Sermons and Biblical Studies

(advent) Isaiah 33:17 “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” YEAR after year, as it passes, brings us the same warnings again and again, and none perhaps more impressive than those with which it comes to us at this season. The very frost … Continue reading “WORSHIP, A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST’S
COMING”

Eccles. 3:4 “A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” AT Christmas we joy with the natural, unmixed joy of children, but at Easter our joy is highly wrought and refined in its character. It is not the spontaneous and unartificial outbreak which the news … Continue reading “KEEPING FAST AND FESTIVAL”

Mark 13:33 “Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.” OUR Saviour gave this warning when He was leaving this world,—leaving it, that is, as far as His visible presence is concerned. He looked forward to the many hundred years which were to pass before He came again. He … Continue reading “WATCHING”

“Though I have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing.” I SUPPOSE that all thoughtful readers of the chapter from which these words are taken, have before now been struck with surprise at the varied characteristics which are there ascribed to the excellent grace called love, or … Continue reading “1 COR.
13:2”

1 Cor. 13:2 “Though I have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing.” I SUPPOSE that all thoughtful readers of the chapter from which these words are taken, have before now been struck with surprise at the varied characteristics which are there ascribed to the excellent grace … Continue reading “FAITH AND LOVE”

Matt. 20:22 “They say unto Him, We are able.” THESE words of the holy Apostles James and John were in reply to a very solemn question addressed to them by their Divine Master. They coveted, with a noble ambition, though as yet unpractised in the highest wisdom, untaught in the holiest truth,—they coveted to sit … Continue reading “THE VENTURES OF FAITH”

Psalm 139:14 “I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” IN the very impressive Psalm from which these words are taken, this is worth noticing among other things,—that the inspired writer finds in the mysteries without and within him, a source … Continue reading “THE MYSTERIOUSNESS OF OUR PRESENT BEING”

Jude 11 “Woe unto them; for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” THERE are two special sins which trouble the Church, and are denounced in Scripture, ambition and avarice, the sin of Korah and the sin … Continue reading “THE GAINSAYING OF KORAH”

John 16:14 “He shall glorify Me.” WHEN our Lord was leaving His Apostles, and they were sorrowful, He consoled them by the promise of another Guide and Teacher, on whom they might rely instead of Him, and who should he more to them even than He had been. He promised them the Third Person in … Continue reading “CHRIST MANIFESTED IN REMEMBRANCE”

John 1:5 “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” OF all the thoughts which rise in the mind when contemplating the sojourn of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth,1 none perhaps is more affecting and subduing than the obscurity which attended it. I do not mean His obscure condition, in the … Continue reading “CHRIST HIDDEN FROM THE WORLD”