A Word From William S. White to the Theological Student on What is Most Important

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Letters written by William Spotswood White (known to history as “Stonewall Jackson’s pastor”) to his sons were first published in The Central Presbyterian, and then assembled into one volume titled The Gospel Ministry, in a Series of Letters From a Father to His Sons (1860).

In one letter to Henry Martyn White, he wrote of the importance, as a theological student training for the ministry, of — in the midst of all the needful studies and activities — cultivating and maintaining a devotional spirit. In the vein of B.B. Warfield’s later classic The Religious Life of Theological Students (1912-1913), White writes the following (pp. 26-34):

You are most in danger from a failure to cultivate a devotional spirit. A Theological Seminary, in its external arrangements — its buildings — its lecture rooms, and its recitations; the intercourse of its students in the dining hall and upon the campus, is so much like a college, that the spirit of the college is very likely to prevail. The critical study of the Bible is likely to supplant the devotional. That all the young man says and does, even his sermons and his prayers, should be subject to the criticism of his fellow students and professors, although useful and necessary, may yet become hurtful to his spirituality. Now, whatever else he neglects, he must not neglect the throne of grace. Fail in all else sooner, than in the cultivation of deep spiritual piety. Fail in this, and whatever your attainments in other respects may be, should you live to enter the ministry, comfortless and useless you will live, labour, and die. Mere intellectual endowments, leading to popular applause, more frequently entangle, bewilder, and ruin the young preacher than all other baits of the devil combined.

White goes on to add:

One has truthfully and beautifully said, that ‘prayer is the breathing forth of that grace which is first breathed into the soul by the Holy Ghost.’ Every offering then, not made in the spirit of such prayer, is destitute of the purity and fragrance of heaven; and is not only unacceptable but hateful to God; so that prayerless study, prayerless preaching and visiting are worse than useless. What does not come from God never returns to him. All our services not baptized by the Spirit, freely given in answer to prayer, will be less acceptable to God than the offerings of paganism.

Further on in this letter White elaborates on the fountain of grace that must needs (to use an older expression) fill vessels in the service of God.

Suffer me then to enlarge on a thought already suggested. When we come really near to God, he freely grants us the sweet influences of his grace — ‘all grace comes from the God of grace’ — all that begins and completes the life of God in the soul of man. The soul enlightened and warmed by a near approach to the true altar, radiates both light and heat, and thus creates an atmosphere which refreshes, beautifies, and strengthens all who breathe it. ‘The river comes originally from the ocean, and not even the range of rocky mountains can prevent its return to the ocean. So, that alone which comes from God can return to God.’ Hence we feel and exhibit just so much of heaven, as we feel and manifest of the spirit of prayer. From this source alone can come our usefulness.

Whatever else a man may have or do, he never does, he never can become the channel through which God pours his grace upon the hill of Zion, unless he lives in constant, spiritual contact with heaven. He must bring God to his people before he can lift them to heaven.

Then whatever else you neglect, fail not to study upon your knees, such expressions of the word of God as these, ‘And this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.’ ‘Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.’ ‘Ask in faith.’

Hear White as he concludes this letter:

Such a spirit of prayer is the first, the highest endowment of the ministry to which you now look forward. It is equally essential to your present condition and pursuits. Think not that this may be acquired hereafter. Just as well defer the study of Hebrew, church history, or theology. Nay, just as well, and even better, leave the Seminary at once. As is the student, so will be the preacher. An exception to this remark occasionally occurs, but there are just exceptions enough to establish the rule. Let all you now learn be baptized in a heart burning with love to Christ, and breaking with compassion for deathless souls perishing in sin. Let every day begin and end with the thought, ‘I am here, not to acquire learning with a view to win popular applause, but through God to acquire skill in winning souls to Christ.’

This valuable counsel from a father to a son, from an experienced pastor to a young theological student, highlights the need of those training for the ministry to not allow anything to dampen or extinguish the life of God in the soul of minister of Jesus Christ. The head of a minister must needs be (as they used to say) full of academic learning, but if the heart is not united to God in the sweet communion of prayer, then the vocation itself must be reconsidered. How crucial it is then for the minister who would lead his flock in spiritual service to God to himself be on his knees seeking grace to deliver the message of grace!

Theological students, pastors and others will do well to read the full collection of White’s letters on The Gospel Ministry. They serve as a wise reminder of what is of chief importance to such a noble vocation. To know more about White’s own personal piety, and the success of his ministry, be sure also to peruse Rev. William S. White, D. D., and His Times: An Autobiography (1891), edited by the recipient of some of the letters in The Gospel Ministry, Henry Martyn White, as a testimony to his beloved father and pastoral mentor.

J.R. Miller: A Brief Remembrance

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It was said of J.R. Miller, the Presbyterian minister and devotional writer that “he kept a complete record of all the important dates in the lives of his people — birthdays, wedding anniversaries, et cetera — and he marked each of these by sending a short letter of remembrance” (J.T. Faris, The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends” [1912], p. 168).

At Log College Press, we too try to remember the important dates in the lives of “our people,” those men and women from the past whose lives and writings continue to live on and touch our readers today. Today we remember J.R. Miller who was born on this day in history, March 20, 1840.

He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and raised in a Presbyterian home where he was taught Scripture, the Shorter Catechism and Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary, while family worship was practiced daily. His profession of faith was made in an Associate Presbyterian church in 1857, which became part of the United Presbyterian Church (UPCNA) a year later.

During the War Between the States he served in the U.S. Christian Commission from 1863 to 1865. He studied at Westminster College and at Allegheny Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania before entering the ministry and becoming ordained in the UPCNA in 1867. He later came to have scruples about the practice of exclusive psalmody to which his family and his church held. And thus he joined the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the denomination in which he remained for the rest of his life, just nine days after the Old and New School branches reunited in 1869.

In 1880, he began editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia, and he also published his first book, Week Day Religion. He would go on to write many more books, and numerous articles. He was extremely popular in his day for his devotional contributions to Christian literature. His biographer wrote in 1912 that copies of his published books had sold over 2 million copies.

Throughout his life and his careers as a pastor and an author, Miller reflected the values that were instilled in him and which were important to him. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and as a consequence loved others well. A younger minister once asked him the secret of success in the ministry. He replied thus in a letter:

Cultivate love for Christ and then live for your work. It goes without saying that the supreme motive in every minister’s life should be the love of Christ. ‘The love of Christ strengtheneth me,’ was the keynote of St. Paul’s marvellous ministry. But this is not all. If a man is swayed by the love of Christ he must also have in his heart love for his fellow men. If I were to give you what I believe is one of the secrets of my own life, it is, that I have always loved people. I have had an intense desire all of my life to help people in every way; not merely to help them into the church, but to help them in their personal experiences, in their struggles and temptations, their quest for the best things in character. I have loved other people with an absorbing devotion. I have always felt that I should go anywhere, do any personal service, and help any individual, even the lowliest and the highest. The Master taught me this in the washing of His disciples’ feet, which showed His heart in being willing to do anything to serve His friends. If you want to have success as a winner of men, as a helper of people, as a pastor of little children, as the friend of the tempted and imperilled, you must love them and have a sincere desire to do them good (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 87-88).

And this illustration speaks to the eternal truth of what Dr. Miller lived and practiced:

Love is never lost. Nothing that love does is ever forgotten. Long, long afterwards the poet found his song, from beginning to end, in the heart of a friend. Love shall find some day every song it has ever sung, sweetly treasured and singing yet in the hearts into which it was breathed. It is a pretty legend of the origin of the pearl which says that a star fell into the sea, and a shellfish, opening its mouth, received it, when the star became a pearl in the shell. The words of love’s greeting as we hurry by fall into our hearts, not to be lost, but to become pearls and to stay there forever (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 204).

