It is characteristic of apostolic ethics to turn from details of conduct to the main principles which should permeate every Christian life. The central truth governing all religious behaviour is our relationship to God, as manifested and actualized in Christ Jesus. Thus the historical facts of Christ's death and resurrection necessarily give rise to doctrine, and they cannot be separated from our belief without tending to overthrow the whole edifice of Christian living based on Christ as its Foundation. It matters comparatively little whether a man eats meat or abstains from it, observes certain days or disregards their special sanctity, provided that the scruple alleged or the freedom enjoyed is conscientious, springing out of his conception of the nature of the religion Jesus Christ has revealed. It is not for others to despise the punctilious or to blame the informal. Each will be judged by his Master. That Master is Lord of both quick and dead; he presides not only over our earthly life, but over our departure to the larger life. Christians may differ in point of intellectual attainment and particular opinion, but every face believingly turned to the Sun of Righteousness reflects some of its glory; every worshipper is brought near to every other as he gathers at the feet of the Infinite Object of adoration and praise.

I. THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST.

1. Christian freedom is not unconditional liberty. "Ye are not your own" is the watchword of grateful service. The emancipation of a slave does not set him free from all law; he is released from degrading servitude to be useful to his country and king. Modern civilization teaches the compatibility of numerous statutes with true essential freedom. The rule of Christ is recognized and illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles, "Thou, Lord, show which of these two thou hast chosen;" "The Lord added to them daily." "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" is the first question of the new life. There would be no difficulty in any department of Church-fellowship if the authority of Christ were fully recognized. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." Finances, activity, brotherly regard, all flourish where hearts are surrendered in entirety to the sway of Christ.

2. This Lordship means protection as well as government. As under Roman law' each noble patrician had his clients, whose wrongs he redressed and whose interests he promoted, so the Saviour throws the aegis of his love over his subjects, directing them by his wisdom, shielding them by his interposition. "Fear not; no man shall set on thee to harm thee." The very end of government is the welfare of the governed. Old ideas that the monarch has no duties and the people no rights have passed for ever; and we are warranted in seizing nobler conceptions of the sovereignty of God than prevailed when despotism reigned unquestioned. Let men beware lest they lop off limbs from the body of Christ, and by their divisions and excommunications rend his seamless garment.

3. The dominion of Christ may well console us as we think of the dead. He is the Lord of all worlds, has "all authority in heaven and earth." His voice comforts the bereaved, sounding amid the stillness of the sepulchre, "Fear not: I have the keys of death and of Hades." "He is not the Lord of the dead, but of the living.' The dead pass not into a dreary unillumined state; they "depart to be with Christ." And where mournful reflections on wasted lives, sudden departures, check hopeful sorrow, and memory emits little fragrance from the past; yet we may leave all in his hands who, as the supreme Architect of humanity, rejoices in restoration rather than destruction. "Shall not the Judge... do right?"

II. THE MANNER IS WHICH THIS LORDSHIP WAS WON.

1. By stooping to the condition of his subjects. He is Lord by creation, but still more by virtue of his redemptive work. Well has he earned his title who entered into our humbling nature, tasted our sorrows, and drank the cup of bitterness as our Sin Offering. He himself passed through the gloomy portals of death, and in rising again revealed both the love and the might of God. Only he can be a true Master who first subordinated himself to service. For the suffering of death is he crowned with glory and honour. He can declare, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." "Because I live, ye shall live also."

2. After this model, service to the Church becomes the stepping-stone to honor. Christ has furnished the pattern to his followers according to which office and rank are conferred. He who is most profitable to the body is to be most esteemed by the members. Empty sinecures are unknown in his kingdom. And if we would benefit our fellows, we must by real sympathy share their need and trouble. "He that will be greatest, let him be your minister." Christ rose as the Firstfruits, and in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own rank. - S.R.A.

Christ's death and resurrection are firmly believed, and often considered by us; but too little attention is paid to the end of both.

I. WHAT IS THIS END?

1. That He, as man, might be the lawful possessor of the dead and living. Man has, by sin, forfeited all he has and is, into the hands of justice. Christ, by His death, has satisfied justice, and purchased us for Himself: and in consequence of His resurrection He rescues us, both the living and the dead (Philippians 2:6-10).

2. That He might be their Deliverer, Protector, and Ruler, defending them from their enemies, and reigning in and over them.

3. That He might be their Master, that they might obey His will, and promote His glory: His sufferings and death supply the greatest inducement to this, and procure grace for us: His resurrection confers that grace, and enables us to live to Him.

