John R. Macduff

“ Does He suffer the veriest dregs of human depravity to crouch unbidden at His feet, and to gaze on His forgiving countenance with the uplifted eye of hope, and shall we dare to deal out harsh, and severe, and crushing verdicts on an offending (it may be a deeply offending) brother? Shall we pronounce “crimson” and “scarlet” sins and sinners beyond the pale of mercy, when Jesus does not? Nay, rather, when wretchedness, and depravity, and backsliding cross our path, let it not be with the bitter taunt or the ironical retort that we bid them away. Let us bear, endure, remonstrate, deal tenderly. ”

“ Think, rather, how much we have to be thankful for. The world in which we live, in spite of all the scars of sin and suffering upon it, is a happy world. It is not, as many would morbidly paint it, flooded with tears and strewn with wrecks, plaintive with a perpetual dirge of sorrow. True, the “Everlasting Hills” are in glory, but there are numberless eminences of grace, and love, and mercy below; many green spots in the lower valley, many more than we deserve! ”

“ SYMPATHY. “Jesus wept.”—John, xi. 35.
It is an affecting thing to see a Great man in tears! “Jesus wept!” It was ever His delight to tread in the footsteps of sorrow—to heal the broken-hearted—turning aside from His own path of suffering to “weep with those that weep.”
Bethany! That scene, that word, is a condensed volume of consolation for yearning and desolate hearts. What a majesty in those tears! He had just been discoursing on Himself as the Resurrection and the Life—the next moment He is a Weeping Man by a human grave, melted in anguished sorrow at a bereaved one’s side! ”

“ Seek to view yourself as a consecrated medium for dispensing them to others. Beware alike of penurious hoarding and selfish extravagance. How sad the case of those whose lot God has made thus to abound with temporal mercies, who have gone to the grave unconscious of diminishing one drop of human misery, or making one of the world’s myriad aching hearts happier! How the example of Jesus rebukes the cold and calculating kindnesses—the mite-like offerings of many even of His own people! “whose libation is not like His, from the brim of an overflowing cup, but from the bottom—from the dregs!” ”

“ I can not wrong that love with one shadow of suspicion! I have His own plighted promise of unchanging faithfulness, that “all things work together for good to them that love Him!” Often there are earthly sorrows hard to bear;—the unkind accusation, when it was least merited or expected; the estrangement of tried and trusted friends, the failure of cherished hopes, favorite schemes broken up, plans of usefulness demolished, the gourd breeding its own worm and withering. “Commit thy cause and thy way to God!” We little know what tenderness there is in the blast of the rough wind ”

“ His doing and dying is the center jewel, of which all the virtues of His holy life are merely the setting. But neither must we overlook the Scripture obligation to walk in His footsteps and imbibe His Spirit, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His!”
Oh, that each individual Christian were more Saviour-like! that, in the manifestation of a holy character and heavenly demeanor, it might be said in some feeble measure of the faint and imperfect reflection—“Such was Jesus!”
How far short we are of such a criterion, mournful experience can testify. ”

“ The result of such an habitual staying ourselves on the Lord will be a deep, abiding peace; any ripple will only be on the surface—no more. It is the bosom of the ocean alone which the storm ruffles; all beneath is a serene, settled calm. So “Thou wilt keep him, oh God, in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee!” ”

“ What the ripples in your tide of woe, compared to the waves and billows which swept over him! If He, the spotless Lamb of God, “murmured not,” how can you murmur? His were the sufferings of a bosom never once darkened with the passing shadow of guilt or sin. Your severest sufferings are deserved, yea, infinitely less than deserved! Are you tempted to indulge in hard suspicions, as to God’s faithfulness and love, in appointing some peculiar trial? Ask yourself, Would Jesus have done this? ”

“ Believer! thy cross may be hard to endure; it may involve deep struggles—tears by day, [Pg 91] watchings by night; bear it meekly, patiently, justifying God’s wisdom in laying it on. Rejoice in the assurance that He gives not one atom more of earthly trial than He sees to be really needful; not one redundant thorn pierces your feet. In the very bearing of the cross for His sake, there are mighty compensations. What new views of your Saviour’s love! His truth, His promises, His sustaining grace, His sufferings, His glory! ”

“ It is only when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, that this animating desire to “please Him” can exist. In the holy bosom of Jesus, that love reigned paramount, admitting no rival—no competing affection. Though infinitely inferior in degree, it is the same impelling principle which leads His people still to link enjoyment with His service, and which makes consecration to Him of heart and life its own best recompense and reward. ”

“ He could only commiserate others. Your intensest grief must begin with yourself. Like the watchful Levite of old, be a guardian at the temple-gates of your own soul. Whatever be your besetting iniquity, your constitutional bias to sin, seek to guard it with wakeful vigilance. Grieve at the thought of incurring one passing shadow [Pg 72] of displeasure from so kind and compassionate a Saviour. Let this be a holy preservative in your every hour of temptation, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” ”

“ The saint’s cross assumes many and diverse shapes. Sometimes it is the bitter trial, the crushing pang of bereavement—desolate households, and aching hearts. Sometimes it is the crucifixion of sin, the determined battle with “lusts which war against the soul.” Sometimes it is the resistance of evil maxims and practices of a lying world; vindicating the honor of Christ, in the midst, it may be, of taunt, and obloquy, and shame. ”

“ God, the God-man, “grieving” over the Temple of the soul, a humiliating wreck of what once was made “after His own image!”
Can we sympathize in any respect with such exalted tears? Do we mourn for sin, our own sin—the deep insult which it inflicts on God—the ruinous consequences it entails on ourselves? Do we grieve at sin in others? Do we know any thing of “vexing our souls,” like righteous Lot, “from day to day,” with [Pg 71] the world’s “unlawful deeds,” the stupid hardness and obduracy of the depraved heart, which resists alike the appliances of wrath and love, judgment and mercy? ”