In his last days, while he was ill, the General Assembly of the PCUSA sent him a message of sympathy and encouragement. In fact, he himself was still working on The Book of Comfort when the end came and he entered into his eternal rest. J.R. Miller died on July 2, 1912, and was laid to rest at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. A simple service was held for the occasion which included prayer, the recitation of the Twenty-Third Psalm, the singing by a soloist of “He Will Lead His Flock Like a Shepherd” from Handel’s Messiah, and the congregational singing of a favorite hymn.

Several of his books were devotionals meant to be read throughout the year. It seems fitting to conclude this brief remembrance of J.R. Miller with an extract from one of them, Dr. Miller's Year Book: A Year's Daily Readings (1895), from the very date of his birthday.

Prayers of William S. Plumer

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For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others.

I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hands. – C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in Walter Hooper, ed., God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970), p. 205

There is something remarkable in that classic 1867 volume of Christology by William S. Plumer titled The Rock of Our Salvation: A Treatise Respecting the Natures, Person, Offices, Work, Sufferings, and Glory of Jesus Christ. It is a stirring study of Christ in all his many glorious facets, and throughout this doctrinal treatise it is as if Plumer, while writing, was filled with prayerful utterances as he delves into the teaching of Christ for his readers. And his prayers are an example of what the study of God ought to lead us to do. For the theologian — or layman — when our minds are focused on Christ in all his glory, “the heart sings unbidden.”

The following prayers are extracted from the chapter on the divinity of Christ:

  • Lord Jesus, thou God over all, thou Jehovah of hosts, be thou our Friend. Bless and help each one of us. Be unto us a horn of salvation (p. 23).

  • O thou eternal Son of God, thou Father of eternity, remember that we are of yesterday and are crushed before the moth. Bring us, in the fulness of thy grace, to behold thy glory, which thou hadst with thy Father before the world was (p. 24).

  • Blessed Saviour, who art everywhere present, preside in all our solemn assemblies, large and small. Walk thou in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Be thou unto us for a little sanctuary (p. 25).

  • Blessed Saviour, we rejoice that thou art the same as when thou didst weep at the grave of Lazarus; as when thou didst pour salvation on the dying thief; as when, in ascending to glory, thou didst bless thy followers. We rejoice that thy state is changed and thy nature is immutable. Oh pity and bless us. Be unto us a sure foundation, a munition of rocks (p. 27).

  • O thou which art, and which wast, and which art to come, the Almighty, cover us in the hollow of thy hand. If our hold on thee is feeble, let thy hold on us be the grasp of omnipotence. Go forth conquering and to conquer, till earth owns thee Lord of all (p. 28).

  • Glorious Redeemer, we all were made by thee and for thee. We own thy perfect and sovereign right to us and over us. All we have and are, in soul or body, belongs to thee. Nor can any thing dissolve the ties that bind us to thee for ever (p. 29).

  • Lord Jesus, who upholdest all things by the word of thy power, bear us up, bear us on, bear us through, giving us the victory over death, and hell, and all the powers of darkness (p. 30).

  • Lord Jesus, who hast died the just for the unjust, set thy love on us, wash us from our sins in thy most precious blood, and make us kings and priests unto God (p. 31).

  • Lord Jesus, spread the skirt of thy bloody garment over our souls, and grant us repentance and remission of sins, and we shall be saved (p. 32).

  • Kind Redeemer, we cheerfully follow thee into the grave, in hope of a glorious resurrection. We would not live always. In the last day raise us up, and make our vile bodies like unto thy glorious body. Give us part in the first resurrection (p. 33).

  • Lord Jesus, when thou comest in thy glory, with all thy holy angels, and the heavens shall flee away at thy presence, by thy mercy let us have boldness in the day of judgment (p. 34).

  • Jesus, our Lord and our God, when thou shalt dissolve the frame of all sublunary things, remember and spare us according to the riches of thy grace in glory (p. 34).

  • O thou Lamb of God, grant us this one favor — to worship thee with true devotion here below, and after this life to unite with the heavenly throng in ascribing to thee blessing, and honor, and power, and glory, and salvation (p. 37).

In the chapter on the Messiahship of Jesus, Plumer concludes with this prayer:

  • O God, bring the children of Abraham to embrace Jesus Christ; and to us and to all that dwell in this land give hearts to receive thy Son, to believe on his name, to own him as our Saviour; so that all the blessings of the covenant of grace may come on us and overtake us; that we may be blessed in the city and in the field; that thy blessing may rest on the fruit of our body, and on the fruit of our ground, and the fruit of our cattle, and the increase of our kine, and the flocks of our sheep; that thy blessing may rest on our basket and on our store; that we may be blessed when we come in and blessed when we go out; and that thy who come out against us one way may flee before us seven ways. Oh that all the land and world may soon avouch the Lord Jehovah to be their God, his Son Jesus Christ to be their Saviour; his Holy Spirit to be their Sanctifier, Comforter and Guide; and unto the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God our Saviour, be glory, and honor, dominion and power, now and for ever. Amen (pp. 98-99).

The following is Plumer’s prayer which concludes the chapter on Christ’s Glorious Reward:

  • Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts! The whole earth is full of thy glory. Blessed be the Lord for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof. Still more would we bless for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, and for thy precious loving-kindness, and for the precious seed of gospel truth, and for the precious promises, and for precious faith to believe thy word, and for the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, and for the precious death of thy saints, and for the precious name of Jesus, which is as ointment poured forth, and for the precious blood of the Son of God, through whom we have redemption.

Look in mercy on this dark world. Remember Zion. Make Joseph a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Bring back the captivity of thy people, that Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad. Thou hast set thy Son on thy holy hill of Zion. Righteousness is the girdle of his reins. Hasten the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones lie down together, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the nations shall learn war no more, and thy ancient people the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brough in; when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ; when the Lord shall call them his people which are not now his people; when the angel shall fly in the midst f heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.

Lord God of hosts, cut short the work in righteousness. Let the ploughman overtake the reaper, and let a nation be born in a day.

“Pity the nations, O our God;
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious word abroad;
And the strangers home.”

We are indeed asking great things, but we do it at thy command. We ask no more than thou hast promised to thy Son, and no more than he has purchased by his most precious blood, and no more than he himself intercedes for in heaven. Amen (pp. 437-439).

These prayers of Plumer may inspire you, as they do this writer, to give God the glory when we read a doctrinal book such as this. Who can study the doctrines of God and not be moved to praise Him who is marvelously worthy of all glory? May we too learn to pray like Plumer, as we study Biblical doctrine, whose thoughts of Christ led him to prayer and adoration.

J.R. Miller: A Lesson to be Learned from Hellen Keller

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Helen Keller is an inspirational figure in history because of her remarkable achievements despite extraordinary handicaps. With the patient instruction of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller was able to overcome tremendous obstacles. Keller was religious (and counted among her friends the famous Presbyterian minister Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr.), but not in the orthodox sense; in her book, My Religion (1927), she claimed to be a Swedenborgian. However, despite that theological perspective, one cannot consider her remarkable life without an appreciation for her amazing story.

J.R. Miller, in his chapter on “Courage to Live Nobly,”* writes of a lesson that can be gleaned from the life of Helen Keller.

Some of us are dimly aware of the great possibilities in us, yet lack the energy and the earnestness necessary to release our imprisoned faculties and give them wing. One of the most wonderful stories of the conquest of difficulty is that of Helen Keller. She was blind, she was deaf, she could not speak. Her soul was hidden away in an impenetrable darkness. Yet she has overcome all these seemingly invincible obstacles and barriers and now stands in the ranks of intelligence and scholarship. We have a glimpse of what goes on in her brave soul in such words as these: “Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond, there is life and music and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question His imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense on my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.”

Helen Keller, in one little sentence that she has written, discloses the secret of all that she has achieved and attained. This resolve, she herself says, has been the keynote of her life. “I resolved to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed about my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not dwarf my soul, but, rather, should be made to blossom, like Aaron’s rod that budded.”

