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The Nature And Increase Of Faith
Faith is the gift and the operation of God. It comes by the Holy Spirit’s power rising and strengthening the sublimest faculties of the soul, and is really a regeneration—a rebegetting—a revival of life from the dead. Thus the believer is said to be “born of the Spirit,” because it is the Spirit’s office in the covenant of grace to regenerate, and because it is the promise concerning the Spirit to all, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” And thus also the Christian is said to be “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” When the principle of divine life and light is given to the soul, it…
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June 20—Morning Devotion
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen."—Ephesians 6:24 And dost thou, my soul, with the same affection and love as the apostle, bend thy knee this morning before His throne, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth are named? Dost thou look up, and pray that all grace may abound? Oh what a delightful thought is it, my soul, to warm thy affections, that in the moment thou art waiting at the mercy-scat, thousands are waiting also for the morning blessing. Go then, my soul, and tell thy Redeemer this; tell him that he hath all suited grace, and that the eyes of his redeemed, as the eyes of one man, are all directed towards him.…
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How Oft Have Sin And Satan Strove
Hebrews 6:17-19: "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;" Isaiah 54:8: "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."
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And Can My Heart Aspire So High
Isaiah 64:8: "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." Hebrews 12:5-13: "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we…
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June 13—Morning Devotion
"The master is come, and calleth for thee,"—John 11:28 My soul, mark how gracious the Lord is to his people in the special and distinguishing tokens of his grace. Jesus doth not barely send his gospel to the church, or house, or family; but he speaketh by the soft, but powerful whispers of his love, to the individual soul. "To thee is the word of his salvation sent." Hence the soul who feels the sovereignty of his word in the constraining influences with which it is accompanied, cries out, I shall never forget thy word, for by it thou hast quickened me. But besides the calls of his grace in his house of prayer, in how many Ways, and by what a variety of methods,…
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How Oft, Alas, This Wretched Heart
Jeremiah 3:12: "Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever." Psalm 119:176: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments. Hosea 6:1: "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up."
