The All-Sufficiency of Grace
Galatians 4: 19-31.
" . . . . Look at Adam; his faith was in the promised Seed. Was it a king he expected to arrive, or a judge, or a lawgiver? No; but his faith was in the bruised Seed of the woman, therefore he called her Eve--the mother of all living. He himself had tainted the channel of life. There is much carnal religiousness about us, or ...read
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The Altar at Bethel
1 Kings 12: 25 - 1 Kings 13.
The inspired commentary on Idolatry, which we find in Romans 1, teaches us to know that it had its source in the corruption of the human mind. The haughtiness of the intellect became the parent of it. (verses 22-25.) The Apostle tells us also, that the "heart of unbelief" is an "evil" one. (Heb. 3: 12.) And at the op ...read
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The Atonement Money
Exodus 30: 11-16.
The simpler our apprehension of "atonement," or "reconciliation," (the same, thing,) the happier. It implies a change of condition towards God. Instead of being at a distance from Him, we are brought nigh--instead of being in a state of enmity, we are at peace with Him. Such is our condition. Whatever experience we may have of ...read
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The Birth of Jesus
Look at one or two features with me in Luke 2; that exquisitely beautiful scripture has more in it, I well know. "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (or good pleasure, or delight, in men). At the creation, God was providing for His own glory--for the blessing of the earth--for His peculiar joy and satisfaction in man. ...read
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The Bitten Israelite
Numbers 21
Very happy it is to be discovering the glories of Scripture; specially in days when the infidel insolence of men is challenging it. Amalek, of old, dared to come out, and withstand the camp of Israel, though at that moment the Cloud which carried the Glory was resting on the camp--and, by-and-by, the great infidel confederacy of the l ...read
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The Bride of the Lamb
Subtitled, "Being some of the subjects considered at Leamington on 3rd June and four following days in the year 1839." Published unrevised in 1882 by J. S. Robertson, Edinburgh.
The Lamb's bride is distinctly the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly companion of her Lord, quite distinct from Messiah's kingdom. Jerusalem is the earthly counterpart of t ...read
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The Canticles
"Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee."
This was the devout breathing of the king of Israel (the penman, too, of this little book to which we are now proposing, in the Lord's grace, to introduce ourselves), when the glory had come to fill the house which he had builded.
...read
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The Characters of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels
A meditation on the Lord Jesus Christ, in His varied characters in the four Gospels.
I have now passed the time of my meditations on the four Evangelists, noticing the different service committed to each of them by the Spirit of God, in presenting to us the Lord Jesus. The ease with which they fulfil their task bespeaks the inspiration under which ...read
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The Church at Thessalonica
We easily perceive different measures of attainment, both in knowledge and grace, in the churches of old. The elevation, for instance, of that at Ephesus was much above that at Corinth. At Corinth the apostle had to occupy himself with the corruption of various errors and abuses, and was thus hindered from bringing out to the disciples the strong ...read
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The Claims of God's Sovereignty and Holiness
Numbers 1 - 4.
These chapters have been just awakening in my mind some meditations of interest, at least, in connection with other scriptures. I perceive in them an expression of God's jealousy of His sovereignty, and of His holiness, of His rights as Lord of the people, and as the God of their Sanctuary.
They open with His commandment to Moses ...read
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The Cloudy Pillar
We are all of us in wealthier places than we are aware of, and have far richer interest in Christ than we are disposed to allow. Many quickened souls scarcely dare to stand in the justification of their persons; and yet they read of "justification of life." (Rom. 5: 18) "The glory of God" in their own history as sinners who have received Jesus, has ...read
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The Confederacies of Men and the Judgments of God
Scripture contemplates hostile associations of men and of nations. Isaiah 7, 8, was the era of one, and the prophecy of another. Joel 3 tells of "multitudes, multitudes," gathered together in the day of Jerusalem's final sorrow. Psalm 83 anticipates a confederacy against the Israel of God; and "Gog" is the witness of a host of nations leagued in in ...read
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The Father
John 14 - 17.
"I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it." These words were spoken to the Father by Christ respecting the saints. They tell us that the great business of the Lord was to acquaint saints with the Father, that such had already been His business, and that such He purposed should be his business still.
This is full of b ...read
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The Garden of Eden
Genesis 2.
The full act of creation under God's hand is detailed in Genesis 1. The work of creation is again given us here, but much more succinctly; the narrative soon passing, the general action confines itself to Eden, or to the garden of Eden, because there the scene of the great action about to be tried was laid, and all here is under the h ...read
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The Glory in the Cloud
The cloud which conducted Israel through the wilderness was the servant and the companion of the camp. But it was the veil or the covering of the glory also. Commonly it appeared in the sight of Israel only as a cloud, and the glory was known only by faith to be within it. But still the glory was always there, and at times it shone forth.
Such was ...read
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The Glory of God
Rom. 3: 23.
The path of the glory through scripture may be easily tracked, and has much moral value for us connected with it.
Exodus 13. It commences its journey in the cloud, on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, when the paschal blood, in the grace of the God of their fathers, had sheltered them.
Exodus 14. In the moment of the great cris ...read
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The Good Confession before Pontius Pilate
John 18: 33-37, 1 Timothy 6: 12-14.
The life of righteousness on earth, the life that is pleasing to God, must needs be a life of faith; because the great transgression has estranged God from the world that was made by Him (John 1: 10), and so polluted it that it cannot be the rest and portion of the righteous. Wherefore it is written, "He that ...read
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The Heavenly Calling and the Church
The heavenly calling has been known from the beginning. The earth having been, in every age, a scene of Divine disappointment, (to speak after the way of men,) and the elect being therefore strangers and sufferers in it, the heavens have been disclosed to them as their place of rest and inheritance. Abraham desired a heavenly country. Enoch had bee ...read
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The Heavenly Calling Foreshown
The apostle addresses his brethren in Christ as "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3: 1). This calling, in another scripture, is styled "the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 14). And again, it is spoken of as the calling of the Father of glory (Eph. 1: 17, 18). In those who are the subjects of it God is to show in the ages to c ...read
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The Heir of All Things
Hebrews 1: 2.
There is a great secret in Heb. 1, 2. "The Son" being appointed "Heir of all things," takes His appointed inheritance as a Redeemer.
The inheritance had become lost to man by sin. Adam forfeited it; and it was itself corrupted, and under the burden of sin. If it be again inherited, it must be taken with this burden upon it, as oth ...read
J.G. Bellet