Some of us, with no such hindrances, with no such walls and barriers imprisoning our being, with almost nothing in the way of the full development of our powers, with everything favorable thereto, have scarcely found our souls. We have eyes, but we see not the glory of God about us and above us. We have ears, but we hear not the music of divine love which sings all round us. It may not always be easy for us to learn to know the blessed things of God which fill all the world. But if we had half the eagerness that Helen Keller has shown in overcoming hindrances, half the energy, think how far we would be advanced to-day! We would then regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which are about us, making it hard for us to reach out and find the best things of life. We would not allow our souls to be dwarfed by any hindrances, but would struggle on until we are free from all shackles and restraints, and until we have grown into the full beauty of Christ.

Sometimes young people are heard complaining of their condition or circumstances as excuse for their making so little of their lives. Because they are poor, and no rich friend gives them money to help them, or because they have some physical infirmity or hindrance, or because they have not had good early advantages, they give up and submit to stay where they are. The story of Helen Keller should shame all such yielding to the small inconveniences and obstacles that best young people in ordinary conditions. They should regard their limitations and hindrances as only impertinences, to be bravely set aside by undismayed and unconquerable energy, or rather, as barriers set not to obstruct the way but to nerve and stimulate them to heroic endeavor before which all obstacles will vanish.

* J.R. Miller, When the Song Begins (1905), pp. 192-195; J.R. Miller, The Blossom of Thorns (1905), pp. 192-195

May this meditation for the day bring inspiration to consider how we may persevere in the face of obstacles in the strength of Christ to overcome, and to see more than we did before, and hear more than we can now, and to speak and do more to the praise of God.

A New Year's Prayer

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James W. Weir (1805-1878) was a Presbyterian ruling elder for 44 years (from 1834 until his death in 1878) at the Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was a godly man who made a deep impression upon many who knew him.

John DeWitt’s mention of him in an 1894 sermon on the Beginnings of Presbyterianism in the Middle Colonies speaks volumes:

I dare not trust myself to speak of the tender personal associations and the sacred memories which make a return to Harrisburg almost a holy pilgrimage. For, though I am tempted to be very free and personal to-day, I must pause before I stir up the deepest fountains of feeling in you and in myself. But I cannot forbear to say, that every Harrisburger, who is also a son of this church, must feel himself made better by returning to the place in which that man of God and friend of man, James Wallace Weir, so long did justice and loved mercy and walked humbly with his God.

He is primarily known today for the devotional manual The Closet Companion; or, Manual of Prayer: Consisting of Topics and Brief Forms of Prayer, Designed to Assist Christians in Their Devotions (1854), published with an introduction by Albert Barnes.

From this volume we extract a suggested prayer for the New Year which is worthy of meditation at the close of one year and the beginning of another.

O thou God of the rolling seasons, I thank thee for thy mercies to me during the last year. There has not been an hour nor a moment of it, which has not brought me tokens of thy care and kindness. Assist me now to bring its transactions, in which I have been engaged, in solemn review before my conscience. Though the record of them is fast wasting away from the treacherous tablet of my memory, yet they are written, as with a pen of iron, on the books of thy remembrance; where they will remain until that fearful hour of trial, when the books shall be opened, and all men shall be judged out of the things that are written therein, whether they be good or evil.

Lord, I desire to acknowledge before thee, with godly sorrow, that I have neglected many duties, and abused many privileges, during the past year. My heart, and my lips, and my hands, have often been agents of transgression. Many of thy mercies have been ungratefully perverted or forgotten; and thy chastenings have often been despised or unheeded. O, my tongue would grow weary, and my heart would sicken, if I should undertake to recite all my iniquities before thee. Help me, I pray thee, for the sake of our Great Advocate, to repent over them, to loathe and forsake them, and to look to thee for strength, that the time past of my life may suffice to have wrought the deeds of the flesh, and that henceforth I may live to the will of God.

O Lord, I desire to enter the coming year, feeling the solemn responsibilities of human life. I know not what a day may bring forth, nor what the approaching months may reveal respecting me: except that they will bring me so much nearer eternity, and be full of records of my growth in grace, or of my backslidings from thy holy law. Yet I thank thee that my span of life is still lengthened out, and that I am still permitted to enjoy the precious opportunities that have been vouchsafed to me in days past. O God, assist me, I beseech thee, to discharge aright all the duties that lie before me. Make me understand the uncertainty of time, the worth of my soul, the multiplied interests of my fellow-travellers to eternity, and the righteous claims of thy service. Make me watchful against the many dangers to which I am exposed. Strengthen my love to thee; deepen my convictions of sin; animate my desires after holiness; increase my spirit of prayer; enlarge my benevolence; and lead me in thine own way, for thy name’s sake. Protect me by thy care; supply me by thy bounty; and grant me an increasing meetness for that state, where these changing seasons will give place to an endless life.

Lord, make this opening year, a year of the right hand of the Most High. Pour the healing balm of peace on all the bleeding wounds of thy church. Spread over her the spotless mantle of purity. Invigorate her by the reviving power of truth. Awaken her to renewed efforts in doing good. O may these months stand forth in the history of redemption, as precious seasons of refreshing from thy holy and life-giving presence.

This a devotional manual full of treasures which can be read here. And, if you are seeking a devotional read for the New Year (see our recommendations from years past here and here), be sure to consult our Devotionals page (available to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society). Meanwhile, it is our prayer that the New Year would be filled with joy and peace for our readers, and that we would all, by the grace of God, walk closer with our Lord. The Lord bless and keep you in the palm of his hand.

W.H. Fentress: No Sea in Heaven

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Read the scripture, not only as an history, but as a love-letter sent to you from God which may affect your hearts. -- Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity, p. 27

Considering he was blind, the word-pictures painted by William Henry Fentress (1851-1880) are all the more remarkable. In one sermon from his volume Love Truths From the Bible (1879), he speaks of the ocean with tremendous insight into matters temporal and spiritual. The sermon is “No Sea in Heaven” (based on Rev. 21:1: “and there was no more sea”) and the extracts which follow are intended to whet the appetite for all of his sermons.

Have you ever stood by the sea? have you ever had the sense of being lost in the contemplation of its wonders? have you ever seen, and heard, and realized what it has to reveal? if so, you have been admitted to one of the grandest privileges known to the lovers of nature. It seems impossible that even the careless should pass by the sea uninfluenced: there is so much to engage the attention; so much to compel interest; a very spell, a fascination in its presence. To the thoughtful it is most impressive; unfolding to consciousness mysteries of thought and sentiment that banish the common things of life; that produce an experience beyond language to define; that give, as it were, a new being, with other motives, other powers, other ambitions. These impressions come again when the sea is far away, as we fancy that the night heavens of the Orient recur to the traveller, who has once enjoyed their sublime magnificence; as the splendors of royalty haunt the mind of an exiled Napoleon; as the awful meeting of contending armies is recalled by the old veteran, when the war has long been over, and lie is resting with his little ones about him in his peaceful home.

The sky, the forests, the mountains, all have attractions peculiar to themselves; and so has the sea. Behold the giant waves, crimsoned with sunbeams! or silvered by the light of the moon! how majestically they rise and fall ! Now raging under the lash of the storm demon, now moving in calm with long measured roll, they seem impatient of restraint, as if possessed by a spirit of life; as if some mighty force were rocking the cradle of the deep. Hear the rush of waters, the waves struggling and dying on the sands, the deep thunder of the breakers on the shore! and strangely with the deafening tumult mingle the wild shriek of the seagull and the soft note of the curlew. For miles inland upon the hush of night comes the monotone of the ocean. It is as the sound of a distant, heavy-rolling train. It is an unbroken anthem of praise to the great Creator. The beach is strewn with shells of every size, and shape, and color. Have you never kneeled upon the hard, white sand to gather these bright offerings washed up by the surf? and when a larger one was found, have listened with a child's delight to the whisper of some far off sea, laving the shores of some distant isle, or continent? These shells are nature's beautiful playthings, adorning the frame-work, in which she has placed the master-piece of her art. What a setting! what a picture! commanding the admiration not only of earth, for the hosts of heaven delight to mirror themselves in the boundless, blue expanse.

