the wicked. -- War appointed for the world in its present state. -- The day of the Lord. -- Its coming to the saints not as a thief. -- Children of light and the day, but not all. -- Lukewarmness. -- Danger of self-congratulation. -- Christadelphian boastfulness rank abomination. -- Wretched and miserable without knowing it. -- Strange but possible state. -- Christ's prescribed remedy. -- The Spirit's invitation. -- The origin of faith. -- Hearing, and in our day, reading. -- Reading must be regular and diligent. -- The night and the coming day. -- The children of the day must not sleep. -- What sleep is. -- What will keep us awake. -- What cannot keep us awake. -- Wisdom of daily reading the Word. -- Its neglect practical insanity. -- The struggle of life. -- Apart from the truth. -- Vanity.
Need for the weekly breaking of bread. -- No light within. -- When put in it must be fed continually. -- Present impressions misleading. -- Wisdom utters a disagreeable "Don't." -- Natural man prefers no restraint. -- Bible neglected. - Pleasures of the present world. -- Nemesis of the Word. -- That which is wise to be done. -- That which is written. -- The world a passing but deceptive affair. -- Feeling contrary to knowledge. -- A dangerous spiritual glamour. - The devil of experience. -- The way he is to be combated. -- The philosophy of spiritual strength. -- Heavy weights sinking a man elegantly to perdition. -- One thing needful. -- Several "musts." -- Evanescence of the present life. -- The lessons of history. -- Life's rugged hill, the vain toil and quiet grave. -- The prayers of the righteous and their answer.
Christ as a sufferer. -- A material part of his sufferings mental. -- The cause of them in the godless state of men. -- An affectionate believer sure to have similar experience. -- A more difficult martyrdom than the faggot. - Martyrdom and penances vain. -- God pleased only with loving obedience. -- The age of true martyrdom not passed away. -- Two kinds of deprivation. -- Self- denial and faith. -- The honour of pleasing God. -- Hope with fear. -- The necessity of earnest heed. -- The power of the fear of God. -- The fit and the unfit for the kingdom of God. -- The reasonableness of the divine principle of retribution. -- Picture of a cemetery. -- The resurrection. -- After that, God's business. -- Who fit for it. -- Those who have sought first the kingdom. - Misplaced moderation. -- Unheeded exhortation. -- The right course. -- The last speech. -- The glorious day coming. -- Its foundation.
There is a unity in mission: God spoke to the Prophets and Christ with the same message - obedience, to the same people - Israel; The Prophets foretold, The Christ fulfilled; Gentiles permitted entrance to salvation through the rejection by Israel of God’s promised blessings; Gentiles fellow citizens with the faithful of the Old Testament (the Abrahamic olive tree); In the midst of sorrow, we are to rejoice in this Hope; Be not high-minded, another class boasts and in peril of being cut off; The New Man, the good fruits (works) of the branches of the Christ-tree; The Old Man, fleshly ways and love of world will condemn; Renewing of the minds = the Word abiding in us; God glorified, His Name magnified, extolled by the faithful Jews and Gentiles; He turns from those of disobedience.
Nothing in Nature to remind us of Christ. -- Christ to be found only in the testimony, and brought home to us in the breaking of bread. -- The naturalist an admirer, but not a son. -- The sons of God will be for ever. -- The danger of mere rationalism. -- All education a fight against it. -- The only complete education. -- The mind of the Spirit. -- Minding the things of the Spirit. - Human forgetfulness, especially in divine matters. -- Bible reading a necessity.- - Otherwise we drift with the current. -- No fear of spiritual extremes. - These self-corrective, while the natural man's extremes are not so. -- Natural extremes become more extreme. -- A carnal and a useless life. -- The only valuable, possession in view of Christ's coming. -- A prudent and pleasant investment. -- False maxims. -- The standard of the word. -- The breaking of bread. -- Its necessiy. -- The blessing we lose if we neglect it. -- A joyful sitting down in the kingdom of God.
The parable of the marriage of the king's son. -- The interpretation. -- God's purpose to make a feast. -- The invited guests. -- The Jew first. -- Then the Gentile. -- The Party of the highways and hedges. -- Etiquette of the feast. - The wedding garment. -- Individual righteousness. -- Christ's righteousness alone insufficient. -- It will justify a sinner but not ensure a saint's acceptance at the last. -- The wedding garment not baptism. -- Persevering well-doing the basis of acceptance. -- Baptism only the first act. -- The Spirit's wares. -- The Divine merchant. -- A beginning of goodness now. -- But who shall declare the end?. -- The marriage supper of the Lamb.