4. That He might be the Head and Husband of the dead and living. Lord sometimes means husband. His death manifests His love to His spouse, the Church (Ephesians 5:25): His being raised, makes Him able to fulfil the part of a husband (Romans 7:4), including union (1 Corinthians 6:17), communion, maintenance, guidance, government. Hence it appears that the dead are not dead: He will not be the Husband of the dead.

5. That He might be the Judge of the dead and the living (vers. 10-13; Acts 17:31). This honour is conferred upon Him as a fit reward of His sufferings and death: He rose to give full assurance of it: He is thereby capacitated to exercise it.

II. THE USE WE SHOULD MAKE OF THIS DOCTRINE. Did He die and rise again —

1. That He might be our Owner? Then let us give Him His own (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).

2. That He might be our Governor? Then let us be subject to Him in heart and life, and dependent on His protection.

3. That He might be our Master? Then let us live to Him (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15); this is our duty, in justice and gratitude.

4. That He might be our Husband? Then how great the honour and happiness He designs for us! Let us immediately embrace it.

5. That He might be our Judge? Then let us keep the awful day in view, and prepare for it.

(J. Benson.)

This Lordship —

I. PROVIDES THE ONLY SOLID AND SATISFACTORY ASSURANCE OF THE FUTURE REUNION AND RECOGNITION OF HIS FOLLOWERS. The question that rises oftener than any other to the lips of the bereaved touches this point of reunion. You may try to construct a heaven cut clean off in all its sympathies and attachments and recognitions from this world we are in now. But you will almost certainly then have before the mind a heaven practically destitute of sympathies and attachments, too vague to awaken expectation, too unreal to inspire enthusiasm. He who rose is the Lord of the living and the dead. They are not two families, but one, because they are all in Him, in spite of the transient curtain that hangs between the departed and ourselves — a curtain that probably has its only substance in the eyes of our flesh. The resurrection of the body of Jesus signifies the literal reality of all that is promised the Christian in his future home — the actual identity of the person here and the person there, and the actual renewal of affections and their interchange; for what is the identity, or the blessing of it, if the heart has got to begin its whole history afresh? It signifies the actual restoration, too, of the society, only in more exalted forms, of those who have believed and worshipped the same Saviour here. There will be no confusion of persons, no obliteration of the lines that mark off one soul from another. We shall be just, as distinct persons: with all personal faculties, affections, sympathies, substances, yes, and appearances, as we are now. In those celestial congregations there will, no doubt, be something to be recognised by, in feature or form, inbred on earth and indestructible by dissolution. Hence the need of a glorified resurrection body, to be set free at the last change — following the analogy still of His body who died and rose the same.

II. SUGGESTS THAT OUR RESURRECTION LIFE WILL BE SOCIAL AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL. As everything in the kingdom of heaven has its type and model in the Person of our Lord, so in the rising of His form, and the subsequent interviews with His disciples, we see a promise that, literally and for ever, those to whom He imparts His Spirit will move together in a family order and freedom about Him. Nothing less than this can be taught us by the parable of Lazarus, by the inspired images of the Apocalypse, by the company of saints made perfect; but, more than all these, by the reappearing, in the body, of the Lord of the dead and the living. Whither would the forth-going soul take its strange journey if there were no centre of spiritual attraction, no Christ receiving the believer to Himself where He is?

(Bp. Huntington.)

I. ITS NATURE.

1. Universal. He is Lord over all the dead and all the living; but in a peculiar manner over His Church, even as a husband is lord over his wife, which is a lordship with sweetness. It is indeed a lordship; but it is such as is good for His subjects. Christ accounts Himself happy in His Church, which is His fulness, and (Ephesians 1:23) the Church is most happy in His government.

2. Independent. Only His Father joins with Him. All human authority is derived from Him (Proverbs 8:15). "King of kings," He is Lord Paramount over all.

3. Complete. He is a Lord of the whole man, body and soul. He sits in the throne of conscience. There He prescribes laws to it, pacifies, stablishes, and settles it against all fears. He bows the neck of the inward man, and brings it wholly to be subject to Him.

4. Eternal. Other lords have nothing to do with men when they are dead, because they are lords over the outward man only. But Christ's lordship is when we are gone hence, and then more especially. For then we are more immediately with Him (Philippians 1:23).

5. Excellent. He hath all things that a lord should have.(1) Authority. He purchased it, and His Father gave it Him (Psalm 2:8; Matthew 28:18; John 17:2).(2) All graces and virtues fit for a lord and governor — righteousness, wisdom, bounty, affections, etc. (Psalm 45:6).(3) Strength. Answerable to His authority; for He is a Lord that is God.

