Category: EXPOSITIONS

          ‘When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth          His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that          He might redeem them which were under the law,          that we might receive the adoption of sons.’–GAL.          iv. 4, 5 (R.V.).It is generally supposed that by the ‘fulness of time’ Paul means toindicate that Christ came at the…

    ‘And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of    my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return    unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal    well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the    mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed    unto Thy servant; for…

          ‘Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not          to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world          worketh death.’–2 COR. vii. 10.Very near the close of his missionary career the Apostle Paul summed uphis preaching as being all directed to enforcing two points, ‘Repentancetowards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.’ These two, repentanceand faith, ought…

    ‘And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, Few and evil have the    days of the years of my life been.’–GENESIS xlvii. 9.    ‘The God which fed me all my life long unto this day;    the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.’    –GENESIS xlviii. 15,16.These are two strangely different estimates of the same life to betaken by the same man. In…

          ‘Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus          minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded,          God shall reveal even this unto you.’–PHIL. iii.          15.‘As many as be perfect’; and how many may they be? Surely a very shortbede-roll would contain their names; or would there be any other but theName which is above every…

    ‘Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain    of Thine inheritance….’–EXODUS xv. 17.I. The lesson taught by each present deliverance and kindness is thatwe shall be brought to His rest at last._(a)_ Daily mercies are a pledge and a pattern of His continuous acts.The confidence that we shall be kept is based upon…

          ‘Exercise thyself unto Godliness.’–1 TIM. iv. 7.Timothy seems to have been not a very strong character: sensitive,easily discouraged, and perhaps with a constitutional tendency toindolence. At all events, it is very touching to notice how the oldApostle–a prisoner, soon to be a martyr–forgot all about his ownanxieties and burdens, and, through both of his letters…

    ‘… Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my    last end be like his!’–NUM. xxiii. 10.    ‘… Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the    sword.’–NUM. xiii. 8.Ponder these two pictures. Take the first scene. A prophet, who knowsGod and His will, is standing on the mountain top, and as he looks downover…

          ‘To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22.          But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of          my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23.          For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire          to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far          better: 24. Nevertheless to…

          ‘But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,          that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be          given to them that believe.’–GAL. iii. 22.The Apostle uses here a striking and solemn figure, which is much veiledfor the English reader by the ambiguity attaching to the word‘concluded.’ It literally means ‘shut up,’ and is to be taken…