the Fourth Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Daily Devotionals
Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.- Colossians 4:6.
"There shall not an hoof be left behind," said meek Moses to the stubborn monarch. All that belonged to God’s children must go with them for his service. So the whole man; soul with all its faculties, body with all its members, Jesus claims for his glory and service. The tongue, though but a little member; words, though but as wind; speech, though but as sound; yet the name, the work, the love, the glory of Jesus are hereby greatly advanced in the world. As salt not only preserves from putrefaction, but seasons flesh with an agreeable flavour and relish, so doth grace in the heart the speech.
To a heart warm with the love of Jesus, and alive to his glory, why is the vain conversation of carnal company so disagreeable? Truly, the Christian is out of his element. He fears getting harm. An embargo is laid on his tongue. It is his glory to shun, rather than seek such company. If through connections in life he cannot totally refrain from such company, it is his wisdom to restrain his speech: "To keep his mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before him, that he sin not with his tongue." But always to season his speech, by the grace of Jesus, to the glory of his name.
But when saints meet, what should be the end of their conversation but Jesus? The free favor of God in him to poor sinners: the glorious doctrines of grace in Christ: their perfect consistency and blessed tendency: the comfortable work of grace from Jesus upon our own souls; how began, carried on, and how it is with us now: these should ever be our delightful subjects. But this by no means to catch applause, as though we were not in ourselves poor sinners, hanging upon, and hoping in Jesus from day to day. The precious promises of grace in Christ Jesus, how immutable and establishing! The salvation of grace by Jesus, how unconditional and absolutely certain to every believer! Conversing on such subjects, how savoury and relishing! Speech thus seasoned, how becoming and profitable to gracious hearts! When it is not so, it is a sad sign that the soul is like salt that has lost its savour, and calls for great searchings of heart. "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt."- Mark 9:49.
Then while I am a pilgrim here,
What should my tongue employ
But God’s free grace and Christ’s rich love,
Poor sinners’ chiefest joy.
Lord, warm my heart, unloose my tongue,
To tell thy wond’rous fame,
No subject is so sweet to me
As thou, my loving Lamb.
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die: believest thou this? John 11:26.
Under great declining of strength, dejection of spirits, and in consideration of the near approach of death, these precious words of our dear dying Lord were brought to my mind: they were as a comforting, reviving, draught to my spirits. Lord! I bless thee for them. O, my soul! dwell on them. Am I a sinner, born to die? Is death the wages of sin? Must these eyes, which now read thy precious sayings, be soon closed by death? Must the hand, which now directs this pen, be shortly still and motionless? Yet dost thou, my Lord, say, “Living and believing in thee, I shall never die?” Dost thou ask me, “Believest thou this?” “Lord, thou knowest all things!” knowest, that, by thy grace, I can say, “Thou art the Son of God:”-thou hast fulfilled thine own promise, “O death, I will be thy plague! O grave, I will be thy destruction!” (Hosea 13:14.) “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:54.) “Shall never die.” Death has lost his terrific appearance; he is changed from a substance into a shadow. (Psalms 23:4.) Only children and fools are afraid of a shadow. Glory to thee, my Lord! that I am a man of understanding, and by thee am made “wise unto salvation.” Death has lost both his sting and his strength. Sin is atoned for: the law is fulfilled. I believe in thee, O Jesus! Who hath done both for the victory. ‘Tis mine: I have it in possession. Thy word cannot fail: thou hast said, “I shall never die.” The terrors of death are changed into the sweet composure of sleep. I shall soon fall into this precious rest-sleep in thee! Thou shalt soon wipe away all tears from mine eyes; I shall awake with thee, and sin and sorrow shall be no more for ever. O! well mayest thou ask, “Believest thou this?” For in the faith of this, consists all my comfort, which results from loving thee, and glorifying thee in life and death.
“ Faith works by love.” It works by the Father’s everlasting love, in giving his only Son to be our Saviour: it works by the precious love of thee, thou sin-atoning, law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, death-conquering Son of God!-it works by the love of thee, thou soul-renewing, faith-begetting, sin-subduing Spirit of holiness and truth! This is the given principle of love, which faith springs from, lives upon, and works by. Here faith is all in all. For it brings Christ and all his victories into the heart, puts death, and every enemy, under our feet; silences all Satan’s accusations, and all legal condemnations. “This is the victory, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4.)
O soul-reviving joy of faith,
Which lives upon my Saviour’s word!
It triumphs o’er the power of death,
Possess’d of vic’try in my Lord.
Christ lives and says, I ne’er shall die;
His word I’m sure he will fulfil:
He’s truth itself, he cannot lie,
And death is subject to his will.