II. DEDUCTIONS FROM IT. We see —

1. That the grounds of a Christian's faith and comfort are very strong. God doth all to ends, it being a point of wisdom to prefix an end, and work to it. Here the greatest work hath the greatest end.

2. That the principal points of religion have an influence on all the particulars. For one is the cause of another, and one depends upon another. Christ is proved to be Lord of all, because He died and rose.

3. The truth of the Catholic Church, from the first man living to the end of the Church, under one head Christ (Hebrews 13:8; Acts 4:12).

4. The blessedness of being under the sovereignty of Christ. To be Solomon's servant was accounted a great happiness (1 Kings 10:8). What shall we think of those that are under Christ, who is greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42). For Christ's servants are so many kings (Revelation 1:6), and such kings as do not rule over slaves, but over the greatest enemies of all. A Christian can think with comfort upon those enemies that make the greatest tyrants quake — death, sin, and the law. Therefore, those Christians that are afraid of death, forget their dignity. If Christ be their Lord when they die, what need they fear to die?

5. The duty we owe to our Lord —(1) To live to Him. This we do —(a) When we know and acknowledge Christ hath a full interest in us. Upon this issues all other obedience.(b) When we are directed by His will, and not our own. Christ squared His life immediately according to His Father's will (Psalm 40:7). So all that are Christ's must have the same spirit.(c) When we aim at the glory of Christ in all things (1 Corinthians 10:31). The contrary to this the apostle complains of (Philippians 2:21).(2) To die to Him. This we do when we know and acknowledge that Christ hath power over us when we die, and(a) thereupon submit ourselves to Him, and not murmur when He comes to call for our life.(b) When upon any good occasion He calls for our life in standing for a good cause — for the Church or State — we are ready to lay it down.(c) When we carry ourselves so, when death comes, as we may express such graces as glorify God, and when we study to do all the good we can, that we may die fruitfully.

6. What we may expect from Christ, and what we ought to return to Him again. For relations are bonds.(a) That He will make us willing and able subjects. He is such a Head as quickeneth dead members; such a Husband as makes His spouse beautiful. A king cannot alter his subjects; but He is such a King as can, and does. He takes them out of a contrary kingdom, as being not born its subjects, but "born anew by the Spirit."(b) Advancement. The meanest man that is a subject to Christ is a king, and a king over that which all others are slaves to. They rule over others, but they are in thraldom to their own lusts.

7. How to carry ourselves to men otherwise affected. Christ rules over us, both living and dying; therefore be not the servants of men, but "in the Lord" — i.e., so far as it may stand in the will and pleasure of Him that is the Lord of lords. For when the authority of any superior doth countermand against the will of this Lord, it ceaseth to bind.

(R. Sibbes, D.D.)

I. IT IS PLAINLY A MEDIATORIAL LORDSHIP THAT CHRIST IS HERE SAID TO HAVE. It is altogether apart from the supreme dominion belonging to Him as God, and from that universal lordship which has been conferred on Him as Mediator. The apostle is teaching a lesson of Christian forbearance. You differ from one another about some doubtful points. But do not judge one another. Let every man judge for himself. You are not one another's lords. Nay, you do not belong to yourselves. You all belong to Christ, who, that He might be your Lord, both died and rose again. Thus far the argument tells for its being a restricted lordship. But why is there any mention made of the dead as distinct from the living? It is the living only who are or can be concerned about the rule. But the living, who have to do with the rule and the reason for it, are soon to be themselves the dead. You are to look at the point in dispute in the light in which it will appear to you when you are dead. You are equally amenable to the Lord now as then. Dead, you will completely own His lordship; living, own it all the same. The lordship of Christ, therefore, is a lordship over His people; and such a lordship over them living, as has its type, one may say, as well as its consummation, in His lordship over them when dead.

II. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS LORDSHIP OF CHRIST AND HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION IS VERY CLOSE. " To this end" (Hebrews 12:2) —

1. It is the appropriate reward, the natural fruit and issue of His dying and rising again, that He is Lord. Christ died and rose again, not as an isolated private individual, transacting with the Father for Himself alone. He bore a representative character. He had gathered up in His one single person all the interests of all His people. Lordship over them is really involved in His dying and rising again. He has them as much at His disposal as He has His own body.

