A Thousand Lives

Spurgeon once commented:

"I feel that, if I could live a thousand lives, I would like to live them all for Christ, and I should even then feel that they were all too little a return for His great love to me."

Why We Need Aged Pastors

John Newton, in a letter to his friend Captain Scott, tells him why it is a good thing to have a pastor with many years:

"But, the old weather-beaten Christian, who has learnt by sorrowful experience how weak he is in himself, and what powerful subtle enemies he has to grapple with, acquires a tenderness in dealing with bruises and broken bones, which greatly conduces to his acceptance and usefulness."

Donald Cargill

I have been reading this morning a biography of Donald Cargill by M. Grant called No King But Christ. Cargill was a Scots preacher during the 17th century who underwent many persecutions during the "sifting times" when the Church of England did great damage to the Scottish church. One of Cargill's great themes in his preaching was the mystery of God's redemptive purpose in Christ. He once said the following about it:

"Now must it be so? Must it be so that the Son of God must be put to these things? Was there a necessity for this? Can it be done no otherwise? No, there was no creature that could give merit to his suffering but he who was God indeed: the bearing of suffering was not enough, but the communicating of infinite merit and worth. That is the thing that looses the prisoners, that they were sufferings of infinite merit; and no creature, be what he will, could give infinite merit but his own Son. And it was by reason of that union, the hypostatical union, that this infinite merit was joined to the sufferings of Christ. It is our great shame and sin that we are not more exercised with our redemption, seeing it has been the thought of the infinite God from eternity, the work of the Son in time and it is the great work of the providence of God in the world, for there is more work bestowed upon the small number of the elect than there is upon all the world beside."

Predestination

"Instead of shrinking back in horror from the doctrine of predestination, the believer, when he sees this blessed truth as it is unfolded in the Word, discovers a ground for gratitude and thanksgiving such as nothing else affords, save the unspeakable gift of the Redeemer himself."

A.W. Pink

Encouragement from the Mouth of Babes

One of the parents in our congregation just sent me this prayer. It was spoken by a little one who is 2 and 1/2 years old blessing a meal.

Dear Father
I pray for our food. I pray for Miss Jenelle. I pray for Dr. Currid. I pray for all the people in the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.

How sweet! And if a pastor ever needed encouragement . . . here it is.

Spurgeon

There is a danger of saying, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace, and there is a calmness which arises from callousness. Dupes there are who deceive their own souls. "They have no doubts," they say, but it is because they have little heart searching. They have no anxieties, because they have not much enterprise or many pursuits to stir them up. Or it may be they have no pains, because they have no life. Better go to heaven, halt and maimed, than go marching on in confidence down to hell. "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!" My God, I will envy no one of his gifts or his graces, much less of his inward mood or his outward circumstances, if only thou wilt "bless me indeed." I would not be comforted unless thou comfortest me, nor have any peace but Christ my peace, nor any rest but the rest which cometh from the sweet savor of the sacrifice of Christ. Christ shall be all in all, and none shall be anything to me save himself. O that we might always feel that we are not to judge as to the manner of the blessing, but must leave it with God to give us what we would have, not the imaginary blessing, the superficial and apparent blessing, but the blessing indeed!

MattSpear

McCheyne on Suffering

Robert Murray McCheyne wrote the following on November 21, 1832:

"If nothing else will do to sever me from my sins, Lord, send me such sore and trying calamities as shall awake me from earthly slumbers. It must always be best to be alive to Thee, whatever be the quickening instrument. I tremble as I write, for Oh! on every hand do I see too likely occasions for sore afflictions."

John Hooper

John Hooper was condemned to death because of his stance for biblical Christianity. He was told he would immediately be sent to Gloucester for his execution. At his burning, Hooper said the following to the crowd:

"Lord, I am hell, but thou art heaven; I am swill and a sink of sin, but thou are a gracious God and a merciful Redeemer. Have mercy therefore upon me, most miserable and wretched offender, after thy great mercy, and according to thine inestimable goodness. Thou are ascended into heaven, receive me, hell, to be partaker of thy joys, where thou sittest in equal glory with thy Father. For well knowest thou, Lord, wherefore I am come hither to suffer, and why the wicked do persecute this thy poor servant; not for my sins and transgressions committed against them, but because I will not allow their wicked doings, to the contaminating of thy blood, and to the denial of the knowledge of thy truth, wherewith it did please thee, by thy Holy Spirit, to instruct me; the which, with as much diligence as a poor wretch might (being thereto called), I have set forth thy glory. And well seest thou, my Lord and God, what terrible pains and cruel torments be prepared for thy creature: such, Lord, as without thy strength none is able to bear, or patiently to pass. But all things that are impossible to man are possible with thee: therefore strengthen me of thy goodness, that in the fire I break not the rules of patience; or else assuage the terror of the pains, as shall seem most to they glory."

Newton's Self-Description

In writing to Daniel West in 1774, John Newton described himself in the following manner:

"As to myself, I would tell you how it is with me if I could: at the best, it would be an inconsistent account. . . . I am a sinner, believing in the name of Jesus. I am a silly sheep, but I have a gracious, watchful Shepherd. I am a dull scholar, but I have a Master who can make the dullest learn. He still bears with me, He still employs me, He still enables me, He still owns me. Oh for a coal of heavenly fire to warm my heart, that I might praise him as I ought! As a people, we have much cause of complaint in ourselves, and much cause of thankfulness to him."

The Red Sea

Back from a few days of vacation. Here is a story that will be used at the beginning of next Sunday's sermon:

Donald Bridge tells the story "of an American congregation which included some negroes accustomed to answering the preacher as he went along. On one occasion they were addressed by someone with 'liberal' leanings, tending to dismiss the miracles of the Bible. He referred in his sermon to the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. 'Praise de Lord,' shouted a negro. 'Takin' all dem children through de deep waters. What a mighty miracle!' The preacher frowned. 'It was not a miracle,' he explained condescendingly. 'They were doubtless in marsh-land, the tide was ebbing, and the children of Israel picked their way across in six inches of water.' 'Praise de Lord!' shouted the negro unabashed. 'Drownin' all dem Egyptians in six inches of water. What a mighty miracle!'"

Packer on the Bible

J.I. Packer made the following statement regarding the nature of Scripture:

"There is a great and painful contrast between this rapt extolling of the Bible as our true light and chief means of grace and the casual, blasé, patronizing, superior attitude towards the Bible which is all too common today. Whereas the Reformers revered it, awestruck at the mystery of its divinity, hearing Christ and meeting God in their reading of it, we rather set ourselves above it, acting as if we already knew its contents inside out, and were indeed in a position to fault it as being neither wholly safe nor wholly sound as a guide to the ways of God…. Naturally, coming to Scripture in this frame of mind, we fail to gain a proper understanding of what it is all about. One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is this, that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and censorious."

Newton to Cowper

In response to one of William Cowper's most distressing and fearful times in a life of depression John Newton wrote the following words to him:

"But if He is the Captain of our salvation, if his eye is upon us, his arm stretched out around us, and his ear open to our cry, and if He has engaged to teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight, and to cover our heads in the day of battle, then we need not fear, though a host rise up against us; but, lifting up our banner in his name, let us go forth conquering and to conquer."