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Let the weak say, I am strong....Joel iii. 10.

WHERE is the weak doubting sinner? Stand forth my soul; thy Lord arraigns thee, he judges and passes sentence of reproof upon thee: "O thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?"....Matt. xiv. 31. Your doubts come from your little faith your doubts prevent the increase of faith. You can easily believe the Lord is displeased at your sins. What is sin but disobeying his commands? But did you never consider it as a sin, a great sin, not to believe when he commands? Not to be obedient to his word, when he requires you to be strong in faith, "strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus?"....2 Tim. ii. 1. "Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might?"....Eph. vi. 10. O, you do not enough attend to this! But you say, "I am so weak in myself." Who is not? He who thinks he is not, is the weakest of all in self-knowledge. The great, the strong, the inspired Paul, gives this challenge, "Who is weak, and I am not weak?"....2 Cor. xi. 29. You are, in yourself, upon a level with patriarchs, prophets, apostles and all saints; and they were all alike upon a level with you, in point of self-weakness. Here is a command for you, LET THE WEAK SAY I AM STRONG. Lo, I tell you of a great saint, a strong believer, who found himself so weak, that he took the prophet's advice, and takes up these very words. Would you wish to follow the example of a better saint than St. Paul? He says, "When I am weak then am I strong."....2 Cor. xii. 10. This is a heavenly art: it is to be learned every day. Put it in practice this night; thy Lord's glory is concerned in it: thy comfort springs from it. Say, AM I WEAK to strive against sin, to resist satan, to overcome the world, to deny myself, to follow Christ, to pray unto him, believe and hope in him, cleave to him, and love him? &c. What then? I doubt he will cast me off and suffer me to perish. Would you serve a weak member of your body or treat a weak child of your loins so? Would you not rather strive to strengthen it? So does your Lord. He says, BE STRONG in the grace which is in me: my strength is yours: my life is yours: all I am and have as God, man and Mediator, is yours: go out of weak self: live by faith on me. Remember, even the renowned heroes of faith, they were not only weak, but WEAKNESS itself "Yet out of WEAKNESS they were made strong."....Heb. xi. 34. O consider, you are engaged in a good cause, well provided with the best armour, and assured of perfect victory, by Jesus, the captain of your salvation.... Heb. ii. 10.

Tho' weak as helpless infancy,

We daily feel we are,

Lord, make us on thy strength rely,
And face each daring foe:

Yet in the Lord our strength doth lie, While looking unto thee as nigh,

We are his past'ral care.

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Behold, this day, I am going the way of all the earth.... Josh. xxiii. 14.

THOUGH fully assured of his near dissolution, yet with what calm composure does Joshua utter these words? Though you are à sinner and must fall under the sentence of death for sin, yet you need not be under bondage all your life time through fear of death. Why should you? Has not the sinner's friend gained a complete and everlasting victory over death, the sinner's enemy? Consider, 1st. What Christ hath done FOR us sinners; for sinners we are and shall be, though redeemed by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, when the messenger of death kills our body and calls our souls to glory. Honor thy Lord's work by the faith of thy heart; so fear and terror shall flee from thy soul. Ist. By his death he has appeased divine justice. As Jonah his type being cast into the sea, quelled the storm, so Christ being cast into the furnace of divine wrath, quenched the flames. God is just, while he justifies the ungodly sinners who believe in Jesus....Rom. iii. 26. 2d. He has silenced all the accusations of the law: he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us....Gal. iii. 13. 3d. Upon this follows the removal of guilt: "He took away our sins by the sacrifice of himself."....Heb. ix. 26. "We have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of our sins."....Eph. i. 7. 4th. "He hath wrought out and brought in an everlasting righteousness for us. We are made the righteousness of God in him."....2 Cor. v. 21. 5th. "He hath conquered satan: by his death he hath destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”......Heb. ii. 14. 6th. "He hath opened heaven to us. We lost a paradise by sin. We gain heaven by the cross of Christ. It is our purchased possession."....Eph. i. 14. Lastly, he hath obtained a victory over sin and death, so that we may joyfully cry out, "thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.".... 1 Cor. xv. 57. Now, if Christ has appeased justice, silenced the law, taken away the guilt of sin, is made righteousness to us, conquered . satan, opened heaven, overcome death, and obtained victory for us, what have we to fear? Why should we not triumph in the views of death? We cannot without, 2d. The work of the SPIRIT in us But if he has made the work of Christ glorious in our eyes: if he has given us to see our need of it; to believe in and rely upon Christ's life and death as our title to heaven and glory; by the faith of this he hath sanctified our souls, as vessels of honor, to the glory of Christ. It is our privilege to rejoice in him; to look upon his victories as our own; to triumph over every enemy, and death as the last enemy for though he is an enemy to the flesh, he is the best friend to the soul.

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We walk by faith and not by sight....2 Cor. v. 7.

