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Unbelief.

UNBELIEF is oft a hypocrite clothed in a white robe, as an angel of light, having the semblance of all humility; but drag him to the light, and the monster appears! He would cast down God from His throne and set himself thereon.

Where Unbelief is, there is pride; and where pride is, her whole brood of evils are to be found with her. So with the obedience of faith, there is humility with all her train.

There will be no room for the fretfulness of Unbelief, if I only see that He who is the Ruler of heaven and earth is my very Kinsman-my Brother.

When a child of God takes an unbelieving step, and God suffers it to succeed, this is one of the sharpest corrections he can be visited with. (2 Chron. xvi. 2-9.)

Let us not nourish Unbelief by plans and contrivances of fleshly prudence.

One step of Unbelief unrepented of leads to another.

Hard thoughts of God are, alas! natural to us; and swarm in our breast: it is only as the love of God is revealed to us in the cross of Christ that we are able to cast them out.

If in great tribulation we are by faith walk­ing upon the flood, we shalt seem to the eye of Unbelief to be sinking in the flood.

If Unbelief prevail in saints, they slight the assemblies of God's people; but let us who diligently frequent them be able to say, "We have seen the Lord" (John xx, 25): that will be the best rebuke for the negligent.

Unbelief is in man's sight no sin at all­-whilst in God's sight it is of all sins the greatest.

Whilst we are looking to Jesus at the right hand of God, all circumstances are our occasions for honouring God by faith; but if we look to circumstances and not to Christ, they cast us down, and leave us a prey to Unbelief.

By Unbelief the child of God degrades him­self; losing sight of his heavenly robe he makes much of the earthly rags of this world's honour, and can even envy the wearers.

(Ps.lxxiii. 3.) We do well to remember that God is as true to His forewarnings of wrath and curse, as He is to His promises of grace. We take the latter for our peculiar comfort, but should also solemnly meditate the former for our ripe and full acquaintance with God.

Unbelief cripples and puts in fear where no fear is; it leads to despair, and despair is but unbelief without a bridle.

Do you, at the Mercy-seat, confess the ini­quity of Unbelief? Remember that it makes God to be the very contrary of what He is.

Unbelief and its rebellion will make of a mere nothing a great mountain.

Every murmuring thought is the child of Unbelief, and makes God a liar.

 

The Sins of Believers.

THE heart of man is a restless deep, ever casting up mire and dirt (Isa. lvii. 20); but in the sins of God's children there is a pre-eminence of guilt.

Jonah could not sin himself out of the love of God; therefore, sinning himself out of communion with God, he had the greater guilt.

I count myself more vile than the murderer who suffers death by the hangman's hand, because the atoning blood of the Son of God acquaints me with myself. . . . That which shows me my forgiveness reveals to me my pollution.

By far the greater part of the sins of God's children are sins of ignorance. How needful therefore the cry, "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults" (Ps, xix.12)-faults hidden from mine own eye and from mine own conscience. Without atoning blood they would bring down God's curse on the offender's head. Oh, let us not make light of sins of ignorance!

The sins of our unregenerate state should indeed be ever before us; but by frowardness, since we tasted that God is gracious, we sin (as natural men cannot sin) against the heart of Christ, against God's love and His Spirit, who seals us unto the day of redemption. The natural man is a rebel against his Maker; but it is against a Father that we, the saved, offend. Forgetting the cross, we go astray. The remedy is true and speedy confession; for we have an Advocate with the Father. (1 John it. 1.)

We must be ever waging war with the secret workings of sin. Where it is but in a little measure allowed, God may suffer His child to go further and further in that allowance, until the seven locks are shorn on Delilah's lap.

To be doubting Christ's love, to be limiting His grace, is alike unworthy of us and grieving to Him. The last offence of Joseph's brethren (Gen. 1. 15-21) was not the least.

There is no fault in our character that the grace of God cannot cure. It becomes us therefore to give no quarter to the Canaanites. (Judges ii.)

