December 14

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)

Life never came through the law. As some one has observed: “When the law was given, three thousand men lost life; but when grace and truth came at Pentecost, three thousand obtained life.” Under the law, if a man became a drunkard the magistrates would take him out and stone him to death. When the prodigal came home, grace met him and embraced him. Law said, Stone him!—grace said, Embrace him! Law said, Smite him!—grace said, Kiss him! Law went after him, and bound him; grace said, Loose him and let him go! Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes and makes me straight.

December 13

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)

I thank God there is a height in the Bible I do not know anything about, a depth I have never been able to fathom, and it makes the Book all the more fascinating. If I could take that Book up and read it as I can any other book and understand it at one reading, I should have lost faith in it years ago. It is one of the strongest proofs that it must have come from God, that the acutest men who have dug for fifty years have laid down their pens and said, “There is a depth we know nothing of.” “No Scripture,” said Spurgeon, “is exhausted by a single explanation. The flowers of God's garden bloom, not only double, but sevenfold: they are continually pouring forth fresh fragrance.”

December 12

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

I have an idea we will thank God in eternity for our reverses and trials more than for anything else. I believe John Bunyan thanked God for the Bedford Jail more than for anything that happened to him down here. I believe Paul thanked God for the rods and stripes more than for anything else that happened to him.

Are you passing through the waters? Don't get discouraged! You are an heir of glory; He is with you. He was with Joseph when he was cast into prison. I had rather he in prison with the Almighty than outside without Him. You needn't be afraid of prison, and, you needn't be afraid of the grave, you needn't be afraid of death. Cheer up, child of God; the time of our redemption draweth near! We may have to suffer a little while, but when you think of the eternal weight of glory, you can afford to suffer.

December 11

“As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Corinthians 15:49)

Thank God, we are to gain by death! We are to have something that death cannot touch. When this earthly body is raised, all the present imperfection will be gone. Jacob will leave his lameness. Paul will have no thorn in the flesh. We shall enter a life that deserves the name of life, happy, glorious, everlasting—the body once more united to the soul, no longer mortal, subject to pain and disease and death, but glorified, incorruptible, “fashioned like unto His glorious body,” everything that hinders the spiritual life left behind. We are exiles now, but then we who are faithful shall stand before the throne of God, joint heirs with Christ, kings and priests, citizens of that heavenly country.

December 10

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6)

People say: “I want to know what is the truth.”

Listen: “I am the Truth.” says Christ. (verse 5) If you want to know what the truth is, get acquainted with Christ. People also complain that they have not life. Many are trying to give themselves spiritual life. You may galvanize yourselves and put electricity into yourselves, so to speak; but the effect will not last very long. Christ alone is the author of life. If you would have real spiritual life, get to know Christ. Many try to stir up spiritual life by going to meetings. These may be well enough; but it will be of no use, unless they get into contact with the living Christ. Then spiritual life will not be a spasmodic thing, but will he perpetual; flowing on and on, and bringing forth fruit to God.

December 9

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

When we wish to know the love of God we should go to Calvary. Can we look upon that scene, and say God did not love us? That cross speaks of the love of God. Greater love never has been taught than that which the cross teaches. What prompted God to give up Christ—what prompted Christ to die—if it were not love? “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Christ laid down His life for His enemies; Christ laid down His life for His murderers; Christ laid down His life for them that hated Him; and the spirit of the cross, the spirit of Calvary, is love. When they were mocking Him and deriding Him, what did He say? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That is love. He did not call down fire from heaven to consume them; there was nothing but love in His heart.

December 8

“I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Tim 1:12)

Notice the confidence that breathes through Paul’s last words to Timothy. It is not a matter of doubt, but of knowledge: “I know,” “I am persuaded."

The word “Hope” is not used in the Scripture to express doubt. It is used in regard to the second coming of Christ, or to the resurrection of the body. We should not say that we “hope” we are Christians. I do not say that I “hope” I am an American, or that I “hope” I am a married man. These are settled things. I may say that I “hope” to go hack to my home, or that I hope to attend such a meeting. If we are born of God we know it; He will not leave us in darkness if we search the Scriptures.

December 7

“And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.” (Matt 25:25)

I read of a man who had a thousand dollars. He hid it away, thinking he would in that way take care of it, and that when he was an old man he would have something to fall back upon. After keeping the deposit receipt for twenty years he took it to a bank and got just one thousand dollars for it. If he had put the money at interest in the usual way, he might have had three times the amount.

