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And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness.Richard Baxter,A Christian Directoiy: or, Sum ofPractical7heology, and Cases of Conscience, 11.1 (7he Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter [London: James Duncan, 1830], IV, 30).
It is tragic that we are so negligent about the eternal and are so concerned about that which must inevitably come to an end. It is better to be a cripple in this life, says our Lord, than to lose everything in the next. Put your soul and its eternal destiny before everything else.Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (217)
Fight for us, O God, that we not drift numb and blind and foolish into vain and empty excitements. Life is too short, too precious, too painful to waste on worldly bubbles that burst. Heaven is too great, hell is too horrible, eternity is too long that we should putter around on the porch of eternity.
You're going to die. I'm going to do your funeral or you're coming to mine. This is an inescapable reality. You can be as responsible as you want, you can flood your body with anti-oxidants, you can get your yoga on. You can do all that, you're going to die, it's coming.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqyPMUop1QU
The last day will prove that some of the holiest men that ever lived are hardly known.
It is highly reasonable that we begin now to be that which we expect to be forever, to learn that way of living in which we hope to live to all eternity.
There is no wrinkle on the brow of eternity.
Usually other causes go before this disease of melancholy (except in some bodies naturally prone to it), and therefore before I speak of the cure of it, I will briefly touch them. And one of the most common causes is sinful impatience, discontents and cares proceeding from a sinful love of some bodily interest and from a want of sufficient submission to the will of God, and trust in Him, and taking heaven for a satisfying portion. I must necessarily use all these words to show the true nature of this complicated disease of souls. The "ands" tell you that it is a conjunction of many sins, which in themselves are of no small malignity; and were they the predominant bent and habit of heart and life, they would be the signs of a graceless state. But while they are hated and overcome not grace, but our heavenly portion is more esteemed, chosen, and sought than earthly prosperity, the mercy of God through Christ doth pardon it and will at last deliver us from all.
Judge not of so great a cause in a time of melancholy, when fears and confusions make you unfit. But in such a case as that, as also whenever Satan would disturb your settled faith or tempt you at his pleasure to be still new questioning resolved cases and discerned truths, abhor his suggestions and give them no entertainment in your thoughts, but cast them back into the tempter's face. There is not one melancholy person of a multitude but is violently assaulted with temptations to blasphemy and unbelief when they have but half the use of reason and no composedness of mind to debate such controversies with the devil. It is not fit for them in this incapacity to hearken to any of those suggestions which draw them to dispute the foundations of their faith, but to cast them away with resolute abhorrence.
Rightly understand what delight in God it is that you must seek and exercise. It is not a mere sensitive delight, which is exercised about the objects of sense or fancy and is common to beasts with men; nor is it the delights of immediate intuition of God, such as the blessed have in heaven; nor is it an enthusiastic delight, consisting in irrational raptures and joys, of which we can give no account of the reason. Nor is it a delight inconsistent with sorrow and fear, when they are duties; but it is the solid, rational complacency of the soul in God and holiness, arising from the apprehensions of that in Him, which is justly delectable to us. And it is such as, in estimation of its object and inward complacency and gladness though not in passionate joy or mirth, must excel our delight in temporal pleasure and must be the end of all our humiliations and other inferior duties.
Diligently labor, that God and holiness may be thy chief delight. And this holy delight may be the ordinary temperament of thy religion.
Behold Him in the infinite perfections of His being: His omnipotence, omniscience, and His goodness; His holiness, eternity, immutability, etc. And as your eye delights in an excellent picture or comely buildings or fields or gardens not because they are yours, but because they are a delectable object to the eye, so let your minds delight themselves in God considered in Himself, as the only object of highest delight.
I find not one in ten of the most obstinate, scornful wretches in the parish but when they come to die will humble themselves, confess their faults, seem penitent, and promise, if they should recover, to reform their lives. With what resolution will the worst of them seem to cast away their sins, exclaim against their follies and the vanities of the world when they see that death is in earnest with them! I confess it is very common for persons at such a season to be frightened into ineffectual purposes, but not so common to be converted to fixed resolutions. Yet there are some exceptions.