The salt of the earth. -- Savourless salt. -- The people who answer to one and the other. -- The salting process. -- The light of the world. -- Lit candles. - Keeping the light under a bushel. -- Various kinds of bushels. -- The business bushel. -- The house bushel. -- The shining of the light. -- Christ the example. - The real source of spiritual weakness. -- The neglect and the study of the word. - - The effect of the one course and the other. -- Christ in the day of his suffering. -- The comfort we draw from the contemplation of it. -- Failure and final victory. -- Fellowshipping Christ now, and the joyful end.
Reproof. -- Apostolic warnings. -- Our dangers. -- A form of godliness. -- Seed and soil. -- Fructification a question of conditions. -- Failure. -- Demas. -- The pleasures of the world. -- Temptations of the young. -- Reasons for avoiding the pursuit of pleasure. -- Christ and his brethren not of the world. -- Reasons for this.-- Not an overdrawn picture. -- God rejected. -- His purpose to bring about a change. - Preparing the instruments in the developing of the saints. -- Their present position. -- Their coming joy.
The work of the apostles in the first century. -- The position of believers then. -- The same now in essence. -- The signs of the times a mere accessory. -- Mere prophetic politicianism an abomination. -- True discipleship independent of signs though interested in them. -- The characteristics of this discipleship. - No sensationalism or politic-mongering. -- The joys and contemplations of the Spirit. -- The right place for the "signs." -- Popular conceptions of welldoing misleading. -- God's requirements the only standard. -- Scriptural principles never recognized. -- The only safe rule, yet a peculiar danger, in its application. -- Making void the commandments by nullifying interpretations. -- Sophistries of the enlightened traditionists. -- Illustrations. -- Resist not evil. -- Relieve the distressed. -- Stand apart from the world. -- Apologists for disobedience. -- The test of obedience. -- Its object in probation. -- The time short. -- The end glorious.
Paul's exhortation to walk "worthy of God." -- "Harping" on the subject. -- The matter in the nineteenth century. -- Our moral relation to God and the world.- Things to be "constantly affirmed," and things not to be. -- What it is to walk worthy of God. -- Dangerous sophistries on the subject. -- Two schools. -- Men and God. -- The flesh and the Spirit. -- What the Spirit has to say on the subject. -- Taking up the cross. -- The voice of the Shepherd. -- The spirit of Chnst. -- What it is in contrast to the spirit of the world. -- The heart in the right place. -- Principles unchanged in the nineteenth century. -- Christ's coming to destroy the world. -- The position of his brethren meanwhile. -- The sort of men Christ wants. -- Our dangers. -- Urgent words, but kind. -- The judgment of God impending. -- Men barbarous towards God though civilized among themselves. -- The example of Jerusalem. -- Obedience without the spirit of obedience. -- A common mistake about the Mosaic law. -- The Gentiles worse than Israel 1,800 years ago.
A difficulty, a mystery. -- The prosperity of the wicked. -- David's, Jeremiah's, and Habakkuk's thoughts about it. -- An explanation. -- But worse first.-- The horse-running and Jordan-swelling age. -- The end nearly reached. -- The wicked only for a season. -- The consolation of the righteous in all ages. - Abraham, Israel, Hannah, Daniel. -- Christ's joy. -- His consolation to his disciples. -- Paul's words the same. -- The promise through John in Patmos. -- The war of Armageddon and the result. -- An obvious and complete answer. - The prosperity of the wicked will end. -- Apparent slowness. -- The Lord not slack concerning His promise. -- A necessity for deferring of judgment. -- A plan great and wise -- A consolation not to be forgotten. -- A good part to be chosen at the sacrifice of other things. -- Laying aside every weight.
The word enduring for ever. -- The consolation. -- Stability of the universe. -- Theories to the contrary. -- Revealed truth. -- God the Rock. -- No place for accidental perdition. -- Heaven and earth for ever. -- The purpose of Jehovah standeth sure. -- Another aspect of the subject. -- Individual dependence on the word. -- Morally now, physically afterwards. -- The burden of a sin-cursed nature. -- Prophecy sure. -- Damascus gone. -- Other prophecies. - Impotence of brilliant adversaries. -- Their voice hushed. -- The hope of the righteous. -- The difference between the believer and the unbeliever. -- Reason for Israel's desolation, forgetting God. -- Individual application of the lesson. - The offences of all society. -- The interdict of friendship with the world. - Exhortation beautiful and necessary. -- Sunday morning. -- A voice always to be heard in life. -- The visible divine ritual of the past. -- An interregnum. - Worship survives, but not as a system. -- Approaching God, and the comfort of it. -- Worship in spirit and in truth. -- The latter-day rushing of the nations.
