I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

HOW LONG?
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Y God, it is not fretfulness
   That makes me say “how long?”
It is not heaviness of heart
   That hinders me in song;
’Tis not despair of truth and right,
   Nor coward dread of wrong.

But how can I, with such a hope
   Of glory and of home ;
With such a joy before my eyes,
   Not wish the time were come,—
Of years the jubilee, of days
   The Sabbath and the sum?

These years, what ages they have been!
   This life, how long it seems!
And how can I, in evil days,
   ’Mid unknown hills and streams,
But sigh for those of home and heart,
   And visit them in dreams?

Yet peace, my heart, and hush, my tongue;
   Be calm my troubled breast;
Each restless hour is hastening on
   The everlasting rest:
Thou knowest that the time thy God
   Appoints for thee, is best.

Let faith, not fear nor fretfulness,
   Awake the cry, “how long?”
Let no faint-heartedness of soul
   Damp thy aspiring song:
Right comes, truth dawns, the night departs
   Of error and of wrong.

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 134
(Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees.
1 Behold, praise ye the Lord, all ye seruants of the Lord, ye that by night stande in the house of the Lord.
2 Lift vp your hands to the Sanctuarie, and praise the Lord.
3 The Lord, that hath made heauen and earth, blesse thee out of Zion.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

BE STILL
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

E still, my soul; Jehovah loveth thee;
   Fret not nor murmur at thy weary lot;
Though dark and lone thy journey seems to be,
   He ever loves; then trust him, trust Him still;
Let all thy care be this, in doing his will.

Thy hand in His, like fondest, happiest child,
   Place thou, nor draw it for a moment thence;
Walk thou with Him, a Father reconciled
   Till in His own good time He call thee hence.
Walk with Him now; so shall thy way be bright,
And all thy soul be filled with His most glorious light.

Fight the good fight of faith, nor turn aside
   Though fear of peril from or earth or hell;
Take to thee now the armour proved and tried,
   Take to thee the spear and sword; oh, wield them well;
So shall thou conquer here, so win the day,
So wear the crown when this hard live has passed away.

Take courage! Faint not, though the foe be strong;
   Christ is thy strength; He fighteth on thy side.
Swift be thy face; remember, ’tis not long,
   The goal is near; the prize He will provide.
And then from earthly toil thou restest ever;
Thy home on the fair banks of life’s eternal river!

He comes with His reward; ’tis just at hand;
   He comes in glory to His promised throne.
My soul, rejoice; ere long thy feet shall stand
   Within the city of the Blessed One.
Thy perils past, thy heritage secure,
Thy tears all wiped away, thy joy for ever sure!

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 67
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth on Neginoth. A Psalme or song.
1 God be mercifull vnto vs, and blesse vs, and cause his face to shine among vs. Selah.
2 That they may know thy way vpon earth, and thy sauing health among all nations.
3 Let the people prayse thee, O God: let all the people prayse thee.
4 Let the people be glad and reioyce: for thou shalt iudge the people righteously, and gouerne the nations vpon the earth. Selah.
5 Let the people prayse thee, O God: let all the people prayse thee.
6 Then shall the earth bring foorth her increase, and God, euen our God shall blesse vs.
7 God shall blesse vs, and all the endes of the earth shall feare him.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

While today’s heretics insist that they are, like, so totally not whatever anyone says they are, and definitely not anything like the liberals (or anyone else) of the past, I keep seeing them pop up whenever I read the objections of dead theologians to the errors of their day. Consider these words from Horatius Bonar (1808–1889):

