September 20. FORGIVENESS IS NEVER A SOLITARY GIFT. INDISPENSABLE and precious as forgiveness is, it is yet but the first in order of gospel blessings, and never stands alone. Those privileged to get pardon, sooner or later get purity also; indeed, the sure possession of the one may be taken as a sweet earnest and pledge of the ultimate possession of the other,-yea, and of every other promised blessing. "Such were some of you," says the apostle; "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." It is true that, even with believers, owing to the corruption still lingering within, the spiritual conflict is sometimes so severe as not only to evoke the ery, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" but almost, for the moment, to strip them of all hope. Becoming, however, humble in their weakness, and distrustful of self, and leaning anew and more simply on the Lord alone, they gather fresh strength for the struggle, and resolutely exclaim, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." Their course thereafter, through grace, is steadily onward, till at length, made fully meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, they joyously enter on its eternal possession. Whatever the Lord does in forgiving and subduing sin, he does without constraint; for he delighteth in mercy, and it is his joy to dispense it. As the father in the par able ran to meet the returning prodigal, so the Lord, while slow to condemn, makes haste to forgive. Some time ago, a devoted Christian worker in Elinburgh, finding a young woman-one of the fallen-in rapid decline, earnestly entreated her to go back to her home. "No," she said, "I cannot; my parents would never receive me." Her Christian friend knew what a mother's heart was, so she sat down and wrote a letter to the mother, telling her that she had met her daughter, who was deeply grieved, and wanted to return. The next post brought an answer back, and money along with it for the journey, and on the envelope was written, “ Immediately! immediately!" That was a mother's heart; she fully forgave, and desired the earliest possible return. This is what the great and loving God is saying to every wandering sinner: "Come immediately." Yes, backsliders, you cannot come home too soon; for he will forgive you graciously and love you freely, and in heaven there will be joy unspeakable over your return. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. ---Ps. ciii. 8. There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.-Ps. cxxx. 4, 7. September 21. THE PROMISED PRESENCE OF THE GOD OF PEACE. N a troubled, weeping world like ours, where IN peace is one of the most needed of blessings, no title could well be sweeter than the one embodied in the brief but precious utterance, "The God of peace shall be with you." It is not, however, with every peace that God is associated. A truly pacified conscience is sometimes confounded with a merely stupified one, though the difference between them is marked and essential. The one is a peace of ignorance only, and not of knowledge; a peace without God, not with God; a peace so temporary and uncertain that every wind that blows ruffles it, and in the end it vanishes wholly, like a mist on the mountains: whereas the other, coming directly from God as the source, through Christ as the channel, is genuine and abiding. "Let us ask this peace," said Thomas Watson. "The stars cannot make day without the sun; and in a deserted soul none can make day but the Sun of righteousness. The wilderness cannot water itself, but remains dry and parched till the clouds drop down moisture; so our hearts cannot have peace till the Lord in mercy impart it by his Holy Spirit." Happily, the Lord is never with his people as the God of peace without being with them also as the God of power, guiding and shielding in every danger. Moreover, what he is to the individual believer, he is ever at the same time to the Church at large. This fact is peculiarly precious, especially in those times when great and good men are removed from the midst of us, and we instinctively say, “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.” "I am greatly saddened," said Dr. Robert Buchanan, in a letter to Mr. Dickson, "by our beloved friend Candlish's death. It gives me an increasing sense of loneliness. Our life-long friendship and close association, both in public and private, makes this event very trying. The world holds me, in consequence, by sensibly more slender ties. I spent nearly an hour at his bed-side last week, and never shall I forget the inimitable tenderness of his affection as he held my hand in his and poured out his feelings. He was calm and peaceful, and trustful as regards his own great change, which was then drawing on, and spoke of it with perfect freedom. Alas, that we shall see him no more! Help, Lord." Yes, verily, he who is the God of peace, and comforteth us in all our tribulation, will help; for, come what may, and depart who may, he abidingly remains with his Church and people. "Be thy loved presence felt, Blissful and near; By thine own Spirit's power Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.-MATT. xxviii. 20. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me....... Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.-2 TTM. iv. 16, 17. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.-1 THESS. v. 23. September 22. ESSENTIALS IN RELIGION ARE EVER FIRST WITH THE LORD, AND SHOULD BE WITH US. YIRCUMCISION, in ancient times, had its own ap CIRC pointed place, and served important ends; but the moment men began to make an essential of it, especially after Christ's coming, the apostle gave stern resistance, that the truth of the gospel might continue among them: "Behold I say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." It is even so with Baptism. As an ordinance it is most important, because expressly enjoined by our Lord and Master. "Go ye therefore," he said, "and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" and every true disciple, therefore, will give due heed to it. It would, however, be a fatal mistake to put it in the room of faith, or to make it indispensable to salvation. Ordinarily there should be both, yet not in the same rank and in the same order of necessity. The teaching and the believing are more fundamental things than the baptizing, else Paul would never have said, "I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." There might be salvation without baptism, but not salvation without believing, among such as are capable of it. cross. "A man," says Mr. Moody, "might be dead and buried without either having been baptized or taken the Lord's supper, and yet be saved. Did they want a proof? Look at the last man that Christ saved before he died on the He had an idea that Christ just saved that man to establish this glorious truth. The man could not work for salvation; his hands and feet were nailed to the cross. He received it as a free gift. They could not nail his mind or his heart, and his heart laid hold on Christ, as he cried, 'Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.' Did Christ say that when he was baptized he would save him? or that when he had taken the Lord's supper he would save him? There he was hanging |