He made the mistake that a great many people are making to-day throughout Christendom, of not trading with his talents. My experience has been as I have gone about in the world and mingled with professing Christians, that those who find most fault with others are those who themselves do nothing. If a person is busy improving the talents that God has given him he will have too much to do to find fault and complain about others.

December 6

“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” (1 Cor 6:19,20)

I think it is clearly taught in the Scripture that every believer has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, that there is a divine resident in every child of God. He may be quenching the Spirit of God, and he may not glorify God as he should, but if he is a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost dwells in him.

But I want to call attention to another fact. I believe to-day that though Christian men and women have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, He is not dwelling within them in power; in other words, God has a great many sons and daughters without power.


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December 5

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

If an angel came straight from the throne of God, and proclaimed that God has sent him to offer us any one thing we might ask—that each one should have his own petition granted—what would be your cry? There would be but one response, and the cry would make heaven ring: “Eternal life! Eternal life!” Everything else would float away into nothingness.

It is life men want, and value most. Let a man worth a million dollars be on a wrecked vessel, and if he could save his life for six months by giving that million, he would give it in an instant. But the gospel is a six months’ gift; “The gift of God is eternal life.” And is it not one of the greatest marvels that men have to stand and plead and pray and beseech their fellow-men to take this precious gift of God


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December 4

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev 22:17)

How many men fold their arms and say: “If I am one of the elect, I will be saved, and if I am not, I won't. No use bothering

about it.”

I have an idea that the Lord Jesus saw how men were going to stumble over this doctrine of election, so after He had been thirty or forty years in heaven He came down and spoke to John. One Lord’s day in Patmos, He said to him:

“Write these things to the churches.”

John kept on writing. His pen flew very fast. And then the Lord, when it was nearly finished, said,

“John, before you close the book, put in one more invitation. ‘The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that it athirst, come. And Whosoever Will, let him take the water of life freely.’”


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December 3

“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.” (2 Kings 5:1)

DID you ever ask yourselves which is the worse—the leprosy of sin, or the leprosy of the body? For my own part, I would a thousand times sooner have the leprosy of the body eating into my eyes, and feet, and arms!

I would rather be loathsome in the sight of my fellow-men than die with the leprosy of sin in my soul, and be banished from God forever! The leprosy of the body is bad, but the leprosy of sin is a thousand times worse. It has cast angels out of heaven. It has ruined the best and strongest men that ever lived in the world. Oh, how it has pulled men down!


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December 2

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3)

You ask me what my hope is. It is that Christ died for my sins, in my stead, in my place, and therefore I can enter into life eternal. You ask Paul what his hope was. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.” This is the hope in which died all the glorious martyrs of old, in which all who have entered heaven’s gate have found their only comfort. Take that doctrine of substitution out of the Bible, and my hope is lost.

With the law, without Christ, we are all undone. The law we have broken, and it can only hang over our head the sharp sword of justice. Even if we could keep it from this moment, there remains the unforgiven past. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”


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December 1

“And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.” (Gen 19:14)

The Saviour tells us they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building; all went on as usual. Sodom was never more prosperous than now. There is no sign of a coming judgment; no sign that Sodom is going to be burnt up.

The sun shone as brightly the day before its destruction as it had shone for years. The stars perhaps were glittering in the heavens as brightly as ever, and the moon threw her light down

upon the city; but Lot’s sons-in-law mocked him, be couldn't get them out. I see him going through the streets with his head bowed down, and great tears trickling down his cheeks. Ask him now about his life, and he will tell you it has been a total failure. He goes back to his home; and early in the morning the angels have to take him almost by force, and hasten him out of the city. He could not bear the thought of leaving his loved ones there to perish, while God dealt in judgment with that city.

Is not that a fair picture of hundreds and thousands at the present time? Have you been trying to accumulate wealth even to the neglect of your children, so that to-day they are lifting up their voices against your God, and against your Bible, and against you? They do not care for your feelings; are they not trampling them under their feet? Perhaps many of the parents have gone to their graves, and the children are now squandering what their parents gathered. What an example we have in the case of Lot, and how it ought to open the eyes of many a business man, and cause him to see that his life is going to be a total wreck if he takes his children into Sodom’s judgment when the judgment comes.


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