“ Are you “dying daily;”—dying to self as well as to sin? Are you animated with this as the high end and aim of existence—to lay out your time, and talents, and opportunities, for God’s glory, and the good of your fellow-men; not seeking your own interests, but rather ceding these, if, by doing so, another will be made happier, and your Saviour honored? You may not have it in your power to manifest this “mind of Jesus” on a great scale, by enduring great sacrifices ”

“ Beware of encouraging what indisposes to prayer—going to the audience chamber with soiled garments, the din of the world following you, its distracting thoughts hovering unforbidden over your spirit. Can you wonder that the living water refuses to flow through obstructed channels, or the heavenly light to pierce murky vapors! ”

“ When love to God is habitually in the ascendant, or occupying the place of will, it gathers round it all the other desires of the soul as satellites, and whirls them along with it in its orbit round the center of attraction.” (Hewitson’s Life.) Till the heart, then, be changed, the believer can not have “this testimony that he pleases God.” The world, self, sin—these [Pg 67] be the gods of the unregenerate soul. And even when changed, alas that there should be so many ebbings and flowings in our tide of devotedness! Jesus could say, “I do always those things that please the Father.” ”

“ Ah! it is easy, in general terms, to condemn vice, and to utter harsh, severe, and cutting denunciations on the guilty: it is easy to pass uncharitable comments on the inconsistencies or follies of others: but to “grieve” as our Lord did, is a different thing; to mourn over the hardness of heart, and yet to have the burning desire to teach it better things; to hate, as He did, the sin, but, like Him also, to love the sinner!
Reader! look specially to your own spirit. In one respect, the example of Jesus falls short of your case. He had no sin of His own to mourn over. ”

“ How much we have cause to be humble for! the constant cleaving of defilement to our souls; and even what is partially good in us, how mixed with imperfection, self-seeking, arrogance, vain-glory! A proud Christian is a contradiction in terms. The Seraphim of old (type of the Christian Church, and of believers) had six wings—two were for errands of love, but “with four he covered himself!” It has been beautifully said, “You lie nearest the River of Life when you bend to it; you can not drink, but as you stoop.” ”

“ Reader! when tempted to utter the harsh word, or give the cutting or hasty answer, seek to check yourself with the question, “Is this the reply my Saviour would have given?” If your fellow-men should prove unkind, inconsiderate, ungrateful, be it yours to refer the cause to God. Speak of the faults of others only in prayer; manifesting more sorrow for the sin of the censorious and unkind, than for the evil inflicted on yourselves. Retaliate! No such word should have a place in the Christian’s vocabulary. ”

“ How rare, and all the more beautiful because of its rarity, is a purely guileless spirit! A crystalline medium through which the transparent light of Heaven comes and goes; open, candid, just, honorable, sincere ”

“ A long lifetime of opportunities suffered to pass unemployed and unimproved, and absolutely nothing done for God! A judgment-day come—our golden moments squandered—our talents untraded on—our work undone—met at the bar of Heaven with the withering repulse, “Inasmuch as ye did it not.” ”

“ Let prayer consecrate every thing—your time, talents, pursuits, engagements, joys, sorrows, crosses, losses. By it, rough paths will be made smooth, trials disarmed of their bitterness, enjoyments hallowed and refined, the bread of the world turned into angels’ food. ”

“ The giving of a wise reproof requires much Christian prudence and delicate discretion. It is not by a rash and inconsiderate exposure of failings that we must attempt to reclaim an erring brother. But neither, for the sake of a false peace, must we compromise fidelity; even friendship is too dearly purchased by winking at sin. Perhaps, when Peter was led to call [Pg 55] the Apostle who honestly reproved him, “Our beloved brother Paul,” in nothing did he love his rebuker more, than for the honest boldness of his Christian reproof. ”

“ In the school of the world (this “painted world”) , how much is there of what is called “policy,” double-dealing!—accomplishing its ends by tortuous means; outward, artificial polish, often only a cloak for baseness and selfishness!—in the daily interchange of business, one seeking to over-reach the other by wily arts; sacrificing principle for temporal advantage. There is nothing so derogatory to religion as aught allied to such a spirit among Christ’s people—any such blot on the “living epistles.” “Ye are the light of the world.” That world is a quick observer. ”

“ It was not so with Jesus. The tender sensibilities of His holy nature rendered Him keenly sensible to ingratitude and injury, whether this was manifested in the malice of undisguised enmity, or the treachery of trusted friendship. Perhaps to a noble nature the latter of these is the more deeply wounding. Many are inclined to forgive an open and unmasked antagonist, who are not so willing to forget or forgive heartless faithfulness, or unrequited love. But see, too, in this respect, the conduct of the blessed Redeemer! ”

“ Nay, this humility becomes more conspicuous as He draws nearer glory. Before His death, He calls His disciples “Friends;” subsequently, it is “Brethren,” “Children.” How sad the contrast between the Master and His disciples! Two hours had not elapsed after He washed their feet, when “there was a strife among them which should be the greatest!”
Let the mental image of that lowly Redeemer [Pg 75] be ever bending over us. His example may well speak in silent impressiveness, bringing us down from our pedestal of pride. There surely can be no labor of love too humiliating when He stooped so low. ”

“ Would that we could remember that each of us has some great mission to perform for God, that religion is not a thing of dreamy sentimentalism, but of energetic practical action; moreover, that no trade, no profession, no position, however high or however humble in the scale of society, can disqualify for this life of Christian activity and usefulness! ”