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An Address To Youth
To all Young People, of both sexes, into whose hands this may fall. Let me address you as one who fears the Lord, and who wishes you well. Beware of deceivers! Remember, you are in a world of woe, beset with gins, and traps, and snares, and, as you grow to years of maturity, an evil heart, the which you all possess, will naturally incline to evil; and as some of the most destructive sins appear the most flattering and pleasing to a carnal heart, therefore the danger is the greater. When youth have once been left to the dishonourable practice of fornication or uncleanness, and thus deprived themselves of that common virtue which it becomes them, as the creatures of God and for their…
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Last Letter to Mr. H. Fowler
Minister of Gower Street Chapel, London 11 July 1838 My dear Brother, I was truly sorry to hear of your affliction, and I do hope by this time you are better. O my dear brother, what poor dying worms we are, and what a wretched wilderness this is. But, adored be the name of our dear Lord, he has been, and still is, and ever will be, a very present help in trouble. Both you and I have proved him so thousands of times, and I hope you prove him so now. I have of late been in very deep waters, in more respects than one; but here I am, the spared monument of the Lord's discriminating grace. When you and I arrive at home,…
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Hope Maketh Not Ashamed
Manchester, 20 February 1835 I am glad to find that the Lord now and then affords you a few moments' sweet intercourse with himself. This is one of the greatest blessings we can enjoy. The comforts of this life are great blessings; but to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and our God, our Portion, and our eternal All, is a blessing indeed. O my dear friend, what an indescribable mercy it is for such poor sinners as we to be raised up to the sweet enjoyment of Christ! This is entering blessedly into the solemn truth contained in that portion of the Word of God: “The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the…
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Thy Love Is Better Than Wine
Manchester, November 1830 My dear Friends,—I received your very kind letter, for which I am thankful. I assure you it often affords me pleasure to find that I have a place in the hearts of God's dear family; for, next to union with my dear Lord and Master, I esteem union to his blood-bought, heaven bound family. Among the blessings in which your soul delights you have also your sorrows; for both of which may you be thankful, since they are all tokens of our dear Lord's love, and a proof that he has not forgotten you. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord.” These are eventful times, but the dear children of God have no…
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Christ’s Sheep, And Their Marks
Notes of a Sermon preached on 11 April 1843 “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.”—John 10:28 The Holy Ghost, in the canon of Scripture, has borrowed a variety of metaphors from natural things to show us what Christ is to his people, and what his people are to him. Here he calls them "sheep," and himself the "Shepherd." Jesus has received his sheep from his Father's hand as his portion, as the lot of his inheritance. He knows his sheep intimately and perfectly. When they are wandering on the mountains of the Adam fall, the shepherd has his eye upon them, and he seeks them out, and calls them to the rest of his flock, in his own time.…
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The Justification of a Sinner before God
Two sermons preached at Gower Street Chapel, London on 14 and 21 November 1841 [On Sunday, 14 November 1841, Pastor Kershaw spoke on the subject of justification. His text was Job 25:4. Although he intended to cover his three headings in a single sermon, he took up only the first heading on Sunday 14 November, then completed the final two headings on Sunday 21 November. The two sermons are combined in the manuscript that follows.] "How then can man be justified with God?”—Job 25:4 The doctrine of justification is clearly and strikingly revealed in the sacred oracles of truth, and is by God the Holy Ghost made manifest in the souls of all the election of grace. Hence, Paul speaks of it as one of…