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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/27344-h.zip b/27344-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e466d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/27344-h.zip diff --git a/27344-h/27344-h.htm b/27344-h/27344-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..608c46c --- /dev/null +++ b/27344-h/27344-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1808 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Faithful Promiser, + by John R. Macduff. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } +h1 { text-align: center; padding-bottom: 1em; } +h2 { text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps; font-size:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em; } +h3 { text-align: center; font-size:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em; margin-top:0.5em; } +p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em; } + +hr.micro { width: 20%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + +.pagenum { position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; } +.blockquot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; font-size: 80%; } +.figcenter { margin: auto; text-align: center; } +.figleft { float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; text-align: center; + margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0.5em; padding: 0; } +.bordered { border-style: double; border-width: thick; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em; } +.smaller { font-size: 80%; } +.hidden { visibility: hidden; } +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps; } +.indent1 { padding-left: 2em; } +.indent2 { padding-left: 4em; } + +div.tnotes { background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; border: 1px solid black; + padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; } +div.titlepage { width: 25em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 3em; } +div.titlepage p { font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; text-align: center; + margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; } +#tpthe { font-size:40%; } +#tp1 { margin-bottom: 1em; } +#tp2 { margin-top: 2em; } + +p.faithful { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; margin-top:0.5em;} +p.remember { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3em; } +p.caption { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; } +// --> +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Faithful Promiser, by John Ross Macduff + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Faithful Promiser + +Author: John Ross Macduff + +Release Date: November 28, 2008 [EBook #27344] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITHFUL PROMISER *** + + + + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<div class="bordered titlepage"> +<h1><span id="tpthe">THE</span><br /><br /> +FAITHFUL PROMISER.</h1> + +<p id="tp1"><span class="smaller">BY THE AUTHOR OF</span><br /> +<br /> +“THE WORDS OF JESUS,” +“THE MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES,” +ETC.</p> + +<hr class="micro" /> +<p>“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious +promises.”—2 <span class="smcap">Pet</span>. i. 4.</p> +<hr class="micro" /> + +<p id="tp2">NEW YORK:<br /> +STANFORD & DELISSER,<br /> +<span class="smaller">No. 508, BROADWAY.</span><br /> +1858.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="hidden pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/title.png" + alt="The Faithful Promiser." title="The Faithful Promiser." /> +<p class="hidden caption">The Faithful Promiser.</p> +</div> + +<p>It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child of God, to +take, night by night, an individual promise and plead it at the +mercy-seat. Often are our prayers <i>pointless</i>, from not following, in +this respect, the example of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the Royal +Promise pleader, who delighted to direct his finger to some particular +“word” of the Faithful Promiser, saying, “Remember Thy word unto Thy +servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope!”</p> + +<p>The following are a few gleanings from the Promise Treasury,—a few +crumbs from “the Master’s Table,” which may serve to help the thoughts +in the hour of closet meditation, or the season of sorrow.</p> + +<p> +<span class="indent1 smcap">St. M——,</span><br /> +<span class="indent2"><i>December</i>, 1849.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<h2>1st Day of Month.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins +be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red +like crimson, they shall be as wool.”—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i. 18.</p></div> + +<h3>Pardoning Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t01.png" alt="Pardoning Grace." title="Pardoning Grace." /> +</div> +<p>My soul! thy God summons thee to His audience chamber! Infinite purity +seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! +Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as wondrous of +all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best +tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear: “God is in Christ +reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their +trespasses.” What! <i>Scarlet</i> sins, and <i>crimson</i> sins! and these all to +be forgiven and forgotten! The just God “justifying” the unjust!—the +mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all! Oh! what is there in thee +to merit such love +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +as this? Thou mightest have known thy God only as the “consuming fire,” +and had nothing before thee save “a fearful looking for of vengeance!” +This gracious conference bids thee dispel thy fears! It tells thee it is +no longer a “fearful,” but a <i>blessed</i> thing to fall into His hands? +Hast thou closed with these His overtures? Until thou art at peace with +Him, happiness must be a stranger to thy bosom. Though thou hast all +else beside, bereft of God thou must be “bereft indeed.” Lord! I come! +As thy pardoning grace is freely tendered, so shall I freely accept it. +May it be mine, even now, to listen to the gladdening accents, “Son! +Daughter! be of good cheer! thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven +thee.”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<h2>2d Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“As thy days, so shall thy strength +be.”—<span class="smcap">Deut.</span> xxxiii. 25.</p></div> + +<h3>Needful Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t02.png" alt="Needful Grace." title="Needful Grace." /> +</div> +<p>God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes. But when it +<i>does</i> come, the amount of grace, and the nature of the special grace +required is vouchsafed. My soul, do not dwell with painful apprehension +on the future. Do not anticipate coming sorrows; perplexing thyself with +the grace needed for future emergencies; to-morrow will bring its +promised grace along with to-morrow’s trials. God, wishing to keep His +people humble, and dependent on himself, gives not a stock of grace; He +metes it out for every day’s exigencies, that they may be constantly +“travelling between their own emptiness and Christ’s fulness”—their own +weakness and Christ’s strength. But <i>when</i> the exigency comes, thou +mayest safely trust an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +Almighty arm to bear thee through! Is there now some “thorn in the +flesh” sent to lacerate thee? Thou mayest have been entreating the Lord +for its removal. Thy prayer has, doubtless, been heard and answered; but +not in the way, perhaps, expected or desired by thee. The “thorn” may +still be left to goad, the trial may still be left to buffet; but “more +grace” has been given to endure them. Oh! how often have His people thus +been led to glory in their infirmities and triumph in their afflictions, +seeing the power of Christ rests more abundantly upon them! The strength +which the hour of trial brings, often makes the Christian a wonder to +himself!</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<h2>3d Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always +having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good +work.”—<span class="smcap">2 Cor.</span> ix. 8.</p></div> + +<h3>All-Sufficient Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t03.png" alt="All-Sufficient Grace." title="All-Sufficient Grace." /> +</div> +<p>“All-sufficiency in all things!” Believer! surely thou art “thoroughly +furnished!” Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a +glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never +empty. A fountain, “full, flowing, <i>ever</i> flowing, <i>over</i>flowing.” Mark +these three ALL’s in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a +golden chain, let down from a throne of grace by a God of grace. +“<i>All-grace!</i>”—“<i>all-sufficiency!</i>” in “<i>all things!</i>” and these to +“abound.” Oh! precious thought! My want cannot impoverish that +inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly hanging on it, and drawing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +from it, and yet there is no diminution: “Out of that fulness all we too +may receive, and grace for grace!” My soul, dost not thou love to dwell +on that all-abounding grace? Thine own insufficiency in every thing, met +with an “all-sufficiency in all things!” Grace in all circumstances and +situations, in all vicissitudes and changes, in all the varied phases of +the Christian’s being. Grace in sunshine and storm—in health and +in sickness—in life and in death. Grace for the old believer and +the young believer, the tried believer, and the weak believer, and the +tempted believer. Grace <i>for</i> duty, and grace <i>in</i> duty,—grace to +carry the joyous cup with a steady hand,—grace to drink the bitter +cup with an unmurmuring spirit,—grace to have prosperity +sanctified,—grace to say, through tears, “Thy will be done!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<h2>4th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to +you.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 18.</p></div> + +<h3>Comforting Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t04.png" alt="Comforting Grace." title="Comforting Grace." /> +</div> +<p>Blessed Jesus! How thy presence sanctifies trial, takes loneliness from +the chamber of sickness, and the sting from the chamber of death! Bright +and Morning Star! precious at all times, thou art never <i>so</i> precious as +in “the dark and cloudy day!” The bitterness of sorrow is well worth +enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man +of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou +who didst shed so many thyself! What are <i>my</i> tears—my sorrows—my +crosses—my losses, compared with Thine, who didst shed first Thy tears, +and then Thy blood for <i>me</i>! Mine are all deserved, and infinitely more than +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +deserved. How different, O Spotless Lamb of God, those pangs which rent +Thy guiltless bosom! How sweet those comforts Thou hast promised to the +comfortless, when I think of them as flowing from an Almighty +<i>Fellow-Sufferer</i>,—“A brother born for adversity,”—the +“Friend that sticketh closer than any brother!”—one who can say, +with all the refined sympathies of a holy exalted human nature, “I know +your sorrows!” My soul! calm thy griefs! There is not a sorrow thou +canst experience, but Jesus, in the treasury of grace, has an exact +corresponding solace: “In the multitude of the <i>sorrows</i> I have in my +heart, Thy <i>comforts</i> delight my soul!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<h2>5th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but +I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”—<span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxii. 31, +32.</p></div> + +<h3>Restraining Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t05.png" alt="Restraining Grace." title="Restraining Grace." /> +</div> +<p>What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting—Jesus praying! Satan +sifting—Jesus pleading! “The strong man assailing”—“the stronger than +the strong” beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and +present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding +Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, “Thus far +shalt thou go, and no farther?” God often permits His people to be on +the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; +<i>but never farther than the verge!</i> The restraining hand and grace of +Omnipotence is ready to rescue them. “Although he fall, yet shall +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +he not be cast down utterly; and why? for the Lord upholdeth him with +His right hand!” The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he +do when the Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that +“neither slumbers nor sleeps?” Who cannot subscribe to the testimony, +“When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord! held me up?” Who can look back +on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with Ebenezers, with +this inscription: “Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes +from tears, and my feet from falling?” My soul, where wouldst thou have +been this day, hadst thou not been “<i>kept</i>” by the power of God?</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<h2>6th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I will heal their +backsliding.”—<span class="smcap">Hosea</span> xiv. 4.</p></div> + +<h3>Restoring Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t06.png" alt="Restoring Grace." title="Restoring Grace." /> +</div> +<p>Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and +straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd’s eye and the +Shepherd’s fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of +his own ways, and his truant heart to go hopelessly onward in its career +of guilty estrangement? “My thoughts,” says God, “are not as your +thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Man would say, “Go, perish! +ungrateful apostate!” God says, “Return, ye backsliding children!” The +Shepherd <i>will</i> not, <i>cannot</i> suffer the sheep to perish He has +purchased with His own blood. How wondrous His forbearance towards +it!