Fentress continues to expound upon the vast expanse of the ocean and its deepest depths which harbor shipwrecks, treasures, animals, caves and more, culminating in this cry: “O sea! Not only man, but thou also art wonderfully and fearfully made.”

It is thus evident, that the sea is not the source of a perfect joy. Far from it! It has features, occasions and associations which are productive of sadness and suffering. Has it beautiful shells and pearls? It has also loathesome weeds and reptiles. Has it fairy isles and safe harbors? It has also dangerous Scylla and Charybdis. Has it warm streams, that moderate climate and contribute to human comfort? It has also floating fields and mountains of ice, which are a terror to man. Do its waves appear fair and bright in the sunshine? When clouds gather and the wind spirit goes abroad, they are terrible to look upon. Is there majestic music in the roar of the surf? to the mariner whose vessel driven from its course, is hurrying toward the breakers, it is a knell of death. Does it bring to ns the treasures of India and other lands? alas! it sometimes bears away dear treasures of our hearts, and returns them no more. Hence, as we learn from our text, there will be no sea in heaven: for "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

As beautiful as the sea is to behold, Fentress reminds us that its wide expanse separates divides continents and separates mariners from their loved ones; while in heaven, there is no separation between spirits, no division between members of Christ’s body. Though at times it may seem placidly calm, the sea is a place of change with its tides which ebb and flow, and its tempests which bring such violence and danger; whereas, in heaven, there is eternal rest from this life’s storms, and peace from the contrary gales which we all experience.

O mariners on the sea of life, seeking rest but finding none; make your reckoning with a view to eternity; take the Bible as your chart; hold your course straight for the Star of Bethlehem; and in the fiercest storm, through the darkest night keep a brave heart, relying upon God: and though the voyage be long, and wearying, and beset with difficulties and trials, peace will be reached at last.
…
There will be noble strivings in heaven. The spirits of just men made perfect, will vie with each other in obedience, love and consecration to Him who loved them; who washed them from their sins in His own precious blood; who made them Kings and Priests unto God. The law of progress will demand ambition, increase, change: ambition to be holy, as God is holy; increase in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; and change by advancing in the divine image: but there will be no sea in heaven; that is, no restlessness, no discontent with what you are, and have. For earth, with all its petty cares, its fevered dreams, its nameless longings, its unsatisfying pleasures, will have passed away; the realties of the life in God, will bring to the troubled heart profound calm; the Prince of peace will give His own peace to the weary soul, and not a wave of care will ever disturb the deep serenity of that life in the bright Forever.

Our speaker puts his finger on that which troubles the mind and heart of many believers in this life: fear. And death.

Now in human affairs the possible, more than the actual, is the cause of distress. Life's fabric takes its sombre colors, more from what may be than what is. In other words, fear is the main, disturbing element to human peace: but in heaven there will be nothing of this. There, doubt, uncertainty, danger, and threatenings of misfortune will have no place. We shall know, even as we are known; we shall love, even as we are loved: and perfect knowledge and perfect love will cast out all fear. O the trust and confidence and security that will be the heritage of God's children, when gathered home; when folded at last in the Father's embrace! No sea in heaven; that is, no fear.
…
But is it not written, that "the sea shall give up the dead that are in it, and that Death and Hell shall be cast into the lake of fire?'' In heaven therefore, the daughters of music will not be brought low: nor desire fail because man goeth to his long home: nor mourners go about the streets: nor the silver cord be loosed: nor the golden bowl be broken: nor the pitcher broken at the fountain: nor the wheel broken at the cistern. There, there will be no gathering of friends at the bed-side, to be crushed with anguish at the departure of one beloved: no struggling for breath, then a marble coldness: no damp wiped from the brow; no eyes closed by the hands of another. There will be no tolling of bells; no procession in black; no speaking of the words, "dust to dust." There will be no turning away, to leave a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife, a child, or a dear friend to solitude and night; no going back to the house with the awful feeling, that we have no more a home; no strewing of flowers on fresh, green mounds. Thank God! there will be no church-yards in heaven. No sea in heaven; that is, no death.

Those who gaze out at the horizon may with difficulty at times discern where the sea ends and heaven begins. But those with spiritual sight are taught here to look up to the center of heaven where our Chief Pilot, who commands the winds and the waves, will navigate us home.

Jesus brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He has gone to prepare a place, to make ready the many mansions, that where He is, His disciples may be also. Yes, to Jesus, and Jesus only do we owe our sweet hope of heaven. Heaven, that golden clime far beyond life's troubled ocean! Heaven, on whose blissful shores no waves ever break! Heaven, that land of love and loveliness! Heaven, that paradise home, where the pure in heart are joined forever! You and I have loved ones already there. We parted from them, as from our very life. The world has never seemed so fair and bright since they went away. Are we seeking for re-union in that better country? Let us then be sure to take the homeward way. Let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us fight the good fight of faith, and sing the victor's song. Let us go forth, and accomplish the voyage, marked out for us on the sea of life: not as the disciple who began to sink because of unbelief; but with unwavering trust in God, that He will not let the waves and the billows go over us; that He will direct our course aright; that He will be our guide and refuge to the last: and be assured, He will then receive us to that haven of rest, where the sorrows of the sea are no more.

Read this and other sermons by W.H. Fentress here, and meditate on such “love truths from the Bible,” for our author would have you “look unto Jesus.”

Sabbath Night by J.H. Bocock

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On the Lord’s Day, or Christian Sabbath, it is good to contemplate the comforts that are given to us by our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After the day’s devotions, which are a taste of heaven, with cognizance of our failures to keep the day holy as we ought, we may nevertheless take refuge in Him who gives rest and peace, not as the world gives, but from above. Consider a poem by John Holmes Bocock (1813-1872) as found in Selections From the Religious and Literary Writings of John H. Bocock, D.D. (1891), pp. 546-547, which highlights such an appreciation of Sabbath blessings and comforts.

Sabbath Night

Rest, weary spirit, rest,
From toil and trouble free;
Lean on the Saviour’s breast
Who giveth rest to thee!

Lie there, ye cares and fears,
I cast you at his feet;
From all my fears and cares
I take this sure retreat.

Beneath his wings I crowd,
Close to his side I press:
None such was e’er allowed
To perish without grace.

O sprinkle me with blood!
My heart would feel the stream
From out thy side that flowed,
Us, sinners, to redeem!

Yet closer still I come!
Reveal thyself to me:
O let me feel that home
Is at thy feet to be.

I calmly seek repose;
Pardon my Sabbath sin,
And to my dreams disclose
That heaven thou dwellest in.

J.A. Alexander: Be Still and Know That I am God

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Joseph Addison Alexander, the remarkable Biblical scholar who was skilled in 25 languages, was also a prolific poet. In 1833, while on travel in Europe, he wrote what his biographer, H.C. Alexander, called “one of his noblest productions.”

Be Still and Know That I am God

I.

When fortune smiles and friends abound;
When all thy fondest hopes are crowned;
When earth with her exhaustless store,
Seems still intent to give thee more:
When every wind and every tide
Contribute to exalt thy pride;
When all the elements conspire
To feed thy covetous desire;
When foes submit and envy stands
Pale and abashed with folded hands;
While fame’s unnumbered tongues prolong
The swell of thy triumphal song;
When crowds admire and worlds applaud
”Be still and know that I am God.”

II.

When crowns are sported with and thrones
Are rocked to their foundation stones;
When nations tremble and the earth
Seems big with some portentous birth;
When all the ties of social life
Are severed by intestine strife;
When human blood begins to drip
From tyranny’s accursed whip;
When peace and order find their graves
In anarchy’s tempestuous waves;
When every individual hand
Is steeped in crime, and every land
Is full of violence and fraud;
”Be still and know that I am God.”

III.

