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The Terms Of Discipleship
'Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again,’ saith Christ, John 3:7. The blessed effects of this spiritual birth will be evident in the life. Earthly objects will be forsaken, heavenly ones prized. Jesus will be chosen as our beloved master and only hope. He being esteemed our treasure, our hearts will be with him, our affections towards him; and it will be our chiefest delight to hear his voice, and to follow him in the regeneration. Coming to Christ, is turning our backs upon the ‘lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.’ By the faith of Jesus we renounce and forsake all these things as our curse and shame. The clearer views we…
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Sanctify Us Through Thy Truth
Thus prayed our great High Priest on earth. What he asked in his humiliation, is founded upon the word and will of his Father, and he hath power to effect it in his exaltation. Hence we have the fullest assurance of the perfect sanctification of all his members, hence the desires and breathings of souls after holiness are encouraged, and the prayers of the faithful gather the strongest confidence of success. While our Beloved expresses his affectionate concern for his people’s salvation, we see an equal regard for the honour and glory of his Father’s word. Love for holiness, and love of the truth are inseparable. As the gospel prevails in the heart, holiness is increased. It is first life, then liveliness in the soul;…
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Accepted In The Beloved
When Jacob was about to meet his offended brother Esau, he was greatly afraid and distressed. He sends a present to appease his wrath, before he durst venture into his presence. ‘Peradventure he will accept of me,’ says he. Gen. 32:20. Now his hope was not founded on the affection of his brother, but upon the favour which his present should procure. He was not influenced by love, but fear and terror; hence his expectation arose only to a peradventure. So it is natural for sinners to conceive of and act towards an offended God. Instead of believing his gospel of free grace, and confiding in his messages of rich mercy in Christ, we are prone to think of sending presents, of doing something to…
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Godliness Is Profitable Unto All Things
While under the law, we naturally think, for so much work, so much wages. God will be faithful to his word of promise, if we perform those terms and conditions he requires of us. Such are the notions of a legal spirit; they are the result of pride, they swell with a vain conceit of doing something to make God a debtor to our works; they are founded in ignorance, both of ourselves, and of the word of God’s rich grace and free promises; not one of which is made, absolutely, in respect to us, or to any thing we either believe or do; but only as we are in Christ Jesus, members of him, our blessed head. For ‘all the promises of God are…
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The Late Clifton Conference (1898)
Dear Sir,—I am sending you, subject to your approval, a few notes taken of some of the precious addresses upon the subject of "Faith," which we were privileged to hear at the recent Clifton Conference. They are but few, and very imperfect, and I fear will give but a poor idea of the full and rich teaching which so characterized the meetings; and I would wish it to be understood, that it is from no lack of blessed teaching on the part of the other speakers, but inability on mine, that this limited selection has been made, for if ever one feels his utter unworthiness, nothingness, and insufficiency as "least in my Father's house," it is at these times when he is privileged to hear…
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Talbot Greaves’s Posthumous Sermon
At St. Andrew's-the-Less, Dowry Square, Bristol, on the following Sunday morning, the Vicar (the Rev. S. F. Alford) read to a full congregation the sermon which the Rev. Talbot Greaves had intended to preach there on the previous Sunday. The discourse was found in the study of our beloved friend after his death. Before reading the pathetic address, Mr. Alford made a few remarks upon the uncertainty of life, illustrated by Mr. Greaves’s call, and pointed out the lesson that their plans for the future need always be contingent upon the Divine will. He spoke, too, of the loss which the Church of England and the neighbourhood had suffered through Mr. Greaves’s death, and said that many had to thank God for the faithfulness and…
