The Christian life is represented as pleasantness and peace, productive of present enjoyment, and leading to future and eternal blessedness. In every condition of life, the pious Christian has consolations and sources of happiness which the world knows not of, and of which it cannot deprive him; and in the depths of affliction, he has the cheering hope of a glorious immortality. Yet ought it not to be forgotten, that the Scripture exhibits the Christian to our view, as a soldier engaged in an arduous conflict, which needs steady perseverance, and which requires all the excitements to courage and fidelity which the Gospel supplies.
Much honoured and very dear Sir, I do by this line salute much in the Lord yourself and your worthy yokefellow and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, whom he is graciously pleased to keep yet together when he hath made many sad separations and divorces between other husbands and wives, partly by violent, partly by natural deaths, which I know mightily alarms and provokes you to more than ordinary and more than ever diligent, careful, and conscionable improvement of one another’s fellowship, to the best spiritual advantage.
Improve the comforts of religion for promoting holiness. The religion of Jesus is highly comfortable—it exhibits to a sinful creature a redeeming God—as the God of all consolation—the Saviour, as the consolation of Israel—the Spirit, as the spirit of gladness—the blessings of grace, as wells of salvation, from which we may draw water with joy. Realizing these truths by that divine principle which makes future things present, and unseen things visible, and taking them home to ourselves, we are filled with joy and peace, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
After we have emerged from non-existence, when, by and by, the dawnings of reason begin to appear in the breast, Satan is at hand; and his first secret whispers in the ears of the soul are to this amount, “All is well; thou art an excellent and happy creature. All is fair and friendly around thee. See how thy parents and friends caress and admire thee. Fear not; thou art come into a good world—a world richly furnished to make thee happy.” Such as these are the early sentiments suggested to the unwary soul by the artificer of destruction.
The situation, intending communicants, in which you are now placed is one of peculiar interest and solemnity. In obedience to the commandment of the King of Zion, you are professedly met to commemorate the decease, which, in the days of his flesh, he accomplished at Jerusalem.
Now, my brethren, it is permitted the people of God to inquire into the mystery of divine providence, and into the reasons why God deals so hardly with those that are his own children. It is even lawful for them to use familiarity in these inquiries, but this familiarity must always be restrained by reverence, and tempered by deep humility. And it is of the first importance in entering on such inquiries, that we should keep in our minds, and have deeply impressed on them, the essential moral attributes of the Almighty.
Prayer is the element of worship which is most often mentioned in the Scriptures. From Genesis, chapter 4, when men began to call on the name of the Lord, to Revelation, chapter 22, when the church prays, “Come, Lord Jesus,” the Bible is full of prayer.
The children of the new birth come to understand that, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” There is no virtue in circumcision, as in Paul’s case. They must hear the voice of Christ, there is then a change of heart and a change of fruit.
We are to consider largely then in Philippians, chapter 1, and particularly, verse 21; the epistle to the Philippians, chapter 1, and verse 21. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The Apostle Paul was in prison in Rome, because of his faithfulness in his testimony to Christ, and he’s writing this letter to the Philippians from prison. And you’ll notice that there is very little about his physical conditions in the prison. What he is more concerned about are the spiritual implications of his imprisonment, and the effect of his imprisonment upon the cause of Christ, and upon the church of Christ.
It is now many years since Mr. Stewart of Liverpool called the attention of Christians to the important duty of united and earnest prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of reviving true religion at home, and promoting its dissemination throughout the world. At that time he recommended ministers to preach upon the subject, and in other ways to diffuse information with regard to the person and work of the Holy Ghost.