Society in the days of David and Jesus. -- Libellers of their contemporaries according to natural men. -- The human rule of estimating character. -- A higher rule. -- A mighty difference. -- Robbing God. -- The educated and the uneducated alike. -- Wickedness ripe. -- British and American society. -- All live for themselves. -- All things for God. -- Recognition of this the peculiarity of the children of God. -- Pious professions. -- The garniture of refined selfishness. -- The coming vengeance. -- Appearances at present opposed to reality. -- A people in preparation from the poor. -- The reason of the selection. -- God's glory first. -- A speech rarely made. -- The rich and the wise not chosen. -- The poor rejected also if not rich in faith. -- God's chosen the choicest of mankind. -- A point obscured by the apostasy. -- Faith without works unprofitable. -- Denying Christ in more ways than one. -- Christ wants friends.
David and his enemies. -- A picture not comprehended by literary readers. -- Its explanation. -- The Divine plan of probation involving enmity between God's friends and enemies. -- The character of mankind. -- The inciting cause. -- This character evil. -- The truth detested, and why. -- The world's enmity the certain lot of faithful men. -- Hatred within as well as without. -- The reason. - Trouble inevitable, but woe to the troubler. -- "Offence" something more than hurting people's feelings. -- Effects on others. -- The strong to consider the weak. -- Unprofitable servants and the reverse. -- An apparent contradiction. - Of God's goodness that service will be rewarded. -- The truly unprofitable to be rejected. -- The closing retribution.
The blessedness of believing in Christ. -- The work of God. -- The blessedness principally future. -- The reason of evil on earth. -- The greatness of God and of sin. -- The sacrifice of Christ. -- Our approach to God. -- Forgiveness and the coming change. -- The purpose of evil. -- Taking up the cross. -- Hearers of the word, and doers. -- God sends evil to punish and to correct. -- The coming inspection. -- The principle of its conduct. -- The measure of obedience. -- Many commandments. -- Covering every action of life. -- Scripture reading the antidote to the natural man. -- Waiting for God. -- What it consists in. -- Faith only can act such a part. -- Contravention of political econony. -- Bible neglecters. -- Waiting for God a painful part, soon to be no more.
Christ the only hope. -- A sensible determination in view of this. -- Christ and the truth synonymous. -- Christ dwelling where the word dwells. -- Degrees of attainment. -- The wisdom of daily reading, as by the BIBLE COMPANION. - Wisdom in the treatment of topics. -- Some matters "weightier" than others. - Crotchets and their tendency. -- Fruit-producing truth to be contended for. -- Such truth not crotchetarian. -- The test by which the fruit is to be determined. - -- Things to be constantly affirmed. -- Things to be left in abeyance. -- Belief sufficient. -- Comprehension not always possible. -- The "how" not always knowable. -- The fact of God's working generally sufficient. -- Especially His work in Christ. -- Hurtful explanations. -- Glorious facts to be received, even if apparently incompatible. -- "Divine substance" and no-will crotchets. -- Presumptuous metaphysics. -- Obedience of Christ a fact to be received whatever we think of the "how." -- The testimony in its entirety and simplicity. - - The carpers and the little children. -- The well-being of the latter determines the policy to be pursued. -- The end.
The griefs that underlie the present state. -- Deceptive appearances. -- The lesson when friends die. -- The wise and the foolish. -- The shadow of death. -- Comfort and consternation. -- Only one wise course. -- Living after the Spirit. -- Vanity of every other course. -- Dispiriting views after forty. -- Nothing to fall back on in the absence of the truth. -- The contrary position. -- Making salvation sure. -- Doing the will of God. -- Becoming acquainted with it first, and how this is to be done. -- The present drawbacks. -- Social hermits. -- Spiritual endurance. -- Divine magnanimity. -- Stewardship in all our positions and endowments. -- Cheerful exercise thereof. -- Unpleasant well-doing. -- Seeing Him who is invisible.
The messages to the seven churches. -- Sardis. -- Christ's omniscience. -- The day of disclosure. -- The honour of Divine confession. -- Having a name to live, yet dead. -- The criterion of spiritual life. -- What it is not, and what it is. -- Applying the rule. -- The parable of the fig tree. -- The Lord's own exhortation and encouragement. -- Try again. -- Forgiveness. -- The contrary case. -- Only "a few names." -- The undefiled garments.