Some well-meaning theological literateurs, or rather amateur theologians, who patronize religion in their own way, are fain to warn us of the danger of not “keeping abreast of the age,” as if we were imperiling Christianity by not by not being quite so learned in modern speculations as they are. We should like, certainly, to keep abreast of all that is true and good, either in this age or any other; but as to doing more than that, or singling out this age as being pre-eminently worthy of being kept abreast of, we hesitate. To be “up to” all the errors, fallacies, speculations, fancies, mis-criticisms of the age, would be an achievement of no mean kind; to require us to be “up to” all this under threat of endangering Christianity, or betraying the Bible, is an exaction which could only be made by men who think that religion is much beholden to them for their condescending patronage; and will only be accepted by men who are timid about the stability of the cross of Christ if left unpropped by human wisdom; and who, besides, have three or four lifetimes to spare. We may be in a condition for believing, and even for defending the Bible, without having mastered the whole deistical literature of the last century, or the present. We may be qualified to accept the doctrine of sacrificial substitution even though we are not “up to” everything that has been spoken against it . . .
   In attempting to “keep abreast of the age,” there is some danger of falling short of other ages; and we are not sure but that the object of those who shake this phrase so complacently in our faces, both as a taunt and a threat, is to draw us off from the past altogether, as if the greater bulk of all its literature were rude lumber, a mere drag upon progress. . . . Old theological terms and Scripture phraseology are set aside . . . Sharp adhesion to old doctrines is imbecility; and yet defined expression of the new is avoided, the mind of the age being in a transition state, unable to bear the whole of what the exact and honest exhibition of “advanced” Christianity would require to utter. . . . They shrink from bold and definite statements of Reformation doctrine, lest they should be pronounced “not abreast of the age”—stereotyped, if not imbecile. Indefinite language, mystical utterances, negative or defective statements, which will save the speaker’s or writer’s orthodoxy without compromising his reputation for “intellect” and “liberality”—these are becoming common. . . .

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 31–32.

Sound familiar?

. . . it is evident that in proportion to our holiness will be the abundance of our peace. Not that we are to draw our peace from our holiness. That cannot be. Personal holiness can never be the foundation of our peace. But still in may be perfectly true that as our holiness increases our peace will deepen and grow more intense. The light of the body does not come from the eye, though it comes through the eye. It comes from the sun. The eye merely admits it. But if the eye be dim there will be less light admitted; and just as the eye becomes clearer more light will be let in. Yet still it is true that the light does not come from the eye but from the sun. So with holiness. In proportion as the soul becomes holy, in that proportion does it admit new peace, and in that proportion is it in a fitter condition for enjoying peace. A healthy body enjoys the beauties of the bright scenes of earth, more than a pained or sickly one, and just as it is healthy, so has it a capacity for the enjoyment of these things. Even so with the soul and holiness. While we utterly disclaim the Christ-dishonouring thought, that our holiness is the foundation of our peace, or forms any qualification on account of which peace is conferred upon us, it is yet true that just as we become holier men, we shall be the more abundantly filled with the peace of God that passeth all understanding.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, ), 55–56..

   Be much alone with God. Do not put Him off with a quarter of an hour morning and evening. Take time to get thoroughly acquainted. Converse over everything with Him. Unbosom yourself wholly—every thought, feeling, wish, plan, doubt—to Him. He wants to converse with His creatures; shall His creatures not want to converse with Him? He wants, not merely to be on “good terms” with you, if one may use man’s phrase, but to be intimate; shall you decline the intimacy, and be satisfied with mere acquaintance? What! Intimate with the world, with friends, with neighbors, with politicians, with philosophers, with naturalists, or with poets, but not with God! That would look ill indeed. Folly, to prefer the clay to the potter, the marble to the sculptor, this little earth and its lesser creatures to the mighty Maker of the universe, the great “All and in all!”

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 62–63

   Christian, dwell alone! Seek not the society of the world. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? If you have any sympathies with the world—if it contains attractions for you—if God and the things of God are not enough for you—there is something wrong. Love not the world! Seek not its society. Seek the things above. Beware of the fascinations of company,the spells which gaiety throws over the young. Stand your ground. Be not whirled away into the tossing current of gay society on any pretext whatever.
   Church of the living God, be separate—dwell alone! That is your security, your strength, your influence. Let the world see that you are not of it; that you do not need it. And you will serve it best by dwelling alone. Not by coldness, sourness, distance; but by love, geniality, gentleness, patience, by all acts of benevolence and words of peace. These are things which are only to be found by “dwelling alone.”

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 83–84.

   There can be no grace where there is no sovereignty. Deny God’s right to choose whom he will and you deny his right to save whom he will. Deny his right to save whom he will, and you deny that salvation is of grace. If salvation is made to hinge upon any desert or fitness in man, seen or foreseen, grace is at an end. . . .
   Men may call these speculations. They may condemn them as unprofitable. To the law and to the testimony! Of such speculations, the Bible is full. There man is a helpless worm, and salvation from first to last, is of the Lord. God’s will, and not man’s, is the law of the universe. If we are to maintain the gospel—if we are to hold fast to grace—if we are to preserve Jehovah’s honor—we must grasp these truths with no feeble hand. For if there be no such being as a Supreme, pre-determining Jehovah, then the universe will soon be chaos: and if there be no such thing as free electing love, every minister of Christ may close his lips, and every sinner upon earth sit down in mute despair.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 89.