2. Yet there is not much of apparent lordship here. He appears rather as passive than as active. Dying and rising again, He stands forth as not Lord, but servant. But it is through this service that He reaches His lordship. And the lordship answers to the service in all respects.(1) The persons interested are the same. He is, no doubt, Lord over all mankind; but what is here asserted is a lordship which only true believers can acknowledge — viz., a lordship founded on the Lord's dying and rising again. They may not be more absolutely in His hands, as mediatorial Lord, than all creation is. And in both cases His mediatorial lordship is the fruit of his dying and rising. But —(a) There is intelligence and consent in the one case that we cannot find in the other.(b) There is a real distinction, as regards the dependence of Christ's lordship, in His dying and rising again, between the two cases. It is indispensable to the accomplishment of the end for which He died and rose again, that He should have as part of His recompense this wide prerogative of universal lordship. But the end itself, the joy set before Him, was surely a lordship more peculiar and more precious (John 17:1, 2).(2) There is a correspondence between the lordship itself and that on which it rests, and from which it flows. It rests on service and flows from service — the service of sacrifice. But He died and rose not that He might be different as Lord from what He was as dying and rising. No. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It would seem, therefore, that His lordship must be in some sense a continuation of His service. Christ, as His people's Lord, cannot be to them different from what He was when as the Father's servant on their behalf He died and rose.

3. Thus, carrying back the lordship into the dying and rising, we may see, even in the humiliation, the real glory of the exaltation. He is Lord, when He dies and rises and lives; Lord, in their life and in their death, of those for whom He dies and rises and lives. His dying and living again is in itself an act of lordship over them.

III. IN THE LIGHT OF THIS CONNECTION, CONSIDER THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST IN ITS BEARING UPON THOSE OVER WHOM IT IS EXERCISED.

1. As dying and rising, He is Lord of His own dead.(1) Giving them victory, and taking from death his sting.(2) Receiving them to Himself.(3) Changing their mortal bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto His own glorious Body.(4) Leading them among the many mansions of His Father's house, and finding them, as He rules them, congenial subjects.

2. The Lord of you living; the Lord of your life — of the life which you have in Him as dying and rising. Surely it is a Blessed lordship for you now to realise and own. Is not that a source of confidence alike in life and in death? And is it not also a motive to most thorough self-surrender?

(R. S.Candlish, D.D.)

is —

I. MEDIATORIAL.

1. As God, He reigns in His own eternal right.

2. As man, by the appointment of the Father.

II. ABSOLUTE. He has all power —

1. To determine their conditions.

2. To pardon and save them.

2. To command their service.

3. To decide their eternal lot.

III. UNIVERSAL. It includes the living and the dead.

IV. RIGHTEOUS. It is secured by —

1. His death.

2. His resurrection.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

Paul, RomansRomeChrist, Christ's, Dead, Death, Died, Dying, Namely, Purpose, Returned, Revived, Rose, Rule1. Men may not condemn one another for disputable matters;
13. but must take heed that they give no offense in them;
15. which the apostle proves unlawful by many reasons.

Romans 14:9

     2423   gospel, essence
     2560   Christ, resurrection

Romans 14:1-10

     5010   conscience, matters of

Romans 14:1-13

     5897   judging others

Romans 14:1-18

     6662   freedom, abuse

Romans 14:1-23

     4478   meat

Romans 14:8-9

     2224   Christ, the Lord

Romans 14:9-12

     8444   honouring God

Romans 14:9-13

     6126   condemnation, human
     8844   unforgiveness

July 25. "He that in These Things Serveth Christ is Acceptable to God" (Rom. xiv. 18).
"He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God" (Rom. xiv. 18). God can only use us while we are right. Satan cared far less for Peter's denial of his Master than for the use he made of it afterwards to destroy his faith. So Jesus said to him: "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." It was Peter's faith he attacked, and so it is our faith that Satan contests. "The trial of our faith is much more precious than gold that perisheth." Whatever else we let go let us hold steadfastly …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Twenty-First Day. Holiness and Happiness.
The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Ghost.'--Rom. xiv. 17. 'The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost.'--Acts xiii. 52. 'Then Nehemiah said, This day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites stilled the people, saying, Hold your peace; for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to make great mirth, because they had understood the words.'--Neh. viii. 10-12. The deep significance of …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

December the Fifteenth what is My Tendency?
"Whether we live, we live unto...." --ROMANS xiv. 7-21. Unto what? In what direction are we living? Whither are we going? How do we complete the sentence? "We live unto money!" That is how many would be compelled to finish the record. Money is their goal, and their goal determines their tendency. "We live unto pleasure!" Such would be another popular company. "We live unto fame!" That would be the banner of another regiment. "We live unto ease!" Thus would men and women describe their …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Limits of Liberty
'So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way. 14. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