—tracking its guilty steps, and ceasing not the pursuit till He lays the wanderer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +on His shoulders, and returns with it to His fold rejoicing! My soul! +why increase by farther departures thine own distance from the +fold?—why lengthen the dreary road thy gracious Shepherd has to +traverse in bringing thee back? Delay not thy return! Provoke no longer +His patience; venture no farther on forbidden ground. He waits with +outstretched arms to welcome thee once more to His bosom. Be humble for +the past, trust Him for the future. Think of thy former backslidings, +and tremble; think of His forbearance, and be filled with holy +gratitude; think of His promised grace, “and take courage.”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<h2>7th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the +day of Jesus Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Phil.</span> i. 6.</p></div> + +<h3>Sanctifying Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t07.png" alt="Sanctifying Grace." title="Sanctifying Grace." /> +</div> +<p>Reader! is the good work begun in thee? Art thou holy? Is sin +crucifying? Are thy heart’s idols, one by one abolished? Is the world +less to thee, and eternity more to thee? Is more of thy Saviour’s image +impressed on thy character, and thy Saviour’s love more enthroned in thy +heart? Is “Salvation” to thee more “the one thing needful?” Oh! take +heed! there can be no middle ground, no standing still; or if it be so, +thy position must be a false one. The Saviour’s blood is not more +necessary to give thee a title to Heaven, than His Spirit to give thee a +meetness for it. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is <i>none +of His</i>!” “Onwards!” should be thy motto. There +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +is no standing still in the life of faith. “The man,” says Augustine, +“who says ‘<i>Enough</i>,’ that man’s soul is lost?” Let this be the +superscription in all thy ways and doings, “Holiness to the Lord.” Let +the monitory word exercise over thee its habitual power, “Without +holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Moreover, remember, that to be +holy, is to be happy. The two are convertible terms. Holiness! It is the +secret and spring of the joy of angels; and the more of holiness +attained on earth—the nearer and closer my walk is with +God—the more of a sweet earnest shall I have of the bliss that +awaits me in a holy Heaven. Oh! my soul, let it be thy sacred ambition +to “Be holy!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<h2>8th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they +shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be +weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xl. 31.</p></div> + +<h3>Reviving Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t08.png" alt="Reviving Grace." title="Reviving Grace." /> +</div> +<p>“Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?” My soul! art thou conscious of thy +declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? +Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,—diminished +communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has +been?—the pulsations of spiritual life more languid, and fitful, and +spasmodic?—the bread of life less relished?—the seen, and the +temporal, and the tangible, displacing the unseen and eternal? Art thou +sinking down into this state of drowsy self-contentment, this +conformity-life with the world, forfeiting all the happiness of true +religion, and risking and endangering +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +the better life to come? Arise! call upon thy God! “Wilt thou not revive +us, O Lord?” He might have returned nothing but the withering repulse, +“How often would I have gathered thee; but thou wouldst not!” “Ephraim +is joined to his idols; let him alone!” But “in wrath He remembers +mercy.” “They <i>shall</i> revive as the corn.” “The mouth of the Lord hath +spoken it.” How and where is reviving grace to be found? He gives thee, +in this precious promise, the key. It is on thy bended <i>knees</i>—by +a return to thy deserted and unfrequented chamber! “<i>They that wait upon +the Lord!</i>” “Wait on the Lord; be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen +thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<h2>9th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The righteous shall hold on his +way.”—<span class="smcap">Job</span> xvii. 9.</p></div> + +<h3>Persevering Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t09.png" alt="Persevering Grace." title="Persevering Grace." /> +</div> +<p>Reader! how comforting to thee amid the ebbings and flowings of thy +changing history, to know that the change is all with thee, and not with +thy God! Thy spiritual bark may be tossed on waves of temptation, in +many a dark midnight. Thou mayest think thy pilot hath left thee, and be +ready continually to say, “Where is my God?” But fear not! The bark +which bears thy spiritual destinies is in better hands than thine; a +golden chain of covenant love links it to the eternal throne! That chain +can never snap asunder. He who holds it in His hand gives thee <i>this</i> as +the pledge of thy safety,—“Because I live, ye shall live also.” “Why +art thou then cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +within me? <i>hope thou in God!</i>” Thou wilt assuredly ride out these +stormy surges, and reach the desired haven. But be faithful with +thyself: see that there be nothing to hinder or impede thy growth in +grace. Think how little may retard thy progress. One sin +indulged—one temptation tampered with—one bosom traitor, may +cost thee many a bitter hour and bitter tear, by separating between thee +and thy God. Make it thy daily prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my +heart; try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way +in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<h2>10th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I have the keys of hell and of +death.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> i. 18.</p></div> + +<h3>Dying Grace.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t10.png" alt="Dying Grace." title="Dying Grace." /> +</div> +<p>And from whom could dying grace come so welcome, as from Thee, O +blessed Jesus? Not only is Thy name, “The Abolisher of Death;” but Thou +didst thyself <i>die</i>! Thou hast sanctified the grave by Thine own +presence, and divested it of all its terrors. My soul! art thou at times +afraid of this, thy last enemy? If the rest of thy pilgrimage-way be +peaceful and unclouded, rests there a dark and portentous shadow over +the terminating portals? Fear not! When that dismal entrance is reached, +He who has “the keys of the grave and of death” suspended at His golden +girdle, will impart grace to bear thee through. It is the messenger of +peace. Thy Saviour calls thee! The promptings of nature, when, at first, +thou seest the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +darkening waves, may be that of the affrighted disciples, when they +said, “It is a spirit, and cried out for fear!” But a gentle voice will +be heard high above the storm, “It is I! Be not afraid!” Death, indeed, +as the wages of sin, must, even by the believer, be regarded as an +enemy. But, oh! blessed thought, it is thy <i>last</i> enemy—the cause +of thy last tear. In a few brief moments after that tear is shed, thy +God will be wiping every vestige of it away? “O Death! where is thy +sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, who giveth us +the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Welcome, vanquished +foe!—Birthday of heaven!—“to die is gain!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<h2>11th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The Lord will give grace and +glory.”—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxxiv. 11.</p></div> + +<h3>After Grace, Glory.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t11.png" alt="After Grace, Glory." title="After Grace, Glory." /> +</div> +<p>Oh! happy day, when this toilsome warfare will all be ended, Jordan +crossed, Canaan entered, the legion-enemies of the wilderness no longer +dreaded; sorrow, sighing, death, and, worst of all, <i>sin</i>, no more +either to be felt or feared! Here is the terminating link in the golden +chain of the everlasting covenant. It began with <i>predestination</i>; it +ends with <i>glorification</i>. It began with sovereign grace in a by-past +eternity, and no link will be awanting till the ransomed spirit be +presented faultless before the throne! Grace and glory! If the earnest +be sweet, what must be the reality? If the wilderness table contain such +rich provision, what must be the glories of the eternal banqueting +house? Oh! my soul, make sure of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +thine interest in the one, as the blessed prelude to the other. “Having +access by faith into this <i>grace</i>, thou canst rejoice in hope of the +<i>glory</i> of God;” for “whom He <i>justifies</i>, them He also <i>glorifies</i>!” +Has grace begun in thee? Canst thou mark—though it should be but +the drops of the incipient rill which is to terminate in such an +ocean—the tiny grains which are to accumulate and issue in such +“an exceeding weight of glory!” Delay not the momentous question! The +day of offered grace is on the wing; its hours are fast numbering; and, +“No grace, no glory!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<h2>12th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, +that He may abide with you for ever.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 16.</p></div> + +<h3>Another Comforter.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t12.png" alt="Another Comforter." title="Another Comforter." /> +</div> +<p>Blessed Spirit of all grace! how oft have I grieved Thee! resisted Thy +dealings, quenched Thy strivings; and yet art thou still pleading with +me! Oh! let me realize more than I do the need of Thy gracious +influences. Ordinances, sermons, communions, providential dispensations, +are nothing without Thy life-giving power. “It is the Spirit that +quickeneth.” “No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” +Church of the living God! is not this one cause of thy deadness? My +soul! is not this the secret of thy languishing frames, repeated +declensions, uneven walk, and sudden falls, that the influences of the +Holy Ghost are undervalued and unsought? Pray for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +outpouring of this blessed Agent for the world’s renovation, and thine +own. “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” is the precursor of +millennial bliss. Jesus! draw near, in thy mercy, to this torpid heart, +as thou didst of old to thy mourning disciples, and breathe upon it, and +say, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It is the mightiest of all boons; but, +like the sun in the heavens, it is the freest of all: “For if ye, being +evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more +shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask +Him!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<h2>13th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them +who are the called according to His purpose.”—<span class="smcap">Rom.</span> viii. 28.</p></div> + +<h3>Providential Overruling.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t13.png" alt="Providential Overruling." title="Providential Overruling." /> +</div> +<p>My soul! be still! thou art in the hands of thy Covenant God. Were +these strange vicissitudes in thy history the result of accident, or +chance, thou mightest well be overwhelmed; but “<i>all things</i>,” and +<i>this</i> thing (be what it may) which may be now disquieting thee, is +<i>one</i> of these “<i>all things</i>” that are <i>so</i> working mysteriously for thy +good. Trust thy God! He will not deceive thee,—thy interests are with +Him in safe custody. When sight says, “All these things are against me,” +let faith rebuke the hasty conclusion, and say, “Shall not the Judge of +all the earth do right?” How often does God hedge up our way with +thorns, to elicit simple trust! How +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +seldom can we <i>see</i> all things so working for our good! But it is better +discipline to <i>believe</i> it. Oh! for faith amid frowning providences, to +say, “I <i>know</i> that thy judgments are good;” and, relying in the dark, +to exclaim, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!” Blessed Jesus! to +thee are committed the reins of this universal empire. The same hand +that was once nailed to the cross, is now wielding the sceptre on the +throne,—“all power given unto thee in heaven and in earth.” How +can I doubt the wisdom, and faithfulness, and love, of the most +mysterious earthly dealing, when I know that the Roll of Providence is +thus in the hands of Him who has given the mightiest pledge Omnipotence +<i>could</i> give of His tender interest in my soul’s well-being, by giving +<i>Himself</i> for me?</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<h2>14th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“All the Paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep +His covenant and His testimonies.”—<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxv. 10.</p></div> + +<h3>Safe Walking.