   It is not by incarnation but by blood-shedding that we are saved. . . . If Christ be not the Substitute, He is nothing to the sinner. If He did not die as a Sin-bearer, He has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point, nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel.
   If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? . . . The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, His life for ours. . . . He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering, “He redeemed us to God by His blood;” “the precious blood of Christ.”

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 111–113.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

LET US DRAW NEAR
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

HY stand I lingering about,
In fear, and weariness, and doubt,
   When all is light within?
Thou, the new and living way,
The trembler’s Guide, the sinner's Stay,
   My High Priest, lead me in!

I know the mercy-seat is there,
On which thou sitt’st to answer prayer;
   I know the blood is shed;
The everlasting covenant sealed,
The everlasting grace revealed,
   And life has reached the dead!

Not the mere Paradise below;
The heaven of heavens is opened now,
   And we its bliss regain.
Guarded so long by fire and sword,
The gate stands wide, the way restored,
   The veil is rent in twain!

Without the cloud and gloom appear,
The peril and the storm are near,
   The foe is raging round;
Then let me boldly enter in,
There end my danger, fear, and sin,
   And rest on holy ground.

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 109
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of David.
1 Holde not thy tongue, O God of my praise.
2 For the mouth of the wicked, and the mouth full of deceite are opened vpon me: they haue spoken to me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.
4 For my friendship they were mine aduersaries, but I gaue my selfe to praier.
5 And they haue rewarded me euil for good, and hatred for my friendship.
6 Set thou the wicked ouer him, and let the aduersarie stand at his right hand.
7 Whe he shalbe iudged, let him be condemned, and let his praier be turned into sinne.
8 Let his daies be fewe, and let another take his charge.
9 Let his children be fatherlesse, and his wife a widowe.
10 Let his children be vagabonds and beg and seeke bread, comming out of their places destroyed.
11 Let the extortioner catch al that he hath, and let the strangers spoile his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend mercie vnto him: neither let there be any to shewe mercie vpon his fatherlesse children.
13 Let his posteritie be destroied, and in the generation following let their name be put out.
14 Let the iniquitie of his fathers bee had in remembrance with the Lord: and let not the sinne of his mother be done away.
15 But let them alway be before the Lord, that he may cut off their memorial from ye earth.
16 Because he remembred not to shew mercie, but persecuted the afflicted and poore man, and the sorowfull hearted to slay him.
17 As he loued cursing, so shall it come vnto him, and as he loued not blessing, so shall it be farre from him.
18 As he clothed himselfe with cursing like a rayment, so shall it come into his bowels like water, and like oyle into his bones.
19 Let it be vnto him as a garment to couer him, and for a girdle, wherewith he shalbe alway girded.
20 Let this be the rewarde of mine aduersarie from the Lord, and of them, that speake euill against my soule.
21 But thou, O Lord my God, deale with me according vnto thy Name: deliuer me, (for thy mercie is good)
22 Because I am poore and needie, and mine heart is wounded within me.
23 I depart like the shadowe that declineth, and am shaken off as the grashopper.
24 My knees are weake through fasting, and my flesh hath lost all fatnes.
25 I became also a rebuke vnto them: they that looked vpon me, shaked their heads.
26 Helpe me, O Lord my God: saue me according to thy mercie.
27 And they shall know, that this is thine hand, and that thou, Lord, hast done it.
28 Though they curse, yet thou wilt blesse: they shall arise and be confounded, but thy seruant shall reioyce.
29 Let mine aduersaries be clothed with shame, and let them couer themselues with their confusion, as with a cloke.
30 I will giue thankes vnto the Lord greatly with my mouth and praise him among ye multitude.
31 For he will stand at the right hand of the poore, to saue him from them that woulde condemne his soule.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

   It is truth that makes us free, for all error is bondage. If, then, you would be free men, grasp the truth tenaciously, bravely, calmly; bind it round you as a girdle, treasure it in your heart of hearts. “Buy the truth and sell it not;” that is, get it at any cost, part with it never. Error is sin, for which every man shall give an account to God; and sin is no mischance or misfortune that claims pity only, but not condemnation or punishment; else what means the fiery law? What means the cross of the sin-bearer? What means the great white throne? What means the everlasting fire? . . .
   Let neither your words nor your lives give any uncertain sound. Every man to whom the Bible comes is responsible for believing all the truth which the revelation proclaims, and for rejecting all the error which it condemns. Cleave, then, to the Word of the living God; and sit, as teachable disciples, at the feet of Him who has said, “Learn of me.”