God deals with us after conversion otherwise than before it: He, as a wise Father, has a rod of correction for His children, and smites them when He might let them alone, did they not know His love.

Peculiar temptations bring forth peculiar corruptions, after neglected warnings.

The Lord Jesus took loving pains to make Peter acquainted with Himself, and was com­pelled to humble him by his threefold denial of his Lord, but without exposing him to the eye of enemies. Overcome by a sudden tempta­tion, he was quickly forgiven and restored. (Luke xxii, 55-62.) Whereas David, who had deliberately transgressed, and who had long been in a backsliding state of heart, was exposed to the people as well as made loathsome in his own eyes. (2 Sam. xii., xvi.) When Christ restores a fallen one, He often makes that disciple stronger than before his fall, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke xxii. 32). So it will be with those who, like David and Peter, have been wont to follow the Lord fully.

The people of God are in general slack and slothful in searching out sins of ignorance; but if we persevere in the search, asking God to reveal them to us, He will give us very humbling knowledge of ourselves and of our secret faults; with it also blessed comfort and communion, which otherwise we could not enjoy.

 

The Coming of the Lord.

LET the blessed hope of the coming of Christ keep us ever on the watch-tower; looking, longing for it, and hasting towards it.

Would that we duly considered our account­ability to Christ, who in the day of His appearing will judge the secrets of all hearts. Then we shall each be called on to give an account of his stewardship-an account, not only of gifts of understanding and substance, but of daily employment, and of all the minutes of the day. (See 1 Cor. iv, 1-6.)

 

Prayer.

 

IT is a high place that is given to the prayers of saints in 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. If Christians only knew how their prayers for kings and governors are heard in heaven, they would not be meddlers with this world's politics.

Every wish that the Holy Ghost breathes into the soul of a believer is a voice which enters into the ear of God.

It is well for a child of God to pray for him­self, but a more excellent thing to pray for others. God honours the spirit of intercession.

We are too apt to set God a time and a way of answering our prayers; and even when our prayers are answered, we are often surprised and ready to faint. If we desire much com­munion with God and with Christ, we must not be surprised if the Holy Spirit come upon us as a keen north wind, revealing our own corruption and evil to us: when it comes, let us not say, How can we bear this? but rather be thankful for God's wise answer to prayer.

If we have not the spirit of supplication and thanksgiving, let us begin with the spirit of confession.

When we pray, let us be sure God is hearing us. If we ask help, kindness, favour, from a fellow man, it cheers us to observe the kind attentive look: let us by faith regard our unseen Saviour and Priest, and settle it in our hearts that our prayer is received; the answer will come in the best time.  If we cannot com­ply with God's just demands to be singing and triumphing with Christ above, He will listen to His unbelieving, groaning children. He bows down His ear to hear their cry.

When the Word of God enters the conscience, men pour out their hearts indeed to the Lord.

Our need of Prayer is as frequent as the moments of the day; and as we grow in spirituality of mind, our continual need will be felt by us more and more.

In order to have power with God in Prayer, there must be an undivided heart; if we would come boldly to the throne of grace, we must come obediently.

Daniel made prayer and meditation of the Scriptures the chief business of his life; yet, if we consider the circumstances in which he was placed, we shall see that few ever had greater obstacles than he in the way of seeking God.

God gives, as a wise Father, prized benefits to His supplicating children.

When we ask for more communion with God, are we willing to part with all that hinders? Let us take heed that our ways agree with our words when we come to the Mercy-seat.

It is a great help to us when we see that our prayers and our labours are to be as the grain of wheat falling into the ground. If we look for death and burial first, we shall be able to go on in patience; and in due time shall assuredly reap an abundant harvest.

We ought to go to God with our matters as altogether His.

How great is our favour and power with God! for we are kings and priests unto God­-His sons and daughters by adoption and grace. Let us take heed that we grieve not the Spirit who sealed us unto the day of redemption; and nothing will God deny us. (John xv. 7.)