When to the havoc man has made
The elements afford their aid;
When nature sickens, and disease
Rides on the wing of every breeze;
When the tornado in its flight
Blows the alarm and calls to fight;
When raging Fever leads the van,
In the fierce onset upon man;
When livid Plague and pale Decline
And bloated Dropsy, form the line;
While hideous Madness, shivering Fear
And grim Despair, bring up the rear;
When these thy judgments are abroad:
”Be still and know that I am God.”

IV.

When messages of grace are sent,
And mercy calls thee to repent;
When through a cloud of doubts and fears
The Sun of Righteousness appears;
When thy reluctant heart delays
To leave it’s old accustomed ways;
When pride excites a storm within,
And pleads and fights for every sin;
Be still, and and let this tumult cease;
Say to thy raging passions, “Peace!”
By love subdued, by judgment awed:
”Be still and know that I am God.”

Samuel Davies on the Excellency of the Divine Being

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Editorial note: Rev. Dylan Rowland is Pastor of Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Mansfield, Ohio.

Recently, I have preached through various Psalms during our afternoon Lord’s Day service. In particular, I’ve preached sermons on Psalms 93 and 95 and will, Lord willing, preach from Psalms 96-100 in the near future. These Psalms are beautiful testimonies to the glory and majesty of the Lord God our King. For example:

Psalm 93:1–2 (NKJV): The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.

Psalm 95:3–7 (NKJV): For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 96:6–8, 13 (NKJV): Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts….For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.

These Psalms bring to the center of our attention the glory and majesty of theology proper (doctrine of God), and they do so in a pastoral way. The descriptions of God’s attributes were written in such a way so as to move readers to worship the Lord with humility, joy, thanksgiving, and with great adoration. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these Psalms are meant to pastorally demonstrate how the doctrine of God culminates in our worship of Him.

However, I have also been reading through the collected sermons of Samuel Davies (1723-1761), an eighteenth century Presbyterian minister. In a sermon titled, The Nature and Universality of Spiritual Death, Davies comments on the majesty of God’s divine excellence (His nature and attributes) and answers the question as to why men fail to adore the Triune God for His excellence. 

The following is a quoted excerpt from Davies' sermon which is a helpful and humbling commentary detailing what an appropriate response to the nature of God should be. His insights are especially helpful in seeking to apply the wonderful truths of Psalms 93-100. Consider the following from Davies [Sermons on Important Subjects (1804 ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 133-135]:

Consider the excellency of the divine Being, the sum total, the great original of all perfections. How infinitely worthy is He of the adoration of all His creatures! How deserving of their most intense thoughts and most ardent affections! If majesty and glory can strike us with awe and veneration, does not Jehovah demand them, who is clothed with majesty and glory as with a garment, and before Him all the inhabitants of the Earth are as grasshoppers, as nothing, as less than nothing, and vanity? If wisdom excites our pleasing wonder, here is an unfathomable depth. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! If goodness, grace, and mercy attract our love and gratitude, here these amiable perfections shine in their most alluring glories. If justice strikes a damp to the guilty, here is justice in all its tremendous majesty. If veracity, if candor, if any, or all the moral virtues engage our esteem, here they all center in their highest perfection. If the presence of a king strikes a reverence; if the eye of his judge as the criminal, and restrains him from offending, certainly we should fear before the Lord all the day, for we are surrounded with His omnipresence, and He is the Inspector and Judge of all our thoughts and actions. If riches excite desire, here are unsearchable riches: if happiness has charms that draw all the world after it, here is an unbounded ocean of happiness; here is the only complete portion for an immortal mind. Men are affected with these things in one another, though found in a very imperfect degree. Power awes and commands, virtue and goodness please, beauty charms, justice strikes with solemnity and terror, a bright genius is admired, a benevolent, merciful temper is loved: thus men are affected with created excellencies. Whence is it, then, they are so stupidly unaffected with the supreme excellencies of Jehovah?

Here, my brethren, turn your eyes inward upon yourselves, and inquire, are not several of you conscious that, though you have passions for such objects as these, and you are easily moved by them, yet, with regard to the perfections of the Supreme best of beings, your hearts are habitually senseless and unaffected? It is not an easy thing to make impressions upon you by them; and what increases the wonder, and aggravates your guilt, is, that you are thus senseless and unaffected, when you believe and profess that these perfections are really in God, and that in the highest degree possible. In other cases you can love what appears amiable, you revere what is great and majestic, we eagerly desire and pursue what is valuable intends to your happiness; in all of this you do freely, spontaneously, vigorously, by the innate inclination and tendency of your nature, without reluctance, without compulsion, nay, without persuasion; but as to God and all of His perfections, you are strangely insensible, backward, and averse.  Where is the one being that has any confessed excellency in the compass of human knowledge, that does not engage more of the thoughts and affections of mankind than the glorious and ever blessed God? The sun, moon, and stars have had more worshippers than the uncreated Fountain of Light from which they derive their luster. Kings and ministers of state have more punctual homage and more frequent applications made to them than the King of kings and Lord of lords. Created enjoyments are more eagerly pursued than the Supreme Good. Search all the world over, and you will find but very little motions of heart towards God; little love, little desire, little searching after Him. You will often, indeed, see Him honored with the complement of a bended knee, and a few heartless words, under the name of a prayer; but where is the heart, or where are the thoughts, where the affections? These run wild through the world, and are scattered among a thousand other objects. The heart has no prevailing tendency toward God, the thoughts are shy of Him, the affections have no innate propensity to Him. In short, in this respect, the whole man is out of order: here he does not at all act like himself; here are no affectionate thoughts, no delightful meditations, no ardent desires, no eager pursuits and vigorous endeavors; but all is listless, stupid, indisposed, inactive, and averse: and what is the matter? “Lord, what is this that has seized the souls of Thine own offspring, that they are thus utterly disordered towards Thee?” The reason is, they are dead, dead in trespasses and sins. It is impossible a living soul should be so stupid and unaffected with such an object; it must be a dead soul that has no feeling. Yes, sinners, this is the melancholy reason why you are so thoughtless, so unconcerned, so senseless about the God that made you: you are dead. And what is the reason that you, who have been begotten again to a spiritual life, and who are united to Christ as your vital head, what is the reason that you so often feel such languishments; that the pulse of spiritual life beats so faint and irregular, and that its motions or so feeble and slow? All this you feel and lament, but how comes it to pass? What can be the cause that you, who have indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious, and are sensible that He is all glorious and lovely, and your only happiness–oh, what can be the cause, that you, of all men in the world, should be so little engaged to Him? Alas, the cause is, you have been dead, and a deadly stupor has not yet left you: you have (blessed be the quickening spirit of Christ!) you have received a little life; but alas, it is a feeble spark; it finds the principles of death still strong in your constitution; there it must struggle with, and by them it is often borne down, suppressed, and just expiring. Walk humbly, then, and remember your shame, that you were once dead, and children of wrath, even as others.

This is a humbling testimony from Davies and readers would do well to meditate on it. Therefore, it seems important to ask: when we read the Bible’s testimony concerning God’s divine excellencies, are we moved to worship and adoration? If not, why? To worship and adore the Triune God because of His divine excellencies is surely the lovely truth found in Psalms 93-100. Read more about Samuel Davies at the biographical links on his page, as well as the full sermon highlighted above.

W.S. Rentoul's "The Bible"

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Described as “an odd-looking character, a Scotchman by birth,” William Skinner Rentoul (1812-1898) was a Philadelphia bookseller, publisher, writer and poet of the old school Presbyterian variety. He is best known for publishing both the Keys Psalter and Rentoul’s Library of Standard Bible Expositions, which includes some notable commentaries: 1. Ralph Wardlaw, Lectures: Expository and Practical, on the Book of Ecclesiastes (1868); 2. Alexander Moody Stuart, The Song of Songs: An Exposition of the Song of Solomon (1869); and 3. George Lawson, Practical Expositions of the Whole Books of Ruth and Esther (1870). He was also the author of a metrical version of the Song of Solomon, appended to Stuart’s commentary on the same.