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 109–110.

   There is a tendency among some to undervalue doctrine, to exact morality at the expense of theology, and to deny the importance of a sound creed. I do not doubt that a sound creed has often covered an unsound life, and that “much creed, little faith,” is true of multitudes. But when we hear it said, “Such a man is far gone in error, but his heart is in the right place; he disbelieves the substitution on the cross, but he rests on Christ Himself,” we wonder, and ask, “What then was the Bible written for?” it may be (if this be the case) a book of thought . . . , but it is no standard of truth, no infallible expression of the mind of an infallible being! The solemnity with which that book affirms the oneness of truth, and the awful severity with which it condemns every departure from the truth, as a direct attack on God Himself, shows us the danger of saying that a man’s heart may be in its right place though his head contains a creed of error.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 115.

I have come to the conclusion that Horatius Bonar could never have written a book called A Generous Orthodoxy*.

Be discriminating. Do not call error truth for the sake of charity. Do not praise earnest men merely because they are earnest. To be earnest in truth is one thing; to be earnest in an error is another. The first is blessed, not so much because of the earnestness, but because of the truth; the second is hateful to God, and ought to be shunned by you. Remember how the Lord Jesus from heaven spoke concerning error: “which thing I hate” (Rev. 2:6–15; 1 Tim. 6:4, 5). True spiritual discernment is much lost sight of as a real Christian grace; discernment between the evil and the good, the false and the true. “Beloved, believe not every spirit; but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). This “discernment,” which belongs to every one who is taught of God, is the very opposite of that which is called in our day by the boastful name of “liberality.” Spiritual discernment and “liberal thought” have little in common with each other. “Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good” (Rom. 12:9). The “liberality which puts bitter for sweet. And sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20), is a very different thing from the “charity which thinketh no evil” (1 Cor. 13:5).
   Truth is a mighty thing in the eyes of God, whatever it may be in those of men. All error is, more or less, whether directly or indirectly,. A misrepresentation of God’s character, and a subversion of his relation (Rev. 22:18, 19).

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 123–124.

More evidence from the pen of Horatius Bonar that there is nothing new under the sun:

The religious atmosphere of the present time is much changed from what it was in my younger days . . .
. . . Man is now thinking out a Bible for himself; framing a religion in harmony with the development of liberal thought; constructing a worship on the principles of taste and culture; shaping a god to suit the expanding aspirations of the age. The process of evolution on all these points is so satisfactory and so well advanced that disguise is no longer needful. Faith and certainty, in things outside our senses, are, in the meantime at least, not to be taken into account. . . .
   Amid all this dazzling confusion, it is well to keep in mind that the way leading to life is narrow, the way leading to death is broad. The danger arising from want of spiritual discrimination is more serious than many think. For one authentic light there are a thousand spurious ones. The false christs are many, the true Christ is but one; and whilst glorying in the vitality of truth we must stand in awe of the marvelous fecundity of error. Discrimination is not censorious.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 125–126.

These words by Horatius Bonar, though written around one hundred and fifty years ago, have never been more true than they are today. While those who would call themselves “the church” today are always looking for something fresh and innovative, they continually fall back on the same errors that have been common in ages past. The good news, then, is that we need no fresh answers. The saints who have gone before us and, indeed, Scripture itself, have said all that needs to be said.

Christianity, say many among us, is a life, not a dogma; and they reckon this the enunciation of a great and unappreciated truth. It is, however, a mere truism, or it is an unmeaning antithesis, or it is an absolute falsehood. It sounds oracular and great; it is only pompous.
   Christianity is both life and dogma; quite as much one as the other.
   But it is a dogma before it is life; it cannot be the latter till it has been the former. It is out of the dogma that the life emerges; not the dogma out of the life; and the importance that is attached in Scripture to knowledge—right knowledge—should make us cautious in disparaging doctrine, as if it were harmless when wrong, and impotent or uninfluential when right. The mystics of different ages have tried hard to depreciate doctrine, to praise what they call “the spirit” at the expense of “the letter”; And it is somewhat remarkable that infidelity has generally taken their side . . .
. . . doctrine in general, at least if precise and defined, is inconsistent with liberty of thought and expansion of intellect. “Life” is a pliable thing; it is unfenced and common; it may mean anything a man likes to call it or to fancy it; there is no imperiling of human liberty in calling Christianity a life; the men of “progress” and “freshness” are safe in making their standard; for Christianity = life may mean just Christianity = 0; at least it is an equation capable of being manipulated as to bring out any result which the theological algebraist may desire.
   And then there is the advantage of having a popular and high-sounding watchword. “Christianity a life, not a dogma” sounds noble. . . . it is an axiom rather than a proposition. It takes largely; it convinces hundreds without further inquiry or argument . . . it would enable us to believe anyone to be pious—Moslem, Hindoo, Romanist, Pantheist, or Sceptic—who could produce a worthy and earnest life.
. . . Religion without creed, religion without truth, religion without the Bible, religion without Christianity, religion without Christ—is set down now, not simply among things possible, but amongst things desirable. . . . “Unconditioned” religion is to be accepted as not inconsistent with philosophy or liberty, but conditioned or defined religion is to be regarded as imbecility.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 145–146.

