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32 The Peculiar People
A Sermon Preached By William Gadsby On Thursday Evening, May 18th, 1841, At Edward Street Chapel, Dorset Square, London. “A peculiar people.”—1 Peter 2:9 The whole verse reads thus: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” There is one little word contained in this verse which includes in it everything that is worthy of our desire. And with this little word, together with its connection, sealed in our consciences, all the devils in hell will never be able to destroy our interest in heavenly things. “Why,” you will say then, “what can this word be?” It is…
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33. Not Willing That Any Should Perish
Preached in Manchester, 9 Februay 1840. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”—2 Pet 3:9 To add to, or diminish from, the Word of God is a crime, though much employed in the frivolities of the world; and the office of a minister is a very responsible one. He is God's steward, and he must one day give up his stewardship; and if he seeks to please men, he is not a true servant of God; nay, it is insulting God. Some say God is not willing that any creature should perish, but every one should come to repentance; but in…
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36 God Is Love
“God is love.”—1 John 4:8,16 Beloved of the Lord,—It is your blessedness to prove, by the divine teaching of God the Holy Ghost, that God is Love,—eternal, immutable love. This precious truth you will not deny; but then you may often struggle under very deep depression of spirit and heartrending groans, lest you should not be interested in this glorious Three-One God of love. It is not enough for you to hear that God is love, nor to believe it as a most blessed truth, nor to say he loved David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, &c., nor to look round you and say, concerning others, he loved them, or, he loved you, or, he loved thee. No; your heart thirsts to say, feelingly to say, he…
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50 The Long-Suffering Of The Lord
“Long-Suffering.”—Psalm 86:15Men and Brethren,—Through the mercy of the Lord, we have arrived at the commencement of another year. Many are the mercies we have received, and many are the insults we have offered to the great Giver of all our mercies. If we are truly led to enter into our own feelings and ways up to the present moment, we must be obliged to say that the Lord is a God "long suffering," or he would not have borne with our manners till now; for sure I am that none of us could have had patience with any of our fellow creatures who had acted towards us as we have acted towards the Lord. If they had been as dependent upon us as we are…
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52. The Great Things God Has Done For His People
Preached on Tuesday Evening, Sept. 13th, 1838, in Jewry Street Chapel, London, on Behalf of the Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society. “The Lord hath done great things for US, whereof we are glad.”—Ps 126:3. There are three things in the great mysteries of salvation that many professors of religion seem almost alarmed at. One is that God really saves sinners. If a minister of Jesus Christ is led to describe a sinner half as he really is, for to the bottom of him he never can, he shocks their delicate minds, and they are almost paralyzed, and call it the high road of licentiousness to suppose that God saves such naughty sinners as those; whilst a poor soul under the quickening, enlightening, teaching energy of God…
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53 The Church Remembered In Her Low Estate
A Sermon Preached By William Gadsby At Zoar Chapel, Great Alie St., London, On behalf Of The Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society, On Thursday Evening, May 25th, 1848. “Who remembered us in our low estate; for his mercy endureth for ever.”—Psalm 136:28 Jehovah, as the God of nature, chose the seed of Abraham, by Sarah his wife, as a special people distinct from all other nations of the world. He remembered Abraham, and made a covenant with him; he chose him, and separated him from his idolatrous people, and brought him into a strange land. And when in after days his posterity were sunk and degraded, and had become slaves in the drudgery of brick-making, the Egyptians having made their tasks heavy, they groaned and sighed…