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t14.png" alt="Safe Walking." title="Safe Walking." /> +</div> +<p>The paths of the Lord? My soul! never follow thine own paths. If thou +dost so, thou wilt be in danger often of following sight rather than +faith,—choosing the evil, and refusing the good. But “commit thy way +unto the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass.” Let this be thy prayer, +“Show me <i>Thy</i> ways, O Lord; teach me <i>Thy</i> paths.” Oh! for Caleb’s +spirit, “<i>wholly</i> to follow the Lord my God,”—to follow Him when self +must be sacrificed, and hardship must be borne, and trials await me. To +“walk with God,”—to ask in simple faith, “What wouldst thou have me to +do?”—to have no will of my own, save this, that God’s will is to be +<i>my</i> will. Here is safety,—here is happiness. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +Fearlessly follow the Guiding Pillar. He will lead you by a <i>right</i> way, +though it may be by a way of hardship, and crosses, and losses, and +privations, to the city of habitation. Oh! the blessedness of thus lying +passive in the hands of God; saying, “Undertake thou for +me!”—dwelling with holy gratitude on past mercies and +interpositions—taking these as pledges of future faithfulness and +love—hearing His voice behind us, amid life’s manifold +perplexities, exclaiming, “This is the way, walk ye in it!” “Happy,” +surely, “are every people who are in such a case!” Happy, Reader! will +it be for thee, if thou canst form the resolve in a strength greater +than thine own: “This God shall be <i>my</i> God for ever and ever; He shall +be my <i>Guide</i> even unto death!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h2>15th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“As many as I love, I rebuke and +chasten.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> iii. 19.</p></div> + +<h3>Love in Chastisement.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t15.png" alt="Love in Chastisement." title="Love in Chastisement." /> +</div> +<p>Sorrowing Believer! what couldst thou wish more than this? Thy furnace +is severe; but look at this assurance of Him who lighted it. Love is the +fuel that feeds its flames! Its every spark is love! Kindled by a +Father’s hand, and designed as a special pledge of a Father’s love. How +many of his dear children has He so rebuked and chastened; and all, +<i>all</i> for one reason, “<i>I love them!</i>” The myriads in glory have passed +through these furnace-fires,—<i>there</i> they were chosen,—<i>there</i> they +were purified, sanctified, and made “vessels meet for the Master’s use;” +the dross and the alloy purged, that the pure metal might remain. And +art thou to claim exemption from the same discipline? Art +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +thou to think it strange concerning these same fiery trials that may be +trying thee? Rather exult in them as thine adoption-privilege. Envy not +those who are strangers to the refining flames,—who are “<i>without +chastisement</i>;” rather, surely, the severest discipline <i>with</i> a +<i>Father’s love</i>, than the fullest earthly cup without that Father’s +smile. Oh! for grace to say, when the furnace is hottest, and the rod +sorest, “Even so, <i>Father</i>!” And what, after all, is the severest of thy +chastisements in comparison with what thy sins have deserved? Dost thou +murmur under a Father’s correcting love? What would it have been to have +stood the wrath of an unpropitiated Judge, and that, too, <i>for ever</i>? +Surely, in the light of eternity, the heaviest pang of earth is indeed +“a light affliction!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<h2>16th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“If need be.”—<span class="smcap">1 Peter</span> i. 6.</p></div> + +<h3>A Condition in Chastisement.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t16.png" alt="A Condition in Chastisement." title="A Condition in Chastisement." /> +</div> +<p>Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears shed for nought! Not one +stroke of the rod unheeded, or that might have been spared? Thy heavenly +Father loves thee too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher +correction than thy case requires? Is it loss of health, or loss of +wealth, or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a <i>need be</i>. We +are no judges of what that “need be” is; often through aching hearts we +are forced to exclaim, “Thy judgments are a great deep!” But God here +pledges himself, that there will not be one redundant thorn in the +believer’s chaplet of suffering. No burden too heavy will be laid on him; +and no sacrifice too great exacted <i>from</i> him. He will “temper the wind to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +the shorn lamb.” Whenever the “need be” has accomplished its end, then +the rod is removed—the chastisement suspended—the furnace +quenched. “If need be!” Oh! what a pillow on which to rest thy aching +head,—that there is not a drop in all thy bitter cup but what a +God of love saw to be <i>absolutely</i> necessary! Wilt thou not trust Him, +even though thou canst not trace the mystery of His dealings? Not too +curiously prying into the “<i>Why</i> it is?” or “<i>How</i> it is?” but satisfied +that “So it is,” and, therefore that all <i>must</i> be well! “Although thou +sayest, thou canst not see Him, yet judgment is before Him, <i>therefore</i> +trust thou in Him!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<h2>17th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not +quench.”—<span class="smcap">Matt.</span> xii. 20.</p></div> + +<h3>Strength in the Weak.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t17.png" alt="Strength in the Weak." title="Strength in the Weak." /> +</div> +<p>Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine?—this erring, treacherous, +traitor heart? The past! how many forgotten vows—broken +covenants—prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and +as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and +the burning flax been well-nigh quenched by guilty omissions and +guiltier commissions! Oh! my soul! thou art low indeed,—the things that +remain seem “ready to die.” But thy Saviour-God will not give thee “over +unto death.” The reed is bruised; but He will not pluck it up by the +roots. The flax is reduced to a smoking ember; but He will fan the +decaying flame. Why wound thy loving Saviour’s +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +heart by these repeated declensions? He will not—<i>cannot</i> give +thee up. Go, mourn thy weakness and unbelief. Cry unto the Strong for +strength. Weary and faint one! thou hast an Omnipotent arm to lean on. +“<i>He</i> fainteth not, neither is weary!” Listen to His own gracious +assurance: “Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy +God. I will <i>strengthen</i> thee; yea, I will help thee with the right hand +of my righteousness!” Leaving all thy false props and refuges, be this +thy resolve: “In the Lord put I my trust: why say ye to my soul, Flee as +a bird to your mountain?”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<h2>18th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast +out.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> vi. 37.</p></div> + +<h3>Encouragement to the Desponding.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t18.png" alt="Encouragement to the Desponding." title="Encouragement to the Desponding." /> +</div> +<p>“Cast out!” My soul! how oft might this have been thy history! Thou +hast cast off thy God,—might He not oft have “cast out” thee? Yes! cast +thee out as fuel for the fire of His wrath,—a sapless, fruitless +cumberer. And yet, notwithstanding all thine ungrateful requital for His +unmerited forbearance, He is still declaring, “As I live, saith the +Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Thy sins may +be legion-like,—the sand of the sea may be their befitting type,—the +thought of their turpitude and aggravation may be ready to overwhelm +thee; but be still! thy patient God waits to be gracious! Oh! be deeply humbled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +and softened because of thy guilt, resolve to dedicate thyself anew to +His service, and so coming, “He will <i>by no means</i> cast thee out!” +Despond not by reason of former shortcomings,—thy sins are great, +but thy Saviour’s merits are greater. He is willing to forget all the +past, and sink it in oblivion, if there be present love, and the promise +of future obedience. “Simon, son of Jonas, <i>lovest thou me</i>?” Ah! how +different is God’s verdict from man’s! After such sins as thine, man’s +sentence would have been, “<i>I</i> will in nowise receive!” But “it is +better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of man;” for +He says, “I will in <i>nowise</i> cast out!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<h2>19th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world +giveth.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 27.</p></div> + +<h3>Peace in Believing.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t19.png" alt="Peace in Believing." title="Peace in Believing." /> +</div> +<p>“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” +“Perfect peace!”—what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it thine? Sure +I am it is <i>not</i>, if thou art seeking it in a perishable world, or in +the perishable creature, or in thy perishable self. Although thou hast +all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless thou hast peace +<i>in</i> God, and <i>with</i> God, all else is unworthy of the name;—a spurious +thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of +death utterly annihilate! Perfect peace! What is it? It is the peace of +forgiveness. It is the peace arising out of a sense of God reconciled +through the blood of the everlasting covenant,—resting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +sweetly on the bosom, and the work of Jesus,—to Him committing +thine eternal all. My soul! stay thyself on God, that so this blessed +peace may be thine. Thou hast tried the world. It has deceived thee. +Prop after prop of earthly scaffolding has yielded, and tottered, and +fallen. Has thy God ever done so? Ah! this false and counterfeit +world-peace may do well for the world’s work, and the world’s day of +prosperity. But test it in the hour of sorrow; and what can it do for +thee when most it is needed? On the other hand, what though thou hast no +other blessing on earth to call thine own? Thou art rich indeed, if thou +canst look upwards to Heaven, and say with “unpresumptuous smile,” “I am +at peace with God.”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<h2>20th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Blessed are the dead that die in the +Lord.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> xiv. 13.</p></div> + +<h3>Bliss in Dying.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t20.png" alt="Bliss in Dying." title="Bliss in Dying." /> +</div> +<p>My Soul! is this blessedness thine in prospect? Art thou ready, if +called this night to lie down on thy death-pillow, sweetly to fall +asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? It is sin. Is death, then, +to thee, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents +of pardoning love, “Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all +forgiven thee?” If thou hast made up thy peace with God, resting on the +work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested +of all his terror, and thou canst say, in sweet composure, of thy dying +couch and dying hour,—“I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, +because Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety!” Reader! ponder that +solemn question, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +“Am I ready to die? Am I living as I should wish I had done when that +last hour arrives?” And when shall it arrive? To-morrow is not thine. +“Verily, there may be but a step between thee and death.” Oh! solve the +question speedily,—risk no doubts and no peradventure. Every day +is proclaiming anew the lesson, “The race is not to the swift, nor the +battle to the strong.” Seek to live, so that that hour cannot come upon +thee too soon, or too unexpectedly. Live a dying life! How blessed to +live,—how blessed to die, with the consciousness, that there may +be but a step between thee and glory!</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<h2>21st Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“In due season we shall reap, if we faint +not.”—<span class="smcap">Gal.</span> vi. 9.</p></div> + +<h3>A Due Reaping.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t21.png" alt="A Due Reaping." title="A Due Reaping." /> +</div> +<p>Believer! all the glory of thy salvation belongs to Jesus,—none to +thyself; every jewel in thine eternal crown is His,—purchased by His +blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the +ascription of all eternity: “By the grace of God I am what I am!” But +though “all be of grace,” thy God calls thee to personal strenuousness +in the work of thy high calling;—to “labour,” to “fight,” to “wrestle,” +to “<i>agonize</i>;” and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the +earthly sowing: “He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; +and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully!” What an +incentive to holy living, and increased spiritual attainments! My soul! +wouldst thou +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +be a star shining high and bright in the firmament of +glory?—wouldst thou receive the ten-talent recompense? Then be not +weary. Gird on thine armour for fresh conquests. Be gaining daily some +new victory over sin. Deny thyself. Be a willing cross-bearer for thy +Lord’s sake. Do good to all men as thou hast opportunity; be patient +under provocation, “slow to wrath,” resigned in trial. Let the world +take knowledge of thee that thou art wearing Christ’s livery, and +bearing Christ’s spirit, and sharing Christ’s cross. And when the +reaping time comes, He who has promised that the cup of cold water +cannot go unrecompensed, will not suffer thee to lose thy reward!