“My mother,” John Newton states, “stored my memory with many valuable pieces, chapters, and portions of Scriptures, catechisms, hymns, and Psalms. Though in process of time I sinned away all the advantages of these early impressions, yet they were for a great while a restraint upon me. They returned again and again, and it was very long before I could shake them off; and when the Lord at length opened my eyes, I found a great benefit from them. Further, my dear mother, besides the great pains she took with me, often commanded me, with many tears and prayers, to God, and I doubt not but I reap the benefit of these prayers to this hour.”—The pious Richard Cecil, before his mind had been brought under the influence of religion, made the following observation: “I see two unquestionable facts; first, my mother is greatly afflicted in circumstances, body and mind, and yet she cheerfully bears up under all by the support she derives from constantly retiring to her closet and her Bible; secondly, she has a secret spring of comfort of which I know nothing, while I, who give an unbounded loose to my appetites, and seek pleasure by every means, seldom or never find it. If, however, there is any such secret in religion, why may I not attain it as well as my mother? I will immediately seek it of God.” “He now listened,” his biographer observes, “to the pious admonitions of his mother, which he had before affected to receive with pride and scorn. They fixed themselves in his heart like a barbed arrow, and though the effects were for a time concealed from her observation, yet the tears would fall from his eyes, as he passed along the streets, from the impression she had made on his mind.”
AH! Why are men so eager in their lifetime to receive their good things? Why are they not rather careful to secure an interest in the kingdom of heaven, which would never be taken from them, but afford them a portion to make them happy through the ages of eternity? If you desire honour, there you may have the highest honour, which will last when the world’s honours are laid in the dust; if riches, heaven will yield you a treasure; and, there are pleasures for evermore. Oh, be not despisers of the pleasant land, neither judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life; close with Christ, as He is offered to you in the gospel, and you shall inherit all things. Walk in the way of holiness, and it will lead you to the kingdom. Fight against sin and Satan, and you shall receive the crown. Forsake the world, and the doors of heaven will be opened to receive you.—Thomas Boston.
WHATEVER thou art going to do, ask thyself, How can this be the means of my rejoicing in God? If it cannot, avoid it. If it come with all the world’s flatteries, and make thee the greatest offers of joy, fly from it, there is deadly poison under its gilded outside. Lay it down as an invariable rule of thy walk that nothing can do thee good but what thou canst enjoy God in. He is the only source of good, and everything is to thee what He makes it, not what it is in itself; as such, all is vanity, but it is good when God makes it so.—Romaine.
DOUBTLESS this ship has sailed the noisy, inconstant, raging ocean, which foams out its filthiness upon the shore; preserves its freshness by perpetual motion; and where Leviathan and his fellow-monsters play. Ocean, how like to our earth; how vast her extent; how various her inhabitants, and conditions; how changeable her enjoyments; how full of monstrous sinners sporting themselves with mischief; what polluted persons and deeds she daily foams out into eternity; how preserved from utter corruption by the storms of Divine judgment!—How like the ocean is my tossed, raging, inconstant, heart; what waves of trouble, what monsters of lust are to be found there; how she foams out the shame; casts forth mire, and dirt, evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies!—Think, my soul, of the ocean of Godhead! O shoreless, unfathomable fulness of perfection and goodness! in Him all things live and move; from Him they spring; and to Him they return; as their last end.—Think of the height, the depth, the length, the breadth of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge; sooner could I drink the ocean dry, than all the ransomed millions could exhaust His love!—Think of the ocean of eternity, into which I must enter! Dread thought; enter into eternity! and do I know and care so little about my eternal state?—John Brown.
How astonishing, that a Saviour is provided for men, while sinning angels are left to perish in their crimes! that we peaceably enjoy Sabbaths, and other Divine ordinances, while many nations are without them; or obtain them amidst distracting alarms of persecutions and war: O what a matchless Redeemer! what great and everlasting salvation! what precious oracles and institutions God hath provided for us? Wonder rise, and endless praises flow.—John Brown.
WHAT security could there be for poor, fearful Jerusalem if salvation depended upon her doings and duties? Who then will be saved? Fearing Jerusalem and slack-handed Zion. If any think they can save themselves, let them put their eternal all upon that bottom. Let them go to sea and sail to the shores of eternity in that crazy bark—in that leaky ship. The Lord keep us from sailing with that crew in their desperate voyage, for in good truth, besides its leaky state, it sails under a rebellious flag, and will go down in the first storm. I would stand upon the pier-head with the gospel trumpet in my hand, and blow so loud as would warn all within hearing against putting to sea in any ship which is not owned, chartered, equipped, officered, and manned by the Captain of our salvation, and of which He Himself is not both Commander and Pilot. Salvation, then, does not depend upon peradventures and may-be’s. It stands upon God’s fixed purposes, firm decrees, eternal oaths, covenant engagements, and the finished work of His dear Son. Salvation is not made up of peradventures, and contingencies, and creature circumstances, as if the breath of man could create it, and the breath of man disannul it. It stands as immutable as Jehovah’s eternal throne, as firm as the very being of God Himself, for it rests upon “two immutable things,” His word and His oath: Therefore, He will, He must, He shall save all who believe in His dear Son.—Philpot.
HAPPY were the shepherds, who heard the song of the heavenly host, when Christ was born! but thrice happy they, who shall join their voices with them, in the choir of saints and angels in heaven, when He shall be glorified in all who shall be about Him there.—Thomas Boston.
THE heart of man is his worst part before it be regenerated, and the best afterwards; it is the seat of principles and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it.—Flavel.
IF, then, truth in its purity is in the person of the Son of God as the fountain, truth in its purity is in the Scriptures as the stream; for as Christ is the personal, the Scriptures are the written revelation of the character, mind, and will of God.—Philpot.
PRAYING will either cause a man to leave off sinning, or sinning will cause him to leave off praying. He who prays as he ought, will endeavour to live as he prays. He whose whole religion lies in praying and hearing, has no religion at all.—Owen.