Wicked men can be delighted in talking together of their wickedness; and should not Christians then be delighted in talking of Christ, and the heirs of heaven in talking of their inheritance? This may make our hearts revive, as did Jacob's to hear the message that called him to Goshen, and to see the chariots that should bring him to Joseph. O that we were furnished with skill and resolution to turn the stream of men's common discourse to these more sublime and precious things! and, when men begin to talk of things unprofitable, that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven, and say, as Peter of his bodily food, "Not so, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean!"Saints Everlasting Rest, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/saints_rest/cache/saints_rest.pdf
In public our speeches are long, and we quite over-run their understandings and memories, and they are confounded and at a loss, and not able to follow us, and one thing drives out another, and so they know not what we said. But in private we can take our work gradatim, and take our hearers along with us; and, by our questions, and their answers, we can see how far they understand us, and what we have next to do. In public, by length and speaking alone we lose their attention; but when they are interlocutors, we can easily cause them to attend.Reformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner, as to himself: for the plainest man that is, can scarcely speak plain enough in public for them to understand; but in private we may do it much more. In public we may not use such homely expressions, or repetitions, as their dulness requires, but in private we mayReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
. I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour's close discourse, than they did from ten years' public preachingReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
They will under stand a familiar speech, who understand not a sermon; and they will have far greater help for the application of it to themselves. Besides, you will hear their objections, and know
where it is that Satan hath most advantage of them, and so may be able to show them their errors, and confute their objections, and more effectually convince them. We can better bring them to the point, and urge them to discover their resolutions for the future, and to promise the use of means and reformation, than otherwise we could do. What more proof need we of this, than our own experience? I seldom deal with men purposely on this great
business, in private, serious conference, but they go away with some seeming convictions, and promises of new obedience, if not some deeper remorse, and sense of their conditionReformed Pastor, https://ccel.org/ccel/b/baxter/pastor/cache/pastor.pdf
Let your holy conference with others be much about the glorious excellencies, works, and mercies of the Lord in way of praise and admiration. This is indeed to speak to edification and as the "oracles of God."
Against all that I have said in behalf of discipline you will plead, "Our people are not ready for it; they will not yet bear it." But is not the meaning of this that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will occasion? I beseech you, in order that you may make a comfortable account to the Chief Shepherd and that you may not be found unfaithful in the house of God, that you do not shrink from duty because of the trouble that may attend it. Reformed Pastor
The neglect of discipline has a strong tendency to the deluding of souls by making men think that they are Christians when they are not because they are not separated from such as are, and by making scandalous sinners think their sin tolerable because it is so tolerated by the pastors of the church. We hereby corrupt Christianity itself in the eyes of the world and do our part to make them believe that to be a Christian is only to be of such or such an opinion, and that the Christian religion requires holiness no more than the false religions of the world. Reformed Pastor
The accusations of none, not even the best in the church, should be taken without proof. A minister should never make himself a party before he has sufficient evidence of the case. It is better to let many vicious persons go unpunished and without censure when we want full evidence against them than to censure one unjustly, which we may easily do if we go upon bold presumptions alone. And that will bring upon a pastor the scandal of partiality and unrighteous dealing, which will make all his reproofs and censures become contemptible.
Sometimes, the guilt of renewed infirmities or decays doth renew distrust and make us shrink, and we are like the child in the mother's arms that fears when he loses his hold, as if his safety were more in his hold of her than in her hold of him. Weak duties have weak expectations of success. In this case, what an excellent remedy has faith in looking to the perpetual intercession of Christ. Is He praying for us in the heavens, and shall we not be bold to pray and expect an answer? O remember that He is not weak when we are weak.
The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all.
A man's greatest care should be for that place where he dwelleth longest; therefore eternity should be in his scope.
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2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
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