SEEKING EVIDENCE OF GUILT.
At a private conference where marks of grace were being discussed an old elder present said, that as he was now far advanced in years, he would like much to see in himself more evidence of humility. “Evidence of humility!” broke in Dr. Duncan, who was one of the party, “you had better be looking for evidence of guilt.” The worthy old man was startled. The thrust came from a keen-sighted onlooker for it was Dr. Duncan’s purpose to bring out the difference between wishing to be humble and wishing to have the satisfaction of knowing it.
Christ’s Second Advent.
I believe we shall find English believers much of one mind with the early believers in their views of such truths as justification by faith; our need of sanctification by the work of the Spirit. But in our view of the Second Advent, in our system it is a star of the fifteenth magnitude, while in theirs it was of the first. The Church has not dealt fairly with the prophecies of the Old Testament; refusing to see there are two personal advents—one to carry the cross, one to wear the crown. I have long felt it one of the greatest shortcomings of the Church of Christ that we do not preach enough about this advent of Christ, and that private believers do not think enough about it. None of us live on it, work from it, take comfort in it, as much as God intended us to do.—Bishop Ryle.
Faith in God’s Word.
Truly, faith in God’s Word is a wonderful and a mighty principle; it is the most acceptable service the heart of man can render. We cannot look into the Book of Life and see whether our names are there, but we can look into the Word of God, and if we can honestly say we have received that Word, we do rest our souls upon the promises contained in it, and upon Him whose Word it is, then we have the first and all-sufficient evidence of our relationship to God. It is by the Word of God so kept that “we grow up into Him in all things.”—Marcus Rainsford.