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In treating of the necessity of actual grace we must avoid two extremes. The first is that mere nature is absolutely incapable of doing any thing good. This error was held by the early Protestants and the followers of Baius and Jansenius. The second is that nature is able to perform supernatural acts by its own power. This was taught by the Pelagians and Semipelagians. Between these two extremes Catholic theology keeps the golden mean. It defends the capacity of human nature against Protestants and …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

Joy in the Holy Ghost.
Romans 14:17.--For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. In this text we have the earthly revelation of the work of the Trinity. The Kingdom of God is righteousness; that represents the work of the Father. The foundations of His throne are justice and judgment. Then comes the work of the Son: He is our peace, our Shiloh, our rest. The Kingdom of God is peace; not only the peace of pardon for the past, but the peace of perfect assurance …
Andrew Murray—The Master's Indwelling

Of the Three Woe Trumpets.
There still remain three trumpets, the greatest and most grievous of all, and therefore discriminated from the former by the appellation of Woes. For after the conclusion of the fourth trumpet, "I saw and heard," says he, "an angel flying in the midst of heaven, and saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to sound." Also, c. ix. v. 12, and c. xi. v. 14. Doubtless, since the Christian …
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse

Thus Much Will Suffice to have Treated on Behalf of True Continence against The...
26. Thus much will suffice to have treated on behalf of true Continence against the Manichees deceitfully continent, lest the fruitful and glorious labor of Continence, when it restrains and curbs the lowest part of us, that is, the body, from immoderate and unlawful pleasures, be believed not healthfully to chasten, but hostilely to persecute. Forsooth the body is indeed different from the nature of the soul, yet is it not alien from the nature of man: for the soul is not made up of body, but yet …
St. Augustine—On Continence

Letter xxxi (A. D. 1132) to the Abbot of a Certain Monastery at York, from which the Prior had Departed, Taking Several Religious with Him.
To the Abbot of a Certain Monastery at York, from Which the Prior Had Departed, Taking Several Religious with Him. [50] 1. You write to me from beyond the sea to ask of me advice which I should have preferred that you had sought from some other. I am held between two difficulties, for if I do not reply to you, you may take my silence for a sign of contempt; but if I do reply I cannot avoid danger, since whatever I reply I must of necessity either give scandal to some one or give to some other a security …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

September 29. "Call not Thou Common" (Acts x. 15).
"Call not thou common" (Acts x. 15). "There is nothing common of itself" (Rom. xiv. 14). We can bring Christ into common things as fully as into what we call religious services. Indeed, it is the highest and hardest application of Divine grace, to bring it down to the ordinary matters of life, and therefore God is far more honored in this than even in things that are more specially sacred. Therefore, in the twelfth chapter of Romans, which is the manual of practical consecration, just after the passage …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Treasure Christians have in the Gospel.
Text: 1 Corinthians 1, 4-9. 4 I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; 5 that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge; 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 8 who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom ye were called …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

A Summary of the Christian Life. Of Self-Denial.
The divisions of the chapter are,--I. The rule which permits us not to go astray in the study of righteousness, requires two things, viz., that man, abandoning his own will, devote himself entirely to the service of God; whence it follows, that we must seek not our own things, but the things of God, sec. 1, 2. II. A description of this renovation or Christian life taken from the Epistle to Titus, and accurately explained under certain special heads, sec. 3 to end. 1. ALTHOUGH the Law of God contains …
Archpriest John Iliytch Sergieff—On the Christian Life