Today we highlight a poetic composition he published in 1862. It is a sweet meditation on the Word of Life, and a reminder of what a precious gift the Lord has given unto us.

The Bible

O, rarest gift to mortals given!
Blest book! thou point’st the path to heaven.
The sinner, lost in darkness drear,
Heart-sick thro’ sin, whose eye the tear
Of anguish scalds, thro’ griefs and woes
That fill the poisoned cup of those
On whose soul rests, with weighty load,
The wrath of an offended God,
That takes thy sweet and kindly light
For guide, shall still be led aright;
Shall find Jehovah’s angry face
To favour changed. His smiles shall grace
His earthly labours: and at last, —
Eternal life, eternal rest —
Purchased by Jesus for his own;
For all who love that Holy One,
And wait His glorious coming - his cup of bliss shall crown.

J.W. Rosebro on seeking the Lord

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From the Southern Presbyterian Pulpit (1896), today we highlight a sermon by J.W. Rosebro which is based on Isa. 55:6: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." As Rosebro notes, the text is both a invitation and a command, both a privilege and a duty, and incorporates both a promise and a warning.

Rosebro (1847-1912) was educated at Davidson College, North Carolina, Princeton University, and Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He served pastorates at Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church in Augusta County, Virginia; Lewisburg, West Virginia; and at the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Virginia. He also served as President of Fredericksburg College (Virginia); director of Union Seminary, Richmond; and as a professor at Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was the son-in-law of B.M. Smith.

Returning to our sermon, after an insightful introduction showing the connective tissues between the 53rd, 54th and 55th chapters of Isaiah, Roseboro shows the connection between God’s gracious invitation and firm command.

The command is, "Seek ye the Lord." It comes from one who has the right to command. Let not the fulness and freeness of the invitation lead you to think you have nothing to do. It is true Jesus says he came to seek as well as save the lost; yet he also declares we must seek if we would find. It is true, he stands at the door and knocks, yet must we knock if we would have it opened unto us. It is true, God opens wide the door of his grace and proclaims, “whosoever will may come”; yet must we "strive to enter in." He offers the water of life “without money”; yet must we “buy” it. God presses the gift of eternal life on us; yet is it true, “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel." God forces himself on no soul. He offers himself, and then it is our privilege, our duty to "seek the Lord.” We cannot sit down and wait for salvation; we must seek the Lord, though he. is not far from us.

It is on the basis of Christ’s work as Redeemer, seen so vividly in Isa. 53, that the promises given to those who come at God’s gracious call do rest.

If God invites us to come and commands us to come, there is surely an implied promise of acceptance, when we obey the command and accept the invitation. He has filled his book with richest promises and holds up before us one illustration after another, that we may see how sinful souls came to accept his invitation and that none ever went away unblest. He assures us that the favor of God standeth sure, and that '''whosoever'' cometh to drink of this water shall receive it without money….It is a glorious, amazing truth, that since Jesus died God is graciously bound to receive every soul that comes trusting in Jesus who died.

Yet with the call, there is an admonition to the hearer.

The preacher would not be faithful to you did he not press on your thoughts the warning in this text. Do not the words, "while he may be found," "while he is near,” warn us that there is a time when he may not be found, when he is not near?

This is the full-orbed, whole gospel message which Rosebro conveys to his auditors and readers.

Oh! while the Spirit is whispering in your heart, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart," while Jesus once more invites, while God is near, come! come! Provoke not that state in which it will be impossible to renew you again to repentance. It were better for you, if you had never been born.

Begin now to seek the Lord. Stop and think. You cannot stop and think of your sin and ingratitude against such love and patience without coming to repentance. You cannot think of Jesus bearing your guilt, of his suffering and death for you, without learning to love him who thus first loved you. "My people will not consider" is the mournful charge God brings against us. Therefore does he entreat us to — "Come now let us reason together." "Harden not your heart,” but "seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.”

Read the full sermon by Rosebro here. Oh, may the Spirit of God quicken us to draw near and not shrink back when God graciously calls us to himself. To God be the glory for his kindness and love towards undeserving, unworthy sinners for Christ’s sake.

E.C. Wines: Christ the Fountain of the Promises

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Recently, we have highlighted William Swan Plumer’s 1872 book on The Promises of God (here and here). Today we highlight an 1868 volume with the same title by Enoch Cobb Wines.

His introductory comments on the proposition that Christ is the fountain of all gospel promises are very much worth meditating upon.

THE original and spring of all gospel promises is the Lord Jesus Christ. This precious truth is taught by Peter in the following passage: "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises,” 2 Pet. i. 3, 4. The word "whereby,” in verse fourth, refers to the divine power and glorious excellence of Jesus Christ; that is, to Jesus Christ himself. Without any unnatural or forced construction, therefore, the passage might be rendered: "By, through, or in Christ Jesus, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” Thus construed, it distinctly teaches the doctrine enunciated as the theme of the present chapter.

The same glorious and cheering truth is still more clearly taught by Paul in 2 Cor. i. 20, where he affirms that “all the promises of God in him (that is, in Jesus Christ, as the contest shows) are yea, and in him, Amen.”
…
Christ may be said to be the rise and spring of the promises, inasmuch as they were all purchased and. procured for us by the shedding of his most precious blood.
…
Christ is the fountain of the promises, inasmuch as it is to him, as our Head and Surety, that they are all originally made. The promises are primarily to Christ; and they are made to us only as we are in him. Through him alone are they made over to us. His blessed mediation is the only channel through which their divine benefits can flow into our souls.
…
Christ is the fountain of the promises, inasmuch as it is in and by him that we have a right to them and to whatever is included in them. "He that hath the Son hath life.” A great principle is embodied in these words. Christ being ours, all things are ours; Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things present, things to come, all are ours; much more then the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Now, freedom from condemnation implies a title to life, and a title to life of necessity implies a right to all the promises which assure eternal life to the believer. But the promises belong only to those who are in union with Christ. If once a soul close with Christ in the covenant of promise, there is not one promise in the Scripture but he may write this superscription upon it, "This is mine.” Yes, dear reader, it is even so. If you have closed with Christ, you may write your own name upon every promise in the Bible regarding it as addressed to yourself personally, as much as if there was not another individual of the race who could become a partaker of its benefits. The promises of the gospel are for all those who want them. The suggestion that they are not, come from whatever quarter it may, is a lie of the devil. It is of the very essence of faith to embrace the promises in the firm trust that Christ will do all he has said.

Christ is the spring of the promises, inasmuch as it is his grace that prepares and qualifies us for the fulfilment of them.

It is through grace received from Christ that we are enabled to believe the promises. It is through strength imparted by Christ that we are enabled to perform the conditions annexed to the promises.

It is through faith, which is the gift of Christ, that we are enabled to appropriate all the precious benefits of the promises. If Christ did not help us, we should never believe a single promise. If Christ did not help us, we should never obey the precept on which the promise is conditioned. If Christ did not help us, we should never receive the comfort and refreshment of an appropriating faith in the promise.

So that in reference to the divine promises, as in reference to every other benefit and blessing of the new and everlasting covenant, “CHRIST IS ALL IN ALL.”

Read the rest of Wines on The Promises of God here. It is a sweet, gospel-themed read by a fascinating 19th century American Presbyterian minister with a particular interest in the reform of civil society along Biblical principles.

Sprague on Keeping the Heart

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William B. Sprague, in his introductory essay on devotion to D.A. Harsha’s The Christian’s Present For All Seasons: Containing the Devotional Thoughts of Eminent Divines, From Joseph Hall to William Jay (1866) speaks to the nature of true devotion, impediments to the spiritual life, and the necessity of “keeping the heart with all diligence.” He writes:

As the heart, being the fountain of all moral action, gives complexion to the life, so the devotional habits of an individual will be determined by his devotional feelings.