The love of Christ. -- The beauty of Christ. -- His moral portrait. -- Partial views of him. -- Unparalleled personage. -- The highest name. -- The coming man. -- His eclipsing glory. -- When the fading world has faded. -- Christ in human life. -- The eternal inheritance. -- No tire with the spirit body. -- The breaking of bread. -- Its profitableness and necessity. -- Its significance. - The neglect of it, disobedience. -- Unity the basis of it. -- The table of the Lord no place for discussion. -- True saintship, having the full assurance of faith. - Foolish questions, and edifying affirmation. -- Looking after the house of God.
Speaking as the oracles of God. -- The famine-stricken style of common talk. -- Divinity of the Proverbs of Solomon. -- The correctives they contain of extremes. -- Taking no thought for the morrow. -- Diligence and idleness. - Prudence and foresight in the New Testament. -- The place for faith. -- Putting every duty in its right place. -- Diligence commended, but accumulation of wealth forbidden. -- Patience and meekness not to be carried too far. -- The apostles and Solomon agreed. -- Kindness and dangerous friendships. - Knowledge. -- Two extremes. -- No conflict between Solomon and other divine teachers. -- Understanding accessible only to the humble. -- True wisdom, and the counterfeit wisdom article. -- God's point of view, a feature peculiar to the Bible alone. -- Wisdom without God not wisdom. -- God's power in the destiny of man. -- Solomon's Proverbs not of merely secular application. -- Solomon's words at the table. -- Unity of the divine circle.
Profitably remembering the death of Christ. -- His moral preparation for sacrifice. -- Jesus the seed of David. -- His temptation in the wilderness. -- The time of its occurrence. -- The nature of the tempter. -- Christ's use of the Scriptures to answer the tempter. -- Reverence for the Scriptures a mark of the sons of God. -- Three particulars in the temptation. -- Comprising the principle of all temptations. -- The three points separately considered and their lessons. -- A remarkable episode in a remarkable history.
Obedience the great feature of the house of Christ. -- Some of the things to be obeyed. -- The "Sermon on the Mount." -- Twenty-six or twenty-eight commands. -- Light shining. -- Anger. -- "Offence." -- Meekness. -- Lust. -- Cause of stumbling. -- Oaths. -- Non-resistance to evil. -- Retaliation. -- Not going to law. -- A preliminary discipline for exaltation. -- Giving, and to whom. -- Loving enemies, but not loving the world. -- Almsgiving in secret. -- Prayer. -- Forgiveness. -- Spiritual modesty. -- Against hoarding. -- Laying up treasure in heaven. -- Carefulness. -- Seeking the kingdom. -- Not judging. -- The commandments of Christ opposed to human maxims. -- Because the object is to train for the kingdom. -- Spiritual prudence. -- Asking. -- Doing to others as we would be done by. -- The strait gate. -- False prophets. -- Obedience and disobedience in their respective results.
The Power of the Scriptures # 63
The Flesh = worldly infatuation, a flood of folly, embraces “self”, may have a name, but are dead, and enjoy the pleasures of sin. The Spirit = the way of Christ, denying “self”, not anxious for daily needs, meditates on the ways of truth and life, and renounces the pleasures of sin.
Paul As A Christ-Appointed Model # 69
The Example of Israel's History # 71
Praise and Heart-Hardening # 72
Wisdom Different from Science or Philosophy # 73
Four Prominent Personages # 78
The blessings of being called - What we are called to - Not to witness the Lamb’s union with his Bride - The Bride stands for the saints - Who the saints are - Invited to participate in that glorious union - A preliminary period - Several states - Acquaintance, love, and betrothal - Christ introduced to our notice - The ways of Providence - Jesus seeks his sheep - Knocking at their door - Love sets in - Love leads to betrothal - The act of baptism - Covenant by sacrifice - Each man’s probation - Judgment - “How has the Covenant been fulfilled?” - Obedience - The Lord’s side of the covenant - “The manifestation of the sons of God” - Glorious and gladsome marriage - Hallelujah!
Bible Wisdom Verses Philosophic Morality # 82
In Collision with Society # 83
The Reality of God in History # 84
Appearances and Realities, Husbands and Wives # 85
Paul's Sorrows About Israel # 86
Election Verses Calvinism # 87
Our foundation, Christ; the same yesterday, today, forever - Rejoicing in that foundation - Attributes we must develop - True godliness divine worship and service - The “Mosaic Economy” not of Moses but of God - The New Covenant under Christ reconciling the sons and daughters, again, of God - Beware our own understanding, beware non-compliance - Noah, Abraham, Moses examples of godliness.
The Antidote to Spiritual Distemper # 102
