Tag: Piety

A Meditation To Prepare For The Lord’s Supper

I was entered into covenant with God by baptism, and was then brought under strong engagements to be the Lord’s. But O! I have broken my covenant and backslidden from Christ. If I were under the law or a covenant of works, I would be utterly undone. But, blessed be God, I am under the tenders of a covenant of grace that admits of repentance and a surety for the guilty criminal, and graciously promises pardon to the penitent believer—nay, it promises repentance to the hard-hearted and faith to the unbelieving, and pressingly invites backsliding children to return to God through a Mediator.… Read More A Meditation To Prepare For The Lord’s Supper

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A Godly Man Is A Humble Man

Augustine calls humility the mother of the graces. A humble soul is emptied of all swelling thoughts of himself. A humble soul thinks better of others than of himself. A humble soul has a low esteem of his duties. A humble man is always giving bills of indictment against himself. A humble man will justify God in an afflicted condition. A humble soul is a Christ-magnifier (Phil. 1:20). He gives the glory of all his actions to Christ and free grace. A humble soul is willing to take a reproof for sin. A wicked man is too high to stoop to a reproof. A humble man is willing to have his name and gifts eclipsed, so that God’s glory may be increased. A humble saint is content with that condition which God sees is best for him. Test yourself: are you humble?… Read More A Godly Man Is A Humble Man

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A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

A godly man weeps for indwelling sin, the law in his members (Romans 7:23), the outbursts and first risings of sin [cf. WCF 6:5]. He weeps for clinging corruption. A child of God weeps that he is sometimes overcome by the prevalence of corruption. A godly heart grieves that he can be no more holy. A godly man sometimes weeps out of the sense of God’s love. A godly person weeps because the sins he commits are in some sense worse than the sins of other men. How far from being godly are those who scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! Let us strive for this divine characteristic. Be weepers!… Read More A Godly Man is an Evangelical Weeper

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Christian Fortitude is Meek

The whole Christian life is compared to a warfare, and fitly so. And the most eminent Christians are the best soldiers, endued with the greatest degrees of Christian fortitude. And it is the duty of God’s people to be steadfast and vigorous in their opposition to the designs and ways of such as are endeavoring to overthrow the kingdom of Christ, and the interest of religion. But yet many persons seem to be quite mistaken concerning the nature of Christian fortitude. It is an exceeding diverse thing from a brutal fierceness, or the boldness of the beasts of prey. True Christian fortitude consists in strength of mind, through grace, exerted in two things: 1) in ruling and suppressing the evil and unruly passions and affections of the mind; and 2) in steadfastly and freely exerting, and following good affections and dispositions, without being hindered by sinful fear, or the opposition of enemies.… Read More Christian Fortitude is Meek

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A Godly Man Among the Godless

Pious young men, you form a happy and an important class, if not a numerous one. Rich and sovereign mercy has called you out of darkness, and made you the children of light. Bless God, that while so many are walking according to the course of this world, and fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind—you are walking in the ways of godliness and peace. And while you are thankful, be humble, be circumspect, and prayerful. You are, and will be exposed to great and painful trials of your steadfastness. Perhaps you are placed in a situation, where you find not one like-minded with yourself. You alone are “faithful found among the faithless,” and will need great grace to stand your ground against the annoyance, ridicule, and opposition, with which your religion will be assailed, by a set of mirthful, wicked and profane youths.… Read More A Godly Man Among the Godless

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The Successive Steps of Going Astray

It rarely, if ever, happens, that the heart throws off at once all the restraints of virtue, and plunges suddenly into the depths of vice. It is not by one stride, that the moral youth passes from sober habits at home to those of an opposite nature abroad—but generally by slow and successive steps. The judgment and conscience would recoil from a temptation which proposed to him to become profligate at once; and if he ever becomes proficient in vice, he must be led on by insensible degrees, and little by little make advances in the way of wickedness, and in the counsels of the ungodly. This is what is meant by the deceitfulness of sin.… Read More The Successive Steps of Going Astray

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How To Avoid The Cage Stage

Having made up your minds, upon evidence, as to what is truth, then have as little to do with religious controversy as you can. Seek a practical religion, rather than a polemical religion. Treat it as a something rather to be done than to be talked about. Be not fond of disputation. Be no religious knight-errant, fighting against every one who differs from you. A pugnacious disposition, whether it be from natural combativeness, or prevailing vanity—is a dangerous thing to piety, which, like the dew, falls only in a still atmosphere, and lies longest in the shade. Be too much taken up with adding “to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity” (2 Pet. 1:5-7), to have much time for strife and contention.… Read More How To Avoid The Cage Stage

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The Crucial Value of Experimental Religion

Robert Burns (1789–1869)The Works of the Rev. Thomas HalyburtonIntroductory Essay, pp. 9-21. There are two extremes into which professing Christians of the present day are very apt to fall. While one class adopts a system of doctrinal sentiments without any practical regard to their influence on the heart and on the life; others satisfy themselves… Read More The Crucial Value of Experimental Religion

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