</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<h2>22d Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The days of thy mourning shall be +ended.”—<span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> lx. 20.</p></div> + +<h3>An End of Weeping.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t22.png" alt="An End of Weeping." title="An End of Weeping." /> +</div> +<p>Christ’s people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely +world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin—their +own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is +dishonoured—need we wonder at their tears?—that they should be called +“Mourners,” and their pilgrimage-home a “Valley of Tears?” Bereavement, +and sickness, and poverty, and death, following the track of sin, add to +their mourning experience; and with many of God’s best beloved, one tear +is scarce dried when another is ready to flow! Mourners! rejoice! When +the reaping time comes, the weeping time ends! When the white robe and +the golden harp are bestowed, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +every remnant of the sackcloth attire is +removed. The moment the pilgrim, whose forehead is here furrowed with +woe, bathes it in the crystal river of life,—that moment the pangs of a +lifetime of sorrow are eternally forgotten! Reader! if thou art one of +these careworn ones, the days of thy mourning are numbered! A few more +throbbings of this aching heart, and then the angel who proclaims +“time,” shall proclaim also, sorrow, and sighing, and mourning, to “be +no longer!” Seek now to mourn thy sins more than thy sorrows; reserve +thy bitterest tears for forgetfulness of thy dear Lord. The saddest and +sorest of all bereavements, is when the sins which have separated thee +from Him, evoke the anguish-cry, “Where is my God?”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<h2>23d Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Behold, I come quickly.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> iii. 11.</p></div> + +<h3>A Speedy Coming.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t23.png" alt="A Speedy Coming." title="A Speedy Coming." /> +</div> +<p>“Even so! come, Lord Jesus!” “Why tarry the wheels of Thy chariot?” Six +thousand years this world has rolled on, getting hoary with age, and +wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn +shadows of twilight announcing, “The Lord is at hand.” Prepare, my soul, +to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when thine adorable Redeemer, so long +dishonoured and despised, shall be publicly enthroned, in presence of an +assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, +satisfied in the fruits of His soul’s travail, destroying His enemies +with the brightness of His coming—the lightning-glance of +wrath,—causing the hearts of His exulting people to “rejoice with joy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +unspeakable and full of glory.” Prepare, my soul, to meet Him! Let it be +a joyous thought to thee,—thy “blessed hope,”—the meeting of thine +Elder Brother. Stand oftentimes on the watchtower to catch the first +streak of that coming brightness, the first murmur of these chariot +wheels. The world is now in preparation! It is rocking on its worn-out +axle. There are voices on every side proclaiming, “He cometh! He cometh! +to judge the earth.” Reader! art thou among the number of those who +“love His appearing?” Remember the attitude of His expectant saints: +“Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, will find +<span class="smcap">Watching</span>!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<h2>24th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“At evening-time it shall be +light.”—<span class="smcap">Zech.</span> xiv. 7.</p></div> + +<h3>Eventide Light.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t24.png" alt="Eventide Light." title="Eventide Light." /> +</div> +<p>How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our +sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of +“a world to come!” Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond +a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could +stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and +vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the “better country.” But, +alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar—the +spirit droops—guilty fears depress—sin dims and darkens—God’s +providences seem to frown—God’s ways are misinterpreted—the Christian +belies his name and his destiny. But, “At eventide it shall be light.”—The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +material sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled sky, sets often +in a couch of lustrous gold? So, when the sun of life is setting, many a +ray of light will shoot athwart memory’s darkened sky, and many +mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an “All is well!” +How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus especially +felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings hushed +with His own gentle accents, “Fear not! it is I; be not afraid.” A +triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lighted with +holy lustre, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven +were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life’s evening-tide be thine!</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<h2>25th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know +hereafter.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiii. 7.</p></div> + +<h3>Heavenly Illumination.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t25.png" alt="Heavenly Illumination." title="Heavenly Illumination." /> +</div> +<p>As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the +Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in +gloom. It is not <i>always</i> “light” at his evening-time; but this we know, +that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth’s +shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence +may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on +heaven’s chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! “in God’s light thou +shalt see light;” the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now,—“A +great deep” is all the explanation thou canst often give to His +judgments; the <i>why</i> and the <i>wherefore</i> He seems to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +keep from us, to test our faith, to discipline us in trustful +submission, and lead us to say, “Thy will be done!” But rejoice in that +hereafter-light which awaits thee! Now we see through a glass darkly; +but <i>then</i>, face to face. In the great mirror of eternity all the events +of this chequered scene will be reflected; the darkest of them will be +seen to be bright with mercy,—the severest dispensations, “only +the severer aspects of His love!” Pry not, then, too curiously; +pronounce not too censoriously on God’s dealings with thee. Wait with +patience till the grand day of disclosures; one confession shall then +burst from every tongue, “Righteous art thou, O Lord!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<h2>26th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, +there ye may be also.”—<span class="smcap">John</span> xiv. 3.</p></div> + +<h3>A Glorious Reunion.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t26.png" alt="A Glorious Reunion." title="A Glorious Reunion." /> +</div> +<p>If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a +joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this +Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! “I will come again!” Oh! +what an errand of love, what a promised honour and dignity is this!—His +saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. “Where +<i>I am, there ye</i> shall be also!” “Father, I <i>will</i> (it was His dying +wish,—a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer) that those whom +Thou hast given me be with me where <i>I am</i>.” Happy reunion! Blessed +Saviour, if Thy presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when +known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +be that presence in +a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory! +Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family—the +Head with all its members—the Vine with all its branches—the Shepherd +with all His flock—the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, +too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided—ties snapt asunder +on earth, indissolubly renewed—severed friendships reunited—the +triumph of love complete—love binding brother with brother, and friend +with friend, and <i>all</i> to the Elder Brother! My soul! what thinkest thou +of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him +upon His throne,—“Him that overcometh.”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<h2>27th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“And I will betroth thee unto Me for +ever.”—<span class="smcap">Hosea</span> ii. 19.</p></div> + +<h3>Everlasting Espousals.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t27.png" alt="Everlasting Espousals." title="Everlasting Espousals." /> +</div> +<p>How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express +the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath +“married thee!” Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back +into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and +there, thine espousals were contracted: “I have loved thee with an +everlasting love.” Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent +Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. +“The Bridegroom tarrieth;” but see that thou dost not slumber and sleep! +Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the +burning lamps. At “midnight!” (the hour when He is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +least expected) the cry <i>may</i> be—<i>shall</i> be heard,—“Behold, +the Bridegroom cometh!” My soul! has this mystic union been formed +between thee and thy Lord? Canst thou say, in humble assurance of thine +affiance in Him, “My beloved is mine, and I am His!” If so, great, +unspeakably great, are the glories which await thee! Thy dowry, as the +bride of Christ, is all that Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a +feeble creature can receive. In the prospect of those glorious nuptials, +thou needest dread no pang of widowhood. What God has joined together, +no created power can take asunder; He betroths thee, and it is “for +ever!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<h2>28th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“This corruptible must put on +incorruption.”—<span class="smcap">1 Cor.</span> xv. 53.</p></div> + +<h3>A Joyful Resurrection.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t28.png" alt="A Joyful Resurrection." title="A Joyful Resurrection." /> +</div> +<p>Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the +tones of the archangel’s trumpet!—the dishonoured dust, rising a +glorified body, like its risen Lord’s? At death, the soul’s bliss is +perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until +reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of +the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, +because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in +the redemption price of Calvary; and “them also which sleep in Jesus +will God bring with Him.” Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when +Christ’s “dead men shall arise;”—when, together with His dead body, +they shall come; and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +summons shall sound forth, “Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!” +All the joys of that resurrection morn we cannot tell; but its chief +glory we <i>do</i> know,—“When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; +for we shall see Him as He is.” Like Him!—My soul, art thou +waiting this manifestation of the sons of God? Like Him!—Hast thou +caught up any faint resemblance to that all-glorious image? Having this +hope in thee, art thou purifying thyself, even as He is pure? Be much +with Jesus now, that thou mayst exult in meeting Him hereafter. Thus +taking Him as thy Guide and Portion in life, thou mayst lay thee down in +thy dark and noisome cell, and look forward with triumphant hope to the +dawn of a resurrection morn, saying, “What time I awake, I am still with +Thee!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<h2>29th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“There shall be no night +there.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> xxi. 25.</p></div> + +<h3>A Nightless Heaven.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t29.png" alt="A Nightless Heaven." title="A Nightless Heaven." /> +</div> +<p>My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these +midnight tossings on life’s tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is +breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. “His going forth is prepared as +the morning.” That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and +usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. “Thy sun shall no +more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall +be thine everlasting light.” Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a +nightless world!—the glories of a present God!—the everlasting light +of the Three in One, quenching the radiance of all created +orbs—superseding all material luminaries. “My soul waiteth for the Lord +more than they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +that watch for the morning!” The haven is nearing—star after star +is quenched in more glorious effulgence—every bound over these +dark waves is bringing thee nearer the eternal shore. Wilt thou not, +then, humbly and patiently endure “weeping for the night,” in the +prospect of the “joy that cometh in the morning?” Strange realities! a +world without night—a firmament without a sun; and, greater wonder +still, <i>thyself</i> in this world,—a joyful denizen of this +nightless, sinless, sorrowless, tearless Heaven!