Seven Baskets Full(Matt. 15:37)
Seven Baskets Full
A propitiation for the sins of the whole world
is an accomplished fact. In the old slave day a lady was travelling with her
slave-maid on an English ship; and, in the hearing of the maid, she said to the
Captain :"
Captain, if we landed anywhere on British soil, my
maid would be free." "Madam," the Captain replied, "she is free already
a British ship is British territory, and the moment she stepped on board, she
was free." The maid at once claimed and exercised her freedom. Every man is
already saved, if only he will believe and
act on Christ's propitiation.
Six weeks before his death the Rev.
H. F. Lyte wrote "Abide With Me." This hymn, which has been the
breath of heaven to countless souls, was preceded, eight years earlier, by the
prayer which created it: --
I
want not vulgar fame-
I seek not to survive in brass or stone;
Hearts may not kindle when they hear my name,
Nor tears my value own.But might I leave behind
Some blessing for my fellows, some fair trust
To guide, to cheer, to elevate my kind
When I was in the dust.
Might verse of mine inspire
One
virtuous aim, one high resolve impart;
Light in one
drooping soul a hallowed fire
Or bind one
broken heart.Death would be sweeter then,
More calm my slumber 'neath the silent sod;
Might I thus live to bless my fellow men
Or
glorify my God.
O
Thou! Whose touch can lend
Life to the dead, Thy quick'ning grace supply.
And grant me, swanlike, my last breath to spend
In song that may not die.
It
is said of John Bradford that he had a peculiar art in prayer and when asked for
his secret, he said:" When I know what I want I always stop on that prayer
until I feel that I have pleaded it with God, and until God and I have had
dealings with each other upon it."
C. H. SPURGEON
Exquisite
are the lessons of the wheat. (1)
Unlike Israel's emblem, the fig-tree,with roots driven deep into earth,
abides deeply rooted in this world-the Church isa fragile annual-with no
physical power to resist earth's storms and passing rapidly from the earth in
successive harvests;-the Church's garner is a better world. (2) Wheat dies
downward, as it ripens upward; the stalk and roots are dead, as the grain is
ripe: so the soul that dies to earth is the soul that ripens to the Throne
of God. It is the sanctity of the
relaxing grasp. (3) A ripe wheat field is a field of bowed heads, while ripening
tares remain stiffly erect: the heavier our load of grace, the lowlier will be
our faces. (4) After sun smites its burning into the grain, and turns it to
sweetness, trial, for God's child, is the burning of His Father's sunshine. (5)
Wheat ripens by absorbing light: to abide in our Light is to bear much fruit: abiding
means ripening. "
He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same beareth
much fruit
" (John xv. 5).
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We cannot comprehend the mystery of grace that unites
blessedness with tears. He whom it
leads to empire treads the thorniest path joyously.
The road that terminates on a precipice is appalling, though strewn with
roses. There are sufferings in the
narrow way, but there is a good hope: there are sufferings, but yonder are the
heavens opened: There are sufferings, but the believer is willing to suffer; he
loves God, and is beloved of Him.
-
FENELON.
Make
haste about cultivating a Christ-like character. The harvest is great; the toil
is heavy; the sun is drawing to the west; the reckoning is at hand. There is no
time to lose: set about it as you have never done before, and say, "This one
thing I must do."
ALEXANDER
MACLAREN
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