The best testimony that Stephen bore was his last: not when he was preaching and work­ing miracles, but when he pleaded for his per­secutors; for then he most resembled the Lord Jesus in patience, forgiveness, and love.

When some peculiar pressure is upon you, be like Queen Esther, whose first request was the king's company. In each trial "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and all other things shall be added: your seeking first the removal of the trial shows that you need the continuance of it.

We must not look on that only as Prayer to which our lips give utterance; the wish of the believing heart is counted prayer by God; it is the smoke of the incense which ascends in silence before Him.

If a path be overgrown with moss and briers, it is difficult to trace it; if well frequented, it is plainly seen. Our pathway to the fountain of Jesus' blood should be ever well trodden by our confessions.

Unbelief lightly esteems both our own prayers and those of others.

We can never draw nigh to God in believing prayer, but the answer will be more than we had grace to hope for. Expectation from God is a precious fruit of prayer.

A guilty conscience stops prayer, but a cleansed conscience makes prayer to flow.

We may often have the spirit of prayer without the comfort of prayer.

 

Conflict.

WHEN the corruptions of the flesh, like an armed host,  invade the soul, they aim first at the capital city, which is Faith. Success there would ensure possession of the whole land.

It is ever Satan's aim to debase the heart and conscience of the children of God. Their heart should be filled with Christ; their con­science ruled by His word and ways. Satan would entice away the heart from Christ, and set up in the conscience a standard inferior to that of Christ's example. Oh that the saints were not ignorant of Satan's devices, but will­ing to pluck out the right eye, to cut off hand or foot, rather than give place at all to the adversary.

Let our affections be resting in Christ, and engrossed with Him; then will all saints be dear to us in Him, because they are one with Him, and we shall please Him concerning them.  To prevent our attaining to this grace, or to spoil us of it, is the aim of the powers of darkness that war against us.

It is only as we have rest in Christ, only as we have peace through faith in His atoning blood, only as we have the purged conscience, with the heart's affections set upon Christ, that we have any strength to war against our spiritual enemies: it is whilst we are fighting against them, that strength is given equal to the need, and we experience the precious sym­pathy of the Captain of our salvation. "Put on the whole armour of God." (Eph. vi. 10-19.) David put away the armour of Saul, and went against Goliath with nothing save the weapons of weakness.

 

Service.

GOD, in fitting any servant for special service, often subjects him to painful discipline of soul: the end of this training is the breaking down self-confidence, so that when at last the servant goes forth to his work he says," Who am I ?" The flesh will not say, "Who am I?" But to this we must be brought ere God can put us to honour­able use.

We are not the most useful when most wordy, but when most prayerful.

Though God marks that which is wrong in His servants, notwithstanding all their faithful­ness, He never forgets that which is right in them, notwithstanding all their imperfections.

If we do not live beyond time, we are not fit to live in time.

We cannot bestow kindnesses upon the un­converted for Christ's sake without obtaining peculiar fellowship with God.

That man is miserable who is wrapped up in himself and cares not for others; such a man keeps happiness outside, and bolts the door against her.

The ways of Christ in the days of His flesh are the true pattern for His people.

It is a mark of steady progress in the ways or God, when a servant of Christ, like his Master, makes no choice of service, seeking only to please his Lord.

If by walking before God we rise above the praise of men, we shall not be vexed or dis­couraged by their disapproval and blame.

He that is humble, and ever desiring to serve others, will surely find others desiring to serve him.

If we have but the heart to serve Christ, He will surely employ us; and if He have any special service for us, He will grant us special guidance. (Acts viii. 26.)

The conversion of sinners, the prosperity of saints-these are precious things, but not the object of the soul: that should be to please God.

The moment a servant acts independently, he acts from himself, and out of character. (J 01n xxi. 3.)

In all you do be the servant of Christ, forgetting yourself-engrossed with Him.

We need readiness of heart, and skilfulness of hands, to serve the church of God aright.