—basking +underneath the Fountain of uncreated light! No exhaustion of glorified +body and spirit to require repose; no lassitude or weariness to suspend +the ever-deepening song: “They <i>rest not</i>!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<h2>30th Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of +glory that fadeth not away.”—<span class="smcap">1 Peter</span> v. 4.</p></div> + +<h3>A Crown of Life.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t30.png" alt="A Crown of Life." title="A Crown of Life." /> +</div> +<p>What! is the beggar to be “raised from the dunghill, set among princes, +and made to inherit a throne of glory?” is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, +a guilty traitor, to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths +of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven—gifted with kingly +honour—royally fed—royally clothed—royally attended—and, at last, +royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day +of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall +be the dispenser of royal diadems to His people; and when they shall +begin the joyful ascription of all eternity, “Unto Him that loved us and +washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Kings</span>——; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. +Amen.” Wilt thou not be among the number? Shall the princes and monarchs +of the earth wade through seas of blood for a corruptible crown; and +wilt thou permit thyself to lose the incorruptible, or barter it for +some perishable nothings of earth? Oh! that thou wouldst awake to thy +high destiny, and live up to thy transcendant privileges as the citizen +of a Kingly Commonwealth, a member of the blood-royal of Heaven. What +wouldst thou not sacrifice,—what effort wouldst thou grudge, if +thou wert included at last in the gracious benediction, “Come, ye +blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the +foundation of the world?”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<h2>31st Day.</h2> + +<p class="faithful">“He is Faithful that Promised.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more +death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more +pain: for the former things are passed away.”—<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> xxi. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<h3>The Vision and Fruition of God.</h3> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/t31.png" alt="The Vision and Fruition of God." title="The Vision and Fruition of God." /> +</div> +<p>Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but +emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre +to which every ray of light converges. God is “all in all.” Heaven +<i>without God</i>!—it would send a thrill of dismay through the burning +ranks of angels and archangels; it would dim every eye, and hush every +harp, and change the whitest robe into sackcloth. And shall I then, +indeed, “<i>see God</i>?” What! shall I gaze on these inscrutable glories, +and live? Yes, God himself shall be with them, and be their God: they +shall “<i>see his face</i>!” And not only the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +vision, but the <i>fruition</i>. Oh! how does sin in my holiest moments damp +the enjoyment of Him! It is the “pure in heart” alone who can “see,” far +more, who can enjoy “God.” Even if he did reveal himself <i>now</i>, these +eyes could never endure His intolerable brightness. But <i>then</i>, with a +heart purified from corruption—a world where the taint of sin and +the power of temptation never enters—the soul again a bright +mirror, reflecting the lost image of the Godhead—all the +affections devoted to their original high destiny—the love of God +the motive principle, the ruling passion—the glory of God the +undivided object and aim—the will no opposing or antagonist +bias,—man will, for the first time, know all the blessedness of +his chief end,—“to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever!”</p> + +<p class="remember">“<span class="smaller">REMEMBER</span> <i>THIS</i> +<span class="smaller">WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED +ME TO HOPE</span>!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="bordered" src="images/promise.png" + alt="All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen." + title="All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen." /> +<p class="hidden caption">All the Promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen.</p> +</div> + +<div class="tnotes"> + +<p><b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></p> + +<p>Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected.</p> + +<p>11th Day: For consistency, “bypast” has been changed to “by-past”.</p> + +<p>16th Day: For consistency, “<span class="smcap">1 Peter</span> 1. 6.” +has been changed to “<span class="smcap">1 Peter</span> i. 6.”</p> + +<p>30th Day: The spelling of “transcendant” has been retained.</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Faithful Promiser, by John Ross Macduff + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITHFUL PROMISER *** + +***** This file should be named 27344-h.htm or 27344-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/3/4/27344/ + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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index 0000000..598ccc7 --- /dev/null +++ b/27344-h/images/title.png diff --git a/27344.txt b/27344.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6eca20 --- /dev/null +++ b/27344.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1607 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Faithful Promiser, by John Ross Macduff + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Faithful Promiser + +Author: John Ross Macduff + +Release Date: November 28, 2008 [EBook #27344] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITHFUL PROMISER *** + + + + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + THE FAITHFUL PROMISER. + + + By the Author of + + "THE WORDS OF JESUS," + "THE MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," + ETC. + + +"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great + and precious promises."--2 Pet. i. 4. + + + NEW YORK: + STANFORD & DELISSER, + No. 508, BROADWAY. + 1858. + + + + +The Faithful Promiser. + + +It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child of God, to +take, night by night, an individual promise and plead it at the +mercy-seat. Often are our prayers _pointless_, from not following, in +this respect, the example of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the Royal +Promise pleader, who delighted to direct his finger to some particular +"word" of the Faithful Promiser, saying, "Remember Thy word unto Thy +servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope!" + +The following are a few gleanings from the Promise Treasury,--a few +crumbs from "the Master's Table," which may serve to help the thoughts +in the hour of closet meditation, or the season of sorrow. + + ST. M----, + _December_, 1849. + + + + +1ST DAY OF MONTH. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins + be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red + like crimson, they shall be as wool."--ISAIAH i. 18. + +Pardoning Grace. + + +My soul! thy God summons thee to His audience chamber! Infinite purity +seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! +Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as wondrous of +all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best +tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear: "God is in Christ +reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their +trespasses." What! _Scarlet_ sins, and _crimson_ sins! and these all to +be forgiven and forgotten! The just God "justifying" the unjust!--the +mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all! Oh! what is there in thee +to merit such love as this? Thou mightest have known thy God only as the +"consuming fire," and had nothing before thee save "a fearful looking +for of vengeance!" This gracious conference bids thee dispel thy fears! +It tells thee it is no longer a "fearful," but a _blessed_ thing to fall +into His hands? Hast thou closed with these His overtures? Until thou +art at peace with Him, happiness must be a stranger to thy bosom. Though +thou hast all else beside, bereft of God thou must be "bereft indeed." +Lord! I come! As thy pardoning grace is freely tendered, so shall I +freely accept it. May it be mine, even now, to listen to the gladdening +accents, "Son! Daughter! be of good cheer! thy sins, which are many, are +all forgiven thee." + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +2D DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."--DEUT. xxxiii. 25. + +Needful Grace. + + +God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes. But when it +_does_ come, the amount of grace, and the nature of the special grace +required is vouchsafed. My soul, do not dwell with painful apprehension +on the future. Do not anticipate coming sorrows; perplexing thyself with +the grace needed for future emergencies; to-morrow will bring its +promised grace along with to-morrow's trials. God, wishing to keep His +people humble, and dependent on himself, gives not a stock of grace; He +metes it out for every day's exigencies, that they may be constantly +"travelling between their own emptiness and Christ's fulness"--their own +weakness and Christ's strength. But _when_ the exigency comes, thou +mayest safely trust an Almighty arm to bear thee through! Is there now +some "thorn in the flesh" sent to lacerate thee? Thou mayest have been +entreating the Lord for its removal. Thy prayer has, doubtless, been +heard and answered; but not in the way, perhaps, expected or desired by +thee. The "thorn" may still be left to goad, the trial may still be left +to buffet; but "more grace" has been given to endure them. Oh! how often +have His people thus been led to glory in their infirmities and triumph +in their afflictions, seeing the power of Christ rests more abundantly +upon them! The strength which the hour of trial brings, often makes the +Christian a wonder to himself! + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +3D DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always + having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good + work."--2 COR. ix. 8. + +All-Sufficient Grace. + + +"All-sufficiency in all things!" Believer! surely thou art "thoroughly +furnished!" Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a +glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never +empty. A fountain, "full, flowing, _ever_ flowing, _over_flowing." Mark +these three ALL's in this precious promise. It is a three-fold link in a +golden chain, let down from a throne of grace by a God of grace. +"_All-grace!_"--"_all-sufficiency!_" in "_all things!_" and these to +"abound." Oh! precious thought! My want cannot impoverish that +inexhaustible treasury of grace! Myriads are hourly hanging on it, and +drawing from it, and yet there is no diminution: "Out of that fulness +all we too may receive, and grace for grace!" My soul, dost not thou +love to dwell on that all-abounding grace? Thine own insufficiency in +every thing, met with an "all-sufficiency in all things!" Grace in all +circumstances and situations, in all vicissitudes and changes, in all +the varied phases of the Christian's being. Grace in sunshine and +storm--in health and in sickness--in life and in death. Grace for the +old believer and the young believer, the tried believer, and the weak +believer, and the tempted believer. Grace _for_ duty, and grace _in_ +duty,--grace to carry the joyous cup with a steady hand,--grace to drink +the bitter cup with an unmurmuring spirit,--grace to have prosperity +sanctified,--grace to say, through tears, "Thy will be done!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +4TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to + you."--JOHN xiv. 18. + +Comforting Grace. + + +Blessed Jesus! How thy presence sanctifies trial, takes loneliness from +the chamber of sickness, and the sting from the chamber of death! Bright +and Morning Star! precious at all times, thou art never _so_ precious as +in "the dark and cloudy day!" The bitterness of sorrow is well worth +enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man +of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou +who didst shed so many thyself! What are _my_ tears--my sorrows--my +crosses--my losses, compared with Thine, who didst shed first Thy tears, +and then Thy blood for _me_! Mine are all deserved, and infinitely more +than deserved. How different, O Spotless Lamb of God, those pangs which +rent Thy guiltless bosom! How sweet those comforts Thou hast promised to +the comfortless, when I think of them as flowing from an Almighty +_Fellow-Sufferer_,--"A brother born for adversity,"--the "Friend that +sticketh closer than any brother!"--one who can say, with all the +refined sympathies of a holy exalted human nature, "I know your +sorrows!" My soul! calm thy griefs! There is not a sorrow thou canst +experience, but Jesus, in the treasury of grace, has an exact +corresponding solace: "In the multitude of the _sorrows_ I have in my +heart, Thy _comforts_ delight my soul!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +5TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as + wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail + not."--LUKE xxii. 31, 32. + +Restraining Grace. + + +What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting--Jesus praying! Satan +sifting--Jesus pleading! "The strong man assailing"--"the stronger than +the strong" beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and +present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding +Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, "Thus far +shalt thou go, and no farther?" God often permits His people to be on +the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; +_but never farther than the verge!