THUS we quit sense for faith: so we overcome the lust of the eyes. To gratify this is contrary to the walk of faith. Then, is it any marvel that we lose the peace, comfort and joy of faith? But this is not what is here meant by sight, as opposed to faith. Here is an infallible truth; though a christian, by the eye of sense, can neither see God, Christ, the things of the heavenly world, &c. yet he walks in the firm belief of what the word of God tells him of them and hence, they have the supreme affection of his soul, from day to day. Faith supplies the sight of them. They are as real to the mind as though seen by the bodily eye. Thus, a lively hope of enjoying them is kept up in the heart: "We are always confident," we are as sure of the existence of spiritual, heavenly and invisible objects, as we are of our own being. O ye sons of carnal sight and sense! ye deride us: we pity you: ye look only at temporal shadows, we at eternal substance: "The things which are not seen are eternal."....2 Cor. iv. 18. See the preciousness of faith. For, 1st. Though we do not now nor ever have seen Christ, yet we love him; believing in him, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.... 1 Pet. i. 8. For, 2d. We see in ourselves nothing but sin and misery; but by faith we know we are perfectly righteous in Christ, perfectly accepted to God, perfectly justified in his sight, presented without spot of sin. 3d. We see our bodies under the sentence of death, daily dying, hasting to the grave: natural sight can look no farther. There we see an end of our existence; the body turns to dust: but by faith we look through death and the grave, we see, and say, "We KNOW, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."....2 Cor. v. 1. 4th. Though we do not see how, nor can explain the manner of the Spirit's work upon our souls, no more than we can tell from whence the wind cometh, or whither it goeth: yet by sweet experience we can say, " He that hath wrought us for this self-same thing, is the Spirit of God."....2 Cor. v. 5. For we find ourselves formed to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us....Gal. ii. 20. Hence we are dead to the pleasures of sense and the joys of carnal mirth; for, we see Jesus at the right hand of God, where is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore....Psalm xvi. 11.

Blest be our Lord who gave us faith,

Things out of sight to see,
To live and walk by what he saith,
This shall our glory be.

Keep up this quick and piercing sight,
Dear Lord, of things above:
That we may walk with thee in light,
Rejoicing in thy love.

M.

With clouds he covereth the light, and commandeth it not to shine, by the cloud that cometh betwixt....Job xxxvi. 32.

THE Sun, from its first formation by its almighty creator, shines at all times alike: there never was, is, nor can be any addition to, or dimunition from its light and heat. But we perceive a sensible difference: even the intervention of a cloud coming between us and the sun, hides and obscures the glorious rays of light from us. There are fixed laws in creation. All nature acts under the direction of those laws, prescribed by our all-wise Lord. As in nature, so in grace; as by the natural sun, so it is by the sun of righteousness, it shines with equal degree of resplendent glory, of light, love and grace at all times. But, we are not always alike sensible of it. Why not? As clouds and vapours arise from the earth and interrupt the' light of the natural sun, by coming between that and us; just so the clouds of sin, the vapours of corruption, the thick fog of unbelief, which arise from our earthly, carnal nature, come between us and our glorious sun of righteousness; so its light is obscured, its heatinterposed, and its comforts prevented: then our poor hearts are distressed and our spirits dejected: the Lord hides his face and we' are troubled. Isaiah gives a very striking account of this; "The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine."....Isa. xiii. 10. Hast thou not known somewhat of such a day of darkness and distress? My soul has mourned on the account of it: but methinks I have found it sweet in experience, when satan, or an unkind enemy hath tried and strove to raise a dust, and bring a cloud over one's mind in vain. It is true, they have disturbed and perplexed one: but they could bring nothing between one's soul and Jesus, our glorious sun of righteousness: they have agitated the air, they have tried their efforts upon nature, but could raise no cloud of sin, no vapour of corruption. Jesus shone without a cloud. No intervening obscurity darkened one's views. Then love reflected its strong and powerful rays. Then it was sweet. Well, a few more cloudy and sun-shiny days, and we shall be at home: but we have always this precious promise to support us, "Unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."....Mal. iv. 2.

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Give us this day our daily bread....Matt. vì. 11.

HAPPINESS, that inestimable jewel, springs only from content. Christian content is founded in humility. The humble christian lives upon the fulness of God: thence he seeks all his supplies. Our Lord not only teaches his disciples the words of prayer, which any body may use, but also gives the spirit of prayer, peculiar to themselves only. This consists, 1st. In knowing our wants. 2d. In seeking a supply of them from the Lord. GIVE US, 3d. THIS DAY, (just from hand to mouth), DAILY BREAD, all the blessings of providence and grace, needful for us as men and christians. 1st. Do we know our wants? The sight and sense of this will make and keep us very low and humble in our own eyes, for we shall go out of ourselves and live out of ourselves. Do we want daily bread to support our bodies? Have we no spring of life in ourselves but what must be fed and nourished from the food we receive from day to day? Just so it is with our souls. Christ saith, "I am the bread of life.” ....John vi. 48. We have no inherent stock of spiritual food in ourselves; the man who thinks so, is as foolish as he would be who should say he has a supply within himself for natural food, he needs not pray for it. 2d. Do we seek supply from our Lord? He says, "Blessed are they which do hunger....Matt. v. 6. Their blessedness consists in coming empty to him to be filled: GIVE US. Dear Lord, I am just the same hopeless, helpless, miserable sinner in myself, as I was when I first heard of thee and came unto thee. 3d. GIVE me this day my daily bread: thy flesh to eat and thy blood to drink. Thy flesh is meat indeed: thy blood is drink indeed....John vi. 55. Lord, thou hast said, "he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” ....John vi. 57. O, that in feeding on thee by faith, I may know that I have eternal life and that thou wilt raise me up at the last day. This feeding is vastly preferable to disputing. True, we are exhorted to contend earnestly for the faith; but then it should be with a desire that our own souls and the souls of others be edified, fed and nourished by the faith of Jesus; else it is but vain jangling. Who would not contend for his natural food? How jealous, how watchful should we be against every enemy who would prevent our comfortable feeding upon Christ, the bread of life? The more we feed upon this bread, the less appetite we have to the pleasures of this world and the vanities of sense. Our spiritual food transforms us into the image of our Lord, and causes us to aspire after him and long to be with him. Precious promise! "Jesus shall feed his flock like a shepherd."....Isa. xl. 11.

Jesu, who art the bread of life,
O feed our souls this day,

And grant us to grow strong in thee,
To run the heav'nly way.

M.

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