It seems from these two texts that repentance was the first subject upon which the Redeemer dwelt and that it was the last which, with His departing breath, He commended to the earnestness of His disciples. He begins His mission crying, [...]

I Shall not, this evening, attempt to prove that the Song of Solomon has a spiritual meaning. I am sure it has. It has been frequently said, and I believe, has commonly been thought, that this song was originally written by Solomon upon his marriage [...]

We commenced the services in this place by the declaration that here Christ shall be preached. Our brother who followed us expressed his joy that Christ was preached, herein he did rejoice, yea, and would rejoice. And our friends must have observed, [...]

Here we have no far-fetched statement: it belongs to everyday life. Those now present who believe can verify it on the spot! As believers they can tell us whether the Lord Jesus is precious to them or not. We are not now about to consider an [...]

Sometime ago an excellent lady sought an interview with me with the object as she said, of enlisting my sympathy upon the question of "Anti-Capital Punishment". I heard the excellent reasons she urged against hanging men who had committed [...]

The Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Having neither beginning of days, nor end of years, He is a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. But the views which His people have of Him are extremely varied. According to [...]

What a blessed Master Jesus Christ was! How familiar did He allow His disciples to make themselves with Him! Though He was the Lord of life and glory, the great and mighty one, as well as the man of Nazareth, yet see how He talks with His poor [...]

Upon other occasions I have explained the main part of this verse, "The government shall be upon his shoulders, his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God". If God shall spare me, on some future occasion I hope to take [...]

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings". - Hebrews 2:10 Believing that God foreknows all things, we [...]

"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us". - 1 Corinthians 5:7 The more you read the Bible, and the more you meditate upon it, the more you will be astonished with it. He who is but a casual reader of the Bible does not know the [...]

"And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me". - John 12:32 It was an extraordinary occasion upon which the Savior uttered these words. It was the crisis of the world. We very often speak of the "present crisis of [...]

"I will give thee for a covenant of the people". - Isaiah 49:8 We all believe that our Savior has very much to do with the covenant of eternal salvation. We have been accustomed to regard Him as the Mediator of the covenant, as the Surety [...]

"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations". - 1 Peter 1:6 This verse to a worldly man looks amazingly like a contradiction, and even to a Christian man, when he [...]

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors". - Romans 8:12 Observe the title whereby he addressed the church, "Brethren". It was the Gospel which taught Paul how to say brother. If he had not been a Christian, his Jewish dignity would [...]

"He shall build the temple of the LORD, and he shall bear the glory". - Zechariah 6:13 Heaven sings evermore. Before the throne of God, angels and redeemed saints extol His name. And this world is singing too, sometimes with the loud [...]

"This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool". - Hebrews 10:12-13 At the Lord's table we wish to have no subject for [...]

"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business"? - Luke 2:49 Behold then, how great an interest God the Father takes in the work of salvation. It is called, "his business," and though Jesus Christ came to accomplish our [...]

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified". - 1 Corinthians 2:2 Corinth was situated in the midst of a people who admired eloquence and wisdom. This epistle was written in the age of orators [...]

"For the LORD's portion is his people". - Deuteronomy 32:9 "The LORD is my portion, saith my soul". - Lamentations 3:24 The love of God changes us into its own image, so that what the Lord says concerning us, we also can declare [...]

"But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such [...]

"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him". - Hebrews 12:5 God's people can never, by any possibility, be [...]

"Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe". - John 4:48 You will remember that Luke in his letter to Theophilus speaks of things which Jesus began both to do and to teach, as if there was a connection [...]

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world". - John 17:16 Christ's prayer was for a special people. He declared that He did not offer a universal intercession. "I pray for them," said He. "I pray not for the [...]

"The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away". - Psalm 1:4 And who are the ungodly? Are they open and willful sinners, men who take God's name in vain, and curse, and blaspheme, men who break the laws of [...]

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall". - 1 Corinthians 10:12 It is a singular fact, but nevertheless most certain, that the vices are the counterfeits of virtues. Whenever God sends from the mint of heaven a precious [...]

"The carnal mind is enmity against God". - Romans 8:7 This is a very solemn indictment which the apostle Paul here speaks against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God. When we consider what man once was, only second to [...]

"For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land [...]

"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them". - Galatians 3:10 My hearer, are you a [...]

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went". - Hebrews 11:8 Abraham's faith was of the most eminent order, for he is [...]

"And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee: but..." - Luke 9:61 When you have walked through a cemetery, you have frequently seen over a grave a broken column, intended to memorialize the death of some one who was taken away in the [...]

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the [...]

"For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." - Psalm 119:83 The figure of "a bottle in the smoke" is essentially oriental. We must therefore go to the East for its explanation. This we will [...]

"If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." - Job 9:20 Ever since man became a sinner he has been self-righteous. When he had a righteousness of his own he never gloried [...]

"When I see the blood, I will pass over you." - Exodus 12:13 God's people are always safe. "All the saints are in His hands," and the hand of God is a place of safety, as well as a place of honor. Nothing can hurt the man who [...]

"Without shedding of blood is no remission." - Hebrews 9:22 I will show you three fools. One is yonder soldier, who has been wounded on the field of battle, grievously wounded, well nigh unto death. The surgeon is by his side and the [...]

"The blood of the everlasting covenant." - Hebrews 13:20 All God's dealings with men have had a covenant character. It has so pleased Him to arrange it that He will not deal with us except through a covenant, nor can we deal with Him [...]

"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry [...]

"I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing" - Hosea 8:12 This is God's complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of His goodness, that He stoops to rebuke His erring creatures. It is a [...]

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you" - John 14:27. The gospel of John is peculiarly the history of Jesus, the Son of God. Matthew deals with Jesus as the Prince of the house of David. [...]

"Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" - Romans 8:34. The protest of an innocent man against the charge of an accuser [...]

"Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase" - Job 8:7 This was the reasoning of Bildad the Shuhite. He wished to prove that Job could not possibly be an upright man, for if he were so, he here affirms that [...]

"For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it". - Isaiah 28:20 God has so made men that there are two things essential for their comfort, if not for their [...]

"We shall see him as he is" - 1 John 3:2 It is one of the most natural desires in all the world that when we hear of a great and a good man, we should wish to see his person. When we read the works of any eminent author, we are accustomed [...]

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of [...]

"Peace, peace; when there is no peace" - Jeremiah 6:14 Ministers are fearfully guilty if they intentionally build up men in a false peace. I cannot imagine any man more greatly guilty of blood than he who plays jackal to the lion of hell [...]

"Thus hath the Lord GOD shown unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass [...]

"These are the two covenants", Galatians 4:24. There cannot be a greater difference in the world between two things than there is between law and grace. And yet, strange to say, while the things are diametrically opposed and essentially [...]

"Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober", 1 Thessalonians 5:6. What sad things sin has done. This fair world of ours was once a glorious temple, every pillar of which reflected the goodness of God and every [...]

"As thy days, so shall thy strength be", Deuteronomy 33:25. Beloved, it seems a sad thing that every day must die and be followed by a night. When we have seen the hills clad with verdure to their summit and the seas laving their base with [...]

"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him", Psalm 2:12. It will not be needful for me this morning to be controversial in my [...]