Further Journeying About Galilee.
^C Luke VIII. 1-3. ^c 1 And it came to pass soon afterwards [ i. e.,. soon after his visit to the Pharisee], that he went about through cities and villages [thus making a thorough circuit of the region of Galilee], preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God [John had preached repentance as a preparation for the kingdom; but Jesus now appears to have preached the kingdom itself, which was indeed to bring good tidings--Rom. xiv. 17 ], and with him the twelve [We here get a glimpse …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Perseverance Proved.
2. I REMARK, that God is able to preserve and keep the true saints from apostacy, in consistency with their liberty: 2 Tim. i. 12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for 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." Here the apostle expresses the fullest confidence in the ability of Christ to keep him: and indeed, as has been said, it is most manifest that the apostles expected …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Holy City; Or, the New Jerusalem:
WHEREIN ITS GOODLY LIGHT, WALLS, GATES, ANGELS, AND THE MANNER OF THEIR STANDING, ARE EXPOUNDED: ALSO HER LENGTH AND BREADTH, TOGETHER WITH THE GOLDEN MEASURING-REED EXPLAINED: AND THE GLORY OF ALL UNFOLDED. AS ALSO THE NUMEROUSNESS OF ITS INHABITANTS; AND WHAT THE TREE AND WATER OF LIFE ARE, BY WHICH THEY ARE SUSTAINED. 'Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.'-Psalm 87:3 'And the name of the city from that day shall be, THE LORD IS THERE.'-Ezekiel 48:35 London: Printed in the year 1665 …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Peaceable Principles and True: Or, a Brief Answer to Mr. D'Anver's and Mr. Paul's Books against My Confession of Faith, and Differences in Judgment About Baptism no Bar to Communion.
WHEREIN THEIR SCRIPTURELESS NOTIONS ARE OVERTHROWN, AND MY PEACEABLE PRINCIPLES STILL MAINTAINED. 'Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?'--Psalm 58:1 SIR, I have received and considered your short reply to my differences in judgment about water baptism no bar to communion; and observe, that you touch not the argument at all: but rather labour what you can, and beyond what you ought, to throw odiums upon your brother for reproving you for your error, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Journey to Jerusalem. Ten Lepers. Concerning the Kingdom.
(Borders of Samaria and Galilee.) ^C Luke XVII. 11-37. ^c 11 And it came to pass, as they were on their way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee. [If our chronology is correct, Jesus passed northward from Ephraim about forty miles, crossing Samaria (here mentioned first), and coming to the border of Galilee. He then turned eastward along that border down the wady Bethshean which separates the two provinces, and crossed the Jordan into Peræa, where we soon …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Of a Private Fast.
That we may rightly perform a private fast, four things are to be observed:--First, The author; Secondly, The time and occasion; Thirdly, The manner; Fourthly, The ends of private fasting. 1. Of the Author. The first that ordained fasting was God himself in paradise; and it was the first law that God made, in commanding Adam to abstain from eating the forbidden fruit. God would not pronounce nor write his law without fasting (Lev. xxiii), and in his law commands all his people to fast. So does our …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Torments of Giant Bad Feelings
THE TORMENTS OF GIANT BAD FEELINGS I am just a bundle of feelings. I never imagined one could have such a variety of them as I am now experiencing. Most of them are bad ones and I am greatly disturbed by them. Really, I doubt whether I am sanctified, on account of the feelings I have. Do sanctified people always feel joyful? I have heard that they do, and if it is true that they do, then I am not sanctified. Big doubts take up company with me every morning, and so long as I feel as I do I do not …
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

Letter xxi (Circa A. D. 1128) to the Abbot of S. John at Chartres
To the Abbot of S. John at Chartres Bernard dissuades him from resigning his charge, and undertaking a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 1. As regards the matters about which you were so good as to consult so humble a person as myself, I had at first determined not to reply. Not because I had any doubt what to say, but because it seemed to me unnecessary or even presumptuous to give counsel to a man of sense and wisdom. But considering that it usually happens that the greater number of persons of sense--or …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Epistle Lii. To Natalis, Bishop .
To Natalis, Bishop [1463] . Gregory to Natalis, Bishop of Salona. As though forgetting the tenour of former letters, I had determined to say nothing to your Blessedness but what should savour of sweetness: but, now that in your epistle you have recurred in the way of argumentation to preceding letters, I am once more compelled to say perhaps some things that I had rather not have said. For in defence of feasts your Fraternity mentions the feast of Abraham, in which by the testimony of Holy Scripture …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Li. Dining with a Pharisee, Jesus Denounces that Sect.
^C Luke XI. 37-54. ^c 37 Now as he spake, a Pharisee asketh him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. [The repast to which Jesus was invited was a morning meal, usually eaten between ten and eleven o'clock. The principal meal of the day was eaten in the evening. Jesus dined with all classes, with publicans and Pharisees, with friends and enemies.] 38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first bathed himself before dinner. [The Pharisee marveled at this because …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Death of the Righteous
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Paul was a great admirer of Christ. He desired to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified. I Cor 2:2. No medicine like the blood of Christ; and in the text, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' I. For to me to live is Christ. We must understand Paul of a spiritual life. For to me to live is Christ, i.e.' Christ is my life; so Gregory of Nyssa; or thus, my life is made up of Christ. As a wicked man's life is made up of sin, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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