Home Preacher or Church in the House,
c. 1870.
Week Twenty-five,
(at end of chapter)
Meditations.
MONDAY.
Morning.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:
Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.
Rom. iii. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.
Evening.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Rom. iii. 28, 29, 30, 31.
Rom. iv. 4, 5.
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Good Words for Every Day of the Year,
from
Good Words,
1860.
June 22.
"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
— Mark ix. 23.
"Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
— 1 John v. 5.
What great things might we attain to in the spiritual life if we had faith? What great things might we not attain to? It is the secret of all strength, because it brings the strength of God to us in our weakness. I want to realise more of what the Lord means by this belief to which "all things are possible;" "Lord increase our faith," increase my faith; not that faith only which assents to the truths revealed in the gospel, but the faith which lives under the continual impression of eternal realities, that faith which is the "evidence of things not seen." Martin Boos says—"We do not enough remember that there was One who sweat blood for us.” Ah, if we had faith, how could we forget it? Would not the thought of Him come ever first to us? Would not His presence, His nearness, the thought of His love and His agony, come between us and the summer sky, and make us feel Him to be more really there than the sun in the firmament?
"Thou art near — yes, Lord, I feel it,
Thou art near where'er I move;
And though Sense would fain conceal it,
Faith oft whispers it to Love."
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God's Minute,
1916.
June Twenty-second.
"My peace I give unto you."
-- John 14:27.
O THOU Who art the giver of every good and perfect gift, in Whose unfailing love we live and move and have our being, and without Whom we should be poor indeed, enable us, we beseech Thee, to discern even more clearly Thine abounding goodness to us, and as Thou hast made us rich in blessings, make us also rich in gratitude. We praise Thee, our Father, for those revelations of Thy love with which we are most familiar, and which we are all too prone to forget; for rising and setting suns, and the stars; for clouds and winds and passing seasons; for the outer light in which we walk serenely and dwell securely; and the light within, the true light which witnesses to our oneness with Thee. Wilt Thou help us reverently to interpret all our blessings in terms of Thy love. We thank Thee for our friends and all that friendship has meant to us, and that we may think of ourselves as friends of Jesus Christ. Wilt Thou help us also to understand what high obligations such friendship lays upon us. We praise Thee for Thy gift of peace -- that peace which the world cannot give nor take away, the peace of those who have found their sanctuary in the love and goodness of God. Evermore give us this peace. In His name, who came to bring us peace. Amen.
G. GLENN ATKINS, D.D., LL.B., Providence, R. I.
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Family Worship,
Church of Scotland.
1842.
Week Twenty-five,
Monday.
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The Christian's Daily Companion,
Church of Scotland.
1843.
June Twenty-second.
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The Sunday
Home Service,
Donald MacLeod.
1885.
Twenty-fifth Sunday.
READ:
PROVERBS viii .12, to end;
St. JOHN xiv. 15, to end.
THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
“If I go not away , the Comforter will not come unto you.”
– JOHN xvi.
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