_ The restraining hand and grace of +Omnipotence is ready to rescue them. "Although he fall, yet shall he not +be cast down utterly; and why? for the Lord upholdeth him with His right +hand!" The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do when +the Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that +"neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Who cannot subscribe to the testimony, +"When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord! held me up?" Who can look back +on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with Ebenezers, with +this inscription: "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes +from tears, and my feet from falling?" My soul, where wouldst thou have +been this day, hadst thou not been "_kept_" by the power of God? + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +6TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "I will heal their backsliding."--HOSEA xiv. 4. + +Restoring Grace. + + +Wandering again! And has He not left me to perish? Stumbling and +straying on the dark mountains, away from the Shepherd's eye and the +Shepherd's fold, shall He not leave the erring wanderer to the fruit of +his own ways, and his truant heart to go hopelessly onward in its career +of guilty estrangement? "My thoughts," says God, "are not as your +thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." Man would say, "Go, perish! +ungrateful apostate!" God says, "Return, ye backsliding children!" The +Shepherd _will_ not, _cannot_ suffer the sheep to perish He has +purchased with His own blood. How wondrous His forbearance towards +it!--tracking its guilty steps, and ceasing not the pursuit till He lays +the wanderer on His shoulders, and returns with it to His fold +rejoicing! My soul! why increase by farther departures thine own +distance from the fold?--why lengthen the dreary road thy gracious +Shepherd has to traverse in bringing thee back? Delay not thy return! +Provoke no longer His patience; venture no farther on forbidden ground. +He waits with outstretched arms to welcome thee once more to His bosom. +Be humble for the past, trust Him for the future. Think of thy former +backslidings, and tremble; think of His forbearance, and be filled with +holy gratitude; think of His promised grace, "and take courage." + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +7TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the + day of Jesus Christ."--PHIL. i. 6. + +Sanctifying Grace. + + +Reader! is the good work begun in thee? Art thou holy? Is sin +crucifying? Are thy heart's idols, one by one abolished? Is the world +less to thee, and eternity more to thee? Is more of thy Saviour's image +impressed on thy character, and thy Saviour's love more enthroned in thy +heart? Is "Salvation" to thee more "the one thing needful?" Oh! take +heed! there can be no middle ground, no standing still; or if it be so, +thy position must be a false one. The Saviour's blood is not more +necessary to give thee a title to Heaven, than His Spirit to give thee a +meetness for it. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is _none +of His_!" "Onwards!" should be thy motto. There is no standing still in +the life of faith. "The man," says Augustine, "who says '_Enough_,' that +man's soul is lost?" Let this be the superscription in all thy ways and +doings, "Holiness to the Lord." Let the monitory word exercise over thee +its habitual power, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." +Moreover, remember, that to be holy, is to be happy. The two are +convertible terms. Holiness! It is the secret and spring of the joy of +angels; and the more of holiness attained on earth--the nearer and +closer my walk is with God--the more of a sweet earnest shall I have of +the bliss that awaits me in a holy Heaven. Oh! my soul, let it be thy +sacred ambition to "Be holy!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +8TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they + shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be + weary; they shall walk, and not faint."--ISAIAH xl. 31. + +Reviving Grace. + + +"Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" My soul! art thou conscious of thy +declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? +Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,--diminished +communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has +been?--the pulsations of spiritual life more languid, and fitful, and +spasmodic?--the bread of life less relished?--the seen, and the +temporal, and the tangible, displacing the unseen and eternal? Art thou +sinking down into this state of drowsy self-contentment, this +conformity-life with the world, forfeiting all the happiness of true +religion, and risking and endangering the better life to come? Arise! +call upon thy God! "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" He might have +returned nothing but the withering repulse, "How often would I have +gathered thee; but thou wouldst not!" "Ephraim is joined to his idols; +let him alone!" But "in wrath He remembers mercy." "They _shall_ revive +as the corn." "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." How and where is +reviving grace to be found? He gives thee, in this precious promise, the +key. It is on thy bended _knees_--by a return to thy deserted and +unfrequented chamber! "_They that wait upon the Lord!_" "Wait on the +Lord; be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I +say, on the Lord!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +9TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "The righteous shall hold on his way."--JOB xvii. 9. + +Persevering Grace. + + +Reader! how comforting to thee amid the ebbings and flowings of thy +changing history, to know that the change is all with thee, and not with +thy God! Thy spiritual bark may be tossed on waves of temptation, in +many a dark midnight. Thou mayest think thy pilot hath left thee, and be +ready continually to say, "Where is my God?" But fear not! The bark +which bears thy spiritual destinies is in better hands than thine; a +golden chain of covenant love links it to the eternal throne! That chain +can never snap asunder. He who holds it in His hand gives thee _this_ as +the pledge of thy safety,--"Because I live, ye shall live also." "Why +art thou then cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within +me? _hope thou in God!_" Thou wilt assuredly ride out these stormy +surges, and reach the desired haven. But be faithful with thyself: see +that there be nothing to hinder or impede thy growth in grace. Think how +little may retard thy progress. One sin indulged--one temptation +tampered with--one bosom traitor, may cost thee many a bitter hour and +bitter tear, by separating between thee and thy God. Make it thy daily +prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my +thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the +way everlasting." + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +10TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "I have the keys of hell and of death."--REV. i. 18. + +Dying Grace. + + +And from whom could dying grace come so welcome, as from Thee, O +blessed Jesus? Not only is Thy name, "The Abolisher of Death;" but Thou +didst thyself _die_! Thou hast sanctified the grave by Thine own +presence, and divested it of all its terrors. My soul! art thou at times +afraid of this, thy last enemy? If the rest of thy pilgrimage-way be +peaceful and unclouded, rests there a dark and portentous shadow over +the terminating portals? Fear not! When that dismal entrance is reached, +He who has "the keys of the grave and of death" suspended at His golden +girdle, will impart grace to bear thee through. It is the messenger of +peace. Thy Saviour calls thee! The promptings of nature, when, at first, +thou seest the darkening waves, may be that of the affrighted disciples, +when they said, "It is a spirit, and cried out for fear!" But a gentle +voice will be heard high above the storm, "It is I! Be not afraid!" +Death, indeed, as the wages of sin, must, even by the believer, be +regarded as an enemy. But, oh! blessed thought, it is thy _last_ +enemy--the cause of thy last tear. In a few brief moments after that +tear is shed, thy God will be wiping every vestige of it away? "O Death! +where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, +who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Welcome, +vanquished foe!--Birthday of heaven!--"to die is gain!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +11TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "The Lord will give grace and glory."--PSALM lxxxiv. 11. + +After Grace, Glory. + + +Oh! happy day, when this toilsome warfare will all be ended, Jordan +crossed, Canaan entered, the legion-enemies of the wilderness no longer +dreaded; sorrow, sighing, death, and, worst of all, _sin_, no more +either to be felt or feared! Here is the terminating link in the golden +chain of the everlasting covenant. It began with _predestination_; it +ends with _glorification_. It began with sovereign grace in a by-past +eternity, and no link will be awanting till the ransomed spirit be +presented faultless before the throne! Grace and glory! If the earnest +be sweet, what must be the reality? If the wilderness table contain such +rich provision, what must be the glories of the eternal banqueting +house? Oh! my soul, make sure of thine interest in the one, as the +blessed prelude to the other. "Having access by faith into this _grace_, +thou canst rejoice in hope of the _glory_ of God;" for "whom He +_justifies_, them He also _glorifies_!" Has grace begun in thee? Canst +thou mark--though it should be but the drops of the incipient rill which +is to terminate in such an ocean--the tiny grains which are to +accumulate and issue in such "an exceeding weight of glory!" Delay not +the momentous question! The day of offered grace is on the wing; its +hours are fast numbering; and, "No grace, no glory!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +12TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, + that He may abide with you for ever."--JOHN xiv. 16. + +Another Comforter. + + +Blessed Spirit of all grace! how oft have I grieved Thee! resisted Thy +dealings, quenched Thy strivings; and yet art thou still pleading with +me! Oh! let me realize more than I do the need of Thy gracious +influences. Ordinances, sermons, communions, providential dispensations, +are nothing without Thy life-giving power. "It is the Spirit that +quickeneth." "No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." +Church of the living God! is not this one cause of thy deadness? My +soul! is not this the secret of thy languishing frames, repeated +declensions, uneven walk, and sudden falls, that the influences of the +Holy Ghost are undervalued and unsought? Pray for the outpouring of this +blessed Agent for the world's renovation, and thine own. "I will pour +out my Spirit on all flesh," is the precursor of millennial bliss. +Jesus! draw near, in thy mercy, to this torpid heart, as thou didst of +old to thy mourning disciples, and breathe upon it, and say, "Receive ye +the Holy Ghost." It is the mightiest of all boons; but, like the sun in +the heavens, it is the freest of all: "For if ye, being evil, know how +to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father +in heaven give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +13TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them + who are the called according to His purpose."--ROM. viii. 28. + +Providential Overruling. + + +My soul! be still! thou art in the hands of thy Covenant God. Were +these strange vicissitudes in thy history the result of accident, or +chance, thou mightest well be overwhelmed; but "_all things_," and +_this_ thing (be what it may) which may be now disquieting thee, is +_one_ of these "_all things_" that are _so_ working mysteriously for thy +good. Trust thy God! He will not deceive thee,--thy interests are with +Him in safe custody. When sight says, "All these things are against me," +let faith rebuke the hasty conclusion, and say, "Shall not the Judge of +all the earth do right?" How often does God hedge up our way with +thorns, to elicit simple trust! How seldom can we _see_ all things so +working for our good! But it is better discipline to _believe_ it. Oh! +for faith amid frowning providences, to say, "I _know_ that thy +judgments are good;" and, relying in the dark, to exclaim, "Though He +slay me, yet will I trust Him!" Blessed Jesus! to thee are committed the +reins of this universal empire. The same hand that was once nailed to +the cross, is now wielding the sceptre on the throne,--"all power given +unto thee in heaven and in earth." How can I doubt the wisdom, and +faithfulness, and love, of the most mysterious earthly dealing, when I +know that the Roll of Providence is thus in the hands of Him who has +given the mightiest pledge Omnipotence _could_ give of His tender +interest in my soul's well-being, by giving _Himself_ for me? + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +14TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "All the Paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep + His covenant and His testimonies."--PSALM xxv. 10. + +Safe Walking. + + +The paths of the Lord? My soul! never follow thine own paths. If thou +dost so, thou wilt be in danger often of following sight rather than +faith,--choosing the evil, and refusing the good. But "commit thy way +unto the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass." Let this be thy prayer, +"Show me _Thy_ ways, O Lord; teach me _Thy_ paths." Oh! for Caleb's +spirit, "_wholly_ to follow the Lord my God,"--to follow Him when self +must be sacrificed, and hardship must be borne, and trials await me. To +"walk with God,"--to ask in simple faith, "What wouldst thou have me to +do?"