Speaking generally, he adds:

The spirit of devotion may be regarded as an epitome of the Christian graces — these graces are combined in the exercises of this spirit; and more than that, they react with a quickening power upon the spirit itself. The truly devout Christian bows with reverence before the Divine perfections; takes counsel of the word and providence of God for intimations of the Divine will; laments the prevalence of indwelling sin; relies on the merits of Christ and the power and grace of the Holy Spirit; and prays for an increasing conformity to the precepts of the Gospel, and for the universal prevalence of truth and righteousness. And with these exercises are identified humility, trust, submission, charity, zeal in doing good, — every thing that elevates human character, and constitutes the appropriate preparation for Heaven.

But that indwelling sin, and the unhealthy influences of worldliness around us, all make it incumbent upon believers, says Sprague, to watch against that which wars against our souls, and to “avail ourselves of helps within our reach” for the preservation of holiness, which is the life of the soul.

One of these is to be found in the careful keeping of the heart. He who keeps his heart with all diligence will not only be secure against the inroads of temptation, but will be sure also to keep a conscience in a good degree void of offence; and this will render an approach to the throne of grace easy and pleasant to him. So too there will be associated with this a deep sense of dependence; for it is impossible that one should explore diligently and habitually his own heart, without realizing that the sanctifying work that is to be carried forward there, can never proceed independently of an influence from on high, — an influence not to be hoped for except in answer to fervent prayer. Indeed, the very exercise of keeping the heart not only serves to keep alive a devotional spirit, by direct ministration, but that spirit may be regarded as its primary element — the two essentially coexist, and inhere in each other.

For a good Sabbath read, the rest of Sprague’s excellent essay on devotion, which precedes a most fascinating and edifying collection of Puritan-minded spiritual nuggets wisely extracted, may be found here. How important it is indeed to “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).

Plumer: He is Faithful that Promised

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Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised (Heb. 10:23).

William S. Plumer highlights, among other considerations in The Promises of God (1872), the characteristic of God’s faithfulness. It is a sweet meditation to consider what God’s Word teaches us about the God who is our Rock indeed.

V. The promises of God are affirmative, not negative; positive, not uncertain; absolute, not accompanied with hesitancy. So the apostle, speaking of our Lord, says: "All the promises of God in him are Yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. 1:20. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances." Ps. 119:89-91. There is no cause of doubt concerning the promises.

VI. The promises of God are all true, not fictitious; all faithful, not false. "Not one jot or tittle" of them can fail. It is only despondency or unbelief that ever cries out, "Doth his promise fail for evermore?" Ps. 77:8. Faith and Scripture say: "Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." Isa. 25:1. "Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." Ps. 36:5. "God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son." 1 Cor. 1:9. So remarkable are the truth and fidelity of God to all his engagements, that, at the dedication of the temple, Solomon felt bound to say before all Israel and the world, "Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant." 1 Kings 8:56. "Faithful is he that calleth you." 1 Thess. 5:24.

Dear Reader, consider the faithfulness of God today. If he has promised, he is faithful to do what he has promised. Men may fail, the world may fail, but our God is faithful always. Read more of Plumer on The Promises of God here.

Life's Golden Lamp: A Devotional

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A devotional prepared by Robert M. Offord (a minister in the Reformed Church in America and the editor of the New York Observer) in 1888 and published in 1889 is a remarkable resource. This writer was combing the bibliography of B.B. Warfield some time ago when it first came to his notice. A daily devotional by Warfield based on Hebrews 2:13 for January 13 — How Shall We Escape, If We Neglect So Great Salvation? — is included. The volume is titled Life’s Golden Lamp For Daily Devotional Use: A Treasury of Texts From the Very Words of Christ. 365 ministers contributed devotional meditations for every day of the year, and many of them were American Presbyterians who are found on Log College Press. Some ministers outside America were included, such as Charles Spurgeon and Adolph Saphir, both of London. Some were at the time serving as American missionaries in foreign lands. All of the contributors were generally Reformed and Calvinistic. Life’s Golden Lamp represents an anthology of Scriptural passages and devotional literature from around the world by men who were actively serving the kingdom on earth in 1888-1889.

In recent days, we have circled back to this particular devotional, and thus, many other extracts from this volume have been added to the site. The number of LCP author contributors is remarkable. Work is ongoing to identify all the Presbyterian ministers whose devotionals are included, but here is a partial list so far:

Each daily devotional includes a poetic composition, and the signature of the author of the devotional meditation. The whole volume is worth consulting, but we draw your attention to the fact that this 1889 yearly devotional contains at least 50 contributions by Log College Press authors, many of whom are luminaries of church history. It is a work that is filled with the sweet savor of Biblical piety, and we highly commend it to your consideration.

J.R. Miller: The Christian Sabbath the pinnacle of days

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J.R. Miller speaks of how setting apart the Lord’s Day, in which we are elevated to the loftiest of spiritual heights, has a tremendous blessing which carries over throughout the other days of the week.

In The Joy of Service (1898), pp. 244-248, he writes:

The influence of the Sabbath, like a precious perfume, should pervade all the days of the week. Its spirit of holiness and reverence should flow down into all the paths of the other days. Its voices of hope and joy should become inspirations in all our cares and toils in the outside world. Its teaching should be the guide of hand and foot in the midst of all trials and temptation. Its words of comfort should be as lamps shining in the sick-room and in the chambers of sorrow. Its visions of spiritual beauty should be translated into reality in conduct, disposition, and character.

A well-spent Sabbath is an excellent preparation for a week amid cares and struggles. There is blessing in the Sabbath rest. We cannot go on forever; we pause here and there to renew our strength.

“Birds cannot always sing;
Silence at times they ask, to nurse spent feeling,
To see some new, bright thing,
Ere a fresh burst of song, fresh joy revealing.

Flowers cannot always blow;
Some Sabbath rest they need of silent winter,
Ere from its sheath below
Shoots up a small green blade, brown earth to splinter.

Tongues cannot always speak;
O God! in this loud world of noise and clatter,
Save us this once a week,
To let the sown seed grow, not always scatter.”

True Sabbath rest, however, is not merely the cessation of all effort, the dropping of all work. As far as possible we should seek to be freed from the common tasks of the other days. Happy is he who can leave behind him, on Saturday night, all his week-day affairs, to enjoy a Sabbath in heavenly places, as it were, engaged with thoughts and occupations altogether different from those of the busy week. This even alone gives rest.

As for the Sabbath itself, it should be a day for the uplifting of the whole life. A tourist among the Alps tells of climbing one of the mountains in a dense and dripping mist, until at length he passed through the clouds, and stood on a lofty peak in the clear sunlight. Beneath him lay the fog, like a waveless sea of white vapor; and,, as he listened, he could hear the sounds of labor, the lowing of the cattle, and the peals of the village bells, coming up from the vales below. As he stood there, he saw a bird fly up out of the mists, soar about for a little while, and then dart down again and disappear. What those moments of sunshine were to the bird, coming up out of the cloud, the Sabbath should be to us. During week-days we live down in the low vales of life, amid the mists. Life is not easy for us; it is full of struggle and burden-bearing. The Sabbath comes; and we fly up out of the low climes of care, toil, and tears, and spend one day in the pure, sweet air of God’s love and peace. There we have new visions of beauty. We get near to the heart of Christ; into the warmth of his love. We come into the goodly fellowship of Christian people, and get fresh inspiration from the contact.

Thus we are lifted up for one day out of the atmosphere of earthliness into a region of peace, calm, and quiet. We see all things more plainly in the unclouded sky; and we are prepared to begin another week with new views of duty, under the influence of fresh motives, and with our life fountains refilled. Thus the Sabbath rest prepares us for the work and the struggle of the other days. We learn new lessons, which we are to live out in the common experience of the life before us. We see the patterns of heavenly things as we read our Bible, and bow before God in prayer; and we are to go down from the holy mount to weave the fashion of these new patterns into the fabric of our character. We should be better, truer-souled, and richer-hearted al the week because of the Sabbath inspirations. We should carry the holy impressions, the sacred influences, in our heart as we go out into the world, singing the songs of heaven amid earth’s clatter and noise. True Sabbath-keeping makes us ready for true week-day living.

