While guarding, however, against this fatal error in regard to ordinances, we must beware of falling into another not less so, and, alas! still more common—the neglect of ordinances altogether. "When I thought myself a dying man," said Robert M'Cheyne, "the souls of the perishing thousands in my own parish who never enter any house of God, have lain heavy on my heart." He felt that their misery was all the greater, and their need the deeper, that such neglected souls had no wish for help, and would never ask it for themselves. This made him not only labour much for more churches, but pray much for faithful men to fill them. He thus summed up his views in lines penned by himself: "Give me a man of God the truth to preach, A house of God within convenient reach; He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.— ROM. ii. 29. We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.-PHIL. iii. 3. March 25. TRIAL IS OFTEN A BLESSED "NEED BE.” WHEN about to leave the disciples whom he had been WHEN revisiting, the apostle's last word to them was not, The worst is now over, and henceforth all trouble will cease; but rather, Trouble will come, and must come, for the pathway to the kingdom is through much tribulation. This must, linked as it is with trial, has a very sad sound to our ears; but there is this to comfort in connection with it, it is not the "must" of a cold and grinding fate, which wholly excludes sympathy and forbids prayer, but the "must" of a Father's will, wise, loving, and tender, and by which gracious ends are served. The vine cannot flourish without the pruning-knife, and as little can the believer be effectually delivered from all the corruptions of the flesh and spirit without painful discipline. Thinkest thou," says an old writer, "that thou wilt come into the kingdom without the cross and tribulation, which Christ neither would nor could permit even to one of his dearest friends? It is through the cross we reach the glory. Carry it willingly, then; so will it carry thee and conduct thee to that place where there is the end of all thy sorrows and the goal of all thy longings." These divinely permitted trials are very varied in their nature. Sometimes it is grievous disappointment that occasions them, or sore bereavement, or the buffetings of the adversary, or the bitter enmity of a hostile world; hence the forewarning yet comforting words of the great Master: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Besides thus counselling good cheer, he has again and again imparted it, and so fully that even gloomiest prisons have often resounded with gladsome songs. When Joseph Alleine and seven other ministers, and forty private Christians, were committed to the prison of Ilchester about two hundred years ago, that saintly man said much to cheer them. Among other sweet things, he said: 'Shall I tell you a story I have read? There was a certain king that had a pleasant grove, and that he might make it every way delightful to him, he caused some birds to be caught, and to be kept in cages till they had learned sundry sweet and artificial tunes. And when they were perfect in their lessons, he let them abroad out of their cages into the grove, that he might hear them singing those pleasant tunes, and teaching them to other birds of milder note.' Brethren," he added, " the Lord is that king, this grove is his Church, these birds are yourselves, this cage is the prison; and God hath sent you hither that you should learn the sweet and pleasant notes of his praise." Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.-ACTS xiv. 22. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.-1 PETER i. 6, 7. March 26. OVERLOVING THE PERISHABLE. HOUGH at conversion the power and mastery of sin THOUGH are broken, nevertheless it still lurks in the soul, and unless constantly watched and kept under, it will gather strength again, and break forth, it may be, into open transgression. Even believers, accordingly, were thus exhorted by the apostle: "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth...inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” This last-named sin, covetousness, or overlove of the world, is not only sadly common, but perilous in the extreme, and called forth a special warning from our Lord to his disciples in these words: "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Indeed, there is no sin more firm in its grasp, or longer lived. When through age, it may be, or sickness, or satiety, or a regard to reputation, the vices of the flesh are forsaken, covetousness still keeps hold. It never seems to know frailty, like other sins, but is ever young. Moreover, it is a sin peculiarly offensive to the Lord, because to all intents and purposes it is idolatry. It puts mammon in the place of God, and consecrates to mere perishable vanities the thoughts, desires, and affections that should ever be centred in him alone; yet, from assuming so many artful disguises, and being compatible often with much outward respectability, the danger of being fatally ensnared by it is on this account all the greater. up "Covetousness," says Mr. Spurgeon, "is like the silting of a river. As the stream comes down from the land, it brings with it sand and earth, and deposits all these at its mouth, so that by degrees, unless the conservators watch it carefully, it will block itself up, and leave no channel for ships of great burden. Many a man, when he begins to accumulate wealth, commences at the same time to ruin his soul. And the more he acquires, the more closely he blocks up his liberality, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of spiritual life. Instead of doing more for God, he does less; the more he saves, the more he wants; and the more he wants of this world, the less he cares for the world to come." There is no cure for this overlove of money but the generous using of it for the glory of God and the good of others. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.-1 TIм. vi. 9, 10. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.-1 TIM. vi. 17. March 27. SAINTS ARE SOMETIMES FOUND WHERE LEAST EXPECTED. THERE HERE was a Joseph in Pharaoh's court, a Jonathan in Saul's, an Obadiah in Ahab's, and a Daniel in the royal halls of Babylon; and, not less remarkable, there were saints even in Cæsar's household. As no details are given and no names mentioned, it is impossible to tell who these saints really were, or to whom they belongedwhether to the imperial family, or to the guards or courtiers, or humbler servants. Nevertheless, the fact remains, and it is one of deepest interest, that the Lord Jesus had true and faithful servants even in the palace of one of the greatest of persecutors. It strikingly reveals at once the sovereignty and the omnipotence of grace, and shows that we should never despair either of the worst of places or the worst of persons, should a door of access be given us to them in the providence of God. "O Rome, Rome!" says one, "how greatly hast thou changed! Formerly thou hadst true saints even in the household of a pagan and cruel emperor, but now thou hast false saints round the so-called chair of Peter, and at the court of his supposed successors." However great the discouragements, therefore, we should be slow to give up even the most hopeless, knowing what grace can do, and that the Lord ever takes pleasure in those who hope in his mercy. |