--to have no will of my own, save this, that God's will is to be +_my_ will. Here is safety,--here is happiness. Fearlessly follow the +Guiding Pillar. He will lead you by a _right_ way, though it may be by a +way of hardship, and crosses, and losses, and privations, to the city of +habitation. Oh! the blessedness of thus lying passive in the hands of +God; saying, "Undertake thou for me!"--dwelling with holy gratitude on +past mercies and interpositions--taking these as pledges of future +faithfulness and love--hearing His voice behind us, amid life's manifold +perplexities, exclaiming, "This is the way, walk ye in it!" "Happy," +surely, "are every people who are in such a case!" Happy, Reader! will +it be for thee, if thou canst form the resolve in a strength greater +than thine own: "This God shall be _my_ God for ever and ever; He shall +be my _Guide_ even unto death!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +15TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten."--REV. iii. 19. + +Love in Chastisement. + + +Sorrowing Believer! what couldst thou wish more than this? Thy furnace +is severe; but look at this assurance of Him who lighted it. Love is the +fuel that feeds its flames! Its every spark is love! Kindled by a +Father's hand, and designed as a special pledge of a Father's love. How +many of his dear children has He so rebuked and chastened; and all, +_all_ for one reason, "_I love them!_" The myriads in glory have passed +through these furnace-fires,--_there_ they were chosen,--_there_ they +were purified, sanctified, and made "vessels meet for the Master's use;" +the dross and the alloy purged, that the pure metal might remain. And +art thou to claim exemption from the same discipline? Art thou to think +it strange concerning these same fiery trials that may be trying thee? +Rather exult in them as thine adoption-privilege. Envy not those who are +strangers to the refining flames,--who are "_without chastisement_;" +rather, surely, the severest discipline _with_ a _Father's love_, than +the fullest earthly cup without that Father's smile. Oh! for grace to +say, when the furnace is hottest, and the rod sorest, "Even so, +_Father_!" And what, after all, is the severest of thy chastisements in +comparison with what thy sins have deserved? Dost thou murmur under a +Father's correcting love? What would it have been to have stood the +wrath of an unpropitiated Judge, and that, too, _for ever_? Surely, in +the light of eternity, the heaviest pang of earth is indeed "a light +affliction!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +16TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "If need be."--1 PETER i. 6. + +A Condition in Chastisement. + + +Three gracious words! Not one of all my tears shed for nought! Not one +stroke of the rod unheeded, or that might have been spared? Thy heavenly +Father loves thee too much, and too tenderly, to bestow harsher +correction than thy case requires? Is it loss of health, or loss of +wealth, or loss of beloved friends? Be still! there was a _need be_. We +are no judges of what that "need be" is; often through aching hearts we +are forced to exclaim, "Thy judgments are a great deep!" But God here +pledges himself, that there will not be one redundant thorn in the +believer's chaplet of suffering. No burden too heavy will be laid on +him; and no sacrifice too great exacted _from_ him. He will "temper the +wind to the shorn lamb." Whenever the "need be" has accomplished its +end, then the rod is removed--the chastisement suspended--the furnace +quenched. "If need be!" Oh! what a pillow on which to rest thy aching +head,--that there is not a drop in all thy bitter cup but what a God of +love saw to be _absolutely_ necessary! Wilt thou not trust Him, even +though thou canst not trace the mystery of His dealings? Not too +curiously prying into the "_Why_ it is?" or "_How_ it is?" but satisfied +that "So it is," and, therefore that all _must_ be well! "Although thou +sayest, thou canst not see Him, yet judgment is before Him, _therefore_ +trust thou in Him!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +17TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not + quench."--MATT. xii. 20. + +Strength in the Weak. + + +Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine?--this erring, treacherous, +traitor heart? The past! how many forgotten vows--broken +covenants--prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and +as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and +the burning flax been well-nigh quenched by guilty omissions and +guiltier commissions! Oh! my soul! thou art low indeed,--the things that +remain seem "ready to die." But thy Saviour-God will not give thee "over +unto death." The reed is bruised; but He will not pluck it up by the +roots. The flax is reduced to a smoking ember; but He will fan the +decaying flame. Why wound thy loving Saviour's heart by these repeated +declensions? He will not--_cannot_ give thee up. Go, mourn thy weakness +and unbelief. Cry unto the Strong for strength. Weary and faint one! +thou hast an Omnipotent arm to lean on. "_He_ fainteth not, neither is +weary!" Listen to His own gracious assurance: "Fear not, for I am with +thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will _strengthen_ thee; yea, +I will help thee with the right hand of my righteousness!" Leaving all +thy false props and refuges, be this thy resolve: "In the Lord put I my +trust: why say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +18TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast + out."--JOHN vi. 37. + +Encouragement to the Desponding. + + +"Cast out!" My soul! how oft might this have been thy history! Thou +hast cast off thy God,--might He not oft have "cast out" thee? Yes! cast +thee out as fuel for the fire of His wrath,--a sapless, fruitless +cumberer. And yet, notwithstanding all thine ungrateful requital for His +unmerited forbearance, He is still declaring, "As I live, saith the +Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." Thy sins may +be legion-like,--the sand of the sea may be their befitting type,--the +thought of their turpitude and aggravation may be ready to overwhelm +thee; but be still! thy patient God waits to be gracious! Oh! be deeply +humbled and softened because of thy guilt, resolve to dedicate thyself +anew to His service, and so coming, "He will _by no means_ cast thee +out!" Despond not by reason of former shortcomings,--thy sins are great, +but thy Saviour's merits are greater. He is willing to forget all the +past, and sink it in oblivion, if there be present love, and the promise +of future obedience. "Simon, son of Jonas, _lovest thou me_?" Ah! how +different is God's verdict from man's! After such sins as thine, man's +sentence would have been, "_I_ will in nowise receive!" But "it is +better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of man;" for +He says, "I will in _nowise_ cast out!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +19TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world + giveth."--JOHN xiv. 27. + +Peace in Believing. + + +"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." +"Perfect peace!"--what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it thine? Sure +I am it is _not_, if thou art seeking it in a perishable world, or in +the perishable creature, or in thy perishable self. Although thou hast +all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless thou hast peace +_in_ God, and _with_ God, all else is unworthy of the name;--a spurious +thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of +death utterly annihilate! Perfect peace! What is it? It is the peace of +forgiveness. It is the peace arising out of a sense of God reconciled +through the blood of the everlasting covenant,--resting sweetly on the +bosom, and the work of Jesus,--to Him committing thine eternal all. My +soul! stay thyself on God, that so this blessed peace may be thine. Thou +hast tried the world. It has deceived thee. Prop after prop of earthly +scaffolding has yielded, and tottered, and fallen. Has thy God ever done +so? Ah! this false and counterfeit world-peace may do well for the +world's work, and the world's day of prosperity. But test it in the hour +of sorrow; and what can it do for thee when most it is needed? On the +other hand, what though thou hast no other blessing on earth to call +thine own? Thou art rich indeed, if thou canst look upwards to Heaven, +and say with "unpresumptuous smile," "I am at peace with God." + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +20TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."--REV. xiv. 13. + +Bliss in Dying. + + +My Soul! is this blessedness thine in prospect? Art thou ready, if +called this night to lie down on thy death-pillow, sweetly to fall +asleep in Jesus? What is the sting of death? It is sin. Is death, then, +to thee, robbed of its sting, by having listened to the gracious accents +of pardoning love, "Be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all +forgiven thee?" If thou hast made up thy peace with God, resting on the +work and atoning blood of His dear Son, then is the Last Enemy divested +of all his terror, and thou canst say, in sweet composure, of thy dying +couch and dying hour,--"I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, +because Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety!" Reader! ponder that +solemn question, "Am I ready to die? Am I living as I should wish I had +done when that last hour arrives?" And when shall it arrive? To-morrow +is not thine. "Verily, there may be but a step between thee and death." +Oh! solve the question speedily,--risk no doubts and no peradventure. +Every day is proclaiming anew the lesson, "The race is not to the swift, +nor the battle to the strong." Seek to live, so that that hour cannot +come upon thee too soon, or too unexpectedly. Live a dying life! How +blessed to live,--how blessed to die, with the consciousness, that there +may be but a step between thee and glory! + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +21ST DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not."--GAL. vi. 9. + +A Due Reaping. + + +Believer! all the glory of thy salvation belongs to Jesus,--none to +thyself; every jewel in thine eternal crown is His,--purchased by His +blood, and polished by His Spirit. The confession of time will be the +ascription of all eternity: "By the grace of God I am what I am!" But +though "all be of grace," thy God calls thee to personal strenuousness +in the work of thy high calling;--to "labour," to "fight," to "wrestle," +to "_agonize_;" and the heavenly reaping will be in proportion to the +earthly sowing: "He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; +and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully!" What an +incentive to holy living, and increased spiritual attainments! My soul! +wouldst thou be a star shining high and bright in the firmament of +glory?--wouldst thou receive the ten-talent recompense? Then be not +weary. Gird on thine armour for fresh conquests. Be gaining daily some +new victory over sin. Deny thyself. Be a willing cross-bearer for thy +Lord's sake. Do good to all men as thou hast opportunity; be patient +under provocation, "slow to wrath," resigned in trial. Let the world +take knowledge of thee that thou art wearing Christ's livery, and +bearing Christ's spirit, and sharing Christ's cross. And when the +reaping time comes, He who has promised that the cup of cold water +cannot go unrecompensed, will not suffer thee to lose thy reward! + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +22D DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "The days of thy mourning shall be ended."--ISAIAH lx. 20. + +An End of Weeping. + + +Christ's people are a weeping band, though there be much in this lovely +world to make them joyous and happy. Yet when they think of sin--their +own sin, and the unblushing sins of a world in which their God is +dishonoured--need we wonder at their tears?--that they should be called +"Mourners," and their pilgrimage-home a "Valley of Tears?" Bereavement, +and sickness, and poverty, and death, following the track of sin, add to +their mourning experience; and with many of God's best beloved, one tear +is scarce dried when another is ready to flow! Mourners! rejoice! When +the reaping time comes, the weeping time ends! When the white robe and +the golden harp are bestowed, every remnant of the sackcloth attire is +removed. The moment the pilgrim, whose forehead is here furrowed with +woe, bathes it in the crystal river of life,--that moment the pangs of a +lifetime of sorrow are eternally forgotten! Reader! if thou art one of +these careworn ones, the days of thy mourning are numbered! A few more +throbbings of this aching heart, and then the angel who proclaims +"time," shall proclaim also, sorrow, and sighing, and mourning, to "be +no longer!" Seek now to mourn thy sins more than thy sorrows; reserve +thy bitterest tears for forgetfulness of thy dear Lord. The saddest and +sorest of all bereavements, is when the sins which have separated thee +from Him, evoke the anguish-cry, "Where is my God?" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +23D DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "Behold, I come quickly."--REV. iii. 11. + +A Speedy Coming. + + +"Even so! come, Lord Jesus!" "Why tarry the wheels of Thy chariot?" Six +thousand years this world has rolled on, getting hoary with age, and +wrinkled with sins and sorrows. A waiting Church sees the long-drawn +shadows of twilight announcing, "The Lord is at hand." Prepare, my soul, +to meet Him. Oh! happy days, when thine adorable Redeemer, so long +dishonoured and despised, shall be publicly enthroned, in presence of an +assembled universe, crowned Lord of All, glorified in His saints, +satisfied in the fruits of His soul's travail, destroying His enemies +with the brightness of His coming--the lightning-glance of +wrath,--causing the hearts of His exulting people to "rejoice with joy +unspeakable and full of glory." Prepare, my soul, to meet Him! Let it be +a joyous thought to thee,--thy "blessed hope,"--the meeting of thine +Elder Brother. Stand oftentimes on the watchtower to catch the first +streak of that coming brightness, the first murmur of these chariot +wheels. The world is now in preparation! It is rocking on its worn-out +axle. There are voices on every side proclaiming, "He cometh! He cometh! +to judge the earth." Reader! art thou among the number of those who +"love His appearing?" Remember the attitude of His expectant saints: +"Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, will find +WATCHING!