“There are, in this loud, stunning tide
Of human care and crime,
With whom the melodies abide
Of th’ everlasting chime —
Who carry music in their heart,
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their daily task with busier feet
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.”

Sweet words to contemplate on the Sabbath day and indeed throughout the week. The Lord’s Day is the pinnacle of days, a holy mount, from which we may be refreshed by the beatific vision, and strengthened for all the days of our Christian pilgrimage. Read more by J.R. Miller here.

Writing on the Sand: Verse by John Hall

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Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life”

Christian biographies are a treasure that will enrich the reader who seeks them out. The lives of saints who have gone before us can teach us much not only about those men and women, but about how God works from generation to generation, even our own.

Recently added to Log College Press is Thomas Cuming Hall’s life story of his father, John Hall, Pastor and Preacher: A Biography (1901). John Hall (1829-1898) was born in County Armagh, Ireland. After laboring as a missionary and pastor in Ireland, he attended the 1867 PCUSA General Assembly meeting as a delegate, and was soon thereafter called to minister to the Fifth Street Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he would serve for the remainder of his life. He survived an assassination attempt by a deranged shooter in 1891.

From his biography, we take note of the many poems he composed over the years. One in particular stands out, which evokes perhaps to the modern reader thoughts of a famous 20th century poem known as “Footprints in the Sand.” But these lines were written by Hall in 1858, and thanks to their publication in The Missionary Herald that year, and the notice given to them in his biography, these lines have not “washed away”; we recall them to mind today.

WRITING ON THE SAND

Alone I walk'd the ocean strand—
A pearly shell was in my hand;
I stoop'd, and wrote upon the sand
My name—the year—the day.
As onward from the spot I pass'd
One lingering look behind I cast.
A wave came rolling high and fast,
And wash'd my lines away.

And so, methought, 'twill shortly be
With every mark on earth from me;
A wave of dark oblivion's sea
Will sweep across the place.
Where I have trod the sandy shore
Of time, there will remain more,
Of me—my name—the name I bore,
'Twill leave no track—no trace.

And yet, with Him who counts the sands.
And holds the water in His hands,
I know the lasting record stands,
Inscribed against my name;
Of all this mortal part has wrought,
Of all this thinking soul has thought.
And from these fleeting moments caught.
For glory or for shame.

Weight of Glory: Thoughts on Affliction

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John Franklin Bair writes, in Poems For All Classes (1922), p. 174:

The Blessings of Affliction

Afflictions come, but not by chance,
Nor do they from the ground arise,
They may be heavy, but each one
Is but a blessing in disguise.

By faith I see the hand of God
In all afflictions sent to me;
Therefore I will rejoice because
My future blessings they will be.

Do we measure our happiness in life by putting our afflictions on one scale and balancing them against our blessings? We may receive evil from the hand of the Lord, but we hope to receive more good. Is that the right way to take account of a good life? If one is opposed to the other, do we stand on pins and needles at the equipoise until the scales tip in our favor? In fact, on the scales of God's justice, we are found wanting. We deserve no good thing at all. But the afflictions of the righteous are in fact blessings in disguise. While they are hard providences, they are providences from the loving hand of Almighty God, who has promised that nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8.39), and "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8.28). That being case, we must reckon rightly that blessings and afflictions are not properly weighed against each other but weighed together as "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4.17).

William Henry Green (1825-1900), chair of Biblical and Oriental Literature at Princeton, addressed this notion in his commentary on Job, originally titled The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded (1874), pp. 313-314, 318; [republished with editorial modifications as Conflict and Triumph: The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded (1999), pp. 152, 154]:

Sublime as was Job's resignation in the first and second stage of his afflictions, it is sublimer now. When his property and his children were all swept from him at a stroke, Job still blessed the name of the Lord, mindful of the fact that the Lord had given what he now took away. When in addition his own person was visited with a dreadful and incurable malady, he meekly received the evil at the hands of the Lord, mindful of the good which he had previously bestowed.

His constant trust in God rooted itself each time in the past, in the abundance of former mercies, his grateful sense of which was not effaced by all the severity of his present trials. He put his trials in the scales over against the benefits which the Lord had so bounteously conferred upon him, and the latter still largely outweighed.
...
This is the lesson which Job has now learned; and hence he retracts all his murmuring words, and all that he has said reproachful to his Maker. He abhors himself for having uttered them, and repents in dust and ashes. He would not ask as before, 'Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?' [(2:10)]. There is no evil [adversity], there can be no evil [adversity] from the hand of the Lord.

Evil [Adversity] is good when it comes from him. He [Job] no longer puts the benefits from God in one scale and afflictions in the other. But afflictions are put in the same scale with benefits: they, too, are benefits when God sends them. And thus, instead of tending to create a counter-poise, they but add their weight to that of obligation previously existing.

A New Year's Meditation by Francis J. Grimké

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From the third volume of Francis J. Grimké’s Works (pp. 383-386, 603), we have extracted a few thoughts suitable to the close of one year and the beginning of another. Consider these words penned close to 90 years ago.

This is the first day of the new year 1930. God in his kind providence has spared me to see it. And, while I am not strong in body, yet I have much to be thankful for, — kind friends, and sufficient of this world's goods to meet all my physical needs. Above all these mere creature comforts, I am able to read the Word of God, and to have communion, fellowship with him through prayer each day: and also the sweet consciousness of the fact that I am ever under the care and keeping of One who is abundantly able to care for me. On this, the first day of the year, out of a sense of gratitude, I do here and now reconsecrate myself to his service and to the service of my fellow men. God helping me, I will endeavor to live right, and as one of his followers, to represent him more worthily before the world. I know how weak we are, but with help Divine, we can all be better than we are; can all do better than we do.

***

It is a solemn thing to live! A solemn thing to live with the thought before us that we must one day face our record, — one day answer at the bar of God. It is with this thought that we ought to enter upon the New Year, and should resolve to live every moment of it so as to meet the approbation of God, to win from him the plaudit. Well done, good and faithful servant. If we carry this thought with us, and allow ourselves to be influenced by it, at the same time depending upon Divine help, we need have no fear as to the result. It will be a record that will be creditable to us. An earnest purpose to do right, steadily adhered to, is half the battle. Failure can come only from our neglect to avail ourselves of the help that is offered to us.

***

Like every other year 1931 has had its joys and its sorrows, its ups and downs, its bright days and its dark days, but through it all, the guiding hand of one who never sleeps nor slumbers, whose thoughful, loving care for all his creatures, especially for those whose trust is in him, has been clearly discernible. We have not, it may be, during the year realized all of our hopes, but still we have so much to be thankful for. We cannot fail, if we have any sense of appreciation, to be deeply grateful to God for the way along which he has led us. May the New Year find us, not only with grateful hearts, but with the purpose and determination to serve him better than ever before, to be more faithful to the duties and responsibilities devolving upon us. If we fail, let it not be from carelessness or indifference or lack of effort on our part.

May these New Year’s thoughts of Rev. Grimké echo in our hearts and minds. From Log College Press, we wish each of you joy, peace and happiness — and God’s richest blessings — for a Happy New Year!

To live forever with our Savior: A poem by J.F. Bair for a snowy day

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Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isa. 1:18).

On a snowy day, one cannot help but remember the words of the prophet Isaiah. John Franklin Bair (1867-1951) was also mindful of this verse in a selection from The Complete Poetical Works of Rev. John Franklin Bair (1907).

I Live to Thee My Savior

Jesus, I will forever live
To thee my Savior and my Lord,
Who doth to ev'ry sinner give
Comfort and joy through thy blest Word.

E'en though my sins as scarlet be
And I by them am plunged in woe,
Still thy blest Word doth say to me,
They shall be made white as the snow.

Thanks be to thee, O God, for this
Blessed assurance thou dost give,
That I with thee in joy and bliss ,
In heaven shall forever live.

To thee, O God, the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, blessed three,
One God in three and three in one,
Be glory through eternity.