This one true goal or resting-place where doubt and weariness, the stings of a pricking conscience, and the longings of an unsatisfied soul would all be quieted, is Christ Himself. Not the church, but Christ. Not doctrine, but Christ. Not forms, but Christ. Not ceremonies, but Christ. Christ the God-man, giving his life for ours; sealing the everlasting covenant, and making peace for us through the blood of His cross; Christ the divine storehouse of all light and truth, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” [Col 2:3]; Christ the infinite vessel, filled with the Holy Spirit, the enlightener, the teacher, the quickened, the comforter, so that “out of his fullness we may receive, and grace for grace” [John 1:16]. This, this alone is the vexed soul’s refuge, its rock to build on, its home to abide in till the great temper be bound and every conflict ended in victory.

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 171.

Learn self-denying Christianity. Not the form or name, but the living thing. “Even Christ pleased not himself” [Romans 5:3]. Let us in this respect be His true followers; bearing burdens for Him; doing work for Him; not grudging effort, or cost, or sacrifice, or pain; spending and being spent for Him; abjuring the lazy, luxurious, self-pleasing, fashionable religion of the present day.
   A self-indulgent religion has nothing to do with the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; or of that cross of ours which He has commanded us to take up and carry after him, renouncing ease and denying self. Our time, our gifts, our money, our strength, are all to be laid upon the altar. We are to be “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1).

—Horatius Bonar, Christ Is All, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 197.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

WHO ARE THESE, AND WHENCE CAME THEY?
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

“Et de Hierosolymis et de Britannia aequaliter patet aula coelestis.”—Jerome. Ep. ad Paulinum.

ot from Jerusalem alone,
   To heaven the path ascends;
      As near, as sure, as straight the way
      That leads to the celestial day,
   From farthest realms extends;
Frigid or torrid zone.

What matters how or whence we start?
   One is the crown to all;
      One is the hard but glorious race,
      Whatever be our starting-place;—
   Kings round the earth the call
That says, Arise, Depart!

From the balm-breathing, sun-loved isles
   Of the bright Southern Sea,
      From the dead North’s cloud-shadow’d pole,
      We gather to one gladsome goal,—
   One common home in Thee,
City of sun and smiles!

The cold rough billow hinders none;
   Nor helps the calm, fair main;
      The brown rock of Norwegian gloom,
      The verdure of Tahitian bloom,
   The sands of Mizraim’s plain,
Or peaks of Lebanon.

As from the green lands of the vine,
   So from the snow-wastes pale,
      We find the ever open road
      To the dear city of our God;
   From Russian steppe, or Burman vale,
Or terraced Palestine.

Not from swift Jordan’s sacred stream
   Alone we mount above;
      Indus or Danube, Thames or Rhone,
      Rivers unsainted and unknown;—
   From each the home of love
Beckons with heavenly gleam.

Not from gray Olivet alone
   We see the gates of light;
      From Morven’s heath or Jungfrau’s snow
      We welcome the descending glow
   Of pearl and chrysolite,
And the unsetting sun.

Not from Jerusalem alone
   The Church ascends to God;
      Strangers of every tongue and clime,
      Pilgrims of every land and time,
   Throng the well-trodden road
That leads up to the throne.