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +24TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "At evening-time it shall be light."--ZECH. xiv. 7. + +Eventide Light. + + +How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our +sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of +"a world to come!" Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond +a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could +stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and +vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the "better country." But, +alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar--the +spirit droops--guilty fears depress--sin dims and darkens--God's +providences seem to frown--God's ways are misinterpreted--the Christian +belies his name and his destiny. But, "At eventide it shall be +light."--The material sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled +sky, sets often in a couch of lustrous gold? So, when the sun of life is +setting, many a ray of light will shoot athwart memory's darkened sky, +and many mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an "All +is well!" How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus +especially felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings +hushed with His own gentle accents, "Fear not! it is I; be not afraid." +A triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lighted with +holy lustre, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven +were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life's evening-tide be thine! + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +25TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know + hereafter."--JOHN xiii. 7. + +Heavenly Illumination. + + +As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the +Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in +gloom. It is not _always_ "light" at his evening-time; but this we know, +that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth's +shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence +may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on +heaven's chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! "in God's light thou +shalt see light;" the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now,--"A +great deep" is all the explanation thou canst often give to His +judgments; the _why_ and the _wherefore_ He seems to keep from us, to +test our faith, to discipline us in trustful submission, and lead us to +say, "Thy will be done!" But rejoice in that hereafter-light which +awaits thee! Now we see through a glass darkly; but _then_, face to +face. In the great mirror of eternity all the events of this chequered +scene will be reflected; the darkest of them will be seen to be bright +with mercy,--the severest dispensations, "only the severer aspects of +His love!" Pry not, then, too curiously; pronounce not too censoriously +on God's dealings with thee. Wait with patience till the grand day of +disclosures; one confession shall then burst from every tongue, +"Righteous art thou, O Lord!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +26TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, + there ye may be also."--JOHN xiv. 3. + +A Glorious Reunion. + + +If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a +joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this +Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! "I will come again!" Oh! +what an errand of love, what a promised honour and dignity is this!--His +saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. "Where +_I am, there ye_ shall be also!" "Father, I _will_ (it was His dying +wish,--a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer) that those whom +Thou hast given me be with me where _I am_." Happy reunion! Blessed +Saviour, if Thy presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when +known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must be that presence in +a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory! +Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family--the +Head with all its members--the Vine with all its branches--the Shepherd +with all His flock--the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, +too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided--ties snapt asunder +on earth, indissolubly renewed--severed friendships reunited--the +triumph of love complete--love binding brother with brother, and friend +with friend, and _all_ to the Elder Brother! My soul! what thinkest thou +of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him +upon His throne,--"Him that overcometh." + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +27TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever."--HOSEA ii. 19. + +Everlasting Espousals. + + +How wondrous and varied are the figures which Jesus employs to express +the tenderness of His covenant love! My soul! thy Saviour-God hath +"married thee!" Wouldst thou know the hour of thy betrothment? Go back +into the depths of a by-past eternity, before the world was; then and +there, thine espousals were contracted: "I have loved thee with an +everlasting love." Soon shall the bridal-hour arrive, when thine absent +Lord shall come to welcome His betrothed bride into His royal palace. +"The Bridegroom tarrieth;" but see that thou dost not slumber and sleep! +Surely there is much all around demanding the girded loins and the +burning lamps. At "midnight!" (the hour when He is least expected) the +cry _may_ be--_shall_ be heard,--"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" My +soul! has this mystic union been formed between thee and thy Lord? Canst +thou say, in humble assurance of thine affiance in Him, "My beloved is +mine, and I am His!" If so, great, unspeakably great, are the glories +which await thee! Thy dowry, as the bride of Christ, is all that +Omnipotence can bestow, and all that a feeble creature can receive. In +the prospect of those glorious nuptials, thou needest dread no pang of +widowhood. What God has joined together, no created power can take +asunder; He betroths thee, and it is "for ever!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +28TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "This corruptible must put on incorruption."--1 COR. xv. 53. + +A Joyful Resurrection. + + +Marvel of marvels? The sleeping ashes of the sepulchre starting at the +tones of the archangel's trumpet!--the dishonoured dust, rising a +glorified body, like its risen Lord's? At death, the soul's bliss is +perfect in kind; but this bliss is not complete in degree, until +reunited to the tabernacle it has left behind to mingle with the sods of +the valley. But tread lightly on that grave, it contains precious, +because ransomed dust! My body, as well as my spirit, was included in +the redemption price of Calvary; and "them also which sleep in Jesus +will God bring with Him." Oh! blessed Jubilee-day of creation, when +Christ's "dead men shall arise;"--when, together with His dead body, +they shall come; and the summons shall sound forth, "Awake, and sing, ye +that dwell in the dust!" All the joys of that resurrection morn we +cannot tell; but its chief glory we _do_ know,--"When He shall appear, +we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Like Him!--My +soul, art thou waiting this manifestation of the sons of God? Like +Him!--Hast thou caught up any faint resemblance to that all-glorious +image? Having this hope in thee, art thou purifying thyself, even as He +is pure? Be much with Jesus now, that thou mayst exult in meeting Him +hereafter. Thus taking Him as thy Guide and Portion in life, thou mayst +lay thee down in thy dark and noisome cell, and look forward with +triumphant hope to the dawn of a resurrection morn, saying, "What time I +awake, I am still with Thee!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +29TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "There shall be no night there."--REV. xxi. 25. + +A Nightless Heaven. + + +My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these +midnight tossings on life's tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is +breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. "His going forth is prepared as +the morning." That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and +usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. "Thy sun shall no +more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall +be thine everlasting light." Everlasting light! Wondrous secret of a +nightless world!--the glories of a present God!--the everlasting light +of the Three in One, quenching the radiance of all created +orbs--superseding all material luminaries. "My soul waiteth for the Lord +more than they that watch for the morning!" The haven is nearing--star +after star is quenched in more glorious effulgence--every bound over +these dark waves is bringing thee nearer the eternal shore. Wilt thou +not, then, humbly and patiently endure "weeping for the night," in the +prospect of the "joy that cometh in the morning?" Strange realities! a +world without night--a firmament without a sun; and, greater wonder +still, _thyself_ in this world,--a joyful denizen of this nightless, +sinless, sorrowless, tearless Heaven!--basking underneath the Fountain +of uncreated light! No exhaustion of glorified body and spirit to +require repose; no lassitude or weariness to suspend the ever-deepening +song: "They _rest not_!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +30TH DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of + glory that fadeth not away."--1 PETER v. 4. + +A Crown of Life. + + +What! is the beggar to be "raised from the dunghill, set among princes, +and made to inherit a throne of glory?" is dust and ashes, a puny rebel, +a guilty traitor, to be pitied, pardoned, loved, exalted from the depths +of despair, raised to the heights of Heaven--gifted with kingly +honour--royally fed--royally clothed--royally attended--and, at last, +royally crowned? O my soul, look forward with joyous emotion to that day +of wonders, when He whose head shall be crowned with many crowns, shall +be the dispenser of royal diadems to His people; and when they shall +begin the joyful ascription of all eternity, "Unto Him that loved us and +washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us KINGS----; to +Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Wilt thou not be +among the number? Shall the princes and monarchs of the earth wade +through seas of blood for a corruptible crown; and wilt thou permit +thyself to lose the incorruptible, or barter it for some perishable +nothings of earth? Oh! that thou wouldst awake to thy high destiny, and +live up to thy transcendant privileges as the citizen of a Kingly +Commonwealth, a member of the blood-royal of Heaven. What wouldst thou +not sacrifice,--what effort wouldst thou grudge, if thou wert included +at last in the gracious benediction, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, +inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + +31ST DAY. + +"He is Faithful that Promised." + + "God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall + wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more + death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more + pain: for the former things are passed away."--REV. xxi. 3, 4. + +The Vision and Fruition of God. + + +Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but +emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre +to which every ray of light converges. God is "all in all." Heaven +_without God_!--it would send a thrill of dismay through the burning +ranks of angels and archangels; it would dim every eye, and hush every +harp, and change the whitest robe into sackcloth. And shall I then, +indeed, "_see God_?" What! shall I gaze on these inscrutable glories, +and live? Yes, God himself shall be with them, and be their God: they +shall "_see his face_!" And not only the vision, but the _fruition_. Oh! +how does sin in my holiest moments damp the enjoyment of Him! It is the +"pure in heart" alone who can "see," far more, who can enjoy "God." Even +if he did reveal himself _now_, these eyes could never endure His +intolerable brightness. But _then_, with a heart purified from +corruption--a world where the taint of sin and the power of temptation +never enters--the soul again a bright mirror, reflecting the lost image +of the Godhead--all the affections devoted to their original high +destiny--the love of God the motive principle, the ruling passion--the +glory of God the undivided object and aim--the will no opposing or +antagonist bias,--man will, for the first time, know all the blessedness +of his chief end,--"to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever!" + + "REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON + WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!" + + + + All + + The Promises of God + + In Him + + Are Yea and in Him + + Amen. + + + * * * * * + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently corrected. + +11th Day: For consistency, "bypast" has been changed to "by-past". + +16th Day: For consistency, "1 PETER 1." has been changed to "1 PETER i." + +30th Day: The spelling of "transcendant" has been retained. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Faithful Promiser, by John Ross Macduff + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITHFUL PROMISER *** + +***** This file should be named 27344.txt or 27344.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/3/4/27344/ + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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