‘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…

    ‘… 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…

    ‘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…

    ‘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…

    ‘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…

    ‘And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a    stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations    of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding    the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the    sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s    wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their…

    ‘Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon    it … HOLINESS TO THE LORD.’–EXODUS xxviii. 36.    ‘In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses,    HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.’–ZECH. xiv. 20.    ‘His name shall be in their foreheads.’–REV. xxii. 4.You will have perceived my purpose in putting these three widelyseparated texts together. They…

    ‘It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and    for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’s law    may be in thy mouth.’–EXODUS xiii. 9.The question may be asked, whether this command is to be takenmetaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the greatdeliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover…

          ‘ . . . Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever          things are honest, whatsoever things are just,          whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are          lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if          there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,          think on these things.’–PHIL. iv. 8.I am half afraid that some of you may think, as I have at…

          ‘Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet          to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints          in light.’–COL. i. 12 (R.V.)It is interesting to notice how much the thought of inheritance seems tohave been filling the Apostle’s mind during his writing of Ephesians andColossians. Its recurrence is one of the points of contact between them.For…