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 122
(Geneva Bible)
A song of degrees, or Psalme of David.
1 I rejoiced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord.
2 Our feete shall stand in thy gates, O Ierusalem.
3 Ierusalem is builded as a citie, that is compact together in it selfe:
4 Whereunto the Tribes, euen the Tribes of the Lord go vp according to the testimonie to Israel, to prayse the Name of the Lord.
5 For there are thrones set for iudgement, euen the thrones of the house of Dauid.
6 Pray for the peace of Ierusalem: let them prosper that loue thee.
7 Peace be within thy walles, and prosperitie within thy palaces.
8 For my brethren and neighbours sakes I will wish thee now prosperitie.
9 Because of the House of the Lord our God, I will procure thy wealth.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalms 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

PRAISE
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

raises to Him who built the hills;
Praises to Him the streams who fills;
Praises to Him who lights each star
That sparkles in the blue afar!

Praises to Him who wakes the morn,
And bids it glow with beams new-born;
Who draws the shadows of the night,
Like curtains, o’er our wearied sight!

Praises to Him whose love has given,
In Christ His Son, the life of heaven;
Who for our darkness gives us light,
And turns to day the deepest night!

Praises to Him, in grace who came
To bear our woe, and sin, and shame;
Who lived to die, who died to rise,
The God-accepted sacrifice!

Praises to Him the chain who broke,
Opened the prison, burst the yoke,
Sent forth its captives, glad and free,
Heirs of the endless liberty!

Praises to Him who shed abroad
Within our hearts the love of God;
The Spirit of all truth and peace,
Fountain of joy and holiness!

To Father, Son and Spirit now
The hands we lift, the knees we bow;
To Jah-Jehovah thus we raise
The sinner’s endless song of endless praise!

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 14
(Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 The foole hath said in his heart, There is no God: they haue corrupted, and done an abominable worke: there is none that doeth good.
2 The Lord looked downe from heauen vpon the children of men, to see if there were any that would vnderstand, and seeke God.
3 All are gone out of the way: they are all corrupt: there is none that doeth good, no not one.
4 Doe not all the workers of iniquitie know that they eate vp my people, as they eate bread? they call not vpon the Lord.
5 There they shall be taken with feare, because God is in the generation of the iust.
6 You haue made a mocke at the counsell of the poore, because the Lord is his trust.
7 Oh giue saluation vnto Israel out of Zion: when the Lord turneth the captiuitie of his people, then Iaakob shall reioyce, and Israel shall be glad.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.

I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalms 122:1 (Geneva Bible)

PRAISE TO CHRIST
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

esus, the Christ of God,    The Father’s blessed Son,

Jesus, the Lamb of God,
   Who us from hell to raise,
Hast shed Thy reconciling blood;
   We give Thee endless praise.

God, and yet man, Thou art,
   True God, true man art Thou;
Of man, and of man’s earth a part,
   One with us Thou art now.

Great sacrifice for sin,
   Giver of life for life,
Restorer of the peace within,
   True ender of the strife.

To Thee, the Christ of God,
   Thy saints exulting sing,
The bearer of our heavy load,
   Our own anointed King!

True lover of the lost,
   From heaven Thou camest down,
To pay for souls the righteous cost,
   And claim them for Thine own.

Rest of the weary, Thou!
   To Thee, our rest, we come;
In Thee to find our dwelling now,
   Our everlasting home.

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope.

salme 56 (Geneva Bible) To him that excelleth. A Psalme of David on Michtam, concerning the dumme doue in a farre countrey, when the Philistims tooke him in Gath.
1 Be mercifull vnto me, O God, for man would swallow me vp: he fighteth continually and vexeth me.
2 Mine enemies would dayly swallowe mee vp: for many fight against me, O thou most High.
3 When I was afrayd, I trusted in thee.
4 I will reioyce in God, because of his word, I trust in God, and will not feare what flesh can doe vnto me.
5 Mine owne wordes grieue me dayly: all their thoughtes are against me to doe me hurt.
6 They gather together, and keepe them selues close: they marke my steps, because they waite for my soule.
7 They thinke they shall escape by iniquitie: O God, cast these people downe in thine anger.
8 Thou hast counted my wandrings: put my teares into thy bottel: are they not in thy register?
9 When I cry, then mine enemies shall turne backe: this I know, for God is with me.
10 I will reioyce in God because of his worde: in the Lord wil I reioyce because of his worde.
11 In God doe I trust: I will not be afrayd what man can doe vnto me.
12 Thy vowes are vpon me, O God: I will render prayses vnto thee.
13 For thou hast deliuered my soule from death, and also my feete from falling, that I may walke before God in the light of the liuing.

ermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica

David Legge David Strain Jason Robertson John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Michael Beasley

Paul Lamey Paul W. Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M. Way R.C. Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace be with you, and Peace from God our Father, and from the Lorde Jesus Christ.